Aruba creates an agency to oversee medicinal cannabis production

Aruba created a health-ministry agency to oversee medicinal cannabis cultivation, manufacturing and trade in 2020.^[1] The decree gave it responsibility for permits, quality controls and records, and for coordinating stocks and exports under the international drug-control system.^[1]

CBD rules preceded the production plans

The government had already recognised CBD medicines in December 2019 and excluded CBD preparations with no more than 0.2% THC from a narcotics designation.^[2][3] The agency decree turned to the production side: growing cannabis and making products for medical use and scientific work.^[1]

Its explanation linked the project to economic diversification and the government’s view that Aruba’s climate suited cannabis cultivation.^[1] It also recognised that growing and manufacturing would require specific permissions to depart from the narcotics ordinance’s prohibitions.^[1]

An agency would supervise the supply chain

The decree was signed on 9 June with effect from 1 June 2020.^[1] It placed the Bureau Medicinale Cannabis Aruba within the ministry responsible for public health.^[1]

Its duties extended across the supply chain, including permit administration, inspection, product quality, import and export records, and reports required under the international treaty system.^[1] The bureau was also to coordinate purchases and stocks, directly or through a state company, and help develop further legislation.^[1]

The decree connected supervision to the international rules governing medical and scientific cannabis production.^[1] It gave the bureau a role in ensuring that growers, manufacturers and products met the conditions attached to their permissions.^[1]

Companies were invited to propose projects

A later government invitation offered three routes for proposals: cultivation, processing, or a combination of both.^[4] It envisaged a limited number of exemptions for growing cannabis and processing or transporting oils and tinctures for scientific research and medicine production.^[4]

Successful applicants would need agreements before receiving exemptions.^[4] The invitation also made completion of the selection process and award letters contingent on Parliament changing the applicable legislation, and reserved the government’s right to end the process.^[4]

One applicant’s experience showed the barriers

A later court record documents the experience of Cannacrossaruba Healthy, a business that had sought medicinal growing and production permission since 2019.^[5] The minister refused those requests in March 2023.^[5]

Its separate CBD-import request was conditionally refused while the business was given time to supply documents, and the inspectorate later said the refusal had become final when the documents were not received by the deadline.^[5] That case records the permissions an aspiring producer faced in Aruba.^[5]