Dr. Shantal Munro-Knight, Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Medicinal Cannabis Licensing Authority (BMCLA).
This country’s medicinal cannabis industry has officially been launched and already one application has been submitted and 15 other applications, across various categories, have been drafted and awaiting submission.
So says Dr. Shantal Munro-Knight, Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Medicinal Cannabis Licensing Authority (BMCLA). During a virtual press conference yesterday morning to update local media on the status of applications since the application process went live on Monday, Munro-Knight said the first completed application is for two licenses – a tier one cultivator licence and an import license. The CEO indicated that the majority of the applications that are in draft are for tier 1 cultivators, for land no more than one acre, but she remained mum on the details of the applications, noting that applicants are free to make changes before submission.
“We do have coverage for the majority of licences that we have...Six categories of those licences, when we look at those that are in draft, or has been applied for, so that we just have the laboratory and processor, thus far that we haven’t seen any applications, but we’re confident that those will be filled. So just for clarity, therefore, we’ve had applications for cultivation...we also have applications for retail distributor, for transport, for research and development, and also as well import and export. So we’re really very happy with the coverage that we’ve had,” she said.
Her comments came as she said that the industry is integrated and it is imperative that they have players in every category to ensure its success.
“The industry is integrated so we need cultivators and then we need processors to process for final product. Because we are placing heavy emphasis on quality standards, we do need the R&D [research and development] and we do need laboratory as well... and importantly we need transport, because of the regulations nobody can move cannabis unless they have a transport license... In other jurisdictions the industry did begin but it was problematic because it didn’t have every category of license filled or applications. I think based on the trend we have seen to date, just five days into the application opening, that we have six of the categories filled, we are more comfortable and confident that we will see all of the license categories being filled,” she stated.
Munro-Knight’s comments came as she said every day they have been getting queries from persons here and overseas about the industry. She went on to say that there are two licenses that are broken down into tiers – four tiers under the cultivator license, and these range from under an acre to more than 25 acres; and three tiers for the processor license –tiers 1 to 3 are for less than 200 square metres to more than 500 square metres.
On the matter of financing for the industry, the BMCLA CEO said once applicants are successful they will not have to pay all the license fees for the five-year license upfront, but will be allowed to pay in three tranches. She said in the first year they will be required to pay 60 percent and the Authority will then work with the individual licensees regarding the outstanding fees. A look at the BMCLA’s brochure on what persons should know when applying for licenses, shows that license fees range from $5940 each for import and export licenses to $990,000 for a tier 3 processor license.
Meanwhile, BMCLA’s Programme Administrator, Shanika Roberts-Odle said while the first application was submitted by someone locally, there has been “quite a bit” of interest coming from persons overseas including California and Canada. Her comments came as she indicated that the application process with the BMCLA is completely online. She said in addition to persons being able to complete the application online, they can also pay the application fees online through the Government’s eZpay platform. (JRT)