KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) – Jamaica is getting little of ganja.
Heavy rains followed by a long drought, an increase in local consumption and a decrease in the number of marijuana farmers caused a shortage in the famous but largely illegal market on the island, which according to experts is the worst they have seen .
“This is a cultural embarrassment,” said Triston Thompson, chief event investigator for Tacaya, a consulting and brokerage firm for the country’s emerging legal cannabis industry.
Jamaica, which has long associated foreigners with pot, reggae and Rastafarians, approved a regulated medical marijuana industry and decriminalized small amounts of weeds in 2015.
People caught with 56 grams or less of cannabis are supposed to pay a small fine and they are not arrested or criminal records imposed. The island also allows individuals to grow up to five plants, and Rastafarians may legally smoke ganja for sacramental purposes.
But enforcement is uncomfortable as many tourists and locals continue to buy marijuana on the street, where it has become scarcer and more expensive.
Heavy rains during last year’s hurricane season ignited marijuana fields that later scorched in the ensuing drought, which, according to farmers who grow pot outside the legal system, lost tens of thousands of dollars.
“It destroyed everything,” said Daneyel Bozra, who grows marijuana in southwestern Jamaica, in a historic town called Accompong, founded by escaped 18th-century slaves known as the Maroons.
The aggravation of the problem was strict COVID-19 measures, including a curfew at 6pm, which meant farmers could not look after their fields at night, Kenrick Wallace, 29, said. assistance from 20 other farmers.
He noted that a lack of roads is forcing many farmers to walk to reach their lands – and then get water from wells and fountains. Many could not perform those tasks at night due to the evening clock.
Wallace estimates that in recent months he has lost more than $ 18,000 and raised only 300 pounds, compared to an average of 700 to 800 pounds that the group normally produces.
Activists say they believe the pandemic and the weakening of the marijuana laws in Jamaica led to an increase in local consumption that contributed to the scarcity, even though the pandemic sought a dip in the arrival of tourists from ganja .
‘Last year was the worst year. “We have never had so many losses,” said Thompson. “It’s something so ridiculous that cannabis is short in Jamaica.”
Tourists also took note and posted on travel sites about problems finding the drug.
Paul Burke, CEO of the Ganja Growers and Producers Association of Jamaica, said in a telephone interview that people are no longer afraid of being locked up, now that the government allows small amounts. He said the stigma against ganja has decreased and more people appreciate its alleged therapeutic and medicinal value during the pandemic.
Burke also said that some traditional smallholder farmers have stopped growing in frustration because they cannot afford to meet the requirements for the legal market, while the police continue to destroy what he described as ‘good ganja lands’. ‘.
The government’s Cannabis Licensing Authority – which has authorized 29 growers and issued 73 licenses for transport, retail, processing and other activities – said there was no shortage of marijuana in the regulated industry. But farmers and activists believe that weeds sold by legal pharmacies, known as herbal houses, are out of reach for many, as they still cost five to ten times more than a pot on the street.
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Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.