Barbados Medicinal Cannabis Agency Battles Misinformation Surrounding Industry, Plans Expanded Public Outreach

By Ryan Gilkes

The agency that regulates the burgeoning medicinal marijuana trade appears to be locked in a battle against misinformation, its spokeswoman has acknowledged.

“There are things that we have been doing that we can’t seem to get to permeate through the public,” said Tracy Moore, the Barbados Medicinal Cannabis Licensing Authority (BMCLA) communications and public education specialist.

As it prepares to mark its third anniversary, the agency is gearing up to expand its public outreach in a bid to correct the record on the industry, she said.

Moore told Barbados TODAY: “We have put out a website, we are on all social media platforms. We have brochures, we just completed a magazine. So much information we put out there but then we see we’re combating information that is on the Internet or social media which is incorrect.

“I remember before we even launched, people were saying how much the fees were and we were like ‘where are you getting this information from?’ This is before we spoke to the economist to go through to present the fees and make it something realistic based on global trends,” she said.

Moore cited an incident where she had to correct misinformation firsthand: “Up to last year, I went to an event and someone sat behind me and said, ‘You know de fees is this?’ I had to turn around and go, ‘Where did you get that from?’ And I had to pull out the brochure.

“There is incorrect information out there despite what we have done. And that’s why we have the open house so that persons can come here and get information from the source.”

She also stressed the importance of people understanding the facts about what the BMCLA does.

“For instance, with the licence fees which some are saying are high – that’s understandable, but our licences are for five years,” she noted. “There’s nowhere else in the world where people have a licence for five years. I believe Jamaica is now working on doing a three-year licence for small farmers. We have a 60/40 payment plan. There’s nowhere else in the world that has a payment plan to pay for cannabis; you either pay for it or you don’t. We have set up things to allow for small entrepreneurs or farmers who are also entrepreneurs to be able to pay 60 per cent down, start their business, start making money and pay it off in the first three years of their five-year licence.”

She also noted that for small farmers, the authority had taken significant steps like waiving import fees for the first batch of planting material, considering cannabis is still illegal in Barbados. According to Moore, these measures are part of BMCLA’s commitment to supporting the industry’s “small man”.

“The CEO continues to have conversations with the minister or the ministry to see how we can assist to help the small man,” she said. “So there’s information like that that is missing the mark. This was one of the reasons we brought on the influencer (Samantha Gittens) because she has a following of over 120 000 and maybe everybody’s not looking at the traditional media. So it’s a way to get those important points out across.”

Moore stressed there was a wide range of opportunities within the medicinal cannabis industry beyond cultivation. She said the industry needed expertise in security, fencing, lighting, real estate, administration, marketing, education, science, and cybersecurity, with eight categories of licences offering diverse opportunities for both direct and supportive involvement.

“With this new industry, it is open to anyone who wants to touch the leaf or anyone who does not. There are eight categories of licences [and] we have 11 businesses with a combined 30 licences.

“…. So it’s growing and we’re excited to see it because now that they have their licences they now have to create the business to open up right. And we’re excited to see what’s going to happen.”

Established under the Medicinal Cannabis Industry Act of 2019, which legalised the cultivation, production, and sale of medicinal cannabis, the BMCLA licences all aspects of the medicinal cannabis industry, from cultivation and processing to transport and retail of medicinal marijuana. (RG)