With decriminalization accomplished, Jamaica is looking at ways to capitalize on marijuana to light a fire under one of the world's slowest economic growth rates. 

Rastafarians and other small growers are worried.  Despite the appearance of good Rasta vibes going back to Bob Marley in the 1970s, in reality the Jamaican government had spent decades cracking down on them in an ill-conceived war on drugs.  Cops tore up small grow operations and harassed Rastas, who use Ganja in religious ceremonies.  The United Nations International Drug Control Conventions (.pdf link), supported by more conservative and interventionist administrations in big brother America to the north, compelled nations to limit the production, trade, use and possession of drugs.

"In the past, the United States really left no room for maneuver,' said former Justice Minister Mark Golding, who crafted the legislation to permit medical marijuana production in Jamaica.  "But with the Obama administration creating an opportunity for states to do what they wanted to, it created a window for all of us."

The Jamaican government finally decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana in a long-delayed acknowledgment that lots of people on the island enjoyed Ganja.  The government later legalized medical marijuana.  A few weeks ago, the business-to-business CanEx Conference took place in Montego Bay as business leaders and long time smokers brainstormed ways to operate with the new normal - with something called "wellness tourism".

"We are talking about a plant that bridges the gap between all of our relationships," said Rastafarian leader First Man to a crowded room. 

"Jamaica for so long has been associated with this plant,” said CanEx organizer Doug Gordon.  "Now, it's a business, an opportunity, one that can change the future of this country through jobs and income, one that can change our GDP," he added.

But long-time users and clandestine growers are worried about their buzz getting harshed by the influx of profiteers.

"If we are not organized, and are not helped, the possibility exists for the ganja industry to become the next tourism, coffee or sugar industry, where our people are used as common laborers and the wealth is confined to a few," said a concerned Rasta leader named Iyah V, cognizant of the big hotels and resorts that have blocked off most of the island's beaches to its own people.

Others believe that if anyone deserves to make it big with legal Ganja, it's the people who've been growing it all along.

"We want to build this from the ground up," urged Orville Silvera, the head of an association that represents about 2,000 marijuana growers.  "Let those among us who can do it expand."  But he doesn't necessarily shy from competition.  "The others," said Mr. Silvera, "can fail."