Via The Guardian

Jamaican lawmakers have passed an act to decriminalise small amounts of marijuana and establish a licensing agency to regulate a lawful medical cannabis industry on the island.

After several hours of debate legislators in the lower house on Tuesday gave final passage to drug law amendments that make possession of up to 2oz (56.6g) of marijuana a petty offence that would not result in a criminal record. Cultivation of five or fewer plants on any premises would be permitted in Jamaica, where the drug has long been culturally entrenched but illegal.

The law paves the way for a licensing authority to be set up to deal with regulations on cultivation and distribution of marijuana for medical, scientific and therapeutic purposes.

Rastafarians can also legally use marijuana for religious purposes for the first time on the island where the spiritual movement was founded in the 1930s. Tourists prescribed medical marijuana abroad will be able to apply for permits at a cost authorising them to legally buy small amounts of “ganja”, as it is known locally. Continue Reading…..

Hold on…..

Jamaican lawmakers have passed a law making marijuana in small quantities a petty offence rather than a crime.

This is all a little misleading. 

From what I understand, it will still be seen as a ‘petty offence’ (isn’t this still a crime?) if you are found to have small amounts of marijuana in your possession, so there is still the possibility you could face some form of punishment (I am guessing a fine). Technically they haven’t actually ‘decriminalised’ anything… have they?

And as for ‘establishing a licensing agency to regulate a lawful medical cannabis industry on the island’, well I already know who stands to get rich off the back of that and it won’t be your average Jamaican citizen.