CANADIAN company is seeking to tap into the Jamaican market for the supply of dried marijuana to the medicinal marijuana industry in Canada.

Marketing director of FLOR, Raymond Grant, (the local agent for the company), toldThe Gleaner that 80 per cent of the shares of the company are owned by Jamaicans living in Canada who are ready to invest in Jamaica.

Grant has been meeting with local farmers and laying the groundwork for the development of a supply industry in Jamaica.

"I believe this is the first Canadian company formed to export cannabis from Jamaica to Canada. There are about 15 licensed dealers (in Canada), so we would be the wholesalers. We would supply the dealers in Canada. That is how we see our role," he said.

KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Ministry of Justice has prepared a fact sheet on the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2015 (DDA).

The sheet outlines the main changes that have been made by the DDA in relation to the possession of ganja, smoking the substance as well as importing and cultivating it. 

The Act also makes special provisions for people of the Rastafarian Faith and visitors to the island who intend to use medical marijuana. 

In the fact sheet, the ministry also explains that failing to pay a ticket for possession of two ounces (or less) of marijuana  will lead to a conviction which will be recorded on the offender’s criminal record.

THE governor general has given his assent to the Bill amending the Dangerous Drugs Act, making possession of two or less ounces of ganja a ticketable offence.

Justice Minister Mark Golding made the disclosure yesterday, just over a month after the House of Representatives joined the Senate in passing the legislation now being called the Ganja law.

"My understanding is that the GG has now assented to the Bill and the signed Bill is now on its way back

to Parliament," Golding informed advocates of decriminalisation or legalisation of marijuana, who were anxious that the amendments became law as soon as possible.

In the blink of an eye, global debates about cannabis regulation have shifted from “whether” to “how.” In 2014, Uruguay became the first nation to explicitly regulate cannabis from seed to sale. Its preferred strategy? State-regulated production, cannabis clubs, and personal growing. Meanwhile, four U.S. states and the District of Columbia have moved ahead with legal regulation, Colorado and Washington being the first, and the federal government seems unlikely to intervene. More states, possibly even California, look set to follow. Likewise, in the rest of the world, there are a number of gray-area regulatory systems, including in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain. All offer insights into how the United States—and other countries—might tackle the “how.”

THE AMERICAN MODEL

KINGSTON, Jamaica—Attend any outdoor sound system party in Kingston and you are guaranteed to experience at least two things: loud, bass-thumping reggae and dancehall blasting from a gigantic stack of speakers, and clouds of marijuana smoke rising over the crowd. Like peanuts at a baseball game, the two go hand-in-hand, and it’s been that way for almost five decades.

While not everyone at the party is smoking, marijuana is usually easy to come by if you’re looking. Just stop one of the vendors who will be periodically walking through the crowd with 12-inch stalks, selling buds from the dried plant for $100 Jamaican dollars ($1).

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A key component of Jamaica’s business community wants regional leaders to determine whether Washington would oppose efforts by the island to export locally produced marijuana to the U.S. for the medical industry when they meet with President Barack Obama in Jamaica early next month.

Both the White House and Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller announced plans for the visit this week as Obama prepares to make his second official visit to a Caribbean trade bloc member state since taking office six years ago.

In 2009, he flew to Trinidad both to meet with leaders and to attend the hemispheric Summit of Americas which Trinidad had hosted also in April of that year.

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Small ganja farmers across the island are being encouraged to make use of the opportunities that will be available in the medicinal ganja industry.

Speaking in Douglas Castle, St Ann, on March 18, Science, Technology, Energy and Mining Minister, Phillip Paulwell, said the “small man” must ensure that he becomes a major player in the new industry.

The minister said efforts will be made to ensure that the small ganja farmers who have been in the system a long time are not squeezed out by persons with wealth.

… Peter Sinkamba has a point. Trouble is, he is from the future. In his enlightenment, he is many years ahead of the average citizen. Indeed he will be misunderstood reviled and even fought because his audience is way behind him. His attitude should be like that of Jesus, 'forgive them Father for they know not what they do'.

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Anthony Hylton, says Jamaica intends to lead a charge in the United Nations to effect changes to the international treaties concerning marijuana.

The aim is to change the schedule class of marijuana in light of scientific studies that have proven its therapeutic benefits and medicinal value.

“We believe that the schedule in which marijuana is now placed, which is one of the highest schedules as a drug, we believe that it should be removed from that schedule and looked at in the light of... the evidence, which has revealed its strong medicinal (value),” Hylton said, while addressing a session of the recently concluded Jamaica Investment Forum (JIF) at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St James.

In 1997, Dr. Dennis Forsythe, described in Forsythe v Director of Public Prosecutions and Attorney General (1997 34 J.L.R. 512) as a sociologist, holist, author, Rastafarian and attorney-at-law, petitioned the Supreme (High) Court for a declaration that his constitutional rights to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion had been infringed by the Dangerous Drugs Act 1924. Forsythe had been arrested for illegal possession of marijuana (called ganja in Jamaica) and a chillum pipe (used to smoke marijuana) at his house. Rastafarians are adherents of a religious movement originating from Jamaica that smoke marijuana as a religious sacrament.

Forsythe stated in his affidavit that: