The Kahnawà:ke Cannabis Control Board has issued their first micro cannabis production licence, a business called MSJ Cultivation.

The Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke (MCK) has spent several years creating its own licensing program for cannabis production and retail. The new micro licence was issued by MCK on November 8 and expires in five years. This is the second licence the agency has issued, the first was for a standard cultivation and processing licence (A name of that first licence holder was not available from MCK as of press time).

The micro cultivation licence authorizes MSJ to cultivate, possess, and test cannabis, as well as sell cannabis to holders of a valid distribution licence or export from the Territory to a licensed processor or retailer in another jurisdiction. Only a distribution licence holder is authorized to distribute cannabis products within Kahnawà:ke territory (Kahnawake) to a retail dispensary licence holder. The board has said they will only issue one such distribution licence. 

The business also has a micro cultivation licence from Health Canada, which is one of MCK’s licensing requirements for producers. In 2021, the band agency announced a memorandum with Health Canada in relation to their cannabis production regulations. The process was years in the making, Tonya Perron, who has led the cannabis file for the MCK for several years, explained to StratCann at the time. 

The Kahnawà:ke Legislative Commission (KLC) posted its retail cannabis regulations in December 2023 and its production regulations in 2021. Comments on the community’s Facebook page regarding the announcement showed an array of opinions on the licensing process and the presence of cannabis in the community.  

The territory’s cannabis regulations essentially mirror Health Canada’s production regulations while affirming the Band’s jurisdictional authority within their community. The community has no such relationship with Quebec’s provincial retail licensing authority. The Kahnawake Mohawk Territory is a First Nations reserve of the Mohawks of Kahnawá:ke, located on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec, Canada.

In October, the Kahnawà:ke Cannabis Control Board (KCCB) also posted notice of six cannabis retailers that submitted applications for a retail licence, which are currently under review 

In her conversation with StratCann in 2021, Perron said the process of creating such regulations has been one of balancing the interests of those who want to operate in the industry with those who have concerns about the impacts of cannabis on the community. 

“It’s a fine line to walk between all of those differing opinions, but that’s what makes our community so beautiful and so unique. People come from different places in the way that they think,” said Perron. “But one thing that’s for sure is that everybody in the community definitely states that it’s up to us to decide what needs to be done here and not for anybody else to tell us what should be done here.”

Earlier this month, MCK chiefs voted against having a new community-wide referendum on cannabis after the topic was raised at a Council meeting last week. 

Kahnawà:ke is not the only community to issue cannabis licences. The Okanagan Indian Band in British Columbia recently issued at least three retail cannabis licences, two to Timix Wellness Inc. and one to Nature’s Own Cannabis.

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