Is marijuana the answer to Jamaica’s economic woes ?

The chorus of voices calling for the cultivation of marijuana in Jamaica in order to export it to countries which authorise its medicinal use is growing. The idea is seen as being an opportunity to offset the effects of the world financial crisis.

Changes in the economic context have led to enormous problems for traditional Jamaican export industries, according to a report in the French version of Courrier International*. The sectors most affected are sugar, bananas and bauxite. This situation has led to demands that Jamaica export marijuana for medical use. The argument goes that there is a large market for it and the incoming revenue would help the country overcome its economic worries. “People always talk about kids selling grass in the street or in housing complexes, but what we should be doing is to implicate them better by encouraging them to plant marijuana for the pharmaceutical market.” That is the opinion of Amsale Maryam from the Jamaican Association for Development Agencies, who was speaking at a meeting that was organised on the subject. “That’s the approach we should adopt because marijuana could bring in a lot of money. The pharmaceutical industry needs marijuana because it’s an ingredient in several treatments.” Thirteen states in America, Jamaica’s biggest commercial partner, have legalised marijuana for medical use, and four of them, California, Colorado, New Mexico and Rhode Island, give special dispensations for the sale of medical marijuana. California alone spends $200 million annually on the drug for medical use. A Jamaican farmer recently said in a press article that he grows and exports marijuana illegally. He thinks that the depenalisation of the growing of the plant could make a lot of money for the country and vastly increase the amount of it produced. He added “Nothing would motivate farmers more than telling them that they will be able to cultivate mahijuana legally. With the climatic conditions we have here, conditions are ideal for marijuana production." There are critics of the plan of course, including Customs Commissioner Danville Walker, who thinks that although depenalisation would be a good thing in Jamaica itself because it would lighten the load on the Customs’ judicial department, thus freeing pthe system up to tackle more serious crime. On the other hand, he estimates that there would be a lot of legal problems involved in exporting marijuana to a country (the United States) which tolerates medical use of the drug on a state level, but not at federal level. Financial analyst Dennis Chung thinks that the country should concentrate on other sectors that would be more profitable and that growing marijuana to the required standards demanded by the medical industry would make it too expensive to be competitive. The farmer recognises the problems, he says, but says he would like more research to be done on those issues before deciding. “Everyone talks talks about liberalising trade and they all say that small countries should identify and produce goods that offer them a competitive advantage. We have excellent marijuana here in Jamaica and the government should look into all the possibilities, try to implicate international business partners and get things moving.” (* English version available online to subscription members of Courrier International in English)