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KINGSTON, Jamaica, February 14, 2019 (CMC) – The Jamaica government says it plans to lobby the international community, particularly the United States, as the island develops its marijuana industry.
Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries Minister, Audley Shaw, says this partly stems from the reluctance, by local banks, to fund the industry’s growth, fearing international de-risking that could have serious economic implications for Jamaica.
De-risking involves measures, taken to make an engagement less risky, or less likely to involve a financial loss.
“We will be using all available diplomatic resources, including our Ambassador in Washington DC, to mount a lobbying effort to the government of the United States, primarily through its Treasury Department, to address this very important matter,” Shaw told reporters, following the official opening of Caribbean Producers Jamaica Limited’s (CPJ) distribution centre, in Montego Bay Freeport, earlier this week.
Shaw said the government’s cannabis licensing arrangement, includes of an established Authority, to ensure that “we are operating at global standards”.
“This simply means that we are, therefore, in a position, where we can convince the United States, and other global economies, that we are prepared to operate at the standards that are expected of us,” he added.
Shaw said, however, that local financial institutions’ fear of de-risking, remains a challenge, and places Jamaica and other Caribbean countries at a disadvantage, especially as their entities are not in a position to act, independently, of their American counterparts.
“All of our commercial banks in Jamaica are obliged, right now, to go through the New York system, in terms of the movement of money, internationally,” he said, adding “we have the irony, of a Jamaican scientist, who gets an approval to develop a cannabis-based drug to fight leukaemia, and from no less an authority than the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA)… [but] who had to watch as our local banks closed his accounts, because of this de-risking arrangement. This is why I am going to put a lot of energy into this lobbying effort”.
Shaw noted that while de-risking mainly affects smaller developing countries, like Caribbean states, the bigger developed nations “have managed to figure out a way” around the issue.
He said, however, that positive signals are emanating “at the highest level” out of the United States, pointing out that key officials “are suggesting that they would be open to take a more careful look at the benefits, associated with medicinal cannabis”.
“We are also seeing where one of the Democratic frontrunners for next year’s US Presidential contest… [is] advocating for the legalisation of marijuana, at a federal level.”
Shaw said he is “also encouraged by the utterances of the man, who is expected to be the next US Attorney… who seems to be also taking a more liberal approach”.
