On 24th May, the Rastafari Cooperative (RIWMCOP) of Dominica, in collaboration with the University of the West Indies, Open Campus, Dominica, held a symposium under the caption, “The Benefits of being a Licensee: The experiences and challenges of applying for a cannabis license”, under the Medical Cannabis Industry.” One of the presenters was Junior Spirit Cottle, who was asked to share SVG’s experience. The symposium was conducted via ZOOM.
Presentation by Junior Spirit Cottle
“On behalf of the traditional growers of cannabis of ST Vincent and the Grenadines, and on behalf of the Medical Cannabis Authority of the same SVG, a very pleasant good afternoon.
The first point I want to make is to ask for your attentive attention while I make my presentation. I ask this because I suffer from a damaged vocal cord which resulted from a gunshot wound nearly fifty years ago. As a result, at one time you may hear my voice up high, another time, you may hear it very low. Nevertheless, I am determined to make this presentation.
In December 2018, the Parliament of SVG, passed two historic and very important pieces of legislations – the Medical Cannabis, and the Amnesty Laws. Since then, cultivation licenses have been issued to 18 foreign companies, 12 cooperatives, which comprised largely of traditional cultivators, 11 individual traditional cultivators, and 12 local individuals.
My focus in this presentation is the traditional cultivator, that grower, who globally, has for more than 100 years, suffered the brunt of the fight against cannabis. The question is often asked, what does the traditional grower has to gain by becoming a holder of a license to cultivate this crop?
To get a better appreciation of the question and its answer, it is important that I take you back a bit at how the traditional cultivator emerged in SVG. What is it that led him/her to become a traditional grower in the first place?
St. Vincent and the Grenadines was not always a producing nation. We consumed by importing from other countries. Indeed, the record would show that SVG began importation of cannabis from around the late 1960s, mainly from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Colombia, brought here by sailors who sailed back and forth in the region. Initially, the actual trafficking revolved just around a very few individuals, so few that they could be counted on one hand.
By 1971/72, it became associated with the Black Power Movement, to the extent that the joint which we smoked became known in some circles as “Black Power Cigarettes”.
This was followed by the Rastafarian Movement from somewhere around 1974, or so, who stood out more than anyone else for a particular period, as they bore the brunt of the persecution by the State.
A significant point, though, while the latter focused on its consumption, as a Religious Sacrament, and began cultivation for their own use, to those of us in the Black Power Movement, it became a source of income for our political activities, our community programs, in sports and education, as well as in the promotion of African Culture, or certain aspects of it, like the building of Drums, which, together with cannabis, became two very important tools in our struggles for Black Liberation, National Independence, and Social Progress.
By the early 1980s SVG had assumed a position regionally as a producing nation, and by the second half of the 80’s, became, unquestionably, the second largest producer, after Jamaica, with a group of traditional cultivators to be reckoned with anywhere in the world, bearing in mind our nations size and population.
Broadly speaking, and the record would reflect, that our growers became cultivators of cannabis, not out of any fanciful thinking, but mainly out of dire economic hardship, with a strong cultural/religious, as in the case of Rastafarians, and recreational intervention. That’s why as a traditional cultivator myself, I reject the connotation as a Drug Dealer.
I can tell you, that for us, traditional cultivators, life has not been easy. And I am not talking of the normal economic hardship which we the poorer classes have to endure. But the risk it entails. The risk of investing in a crop, only to lose it at the end because the drugs police confiscated it. Or because armed gangs would have forcibly taken it. Not to talk of the risk of losing our loved ones on the high seas, shot and killed by pirates, shot and killed by the Coast Guards. Or a capsized boat, due to some other mishap, and everyone missing. Next thing you know, the Utility people come to disconnect your water and your electricity. No food on the table.
Thanks to the Medical Cannabis and the Amnesty Laws, which have opened the door for a more sustainable way, despite the many challenges. Clearly, there are some important benefits which the above laws provide for traditional cultivators. But having the laws are one thing. It is the realization of the benefits which are most significant to us.
The Amnesty, for example, facilitates the transition of the grower from his/her illicit and risky engagement to a licit and more sustainable legal framework. From the medical perspective, the farming practices must be organic, but, under the amnesty, they are not as rigid as are required under the medical cannabis industry, where the monetary investments are high, usually beyond the reach of the average grower. Hence, the Amnesty allows us to sell our cannabis to a licensed purchaser, while at the same time to earn some monies to assist in the transition.
In this respect, our growers are encouraged to move from the more forested areas, and from the steep slopes, which are more prone to soil erosion, to the lower lying regions where they can now see their families on a more regular basis. And this, from the perspective of the stability of the family, is very important, because when you have to hide to grow weed, you are forced to go far distances, spend weeks away, leaving the mother or guardian to watch over and take care. These are the kind of challenges we face.
There is also the challenge of the unavailability of arable lands since the vast majority of growers squatted the lands on which they farmed. The MCA recognizes this and is working towards correcting the situation
Each traditional cultivator also has the benefit of farming up to 5 acres of cannabis for two years, without having to pay a license.
Generally, the very nature of the cannabis business, including within the legal framework, poses some very serios security concerns. While traditional cultivators have been exempted from the rigid and expensive security requirements for at least the first two years in the medical cannabis business, as opposed to the foreign companies, as well as the more well-off individual investors, one of the big challenges which face us, is obtaining a licensed fire arm. We are simply not trusted, no matter what we do or say- our past still haunts us! As a result, many are the stories of those of us, who planted amnesty, only to be robbed by armed gangs.
By law, a foreign investor who cultivates and export cannabis, must include 10 percent of each shipment from a licensed traditional cultivator of group of such cultivators.
An interesting scenario under the law is the qualification of the traditional cultivator to include, not just the cultivator per se, or he or she who labors on the farm, but the brother or sister on the Block who peddles the weed, and the captain or his boat men, who brave the high seas to take it across regional and international borders.
If our Medical Cannabis Industry is to make good money and significantly impact the lives of our traditional cultivators and other stakeholders, including, of course, our country as a whole, it has to be export oriented. Unless, we just want to build a cottage industry.
Within such a framework, we welcome foreign investors, we welcome partnership in business with those who are more financially well off. Not in the old way where we were treated like “underdogs”. Not as the colonial powers did, while reducing us to producers of the raw materials. But in a way which also allows us to become manufactures, and processors, and to be our own masters on the front of scientific research. Most important, we welcome it on the principle of Fair Trade, Social Justice, and Sustainability. Those are the core of our guiding principles. We shall accept nothing less!
To this end, we call on our traditional cultivators to become organized. Join one of the existing cannabis cooperatives.
Presently, a whole heap of traditional cultivators are disappointed at the pace at which the industry is unfolding. And we can understand such disappointment, if only because sales have not been keeping abreast with production. One of the thing is, with the existence of the Amnesty, never in the history of cannabis in SVG, has so much ganja been planted. Being allowed to plant without being eradicated, growers are taking advantage of the situation to grow as much as they possibly can. Some who had left the business have even returned. As a result, there is a glut on the market. It is not that there is no longer a demand for it, but a situation, compounded by the tightening of security at the existing borders in the surrounding illegal markets, because of Covid. And so, the disappointment grows.
In this situation, there is more pressure on the MCA to deliver. And, in as much as the MCA will like to, it has had to contend with other forces, forces largely external to its own operation, like Covid, and the eruption of our volcano, not to mention the complexity, which is associated with this new development, and over which we have little or no control. I am talking of the policing by the International Narcotic Board (INC), and the high international standards required
Nevertheless, we shall not be deterred. Cannabis is here to stay. And despite the challenges, we remain optimistic”.
