While the legality and use of marijuana remains a hotly debated issue in some parts of the Caribbean and elsewhere around the world, Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member country Jamaica (as the Stabroek Business has been reporting) continues to parade to the rest of the region both the monetary and medicinal value of the plant commonly known as ‘ganja’.
The latest reports emanating from Kingston regarding the continual conversion of marijuana into a significant economic asset has come in the form of a disclosure that Kaya, the trading name for the first medical marijuana company to open shop in Jamaica two years ago, last week became an exporter of the product after making its first shipment of cannabis oil to the Cayman Islands.
Kaya and Jamaica as a whole are likely to regard the development as yet another breakthrough for a product which has long been linked to drug addiction, even crime in the region and elsewhere in the world, but which Jamaicans have always embraced as an iconic plant which, along with its hallucinogenic properties has now been scientifically proven to have healing properties.
The report on the historic ‘first export’ to the Cayman Islands by Kaya is attended by indications that there may well be at least three more such shipments during 2020 though officials say that that can change depending on demand.
The importer in the Cayman Islands is a company operating under the name of Blue Water Medical Supplies.
Kaya, it seems, is not stopping there insofar as making inroads into the health and wellness industry in CARICOM is concerned. Reports are that the company is currently contemplating Barbados as another likely regional market for its products.
The Kaya management says it is treating its Cayman Islands breakthrough as a milestone in its pursuit of expansion across the Caribbean despite the pushback that the legalisation and use of marijuana still faces in some territories. “We finally have a framework so that we can continue to deliver consistent medical cannabis extracts from Jamaica to severely ill patients in their country,” a senior Kaya official is quoted as saying.
The legal strictures in the Cayman Islands allow for the consumption of medical cannabis oils and tinctures that are attended by prescription. Importation is subject to the approval by the Cayman Islands Chief Medical Officer. However, no local cultivation or production is permitted there.
Kaya has been operating in Jamaica since 2018 where the company operates a marijuana farm and three herb houses. The company has reportedly just invested around J$60 million in the establishment of a new outlet in Kingston.
Meanwhile, the Jamaica Gleaner has reported that another local medical marijuana dispensary, JACANA, last week launched the first of two planned Jacana medical marijuana dispensaries, in Kingston. JACANA, reportedly, is already cultivating marijuana on a 100-acre farm in St Ann and estimates its overall investment in the sector at around US$15 million. This investment covers the company’s development of a pharmaceutical-grade lab and manufacturing facility as well as the creation of a research and development plant for medicinal purposes, and a retail dispensary.
Up to the present time JACANA has placed four medical cannabis products on the market.
The company reportedly began exporting cannabis flowers and resin to Canada in 2018.
