Bob Marley, ganja and the green stuff – is selling Brand Jamaica just a pipe dream?
Decades of debt are pushing Jamaica to cash in on its most famous exports, but small farmers fear losing out in the rush to market medicinal marijuana
The Guardian (UK)
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
When Bob Marley and the Wailers first performed Get Up, Stand Up to a restive 1970s Jamaica, never could they have guessed that the government would be cashing in on their lyrics, their Rastafarianism and even their spliffs 40 years later. But decades of debt, coupled with a crippling austerity package instituted by the International Monetary Fund, means that nearly everything that makes Jamaica famous today is up for sale. “They look at the American model and intend to use that in Jamaica, and that is why the farmers – who are the real ganja farmers – are not part of the process. You can’t just go into the bush and plant anything and say it’s for medicinal marijuana use: it has to be up to standard, and cost is one of the big issues.”
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