The Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) has joined other stock markets across the globe in bracing for the impact of the Cannabis Banking Bill, which is currently before the US Congress. Having already been passed by the US House of Representatives on September 25, the SAFE Banking Act, which now goes to the Senate, where if it is passed would lift restrictions in the US on American banks doing business with cannabis companies. As a result of this move, securities exchanges in Jamaica and around the world are considering the implications for their own economic institutions. At present, foreign-based financial institutions with US banking relationships cannot freely work with legal cannabis businesses.

Some local ganja farmers are fuming over reports that a licence has been granted to a company to import Canadian cannabis into Jamaica. Speaking inside the ‘Jamaica Cannabis Industry Forum’ WhatsApp group, President of the Jamaica Cannabis Licensed Association, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, asked growers to figuratively “holster [their] weapons and keep [their] powder dry”, noting that the Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA) was aware of the ire created within the local industry following the latest development. (See also: Hylton slams Hill’s ‘dubious’ claim on ganja imports | Gov't to formulate local cannabis policy following Canadian company backlash)

Since 2015, Jamaica has become the site of a ganja gold rush, as foreign investors pump in money and set up shop on the island. Smaller local farmers, many of whom were being harassed and punished for growing in the past, simply can’t compete. Some locals see this as another extensions of colonial inaction. “I'm not saying all of these investors coming in are evil,” says Ras Iyah V, an activist who has been fighting for ganja legalization for years. “I'm just saying most of these coming in are concerned with money. About making money out of an industry that our people have suffered for.”

As Jamaica continues to promote medicinal cannabis to attract investors and spur the industry's development, entrepreneurs face significant hurdles due to the fact that, while their businesses are legal, they are still not able to access the country's banking services. This creates substantial challenges from sourcing investors to securing credit, conducting commercial operations, operating efficiently and taking advantage of growth opportunities. The current status quo stems from the fact that in the United States cannabis is still illegal at the federal level, even though there are states in which it is legal. As a result, the banking system is hesitant to engage with cannabis companies because banks would likely find themselves at odds with federal law if they do so.

The Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA) has established interim measures to facilitate online sales by licensed retail herb houses to registered patients in keeping with the Government's initiatives to practise safety while ensuring business continuity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The CLA said the measures for the online sale and subsequent pick up of the ganja at licensed retail facilities, were established in consultation with the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries. In a separate move last week, CLA also established interim regulations for the import and export of cannabis products, while a Canadian company pulled out of expansion plans in Jamaica's cannabis industry.

A recent study has found that a majority of Jamaica’s population may be in support of relaxing the laws prohibiting the use of marijuana. The study, which was conducted by pollster Don Anderson, reveals that 55 per cent of those interviewed felt that the laws criminalising marijuana should be relaxed. Anderson notes that 55 per cent of respondents also believe that marijuana should be commercialised. (See also: Ganja Medicine: Local doctors approve patients' use of marijuana)

The Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA) and the State have been accused of having no real interest in ensuring that small farmers get their fair share of the legal marijuana pie, as pilot cultivation programmes have been allowed to fall by the wayside and emphasis placed on heavy regulation. This sentiment was expressed by Government and Opposition politicians at a meeting of the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC), which had in attendance senior representatives of the CLA and its parent ministry. The pilot project for cultivation launched in Accompong, St Elizabeth crashed out with the onset of the novel coronavirus pandemic, while that planned for Orange Hill, Westmoreland did not get off the ground due to problems with land access.

Reforming the Cannabis industry into one which earns maximum benefits globally, is the goal of newly appointed Chairman for the Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA), LeVaughn Flynn. Flynn, who has written several articles advocating for the cannabis industry, said he believes the industry is at a very interesting point, where there is transformation, and is elated to lead the process that will benefit Jamaicans. “We've seen the rescheduling and reclassification of cannabis by the United Nations and also by the US Government, and those things give us the impression that potentially, in another couple years, we could have cannabis legalised at the Federal level in the US, and when that happens, that completely opens the global free trade for cannabis,” he said.

Los cambios políticos ocurridos en los últimos cinco años han reconfigurado dramáticamente el mercado del cannabis. No solo ha habido un boom sin precedentes en el mercado medicinal sino que, siguiendo los cambios políticos en muchas jurisdicciones, un número creciente de países también se están preparando para la regulación legal del uso no medicinal. Tales movimientos son impulsados por el reconocimiento de la inefectividad probada de las políticas represivas durante décadas, que han acarreado graves consecuencias negativas y apuntan a proporcionar un amplio rango de beneficios en términos de la salud y los derechos humanos.

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Opposition spokesman on tourism, Dr Wykeham McNeill is urging the Government to formulate a policy framework to define its position on cannabis. Cannabis could provide opportunities, including a new retail market, with appropriate properties operating as dispensaries for the legal sale. “This further gives us the opportunity for branding products such as Orange Hill ganja, as well as a dedicated source of income straight from the retail market to these approved growers,” he said. The UN estimates that 37,000 acres of illegal ganja is grown in Jamaica for each crop cycle, with a production of approximately 66 million pounds per year. Given the estimated value of between $9,000 and $22,000 per pound, this equates to $1.48 trillion, or about 70 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).

