The Medicinal Cannabis (R)evolution

4

medicinal cannabis as a viable industry in the ECCU, and highlight financial, regulatory and other policy issues which may hinder its development. The banking sector may be vulnerable, particularly the ability of these financial institutions to maintain correspondent banking relationships. What should be noted however, is that in order to fully recognise the benefits of the medicinal cannabis industry, appropriate banking services must be provided to facilitate commerce. The situation in itself presents quite a conundrum, not only for financial institutions, but for ECCU member governments and the ECCB, as the regulator of licensed commercial banks. The report continues as follows: section two considers the economic motivation for the development of the industry in the ECCU, while section three explores the potential global demand for medicinal cannabis as a foundation for assessing the industry’s viability in the ECCU. The banking sector challenges associated with the development of the industry are examined in section 4. This section also presents a number of case studies, which highlight the experiences of three countries that are developing this industry. Given the highly regulated nature of this industry, the report considers the regional legal and regulatory framework in section 5. Section 6 concludes the report and some issues for policy consideration are presented in Section 7. Before proceeding, some caveats are worth noting. Given the current embryonic state of the regional industry, as well as its previous illicit nature, there are no official or accurate data sources related to production, price, trading practices, or market demand, which may be used as a baseline for this report. Additionally, the extant literature is limited, particularly on the impact of the industry on the banking sector as legalisation across countries, including the US, remains dynamic, resulting in significant uncertainty regarding the policy implications for the sector.