Jamaica, a Caribbean island nation often known for its associations with cannabis, is currently going through a cannabis shortage due to heavy rains followed by an extended drought and circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a press release.
The plant is still illegal in Jamaica, but typically, it is plentifully available and inexpensive due to the country’s culture around the plant and loose enforcement around cannabis law. Possession of small amounts of cannabis was decriminalized in 2015, and the law also allows residents to grow up to five cannabis plants for personal use.
The heavy rains played a part in destroying many of the viable cannabis fields, but part of the shortage is a catalyst of coronavirus and regulations surrounding it. Specifically, farmers reported difficulty tending to the plants they already had because of the nationwide curfew put in place to fight the spread of COVID-19. The curfew kept farmers from working on their fields at night, which is a standard custom on the island.
Additionally, COVID-19 restrictions on other industries caused an uptick in local consumption of cannabis, with many residents stuck at home and unable to enjoy other standard activities on the island in the same capacity.
Medical cannabis is currently legal in Jamaica. Many residents stray away from the medical market because of the cost (as much as five times more expensive than unregulated cannabis sales), but Jamaica’s medical cannabis market is currently experiencing shortages.
Conversely, states like Oregon, California and Washington with legal, adult-use cannabis, reported surpluses of the plant recently. Some lawmakers have introduced legislation to allow for the export of cannabis to states and countries experiencing shortages, but there will need to be a shift in federal law before those states will truly be able to allow importing and exporting.
With the recent legalization of adult-use cannabis in a number of new states over the past several months, many anticipate that federal legislative changes could be just around the corner, and while more than half of US states have legalized cannabis in some form, President Joe Biden and many other lawmakers still oppose adult-use cannabis legalization countrywide.
