Jamaica becomes first country in the Caribbean to launch cannabis standards

The Bureau of Standards Jamaica (BSJ) has developed and established seven standards for adaptation, which will provide guidelines and safeguards to protect consumers as well as assist companies with positioning their cannabis operations for the export market.

The BSJ, an agency of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, developed the standards as part of efforts to strengthen and support the cannabis industry in Jamaica.

Addressing the virtual launch of the cannabis standards yesterday, Minister of State in the Ministry Floyd Green said the standards are an indication of the Government's commitment to ensuring that the relevant policies and legislative frameworks are in place to facilitate the safeguarding of both stakeholders and consumers.

Green also commended the work that the bureau has put in to have the standards promulgated.

“I am very pleased that the bureau in the development of these standards really took an all-inclusive and all-encompassing approach.  I have to commend a really strong technical committee, made up of academia, members from the bureau, growers, licensees and a wide cross section of players in the cannabis industry that were brought together and who were seized with the urgency of now.  They really worked around the clock to ensure that we have these strong standards,” he said.

Green pointed out that Jamaica prides itself of not only being the first in the region to embark on a formal medicinal cannabis industry, but is continuing to lead the region in developing standards of this nature.

He said that globally the cannabis industry is still in its growth phase and as such these international standards will build on the small body of work  already achieved and will help to drive further development of standards across this very important industry