BY JON HILTZ From Marijuana.com

While the cannabis world was busy watching Mexico and Ireland vote yes for medical marijuana, and pot lovers were pining over the potential framework for Canada’s adult-use industry, the Cayman Islands quietly legalized cannabis oil.

While all this legalization occurs, Canadian LPs are positioning themselves to dominate the global medical marijuana market as the world’s go-to exporter of top quality cannabis (Germany), its derivatives (Croatia), as well as it’s secrets (Australia). Canada’s global footprint will be limited to the medical market for now, as Health Canada will not have their licensing program used as “a vehicle for supplying cannabis to foreign markets where recreational use is legal.” .

The Cayman Islands story all started last year when a resident named Dennie Warren Jr. approached his government for permission to allow cannabis oil in the country. Dennie’s wife has stage IV lung cancer, and he read the studies that showed CBD oil helps prohibit cell growth and promotes cell death.

Chemotherapy and radiation treatments had proven ineffective, so Dennie lobbied the government to amend the Misuse of Drugs Bill 2016 and allow CBD oil to be imported. After various stages of debate, Cayman Islands Governor Helen Kilpatrick approved the amendment into law in early December.

The historical amendment reads as follows:

The use of cannabis extracts and tinctures of cannabis for medical or therapeutic purposes, where prescribed by a medical doctor licensed in accordance with the Health Practice Law as part of a course of treatment for a person under that medical doctor’s care, is lawful.

The new law allows doctors to prescribe cannabis oil when needed, provided the local pharmacy can find a source that will export the medicine to them.

This amendment makes the Cayman Islands the first Caribbean nation to adopt a medical marijuana program. The problem now is, where do its citizens get their cannabis oil from? The United States is the closest nation with medical marijuana, but as it is still illegal at the federal level, there is no path to exportation. Canada, on the other hand, is quickly becoming the go-to choice for the world’s supply of quality Medical Marijuana.

Canopy Growth and other Licensed Producers in Canada are being tapped by countries who have enacted some level of cannabis reform but are not ready to grow domestically. As Canada was the first country on Earth to adopt a medical marijuana program and is about to be the first to legalize adult-use pot nationwide, the great white north has become the default country to access ganja on a national scale.

“Tweed has completed export to Germany and has been using the distribution partner that we established there,” says Jordan Sinclair, the Director of Communications for the cannabis giant. “We liked that arrangement so much, we acquired them.”

Jordan went on to add that they are involved with the Australian market as well. “In Australia, it’s a little bit different, it’s more like an exporting IP. What we’ve done with those guys, is sign up to teach them how to get out of the gates really strong. In exchange for our expertise, they gave us a stake in the company.” Sinclair added that Jamaica is a territory that is looking quite interesting as well, but no word on any movements there as yet.

Regardless of who supplies the newly available Cayman market, medical marijuana is now legal in the Caribbean. There are many other islands looking to move in the same direction, but ending prohibition on island time has its challenges. Perhaps Cayman’s new marijuana reform will speed things up.

For more on this story go to: http://www.marijuana.com/blog/news/2016/12/canada-is-positioned-to-be-the-world-leader-in-medical-marijuana/