COLORADO-BASED United Cannabis Corporation has partnered with a group of Jamaicans to establish a marijuana medical research lab in Jamaica.

The venture has already identified a 30,000 square-foot facility in Kingston’s “industrial zone” to serve as the corporate headquarters for the Jamaican firm, Cannabinoid Research and Development Company.

A lease has not yet been signed, but the firm will focus on “advancing the use of cannabis in medical therapies through biomedical and pharmaceutical research and development, within Jamaica”, according to a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The move is meant to position the US-based company, which has a 50 per cent stake in the Jamaican entity, to benefit from legislation that is expected to decriminalise marijuana for medical purposes by the end of the year.

The Government has drafted legislation to amend the Dangerous Drugs Act as it moves to establish medical ganja and industrial hemp industries.

Minister of Justice Senator Mark Golding, who made the announcement at a special press briefing last Tuesday, said while the amended law will observe Jamaica’s anti-narcotics obligations, the industries will operate under licence.

Marijuana has actually been illegal in Jamaica since the 1961 United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. “The Jamaican government has been hesitant to decriminalise marijuana until now for fear of triggering hinted-at sanctions from Washington,” said a press statement released by United Cannabis last week. “That pressure has diminished in conjunction with the trend toward legalisation in the US.”

United Cannabis CEO Earnest Blackmon said that with “the milestone clearly on the horizon, we formed CRD to formally establish our presence in Jamaica and begin preparing an application for a provisional license so we will be ready to apply the minute submissions are being accepted.”

The company hopes to benefit from the variety of strains of ganja available in Jamaica, where the tropical environment is good for cultivating marijuana.

“Not only does United Cannabis bring an extensive knowledge of the cannabis plant and its properties, but their ability to leverage technology and incorporate systems within the breeding process will be invaluable as we seek to pursue the vast opportunities here in Jamaica,” said Mark Richardson, chief technology officer of CRD.

In its press release, United Cannabis said that it saluted small farmers of ganja who have made sacrifices, “paying the ultimate price of incarceration, persecution and the separation from loved ones”.

The US-based company was originally formed in California in 2007 as MySkin, Inc, before merging into United Cannabis in Colorado in May.

Leading up to its change of name, and move to a home where marijuana use has been legalised, the company sold its interest in its advanced skin care business and shifted its business focus towards creating partnerships for the purpose of cultivating cannabis-based products worldwide.

“We plan to enter into licensing and consulting agreements with partners who desire to license our entire turnkey seed-to-sale business model in jurisdictions where it is legal to do so, and we plan to typically receive a percentage of their gross revenues as our fee,” said a United Cannabis’s latest quarterly financial statements. “In addition to licensing our intellectual property, we will offer consulting on the design and build out of cultivation facilities, we will provide training and staffing services, and we will assist our partners in finding the right locations for cultivation facilities.

“We will provide our genetic catalogue which includes over 15 CBD strains, over 150 THC strains and over 30 Cannabis Cup winners.”

United Cannabis’s intellectual property covers whole plant activated oils, smokable concentrates, infused products, topical lotions, pills, and sublingual transdermal patches, among other products.

In March, the company raised US$900,000 from accredited investors in the US.

It hasn’t started to make revenue, but it spent close to US$600,000 on its operations, including US$76,000 on research and US$74,000 on sales and marketing, up to June 30.