The Jamaican Ministry of Health and Wellness uses music and adverts to bust negative myths about cannabis and promote medical weed
The Ministry of Health and Wellness launched the “Good Ganja Sense” campaign in a bid to legitimize and promote the Caribbean nation’s growing medical weed industry.
Growing, selling, and using weed for recreational use remains banned, but in 2015, Jamaica legalized medical cannabis under the Dangerous Drugs Amendment Act. The Government also decriminalized possession of personal amounts under two ounces and expunged minor convictions for possessing cannabis.
The campaign’s jingle includes lyrics about how “ganja can boost lives” by contributing to the economy through entrepreneurship, farming, and scientific research. The publicity campaign also features adverts on buses saying “Burn ganja myths: not everything you hear about ganja is true” and “Go with the science: our scientists are learning more about ganja”.
The campaign’s website debunks myths that cannabis makes people lazy, lowers sperm count, cannot cause fatal overdoses, and is a gateway drug to more dangerous drugs. It notes the drug cannot cause fatal overdoses, quoting a US Drug Enforcement Agency factsheet stating no deaths have been caused by weed alone. “Thanks DEA. The experts have spoken,” the site says.
Watch the ‘good ganja sense jingle’ below.
The Head of the Ministry, Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn, said: “Ganja will no longer be underpinned by what has been passed down through oral traditions and old tales, but fact-based information that is now available at the fingertips,”
“We know very well too, the ills and thrills associated with the internet – much false health information has been spread far and wide. But now, with science and technology combined, Jamaica has in its arsenal a resource that puts into context, legislation, medical information, and an overall evidence-based dialogue that can change the attitudes and behaviors that Jamaicans hold towards ganja.”
Some believe there needs to be more done to challenge attitudes around cannabis and legalize it for recreational use.
Vicki Hanson, an expert on Jamaica’s weed industry said: “We need to change the discourse, to go further, and examine more traditional use of cannabis and make sure we incorporate into this industry the people who have been criminalized for cultivating cannabis, and how their livelihoods fit into this change. We don’t want to yield too much to the corporate image of cannabis.”
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