• 18. What is a Legacy Practitioner/Traditional Farmer?

  Someone who has vast experience and knowledge in the growth, production and cultivation of cannabis.

  19. What does cultivation mean?

  Cultivation includes the growing, harvesting, curing and drying of plant material.

  20. What does cultivation site mean?

  A cultivation site is the premise specified in a cultivator license as premises on which cannabis plants are authorised to be cultivated.

  21. What does therapeutic facility mean?

  Therapeutic facility is the premises granted a Retail Distributor Licence:

  • to sell, dispense or provide medicinal cannabis prescribed by a medical practitioner; and

  • to provide facilities and other medicinal or therapeutic requirements to allow a patient who has purchased, prescribed or recommended medicinal cannabis to use or consume that medicinal cannabis there for therapeutic purposes.

  22. Who will grow the medicinal cannabis and distil the appropriate derivatives for the medical fraternity to use?

  Any person with a Cultivator License (Tier 1 to 4), is allowed to grow, harvest, dry, trim, cure or package medicinal cannabis.

  To distil the appropriate derivatives for the medical fraternity, a person with a Processor License (Tier 1 to 3), will be allowed to process and manufacture cannabis material and medicinal cannabis products.

  For more information on licenses please click here.

  23. Given that differences in cannabis plants lead to differing strengths of derivatives, how will this be controlled so that persons electing to use medicinal cannabis can obtain a consistent product or will this be a free-for-all?

  A person shall not cultivate, supply, possess, or obtain medicinal cannabis for any of the purposes specified under the Medicinal Cannabis Industry Act, 2019, unless that person is the holder of the relevant license issued pursuant to the Act. A person who contravenes is guilty of an offence and is liable on conviction on indictment, to a fine of 15 times the value of the medicinal cannabis cultivated, supplied, possessed, or obtained, or to imprisonment for a term of 10 years or to both.

  24. How will the legal framework address who grows/imports medicinal cannabis?

  While the BMCLA will deliver policies, procedures and guidelines to establish the cannabis industry, the legal framework has been established by the laws of Barbados, which states that a person who is 18 years of age or older who is a citizen, permanent resident, person with immigrant status or citizen of a CARICOM member state other than Barbados, or is a company, partnership or co-operative society may apply for a license to grow or import medicinal cannabis.

  The BMCLA, under strict control, issues several other categories of licenses including cultivation, transporting, manufacturing, dispensing, research and development, laboratory testing and exporting medicinal cannabis.

  25. Can persons with previous criminal records become involved in the industry?

  Section 32 (3) if the Act states that "A person who has been convicted of any of the offences in the second schedule or of any other similar offence in any country, shall not be eligible for a license.

  For more information, please click here.

Cannabis use is discouraged during pregnancy and during nursing. Substances in cannabis can transfer from the mother to child and can affect your unborn or newborn baby.

A person designated as a caregiver under this Act shall obtain from a medical practitioner a certificate that states that the caregiver is not dependent on a controlled drug.

Like any other prescribed medication, the administration of prescribed medicinal cannabis will be under supervision and monitoring by your doctor so to minimise harm, or negative interact to a patient. Factors like medical history, allergies, pregnancy, breastfeeding, co-morbidities, other medications that a patient may be taking will all be taken into consideration along with regular checkups.

A patient may designate a person as a caregiver and that person has the responsibility for the immediate care and safety of the patient; to assist the patient with obtaining or using medicinal cannabis or to act in the best interest of the patient. A receiver appointed for a person by the Court, under the Mental Health Act Cap. 45, or where relevant a guardian in accordance with the provisions of the Mental Health Act, shall be deemed to be the caregiver of a person to who the Act applies.

A parent or legal guardian of a patient who is a minor shall be deemed to be the caregiver for that minor, unless that parent or legal guardian designates another person, or a person is designated by an order of the Court.