Caribbean social commentators and academics across the disciplines have, for years, been making more than discreet noises for a region-wide legalization of marijuana.
However, judging from the cold shoulder that the lobby has been receiving from governments and particularly from lawmakers in some territories, it would seem that on the whole the region is still far away from the recommendation to “Legalize It” as lyrically articulated by Jamaican musical legend Robert Nesta ‘Bob’ Marley.
Not surprisingly, it is the late musical legend’s country, Jamaica, that has forged ahead of the rest of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) in the quest not only to bring an end to the demonization of marijuana but also to promote the use of the plant not for its widely celebrated recreational purposes, but much more for its medicinal purposes and what are believed to be the significant economic spinoffs that can derive therefrom.
Earlier this week, in the wake of the coming into effect on April 15 of an amendment to Jamaica’s Dangerous Drugs Act which makes possession of marijuana weighing up to two ounces a non-arrestable offence, the Jamaica Gleaner reported that the country’s commercial banks were awaiting word from the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Jamaica on the granting of loans to farmers and entrepreneurs for the cultivation of marijuana for medicinal purposes.
What the new law does, apart from decriminalize the possession of marijuana for personal use, is to set out a strictly controlled regime for the cultivation of the drug for medical purposes.
Since large numbers of Jamaicans have customarily carried around small and not so small quantities of marijuana for personal use without overly attracting the attention of the police and since marijuana has long been cultivated openly, in large quantities and again, in many cases, without official sanction those sections which address possession and cultivation of marijuana, per se, are not of overwhelming importance. What is ground-breaking is that Jamaica, it seems, is on the threshold not only of officially sanctioning the cultivation of marijuana fields but also of giving the green light to the country’s commercial banks to pour money into marijuana cultivation, albeit for medical purposes.
Nor, it appears, is the Jamaican banking sector shying away from the idea of putting money into marijuana. Last week the Gleaner quoted Executive Director of the Jamaica Bankers Association Richard Murray as saying that while the treatment of marijuana by the financial sector had not been formally discussed by the banks they were altogether prepared to be guided by the country’s financial regulators.
News that banks in Jamaica are essentially waiting for a central bank directive to begin making loans available for the cultivation of marijuana is more than enough to make both the politicians and the banking community in the rest of the region blush.
Some regional advocates of legalizing the cultivation and use of marijuana for medical purposes are already pointing to the irony of possible considerable economic returns from a crop that would once have been considered to be least likely to come even close to impacting positively on the economy of the Caribbean. Where the value-added capabilities of sugar and rice have failed to turn around the economies of the region a persuasive argument is now being made for the likelihood that marijuana might accomplish that goal.
In December 2013, Jamaican investor Dr. Henry Lowe made history in the Caribbean region by launching the region’s first ever medical marijuana company, Medicana Jamaica Ltd for the marketing of medicinal products made from cannabis. The company’s value-added products include Cannabidiol (CDB), which reportedly has potential for the treatment of diabetes, alcoholism, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and some neurological disorders; Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) which reportedly changes behaviour by affecting receptors on nerve cells, and other medical products designed to treat more than 80 other maladies. The company’s planned future products reportedly include Ganja Viz, a glaucoma eye drop aimed at regulating inner eye pressure.
Much of the rest of the region would appear to be ‘stuck in traffic’ on the issue of legalizing marijuana, that traffic being the stigma attached to its use for recreational purposes. In most Caribbean countries possession of even the smallest quantity of marijuana continues to be a criminal offence. Arguably, the biggest barrier to its legalization continues to be official attitudes that continue to link marijuana to criminal behaviour. By contrast, Jamaica has been successful in getting some of its most high-profile public figures, not least the country’s former prime minister and elder statesman PJ Patterson, to throw their weight behind embracing the production and use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Mindful of the significant economic benefits that a successful marijuana-for-industry can realize for Jamaica, Patterson is on record as urging his country’s regulators to move with haste so that businesses can exploit a medical marijuana market reportedly valued at around US$8.9 billion to the United States. In Canada, the marijuana market could be valued at an amount that could reach Cdn$1.3 billion by 2024, while other markets are known to be opening up across Europe, Australia and reportedly as far as the Czech Republic where marijuana is officially authorized for medical purposes.
Despite the pace at which Jamaica is moving, the rest of the region still lags behind notwithstanding the fact that official research on the use of marijuana for medical purposes started at the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies since 1969. What will also doubtless buoy Jamaica is the pronouncement in a television interview by US President Barack Obama – not for the first time – that he is supportive of shifting from what has long been robust federal opposition to medical marijuana. The US President is quoted as declaring on a CNN interview that “carefully prescribed medical use of marijuana may in fact be appropriate” and that “we should follow the science as opposed to ideology on this issue.”
There are those who will argue that here in the Caribbean there may well be a strong case for following Jamaica’s lead by following not only “the science” but also the economics of marijuana.
