Cannabis Expert Predicts These Changes in Jamaica Marijuana Market
Dr. Andre Gordon, the former chairman of the Cannabis Licensing Authority Board predicts that cannabidiol (CBD) that is in high demand now, will not fetch a premium price in the global market soon, as it will be like Jamaican coffee and cocoa.
He advised against investors spending too much, to produce high-quality distinctive brands, as he thinks they could lose in the end.
CBD oil is one product that is derived from cannabis. Despite the origin of CBD, it doesn’t create any form of intoxication and cause persons to feel high.
Cannabidiol is a chemical in the Cannabis sativa plant, also known as marijuana or hemp. Over 80 chemicals, known as cannabinoids, have been identified in the Cannabis sativa plant.
Dr. Gordon even took a risk and said, ” CBD might be very popular and remain so in the US, maybe even in Canada, in three years or so it will be a commodity,”.
He mentioned all the products that once attracted premium prices and are now being sold as commodities instead of high-quality products to attract a premium price.
Even though there is currently a big market for CBD oil, which Jamaica is currently getting ready to enter. Gordon noted that “the target of a lot of the international industry now is extraction and the sale for CBD”, he is advising local stakeholders to study the global market and avoid putting all their eggs into one basket.
“Gordon who is a consultant to the governments of St Kitts and St Vincent & the Grenadines in the establishment of their cannabis industry; believes the global market is something that the regulators or the Government, needs to understand and we need to see where the trends are going and not skew the industry towards producing the kind of commoditized product that will not give the returns that we want to our people.”
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He also claimed that in Canada the values of many of the CBD-producing companies are falling. “Most of them are losing money and CBD is not yet a commodity. What will happen after persons spend time and money to make products and find that they can only give them away?” he asked.
He was speaking in Negril at a seminar at Rastafari Rootzfest, held recently. He commended the CLA and thought it is going in the right direction in its bid to get traditional farmers, who were victimized before for cultivating the plant, involved in the industry now.
He also believes “there are tremendous opportunities for a legal cannabis industry to provide wealth for the traditional farmers, and for many persons and there is enough room for everyone in the industry, but there needs to be done in a way that is based on vision, that is based on equity, on reparations to those persons who have been victimized and suffered for decades. We can’t move forward and forget what went on”.
The first Rastafari Rootzfest in 2015 was the ganja-exempt event held in Jamaica. It came after the Government amended the Dangerous Drugs Act and legally recognized the religious and the sacramental rights of the Rastafarians to use and have marijuana.
