Advocacy group, the Caribbean Collective for Justice (CCJ), is calling on the government to focus on additional revenue instead of taxes, for example, with the establishment of a Cannabis Licensing Authority, which was stalled since the legislation was approved in the Senate in 2022.
In a statement, the CCJ, which began a petition to legalize cannabis which led to the eventual decriminalization of the plant in 2019, is calling on the government to repeal the "unfair and socially destructive property tax" and legalize cannabis instead to allow small farmers and the Rastafari to cultivate and export cannabis.
"Most homeowners are struggling financially, and for the government to resort to extorting property tax after the horrific and pauperizing Covid lockdown is totally reprehensible and unconscionable. If it is revenue that the government so desperately needs, why is the Prime Minister delaying setting up the Cannabis Licensing Authority, which could issue licenses and tax producers, retailers, and exporters?
"The cannabis industry is earning millions of US dollars for the Jamaican government and people, with 12 dispensaries operational across the island. What is preventing us from following in their footsteps and adding cannabis to our health and tourism offerings? Why is the government so reluctant to regulate a market that is worth billions annually but is currently being supplied by Latin American mafias?"
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