The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) is again being pressed about its role in charting the way forward to enable the legal cannabis industry to access financial services and become a part of the formal economy. East Kingston and Port Royal Member of Parliament Phillip Paulwell — a member of the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) — said that Jamaica continues to be at a disadvantage as it awaits the United States to lead the way in opening up the industry in order to address the issue of banking for cannabis. The BOJ senior deputy governor told the committee that the bank has been holding meetings with the various associations representing the industry to see how their needs can be accommodated in the formal banking system, but that so far there has been no progress in that regard.

The Position Paper "For inclusive business models, well designed laws and fair(er) trade options for small-scale traditional cannabis farmers” produced by The Fair(er) Trade Cannabis Working Group aims to contribute to the debate on finding sustainable and realistic solutions to the challenges posed by the developing cannabis industry, with a special focus on traditional and small scale farmers.

A supreme ganja, smoked by Rastas and even Bob Marley himself in the 1970s? This pipe dream of every ganja aficionado is becoming reality thanks to the horticultural talents of scientist Dr Machel Emanuel of the Biology Department at the University of the West Indies in Kingston. His specialty: landrace cannabis, which grew naturally in Jamaica before it disappeared as a result of human intervention. The reggae legends' ganja would not have been as strong as modern, artificially created cannabis, which has higher levels of THC — the plant's main psychoactive ingredient. But in the 1980s, during the US war on drugs, landrace cannabis was easily spotted because of its height and destroyed, and cultivation of the plant was abandoned. Over time, easier-to-hide hybrids replaced the landrace cultivars.

Director of the Cannabis Licensing Authority, Delano Seiveright, encouraged European stakeholders to continue to pursue further cannabis-related reforms in their respective countries as it will, in part, assist “small developing states like Jamaica to further deepen its cannabis liberalisation efforts so as to bring much-needed benefits to small traditional farmers who are suffering from marginalisation due to complicated laws and regulations brought on by geopolitical realities, and to foster growth and development in emerging market economies”. Much more is needed to be done to ensure the full incorporation of small traditional players who need to be brought into the regulated environment. (See also: CLA director lobbys Europe to push cannabis reforms)

Minister of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Audley Shaw, has welcomed news of the passage of the SAFE Banking Act in the United States, which could lay the foundation for addressing correspondent banking issues that remain a major challenge for legal cannabis producers. Director of the Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA), Delano Seiveright, was quick to add that it “is still early days”. “It really is a huge development, as the issue of lack of access to banking for legal cannabis businesses represents a juggernaut for many in the legal industry globally, and particularly in Jamaica where our legal cannabis industry is literally being stifled."

The smokable cocaine market was established decades ago, and is definitely not a new phenomenon. Rather than disappear, it is undergoing a slow expansion: from constituting a rather localized and isolated habit in the Andean region in the 1970s, its reach has extended in all directions, throughout North and South-America, including the Caribbean and Central American regions. Societies in the Americas have coexisted with smokable cocaines for over four decades, but - surprisingly - there is a dearth of research on the development of the market, or much first-hand evidence of how this substance is actually commercialized and used by millions of people in the region.

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The Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA) says the Cultivator's (Transitional) Special Permit Policy, which is in an advanced stage of completion, will enable more small and subsistence farmers to access the opportunities available within the medicinal cannabis industry. Acting senior legal officer at the CLA, Sheldon Reid, in a JIS interview said that the special permit, which will last for two years, will allow farmers to continue to cultivate while they prepare to transition to licensing status. He noted that the cost of obtaining a licence is prohibitive for some small and subsistence farmers, and argued that the permit will provide another avenue for them to enter the legal sector.

Chairman of the Cannabis Movement of St Lucia, Andre De Caires, has welcomed Jamaica's decision to give the green light to the so-called Ganja Bill, but chided authorities in St Lucia for dragging their feet on the issue. “I feel more angry than vindicated,” De Caires told reporters adding that he had been advocating for years for the decriminalization of marijuana here, to no avail. Pointing to the current economic challenges facing St Lucia, he said that decriminalizing marijuana could be this country’s salvation.

Cannabis guru Ras Iyah V says the time has come for developing nations, including those of the Caribbean, to collectively lobby the US to strike cannabis from its Controlled Substances Act. “It is important for Jamaica to align itself with Third World countries, starting with the Caribbean, because you have all of these Caribbean countries that will be embarking on a cannabis programme, who have gone as far as amending their laws to be establishing an industry in their respective countries.” St Vincent and the Grenadines Minister of Agriculture, Saboto Caesar appealed for CARICOM and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States to partner in the development of standards governing the negotiation of cannabis trade agreements for their member states.

Two years after the presentation of the 2018 CARICOM report “Waiting to Exhale - Safeguarding our future through responsible socio-legal policy on Marijuana” at the CND, this years’ side event the organizers would like to share insights on progress made, regarding the public policies on cannabis and the development of a medical cannabis industry in the Caribbean region.