 | NORML News: Jamaican Ganja Culture |
 NORML News, Winter 2007
NORML’s roaming reporter Mils Rathburn recently
explored the ganja culture in sunny Jamaica.
Arriving in Negril , on
Jamaica’s west coast, I was
told smoking is generally accepted
but don’t be obvious around the
police. My host, a man in his late
50’s, rolled a typically conical
spliff, which he offered, after
thoughtfully puffing for some
minutes. It tasted sweet, fresh
without being moist. Not hugely
strong, what one might encounter
in New Zealand without going to
too much trouble; not top shelf,
but not bad. The Jamaican market,
as here, is diverse. In subsequent
conversations, I learned growers
were increasingly aware that much
of their herb was unremarkable.
As a consequence, many were
importing specialised seeds from
Canada and the Netherlands.
More than once I was asked if I
could either give people money
to purchase better seeds, or send
some once I returned home.
After hanging at a local bar for a
day or two I was told of a Rastaman
who was known as a bushdoctor,
familiar with numerous plants
and fruit, and their healing and
healthful properties. As he sold
ganja, he also had his own ‘field’
and for a small koha a visit was
arranged.
Though early morning, it was
already thirty degrees as we
clambered through scraggly
bush-covered volcanic shards.
After forty minutes we reached a
plateau. There was a rough hut, a
large seed tray and a plastic water
tank, miraculously transported
through the bush by Dexter
and his brother. Like others, he
didn’t own the land. He was a
subsistence farmer, growing paw
paw, bananas and pineapples,
along with his ganja. Most he’d
consume himself, while some
he’d sell or exchange for other
goods or services.
His ganja plot, a concave
circular depression about eight
metres across, held around sixty
metre-high foxtails growing in
the red earth. They were almost
mature at two months. Dexter
could grow four crops a year
though the plants were never
large, unlike the inland variety,
which had more water available,
and could be climbed, he said. I
visualized a tree-like sativa.
We spent a couple of hours up
the mountain, pruning his plants.
After half filling a twenty-litre
bucket with shade leaves for
later cooking, we rested with a
well-earned spliff and some sweet
rainwater, admiring the view,
and reasoning on ganja, herbs
and natural medicine. Dexter
described himself as a natural
man. He talked the language and
philosophy of the Rasta. Strictly
ital: no food preparation with
salt, use of tobacco or alcohol,
or eating animal products. This
meant no butter for cooking his
ganja. Instead we used coconut
oil and flesh to make a ‘custard’,
which solidifies the ganja oil.
These notions of naturalness
and personal responsibility
seem commonplace in Jamaican
culture, particularly among those
living rurally, or in impoverished
situations. This potentially
explains that despite the acceptance of
ganja by many
in Jamaican society, there
is not a lot of drug use
aside from the
herb, tobacco
and alcohol. And while alcohol is seen as the major
drug problem, Jamaicans don’t
drink anywhere near the levels
that New Zealanders do (even
their ganja use is possibly less
per capita). And while Jamaica
is a major transshipment point
for cocaine to North America, its
use is disparaged locally, even in
popular music. Rather it’s seen
as a dangerous drug because
it is ‘addictive’, a property not
usually attributed to ganja. By
comparison, ganja is very much a
herb and, as is the case elsewhere
in the Caribbean, its medicinal as
well as recreational and spiritual
properties are widely recognised.
For example, in the islands of St.
Lucia and Trinidad I was told how
people would boil a small plant,
roots and all, to make an infusion
for asthma sufferers.
Thus, around the Caribbean ganja
culture exists in a tension between
folk medicine, recreational and
religious traditions on the one
hand, and a burgeoning culture
of drug control on the other. This
is, of course, reinforced by the
obsessions and financial leverage
of the region’s powerful northern
neighbour, the US.
Medpot, Jamaican Style
While medpot in some parts
of the world is the preserve of
multinational pharmaceutical
conglomerates, and its availability
is governed by the drug war
politics of organisations like
America’s FDA, Jamaican
researchers have harnessed the
knowledge and experience of the
island’s folk medicine culture.
During my visit I was told of three
cannabis medicines available at
local pharmacies. For around $10
New Zealand dollars, I purchased
one of these—Canasol—a topical
medicine (i.e. applied to the eyes
as drops) prescribed for glaucoma
that was the subject of a Cannabis
Culture article in 2000.
As that article reported, the
medicine was developed after
examining the use of cannabis by
Jamaican fisherman in the 1970’s.
While US scientists spent millions
on poorly designed treatments
resulting in eye irritation, the
Jamaican project produced a
medicine, which during the 1980’s
and 1990’s was successfully
tested throughout the Caribbean,
the South Pacific and Europe.
Despite the researchers producing
reams of data showing Canasol
has no side effects, and that it
works in minutes, the US Food
and Drug Administration (FDA)
has refused to recognise Jamaican
studies. The same scientists have
developed a medicine for asthma,
Asmasol, and are working on
a motion sickness treatment,
Canavert.
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