Holy Smoke - ganja - marijuana

Ganja (marijuana) is an omnipresent fact of a Jamaican vacation.

The weed, which grows throughout the island, has been cultivated for its narcotic effect since 1845, when indentured Indian laborers brought the first seeds from Asia. Its use spread rapidly among the plantation workers. Since it induced indolence and reduced productivity, it was outlawed. Nonetheless, islanders have used it ever since. Today, an estimated 20% to 40% of Jamaicans smoke it on a regular basis (Life expectancy in Jamaica is 75 years). As such, in 2001 a government commission recommended that marijuana be legalized for private use and possession.

Canja use crosses all social strata; it is no less common for friends of the highest income levels to offer guests an after-dinner 'tote' than it is for the urban poor, who often smoke spliffs the size of bazookas. Many Jamaicans don't see ganja as a drug but as a medicinal and religious herb. To Rastafarians it is a source of wisdom.

For Jamaica's impoverished farmers, growing 'poor man's friend' is one of the few sure ways of earning money. The remote interior provides ideal conditions; the five-lobed plant thrives in Jamaica's rich red soil. And the main export market - the USA - is nearby.

First the seedlings are meticulously raised under protective cover and then transplanted into fields (guano, or bat dung, used as a fertilizer supposedly produces the most prolific plants). There they mature in five or six months, reaching heights as great as 10 feet.

Ganja is planted between other crops by small-scale farmers, and in larger plots by more serious entrepreneurs. Once harvested, the plants are pressed to extract hash oil, and the leaves are then dried. Distributors collect the dried and baled ganja, which they transport to lonesome boat docks and remote airstrips for rapid shipment to the USA. Legitimate businesses sometimes act as covers (many respected businesspeople in Jamaica reportedly got their start in drug trafficking).

During the 1980s heyday, the annual wholesale value of Jamaica's ganja crop exceeded US$1.5 billion, and the trade had tacit approval at the government level. Nonetheless, since 1986 the Jamaican government has cracked down on drug trading at the behest of the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). The DEA claims that Jamaica's ganja production has fallen by 80%, and that exports have fallen by two-thirds.

The strongest varieties are Burr, Cotton, and Lamb's Breath, which are marketed in the USA as sinsi (short for sinsemilla, Spanish for seedless).

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