Having in recent years secured a string of breakthroughs that have transformed its status from that of an illicit narcotic that could land you in jail to a medicinal herb that has attracted the attention of medical researchers and investors in metropolitan countries, marijuana may well be on its way to taking another game-changing step towards full-fledged societal acceptability. Last week, Jamaica’s so-called ‘ganjapreneurs’ were reportedly nodding vigorously with satisfaction over a new United States legislative bill that could be a significant breakthrough in what has been a vigorous fight to have banks in the US do business with marijuana companies.
While other hurdles including additional banking issues may still represent roadblocks to marijuana’s full acceptance as a legitimate commodity in wider business circles, the Bill, the Sunday September 29 Jamaica Gleaner says, “would open up new opportunities for investments and exports from Jamaica,” according to operators in the medical marijuana trade.” Not only could the Bill open the doors of banks to engaging businesses in the ganja trade, the Gleaner says, but it could also remove “other roadblocks to business” in the global marijuana trade and “open up new opportunities for investments and exports from Jamaica.”
On Wednesday September 25th the United States House of Represen-tatives passed the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act, (the SAFE Banking Act) though the Act must still clear the hurdle of the US Senate before it can be passed into law. Jamaican investors, however, still see this development as yet another roadblock cleared for marijuana’s ascendancy to a status of global legitimacy.
Last week, Dr Henry Lowe, one of Jamaica’s high profile investors in cannabis establishments in Jamaica, Canada and the United States quipped: “It is timely and happening faster than expected.”
At the federal level in the United States, marijuana still remains illegal and while it has now secured legality in 33 states, American banks have, up until now, largely refused to do business with medical marijuana establishments, public acknowledgement of the value of their work notwithstanding. The SAFE bill seeks to amend US federal law so that banks and other financial institutions can work directly with legal cannabis businesses.
A crucial issue for marijuana investors is that approval by the US Senate of the SAFE banking would allow the transfer of funds between buyers and sellers in the cannabis industry in the US, and globally. This would open the way for significant marijuana exports from Jamaica. Senate approval for the Bill would also create a critical opening for cannabis companies to float their companies on the stock market, through initial public offerings, according to Lowe, whose company, Medical Marijuana Ltd. has gained approvals from Jamaica’s Ministry of Health for 12 pharmaceutical products but still cannot promote or export them on account of legal and banking blockades the Gleaner says.
Lowe, reportedly, has deliberately turned his back on the recreational side of the marijuana market and on cultivation, according to the Gleaner, “in order to allay the concerns of the banks,” though, the newspaper says, “to no avail.” Lowe is quoted as saying that he has lost the support of some of his clients on account of difficulties with the banks.
A great deal could derive for investors as well as potential investors in the marijuana business should the US Senate give assent to the Bill. The Gleaner quotes another local investor, Balram Vaswani, CEO of Kaya Inc, a company that runs three ‘herb houses’ in Jamaica as saying that ratification of the SAFE bill by the US Senate would lead to outside conglomerates entering the cannabis market. Vaswani wants Jamaican investors to closely monitor developments in the United States in order to position themselves to comply with any new regulations that might emerge.
Jamaica has long surged well ahead of the rest of the Caribbean where several countries are still grappling with fashioning domestic laws relating to possession and use of relatively small quantities of marijuana.
