For the first time, St Vincent and the Grenadines will host a Cannabis Expo called CannaBliss SVG Festival.
The event will take place over three days from November 1- 3, 2024, at the Arnos Vale Sports Complex.
Speaking at the launch last night, CEO of the Medicinal Cannabis Authority (MCA), Dr Gerald Thompson, says the festival will promote the inclusion of the Rastafari faith and help to educate and enlighten people on the subject of medicinal cannabis.
Dr Thompson says by the end of this year nearly all the islands in the English-speaking Caribbean would have either decriminalised or legalised medicinal cannabis. He notes there are some challenges as too often when cannabis is mentioned, people only picture persons getting high, but Dr Thompson says as a medical doctor he has been able to understand the broad-based benefits of medicinal cannabis ever since the discovery of a new system in the body called the endocannabinoid system.
According to Healthline, the endocannabinoid system (ECS) is a complex cell-signalling system that helps regulate your body functions, including sleep and mood, among others.
It was identified in the early 1990s by researchers exploring THC, a well-known cannabinoid. Cannabinoids are compounds found in cannabis.
Dr Thompson says the festival will have a higher-level lecture series bringing together some experts internationally, regionally and locally to talk on the subject and correct the misinformation that surrounds this subject.
The festival will establish a traditional cultivators village for people to display their products while bus tours will be available to various farms for people to see the quality of marijuana cultivation in SVG.
Musical artistes from the region and locally are also expected to perform at the CannaBliss SVG Festival.
Minister of Finance, Camillo Gonsalves says SVG will now complete a circle where cannabis will be celebrated and valued in medicine, culture, tourism, science and trade, as opposed to the times when it was demonised.
Gonsalves says now that the stigma attached to cannabis has been removed, people can appreciate it scientifically and medicinally. He says the role of cultivators in developing St Vincent and the Grenadines into a world-leading producer of marijuana will also be celebrated.
Gonsalves notes St Vincent and the Grenadines was one of the first countries in the Region to have a specific and explicit legal regime around the decriminalisation of marijuana.
Meanwhile, Minister of Agriculture, Saboto Caesar, announced that over the coming days, persons from the Medicinal Cannabis Authority together with the ministry will meet with the traditional cultivators, as there is a special envelope of $250,000 for the traditional cultivators and members of Rastafari community producers of cannabis who were impacted by Hurricane Beryl, as direct production support.