Bunny Wailer—
REGGAE legend Bunny Wailer has publicly revealed his intention to farm over 140 acres of ganja.
Wailer wants to enter the sector as a legal grower and did not claim to illegally farm the drug.
“As the surviving member of The Wailers, I have 142 acres and I am going to plant ganja,” said Wailer, an organiser of the eastern chapter of the National Council of the Ganja Industry, through the Ganja Future Growers and Producers Association.
Wailer gave a statement as a member of the audience at a forum on ganja on Tuesday at the University of the West Indies, Mona. His three-minute statement embodied the crux of the over three-hour long forum on legalisation. His comments received applause from the over 150-strong audience many of whom videoed his comments on their phones.
Wailer, a founding member of the most renowned reggae band which included Peter Tosh and Bob Marley, also spoke of the frustration of politicians to legalise the drug despite its recent decriminalisation in Jamaica.
“I ‘dandada’ Bunny Wailer will always be searching for and looking for ways and means of legalising ganja for the benefit of all Jamaican people, especially Rastafarians who have been identified with Ganja,” he said at the forum entitled Guilty Drug Innocent Plant, which was jointly produced by the Department of Economics, Mona School of Business and Management and the Law Faculty. It discussed the legal, economic and business implications of legalising marijuana in Jamaica.
” There are people who are benefiting from ganja who are politicians but yet as politicians they have not made any effort for the legalisation of ganja,” he said.
The forum moderated by Dashan Hendricks of TVJ News included panellists Dr Andre Haughton who spoke on the economic implications of legalisation, Dr Kadamawhe Knife on the ganja business model, Clyde Williams on ramifications on legalisation of ganja, and Wanda James on the US experience as a legal seller in the US state of Colorado.
“There is a serious responsibility to ganja. To ensure that children and [the next] generation do not end up fighting for the legalisation of ganja,” he added.
The business of ganja quickly gained legitimacy amid its legalisation in the US states of Colorado and Washington. The Government in summer drafted legislation to decriminalise small quantities of ganja, whilst also modifying the Dangerous Drugs Act, in order to set rules for the cultivation and use of medical ganja and industrial hemp. The Ganja Future Growers and Producers Association was officially launched in April as momentum swelled toward relaxing laws prohibiting the use of the plant in Jamaica.
