Jamaica

Jamaica is a Caribbean island located south of Cuba. Jamaica is a major producer and supplier of marijuana and a transshipment point for cocaine from South America to North America and Europe. Although the government has an active cannabis-eradication program, corruption remains a major problem. Jamaica is also a favorite nation for Colombian traffickers to launder their drug-trade proceeds. Jamaica has a history of high rates of marijuana (also known as ganja) use, and currently the United Nations (UN) estimates that approximately 10.7 percent of those between the ages of 12 and 55 use cannabis annually. Cocaine is also popular, with over 1 percent of the population between the ages of 12 and 64 using it annually.

Jamaica has been listed among the world's top illicit drug producing and transit nations. Trafficking in dangerous drugs is not a recent phenomenon for Jamaica. The principal legislation addressing drug policy in Jamaica was promulgated in 1948, some 15 years before the country gained independence. Trafficking in dangerous drugs remains a major concern for Jamaica and its international partners and has been the subject of many bilateral and multilateral agreements. The maritime drug interdiction efforts supported by the United States and coordinated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) targeting major drug traffickers is a major initiative to combat trafficking but success levels have proved much lower than envisaged. Jamaica still needs to increase efforts at eradication and interdiction of the significant players in the trade. Collateral issues of corruption and organized crime have thwarted the effort, making other supporting legislative measures a key component of the overall drug eradication, prevention, and control strategy.

Legislative/Governance Framework

Drug policy formulation and implementation falls under the functions of the ministries responsible for health, national security, and, to a lesser extent, the ministry responsible for customs and border control.

While the Dangerous Drugs Act identifies raw opium and coca leaves, marijuana, cocaine, and morphine as dangerous drugs, the target drugs for Jamaica remain marijuana and cocaine. The policy focus is aimed primarily at the control of external trade. Cultivation, possession, smoking, manufacturing, and transporting of the drugs are offenses under the act with sentencing options that impose minimum sentences for the possession, dealing, and exporting of the prohibited substances. The offender, based on the quantities, can be deemed [Page 426]to be trading and dealing in the substances without any burden being put on law enforcement to prove intention. The scope of the legislation makes it an offense for the occupier or any person concerned with the management of the premises to knowingly permit any of the offenses on such premises.

A Jamaican marijuana dealer displaying his product. About 10.7 percent of Jamaicans aged 12–55 report annual use.

The act also designates the chief medical officer as the “competent authority” with absolute discretion to issue or refuse export authorization but also provides for an Appeals Board made up of medical officers and practitioners. Verification of the substances can be done by the government chemist or an analyst under the Food and Drugs Act. The Commissioner of Customs can seize and take control of the specified drugs until he is satisfied that the law has been complied with.

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