Medical Cannabis Authority to host ‘Cannabliss festival’ in November

St Vincent and the Grenadines(SVG), will host its first marijuana festival in November, dubbed ‘Cannabliss Festival’ and organisers have said it aims to educate people about the medicinal benefits of cannabis.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Medicinal Cannabis Authority (MCA), Dr. Jerrol Thompson provided an overview of the upcoming festival that is slated for November 1-3, 2024. He said the Arnos Vale Sports facility has a purpose other than hosting cricket, and hopes to transform the complex into a ‘cultivators village’.

People socializing after the conference

“We’ll be using the party stands and we’ll be using that area just outside of the playing field with that view of Bequia for the establishment and direction of a traditional, authentic, cultivators village,” he said at the launch on Monday, September 9, 2024.

He shared their plan to use the President’s Suites “for lectures and talks and meetings that are going to help to, and will enlighten persons on this subject of marijuana- medicinal cannabis,” Thompson stressed.

The medical doctor said further that these lectures will be panelled by international, regional, and local cannabis experts. He highlighted the importance of correcting misinformation about medicinal cannabis, and educating people on its benefits, particularly to aid in pain management, appetite stimulation, and treating conditions like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

“I was never thought that in medical school and I had some backward ideas. I thought what [Ras] I-Man-I and others were saying was a joke…I’ll tell you that when I practised medicine in the United States, I wrote a lot of prescriptions for a drug called fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that’s killing a lot of people now in the United States and the UK, and I’m sad that I ever did that.”

Monday’s launch at the La Vue Hotel, Villa, opened with prayer by a traditional cannabis cultivator, Ras I-Man-I, who prayed that the festival would be done for ‘the people’, as he recognised and honoured the late Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie.

Minister of Agriculture, Saboto Ceasar, who was also present at the launch, announced a contribution of EC$250,000 to provide direct production support to traditional cannabis cultivators and producers who were impacted by Hurricane Beryl.

“We are on a quest to take the medicinal cannabis industry in SVG to modern levels,” Caesar said.

“ We have always stressed that it is a first importance that we place at the centre of our industry, the need for research and development.”

Ceasar asked for there to be more support from medical professionals in SVG, who are involved in research,“…to provide a more indigenous work from St Vincent and the Grenadines so that we can increase our offerings to the rest of the world. I welcome this festival, and it is going to be a great time in November.”