Claims that local ganja farmers are barred from importing cannabis into Canada have been dismissed by Senator Aubyn Hill, minister of industry, investment and commerce.

Hill was reacting to uproar in the public domain following recent claims that, while the Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA) has granted permission for a licensee to import cannabis from Canada, local producers are not being permitted to import into that North American country.

Hill, in a statement yesterday (March 1), said he was unaware of any specific restrictions on importing Jamaican cannabis into Canada.

“Canada is the first country that local entities requested and received authorisation for, and those have been followed by other exporter authorisations over the years. As such, if [or] where there has been a refusal by Canada to issue import permits for products from Jamaica, the authority is not aware of these proposed consignments or reasons for refusal.”

He further explained that an export authorisation is only issued to an entity after it has provided an import authorisation from the receiving country and that authorisation is verified by the authority as legitimate.

Hill noted that the CLA has not authorised any export to Canada that has been refused.

Anthony Hylton, opposition spokesman on industry, investment and commerce, in statement on Wednesday, had declared that he was “shocked” to learn that the CLA granted approval for cannabis to be imported from Canada.

“I was shocked, and I am shocked to hear about the importation of cannabis from Canada,” he had said, expressing that he was disturbed that the approval was granted while local cannabis producers had been facing challenges in exporting product to Canada.

The CLA is an agency of the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce with a specific role to establish and regulate Jamaica’s legal ganja and hemp industry.