By Halshane Burke
The Ganja Growers and Producers Association has restated the call for the government to move with alacrity to make changes to the regime governing the local ganja industry to make it more viable.
Stakeholders recently held a meeting to discuss concerns of industry players.
The meeting followed Prime Minister Andrew Holness's budget presentation last Thursday, where he outlined that the industry has "great potential".
Mr. Holness had said legal rules and conventions place restrictions on the cannabis industry but there needs to be special attention to develop the local industry to the point where "we don't need to even consider importing from any other country".
Industry Minister Senator Aubyn Hill had said a local company requested the licence to import several strains that were not available in Jamaica.
But Richard Crawford, President of the Ganja Growers and Producers Association, believes the government needs to overhaul the Cannabis Licensing Authority as a first step towards improving the local ganja industry.
He argued that the Authority has "failed miserably" and is "not competent enough to run the business".
If the CLA operations are not addressed, he warned, then "growers and investors will suffer".
Mr. Crawford said the regulations governing ganja need to be reviewed and updated before the end of this year.
"All the growers and everybody has woken up to the fact that what is to happen in 2023, if we want to go forward, is to continue like many other countries are now doing, to have other legislation for the use of the product. If not, we're going to be constantly held behind," he suggested.
"The 1961 convention, which has for all these years made ganja a horrible illegal proposition, and therefore you have to not trade at all or, if you are discovered, you are in plenty of problems, that's old fashion now. You can't have a piece of legislation in 2023 that would hinder you like that."
Mr. Crawford again underscored the need to reduce licence fees and find avenues to include small and indigenous ganja farmers in the formal industry.
He pointed out that the government faces the prospect of outside players circumventing the established protocols to gain access to a ready supply of the commodity.
"Jamaica, with its reputation, has attracted a lot of people, so if they can come behind our backs or without our knowledge and come into Jamaica and then start to treat the growers and the traditional people in a particular kind of way, circumventing the groups and circumventing the licence authority, that's how they can get action to get the Jamaican product to go to whether it's Canada, California or elsewhere. So that's a very dangerous thing for us; they just can come to Jamaica on that basis and eat away at the industry," he warned.
Mr. Crawford said the government needs to give consideration to the implementation of the long requested two-year moratorium to fast track entry of small and traditional ganja farmers into the regulated industry.
