BY AZAD ALI From Caribbean Life

Jamaica is moving to establish a medical marijuana industry, according to Audley Shaw, minister of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries.

He said the government is moving to ensure that Jamaica is not left behind in the growing medical cannabis industry.

Shaw noted that while Jamaica has only decriminalized the use of up to two ounces of marijuana and issued a few licenses for production and processing, the product is now legal in Canada, and 31 states in the United States have been producing and using it for medicinal and recreational purposes.

Shaw said Jamaica needs to move quickly to take advantage of opportunities in the growing of cannabis and manufacture of its products.

The minister said he was working with the Ministry of Health and the Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA) “to move faster and more aggressively to reach the level of world competition, adding: “Time is not on our side.”

Shaw was at the time addressing a recent Agricultural Technology Symposium under the theme “Sustained Growth in the Agriculture Sector with Science and Technology Engineering,” held at Isratech Jamaica Limited Group of Companies in Kingston.

The symposium focused on several key topics, including the “Legislative Implications of the Dangerous Drugs Act (2015): and Medicinal Cannabis Product Innovative.

IMAGE: Associated Press / J Pat Carter
Audley Shaw, Jamaica’s minister of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries

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