The silence on ganja suggests our leaders are having second thoughts. Where is the money made in medical ganja? What is the small grower’s quota? Can we export? Three years and no action. Why?

The struggle by 11-year-old Billy Caldwell vs the UK Government to get cannabis oil for asthma should interest us. Billy is helped by oil which has no THC — the psychoactive agent in ganja; so you can’t get high, but he was near death before being allowed to use the oil seized by Customs at the airport. We are the Mecca for legal medical ganja yet our prime minister, Andrew Holness, Diaspora investors, and The University of the West Indies men in the UK ‘speechifying’, did not offer Billy our ganja oil. What a missed opportunity for Brand Jamaica!

Cannabis oil works for pain and more, but like all drugs is not for everyone. I took penicillin for a chest infection and it almost killed me, yet most get the “juck and a nuh nutten”!

Sir, who is backsliding? Can we help? The cognoscenti say we might miss the boat, but that one has sailed, which is why genius Dr Henry Lowe needs millions to make complex drugs. The boat in port now is ganja for recreation, but Canada is the first sovereign state (Colorado is not sovereign) to hoist a legal sail.

All G7 nations make ganja drugs and medical use is legal except in Britain and America. Why? Check these: Class bias is strong, as politicians used alcohol from youth, but few used ganja. Habit helps! Then, our politicians love hype, so Mark Golding’s cannabis move was high-profile, but G7 nations had medical ganja since the 80s with no fanfare. Then, the American opioid crisis is real, so this is a bad time for the USA. Since Egypt used it millennia ago, humans prefer Poppy flower, not coca leaf or cannabis buds, and most Americans, mainly whites and native people, die (some 70,000) by opioids (heroin, diamorphine) than by all guns or cars.

Ganja messes up people — lethargy, low productivity, poor brain function — but, sadly, no one dies. Yet it is caught in a maelstrom of ‘drug abuse hype’, so we lose. How can we promote ganja when our big aid donor and neighbour is in dire drug straits?

Finally, with decriminalisation, Holness must now move ganja from security to the health ministry, and doctors not police should intervene…nuff said!

So where are we in the medical cannabis space? Are we research intensive, being uber innovative with big bucks? No! The UK is the largest source of cannabis drugs, hence the hypocrisy about seizure sufferer Billy and detaining his oil. The British public went ballistic and politicians acted — people power works!

GW Pharmaceuticals UK, founded in 1998, has been innovating in medical cannabis and has massive acreage of glasshouses in ganja in the UK. They have patents; Sativex (first proprietary drug) and oil, but they are not allowed to sell in the UK as all ganja is illegal. Their USA subsidiary trades on the NASDAQ Stock Market at US$155.69 (June 11), and the annual report lists ganja drugs in the pipeline. So, how late are we, “Dreadie”?

Now check this: British Prime Minister Theresa May’s husband works for Capital Group, the major investor in GWP, and Victoria Atkins, UK home secretary, is married to the CEO of British Sugar, which grows acres (since 1990) of non-psychoactive cannabis for medical use. What a coincidence! Where are we in the ganja business?

We have no business data on ganja here and no producer on the Junior Market, but Colorado, Alaska, Washington, Oregon legalised marijuana and Investopedia, in August 2016, said USA revenues grew by a third to US$6.8 billion in one year and should “grow at a compound annual rate of 30 per cent between 2016 and 2020”. So where is the Mecca?

My friend, “Marijuana is illegal at the Federal level, but states’ rights enabled voters to legalise use for personal consumption; (but) any hint of impropriety subject business owners to federal scrutiny and laws that supersede state laws.” And so “coveted cannabis buds face tax rates of up to 70 per cent”, and “as much as 80 per cent of marijuana legally grown in Oregon is processed and illegally shipped to other states, where black market sales evade taxation on both sides of the transaction.” What? Like any item, those who can, avoid taxes. Big tax take for Jamaica? Fairy tales!

Legalisation does not end crime, but new ones emerge. Cigarettes are legal, need a factory, yet a lot is on our streets, no tax paid. How come? “Carreras estimates illicit cigarette trade as a $5 billion business” — a third of the market, and tax collected fell by $1 billion. ( The Gleaner, June 19, 2018)

We all can grow ganja, so will our black market be, say 60 per cent of the legal trade? Pack up, Taxman! Free market blood in the streets!

Friend we have been waiting for progress on medical ganja growing, or sales, but $9-million man Delano Seiveright no longer gives updates. Growers meet local demand for spliffs but are waiting to go legit with old time “tiefing” money. Sir, what aspect of the medical marijuana market is ours? Low-end oils, edibles, tonics, which 193 nations that grow ganja can make, but can’t be patented or mid-range vapes using USA technology or high-end pharmaceuticals, which require trials, approvals, big bucks — which? Selling to tourists in cafés can make profit and pay tax, but are our guys like USA growers who will sell direct to evade tax? Will scammers forge prescriptions so we sell tons of ganja to tourists and get rich? Many think with ganja we gone clear, but nations are built on work not drugs. Stay conscious!

Franklin Johnston, D Phil (Oxon), is a strategist and project manager; Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (UK); and teaches logistics and supply chain management at Mona School of Business and Management, The University of the West Indies. Send comments to the Observer or franklinjohnstontoo@gmail.com.