42 Cannabis Licenses Issued, Still No Manufacturing of Hemp Products

In speaking about Lavin’s background and expertise in the cannabis industry, Minister Musa points out that there is no specialist in the area of cannabis farming locally.  He says that with forty-two licenses approved by the previous administration, none of those individuals or companies have been able to successfully manufacture cannabis in the past year.

Kareem Musa, Minister of New Growth Industries

Kareem Musa

“Where we are today, 2020, on the cusp of 2021, I have been tasked by the prime minister to lead the Ministry of New Growth Industries and that includes, but is not limited to, hemp, industrial hemp cultivation in Belize, as well as the possibility of cannabis cultivation and manufacturing in Belize.  And so, upon assuming this particular ministry we’ve been contacted at the ministry by several experts across the world, including places like Jamaica, the United States and recently we were contacted and visited by Mr. Alex Lavin of Growth Industries in the United States.  He is a well-established expert and a professional and a businessman in the cannabis industry in the United States.  He operates out of Rhode Island, out of California and Florida and he has agreed to offer guidance and, believe it or not, free of cost to the people of Belize.  And so this is an exciting new time for us at the ministry, so we will have this expert because we don’t have any local experts in Belize.  When you look at the hemp industry in particular, it has been over one year and a half since industrial hemp has been legalized in Belize, but you cannot point me to a single license holder that has successful grown, manufactured and sold hemp in this country.  There are currently forty-two licenses that exist over the course of a year and a half, forty-two.”

We will have much more on the cannabis conversation in our newscast on Wednesday.