Saint Lucia: Hilaire says cannabis law is almost at the finish line

As of 5 August 2026, Saint Lucia’s cannabis legislation is close enough that the Deputy Prime Minister is willing to say so from a public platform. Dr Ernest Hilaire told a Rastafari gathering in Vieux Fort that the country is “almost at the finish line” on a regulated cannabis industry, answering a complaint raised from that same platform that the work has taken too long.

Aaron Alexander, president of the Iyanola Council for the Advancement of Rastafari and Pan African People, put the complaint on the record at Sunday’s Emancipation Day observance. He said the legislation needed to regulate Saint Lucia’s cannabis industry was moving too slowly, then said the community remains hopeful and is prepared to keep waiting while Parliament takes the matter up, per St. Lucia Times.

Hilaire replied in a video message recorded at the Regulated Substances Authority, the body that will run licensing. “I hear your frustration,” he said. “I assure you our work behind the scenes has been deliberate and unwavering.” He described what is coming as safe and highly regulated, and said it would protect the people who “have carried the burden and risk of cannabis for generations.” His closing line was that Saint Lucia will build a cannabis industry “that serves and safeguards every Saint Lucian.”

No bill was named and no sitting date was given. That absence is the story, because the text has been public for a year and a half: the Cannabis and Industrial Hemp Bill, covering farming, processing, and sales, went out for consultation in January 2025 and has not been passed. The Authority did pick a seed-to-sale traceability vendor in April 2026, which is procurement you do when a licensing regime is being built rather than argued over.

What This Means

Nothing changes for a traveler this month. Saint Lucia decriminalized possession of up to 30 grams for private adult use in September 2021 under an amendment to the Drugs (Prevention and Misuse) Act, and allows four plants per household. That is still the whole of it. There are no dispensaries, no legal retail, and public consumption carries a fine of up to $1,500. If you are booked into Soufriere or Rodney Bay this month, plan for the same island you would have planned for in July.

What a passed bill would change is retail. Licensed shops need two things in place, a statute and a working traceability system, and both halves are now visibly moving. For visitors that would mean a legal counter to buy from rather than the current position, where possession is tolerated and purchase is not provided for.

What to watch: whether the Cannabis and Industrial Hemp Bill is tabled when Parliament next sits, and whether the Regulated Substances Authority opens a licensing round. Neither has a published date.