H.L comes out swinging for Ganja !

[Sir X]

Lowe urges Gov't to 'remove the smoke from ganja'

BY BALFORD HENRY Senior staff reporter balfordh@jamaicaobserver.com
Friday, November 08, 2013

STUDIES on cannabinoids (chemicals from ganja) show that they help to improve moods, relieve anxiety, and address several other issues related to mid-life crisis that affects men and women, says local research scientist and entrepreneur, Dr Henry Lowe,

"Tremendous potential exists for research and development, to determine how medical ganja products can be developed and used to relieve a variety of health problems related to mid-life crisis," Dr Lowe told a public lecture Tuesday at Eden Gardens in St Andrew.



LOWE... tremendous potential exists for research and development

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The lecture, titled 'New Wines into Old Skins; the Current and Future Uses of Medical Marijuana', was hosted by the Jamaica Mid-life Health Society (JHMS).
According to Lowe, the results of the studies have shown the need for the Government to move decisively "to remove the smoke from ganja".
"We have all been too focused on the smoking and legalisation issues. We need to be positive and establish a clear policy decision going forward, including an unambiguous strategy on how the medical marijuana system will actually be established and will work," he said.
Mid-life crisis is a very serious episode in the lives of hundreds of millions of people all over the world. It usually occurs between the age of 37 and into the 50s, and is an extremely stressful time for patients, spouses, family members, friends and others who interact with and care for the sufferer. Two of the major symptoms of a mid-life crisis are depression and anxiety, which often times can be chronic.
Dr Lowe said that medicinal ganja offers huge opportunities for Jamaica's economic revival and, if properly handled, could transform Jamaica into a world-wide hub for Research and Development and product innovation.
"If these actions are taken, Jamaica could join many countries such as Israel Canada, the UK and certain states in the USA, in benefiting from this US multibillion-dollar market which is new and rapidly emerging," he said.
In summary, Dr Lowe said that Jamaica could become the hub for research and development for medical ganja; implement medical ganja as a significant impact for driving health tourism here; use the opportunity to apply medicinal chemistry techniques to modify and synthesise related ganja medicinal products such as Sativex and Marinol, which are significant medicinal agents on the market; develop the necessary standards, dosage and quality control, which are desperately required, which could be done in collaboration with Jamaica's scientific and medicinal community; create and market nutraceuticals from ganja for local and export purposes; and, develop products from ganja for a variety of medications.
He pointed out that Jamaica has already set the stage with the first commercial development of a product from ganja -- Canasol.
Jamaica recently inked a landmark bilateral agreement with Switzerland to mutually protect geographical indications, including ganja, at the 51st General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organisation in Geneva. Geographical indications are goods originating in the territory of a country, or a region or locality in that territory, where a given quality, reputation or other characteristic is essentially attributable to its geographical origin.
Other items listed included Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, Jamaica Rum, Jamaican Patties, Boston Jerk, Jamaican Ginger, and Trelawny Yellow Yam.
Other speakers at the lecture were Dr. Geoffrey Woo-Ming, US-based Guyanese Researcher; and Professor Errol Morrison, president of the University of Technology, who chaired the event.
The Jamaica Midlife Health Society consists of a group of medical and non-medical volunteers who seek to improve the health of Jamaicans at midlife and beyond.

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz2k3ay0w4z

[Sir X]

EDITORIAL - Follow Colorado On Ganja

Published: Friday | November 8, 20132 Comments

The sky hasn't fallen in either Colorado, Washington State or anywhere over the United States. And it won't in Jamaica.
It is high time, therefore, that our Government end the procrastination and legalise marijuana, starting with the decriminalisation of the possession of small amounts by individuals for their personal use.
Apart from the evidence that the world won't collapse from such a move, it might make good economic sense for Jamaica - as Colorado is showing.

Having last year approved the legalisation of ganja and ganja-based products, including the licensing of shops and cafés where they are sold, the Coloradans this week voted for an imposition of 25 per cent tax on these products.
Additionally, in the city of Denver, the state's capital, voters, in a local ballot agreed to a 3.5 per cent city sales tax in ganja shops.
At the state level, the first US$40 million from the 25 per cent tax (15 per cent excise, 10 per cent sales) will go towards the funding of public schools, an area in Jamaica that is badly in need of additional capital injection to enhance the quality of education outcomes.
Of course, the employment of 'sin' taxes to the public good, as is the case in many other countries, is not unusual to Jamaica. For instance, the tobacco industry provides about a quarter of the financing of the National Health Fund, which subsidises the cost of medicines for people with a variety of lifestyle diseases. Further, the taxes from the gambling industry provide most of the cash for the Culture, Health, Arts, Sports and Education Fund, which contributes to health, the arts, sports and education.[/color]
The problem for Jamaica, which is not only a significant producer of marijuana, but, according to anecdotal evidence, of the hemisphere's finest, has been:
a. fear of the global, especially United States, response to the legalisation of the drug; and
b. domestic social attitudes to ganja. It is most widely, and openly, used by people on the lower socio-economic rungs.
There are fewer reasons, these days, to harbour major concerns about the first of these factors. Apart from Colorado, Washington State, another member of the American federation, has legalised ganja. Another 16 have either decriminalised the drug and/or allow its medicinal use.
Indeed, it is in part the recognition of this trend, that while marijuana possession and use remain federal crimes, the central government has indicated that it will not interfere in those states where ganja has been made legal.
Yet in Jamaica, despite these developments, and a decade after the Chevannes committee, established by another People's National Party administration, recommended the decriminalisation of ganja, our Government continues to drag its feet on the matter. According to the justice minister, Mark Golding, a submission for the Cabinet is still being drafted by his ministry.
In the meantime, thousands of young men, mostly unemployed or poor, are brought before the courts for possession of ganja, found guilty, and left with criminal records. It blocks up an already over-burdened court system with relative trivia.
Jamaica has already had pharmaceutical successes from marijuana with drugs for glaucoma. Further, the declared quality of Jamaican ganja and the mystique of the brand gives a competitive advantage, which we should leverage.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.

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[Sir X]

Proud ayuh fada H.L , Proud ayuh puppa!


X

[HL]

[Islandman]

The mystique of the brand is still there for sure.

However science/technology, along with progressive govt policy, has allowed others to pass us by in terms of medicinal quality and recreational potency.

Same old story.