THE MEETING FACILITATED OPEN DISCOURSE ON CANNABIS-RELATED MATTERS THAT REQUIRE CONSIDERATION AND ACTION.

Senior Legal Officer in the Ministry of Commerce, Manufacturing, Business Development, Cooperatives and Consumer Affairs and Saint Lucia’s Regulated Substances Authority representative Mr. Dylan Norbert-Inglis recently returned from the Wadadli (Cannabis) Festival held in Antigua and Barbuda in April 2024. The festival, hosted by the Antigua and Barbuda Medicinal Cannabis Authority, sought to celebrate and inform the general public on matters related to medicinal cannabis and the Rastafarian heritage.

On the second night of the festival, members of the Caribbean Cannabis Forum (CCF)—i.e. Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and the Federation of Saint Christopher (Saint Kitts) and Nevis—were party to the inaugural meeting of the Caribbean Cannabis Forum. The CCF was a direct result of the execution of the Memorandum of Understanding signed in Saint Lucia during the Cannabis Symposium held in March 2024.

Members of the CCF appointed the Medicinal Cannabis Authority of the Federation of Saint Christopher (Saint Kitts) and Nevis to chair the Forum, and the Regulated Substances Authority of Saint Lucia to serve as Secretary. Representatives from the observer agencies of the Cannabis Licensing Authority of Jamaica, the Antigua and Barbuda Medicinal Cannabis Authority, and the Barbados Medicinal Cannabis Licensing Authority were also in attendance to lend support to the initiative and indicating an intention to become full members of the CCF in the near future.

Mr. Norbert-Inglis described the meeting as long overdue. “This inaugural meeting of the Caribbean Cannabis Forum facilitated open discourse on a number of cannabis-related matters which require consideration and action within a regional and international context.”