The Isle of Man, a UK crown dependency, has been clear about its intention to welcome medical cannabis businesses, announcing in 2020 that it aimed to represent the ‘gold-standard global regulatory regime for the cannabis export sector’.
Four years later, with a concrete business-focused regulatory structure now in place, the island is now actively searching for opportunities in cannabis to diversify its economy.
Ahead of his attendance at Cannabis Europa in London later this month, where he will be hoping to speak to Europe’s leading cannabis businesses, the CEO of Business Isle of Man, Tim Cowsill, says the ‘door is now open’ for the island.
He told Business of Cannabis: “We are coming to Cannabis Europa, this is the first show we’ve done with the door open on the Isle of Man, because we now feel that we’ve got the expertise and the understanding to actively market the island.”
Open for business
In the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the Isle of Man government sought to diversify its economy beyond finance and e-gaming, the two major sectors that have supported its economy in recent years.
The government’s Department of Enterprise, of which the Business Isle of Man is an Executive Agency, was tasked with sounding out possible new routes that would fit within the islands’ existing regulatory framework and areas of expertise.
A member of the department’s private sector board with responsibility for the island’s biomed industry, saw the emerging medical cannabis sector as a perfect fit.
Mr Cowsill explained that they ‘brought the opportunity of medicinal cannabis to the government and said if you want to diversify and you want to add to the existing biomed sector here, we should definitely have a look at this.’
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