MONTEGO BAY, St James — At least one key player in the lucrative cannabis industry has come out in strong defence of the Jamaica Government and the Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA), which have recently been blamed for dragging their feet on export licensing, resulting in companies fleeing the island.
A recent article in Forbes Magazine cited frustration, due to “lack of action” on the part of the CLA and the Jamaica Government as well as “stalled governmental decisions on export licences” as reasons for “Aphria, Aurora and other big Ag cannabis companies pulling out of Jamaica”.
And, speaking during the annual CanEx Jamaica Business Conference and Expo, a business-to-business conference in Montego Bay last year, Bruce Linton, Canadian business tycoon and former CEO of Canadian multi-billion-dollar giant, Canopy, the world's largest publicly traded cannabis company by market value, rated the CLA among the two best cannabis regulatory systems in the world.
“The CLA is aware of a May 30, 2020 Forbes article circulating titled 'Aphria, Aurora and other big Ag Cannabis Companies Pull Out Of Jamaica'.
“While the authority cannot speak to the internal decisions of a licensee, licence holders are not hindered in their ability to export product from Jamaica due to the non-passage of import/export legislation,” stated the news release from the CLA.
