NOT many persons in Jamaican ganja circles associate women with a plant that has been under fire for years. Karlene Connell and her daughter Kim are an unlikely team.

Karlene is sales manager for the March 4-5 Stepping High Ganja Festival, which takes place at Cayenne Beach in Negril. Kim is the event’s publicist.

Both were on the platform pitching its 14th staging during Monday’s launch at House Of Dancehall in Kingston. The petite Karlene co-founded the show with her husband Lyndon in 2003.

Then, it was an intimate gathering of ganja advocates at their Negril home.

Growth influenced them to make it a commercial venture in 2015.

“The first year we had 20 people, the following year it was 500, then 800. Every year we step a little higher,” said Karlene.

Even with reggae legend Lee “Scratch” Perry as headliner, Stepping High did not attract a big crowd in its first year at the expansive Cayenne Beach. Last year was better.

This weekend, the Connells expect a much improved turnout, having increased their profile on social and traditional media.

Kim Connell, 28, is reading for a master’s degree in philosophy at the University of the West Indies (Mona). She believes recent legislation by the Jamaican Government, easing restrictions on ganja use, reflects the times.

“My generation is doing things differently; we don’t see boundaries. There’s less stigma associated with ganja now because there’s so much we can do with this product,” she said.

Before all-inclusive hotels dominated its landscape, Negril had a thriving ganja community and was a haunt for free-wheeling American hippies hunting the ‘good weed’.

With the Government and private sector exploring ganja investment policies, high-profile events like the Cannabis Cup came to the resort town two years ago.

Like the Cannabis Cup, Stepping High will have seminars on the economic and holistic benefits of ganja. There is also a musical segment, headlined by Toots Hibbert, Kabaka Pyramid and Samory-I.