Based on the response so far from the local cannabis industry, the Government appears to have made a good decision to remove all fees for small-scale traditional growers over a two-year period to help them get their footing in the medical cannabis sector.

According to Senator Aubyn Hill, the minister of industry, investment, and commerce, the Administration’s decision is designed to make it easier for people to enter the industry, as small cannabis farmers had complained that the fees were a disincentive.

The measure, he explained during a news conference at Jamaica House on Thursday, will remain in place for five years, and the two-year fee waiver will be applicable whether farmers take up the offer on the first day of the benefit or the last day of the fifth year.

Senator Hill, we suspect, must have felt some amount of eagerness to share this information, given the roasting he experienced recently when news broke that a company had been given permission to import medical cannabis from Canada for research purposes.

His explanation that the imported strain was unavailable in Jamaica did little to soothe anger and placed the Government against the ropes at a time when it was taking punishing blows on a range of issues.

So, the fees removal is obviously an effort by the Government to reclaim some support. At the same time, however, we regard it as a logical step for an Administration committed to creating an even playing field for investors in a fast-growing market — valued at US$6,822.21 million in 2020 and projected to rise to US$53,883.46 million by 2030 worldwide.

There is no reason that Jamaicans should not be able to capture a sizeable share of that market, given the country’s traditional association with marijuana, which has been popularised worldwide through our music and the Rastafarian faith.

But, as Mr LeVaughn Flynn, the former chairman of the Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA), argued in a column published in the Jamaica Observer last month, staking our claim in that market will require a national policy outlining the vision of the industry, how it will achieve its objectives, and the role of each ministry and their agencies.

In that column, Mr Flynn shared that during his tenure at the CLA the lack of this strategic vision for the industry was addressed early.

The board, he said, established a strategic vision built on three pillars — economic enablement by expanding the market; cannabis as a contributor to good public health through the nutraceutical industry; and greater social equity through better small farmer inclusion.

According to Mr Flynn, the third pillar was already in train, via the cultivator’s transitional (special) permit, when he was appointed chairman in January 2021. However, he said, the first two pillars require a central government approach to be successful.

The questions, therefore, are: Where are we on this? And, if we are dragging our feet, why?

Jamaica is not the only jurisdiction in which cannabis has been decriminalised or legalised for medical, scientific, and therapeutic purposes. With public awareness growing about the health benefits of cannabis and its medical application for a wide range of diseases and symptoms, we cannot vacillate on this lucrative opportunity.

Get cracking, or we’ll miss the boat.