Caribbean Cannabis Growers Target Domestic Sales and Export Markets

Caribbean cannabis producers are betting on a dual strategy: expand regulated domestic sales and, eventually, break into export markets that remain largely closed under current international rules.

On Antigua's Pineapple Road farm, master cultivator Michaelus Tracey tends nine distinct strains developed through intensive trials. Warm temperatures, abundant sunshine and high humidity make the island ideal territory for cultivation — but Tracey says the real work is in the science behind each variety.

"We wanted different flavour profiles and different effects, but all with medicinal value," he explains. "Something to help you relax, something to give you more energy, more pain relief, less anxiety."

To the untrained eye, the rows of flowering plants look identical. Tracey can distinguish each strain by scent and leaf shape alone.

A decade of decriminalisation — but not full legalisation

Jamaica marked ten years since decriminalising recreational cannabis use and legalising medical production in 2025. Antigua and Barbuda followed a similar path in 2018, and several other Caribbean nations have since introduced licensed frameworks of their own.

Smoking cannabis is deeply woven into Caribbean culture, yet the region's potential as a regulated industry leader remains underdeveloped. Legally registered farms and medicinal dispensaries now operate across the region, serving locals and tourists who hold valid medical authorisation cards.

Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, a former chair of the Caribbean Community's Regional Commission on Marijuana, argues the current model does not go far enough. "Decriminalisation isn't good enough," she says. "We should just make it legal but regulated."

Researchers at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad are preparing studies into cannabis applications ranging from easing cancer treatment side effects to improving soil health in agriculture. Much of the work will take place in Antigua, where legislation is more progressive — though Antoine says full legalisation would make research far easier.

US rescheduling raises export hopes

Some industry figures hope Donald Trump's December 2025 executive order reclassifying cannabis as a lower-tier drug in the United States will ripple through Caribbean regulation.

Alexandra Chong, chief executive of Jamaica-based producer Jacana, calls the move a significant milestone. "So much US public policy gets filtered down to the Caribbean," she says. "Because cannabis was classified alongside heroin at schedule one, regulatory bodies across the region have not been as bullish with reducing regulation."

Producers in Jamaica and Antigua are keen to export legally. Jamaica's Cannabis Licensing Authority says interim procedures are in place for licensed exports where destination countries issue valid import permits. Antigua and Barbuda's Medicinal Cannabis Authority is also developing an export framework, citing its legal structure, geography and international airport as advantages.

Regis Burton, chief executive of Antigua's Medicinal Cannabis Authority, says legal exports are "highly likely" in time — not least because "very few people can say they've tried Antiguan cannabis." Federal US law still blocks recreational imports, despite more than 20 states legalising adult use domestically.

Illicit supply still dominates at home

Domestically, high overheads and medical-only sales rules are leaving much of the market to illegal operators. Jacana estimates more than 800,000 people use cannabis annually in Jamaica — around half of them tourists — yet roughly 90% of the 87 tonnes consumed each year still flows through illicit channels.

Chong says over-regulation has "strangled the industry", and that of the 160-plus licences issued by Jamaica's Cannabis Licensing Authority between 2017 and 2024, very few businesses remain active.

In Antigua, industry consultant Robert Hill puts it bluntly: "It's still more profitable to import cannabis illegally. Unlike dealers, private companies have staff and bills to pay." The island has six licensed farms, four dispensaries and one cannabis lounge — yet authorities intercepted 45 kilograms of illegal imports in a single 24-hour period last September.

Innovation in bringing growers into the legal market

Antigua has taken an unconventional approach to unlicensed cultivation. Rather than prosecuting illegal growers, authorities invited violators onto a free six-week course teaching how to enter the market legally. Twenty-two have graduated, with two transitioning to medicinal businesses.

"The industry won't be successful if the illicit market does as it pleases," Burton says.

Progressive reforms have also carried social justice weight. In 2018, Prime Minister Gaston Browne formally apologised to Rastafarians for decades of persecution linked to cannabis use. Six years later, the government granted sacramental authorisation for Rastafarian cultivation, and last summer announced plans to expunge records for small-scale possession convictions.

High Priest Selah of Antigua's Nyabinghi community recalls years of police raids, destroyed crops and public humiliation. Campaigners from his denomination played a central role in securing decriminalisation.

Back at Pineapple Road, staff hand-roll one-gram joints for the company dispensary. Burton and Hill both want more local growers to join the licensed sector and keep value within the Caribbean.

"We have the ability to compete with much bigger countries thanks to our climate," Hill says. "We're not trying to create an Amsterdam — this is about wellness."