Jamaica: CLA Puts Licensed Retailer Count at 110

As of 6 August 2026, Jamaica has 110 registered cannabis retailers, according to the Cannabis Licensing Authority. Chief Executive Officer Farrah Blake gave the figure at the Jamaica Observer’s Monday Exchange forum and said she expects it to rise as the Authority’s lowered entry requirements take hold.

Blake also put the tourist question on the table directly. “There is a feeling that quite a bit of our tourists come to Jamaica expecting to have a ganja experience,” she said. “If it is that we have the ability to impart that experience legally, then we will find a solution.” She described no specific programme, licence class, or timeline.

The retailer count sits alongside figures the Authority has published through the year. The legal industry reached J$10 billion in 2025, a 63% rise on 2024. Walter Melbourne, the Authority’s director of licensing and applications, said cultivators who clear the bar face no recurring charge: “There is no more payment needed once you have qualified.” The transitional permits he was describing came in under April 2026 amendments to the Dangerous Drugs (Cannabis Licensing) regulations, which cut the cost of entry for traditional farmers. Blake expects those permits to be what moves the retailer number up.

What This Means

For a visitor, 110 registered retailers is the practical headline. Jamaica’s legal purchase route runs through licensed herb houses, where tourists buy a medical authorization for about US$10 and can then purchase legally for the length of their stay. A growing retailer count means more of those counters, and potentially more of them outside the Montego Bay and Negril resort corridors where the licensed market has concentrated so far.

Blake’s tourist comment is worth reading precisely. The Authority has not announced a tourism programme, a consumption-experience licence, or a date for either. What it has said is that it recognises the demand and wants a legal channel for it. If you are travelling this year, plan around the framework that exists now: buy at a licensed herb house, keep possession under two ounces, and do not smoke in public, which remains an offence.

What to watch: whether a tourism or consumption-experience licence appears in the next round of regulatory amendments, and whether the retailer count moves past 110 when the Authority next reports.