The chairman of the Barbados Medical Cannabis Licensing Authority (BMCLA) has revealed that despite skeptics, interest in Barbados’ medicinal cannabis business is robust, and the island’s first therapeutic facility is on track to launch within the next year.
Senator Shanika Roberts-Odle, the acting chief executive officer of the BMCLA, announced on Tuesday that further training will be made accessible to Barbadians interested in entering the business.
She was addressing the Appropriation Bill, 2023 in the Upper House when she emphasized the progress achieved in giving licenses in an industry that she said the government is pursuing as an economic contributor and also to produce pharmaceuticals that can provide comfort to Barbadians who are suffering.
In addition to the first two licensees, which accounted for nine authorized and eight granted licenses, an additional six licensees and 10 licenses have been approved.
“That is development in this nation in an industry in which it was predicted that no one would be interested; in an area in which it was predicted that we would never make inroads. We are producing them, stated the BMCLA’s leader. “We will open our first therapy institution in the United States in 2023-2024.” We already have our first operational medicinal cannabis plantation.”
She added that the BMCLA has made strides in training, research, and development, and that the agency’s free, three-term cannabis crash course curriculum, currently in its second term, has been highly accepted.
“I am pleased to report that it was not only fully subscribed, but oversubscribed,” she remarked.
“In the third term of this program, we are collaborating with the University of the West Indies, which has its own training program for teaching physicians in the use of medical cannabis to treat their patients.”
