Our founders explored several options before deciding on Jamaica as JMCC’s centre of operations. Their reasons were many. Jamaica has perhaps the finest growing conditions in the world for medical cannabis, decades of cultivation experience and a long history with using cannabis for medicinal purposes. Today, within our Farmer’s Collective, we propagate, cultivate and harvest unique Jamaican landraces, employing multi-layered security and continuous quality and safety testing. As we scale up to one million square feet of cultivation in Jamaica and produce safe, high-quality cannabis-based treatments, we continue to add capacity, products and services to meet growing customer demand.
Here, explained, are four of the reasons why we chose Jamaica:
1. Natural growing environment for more sustainable production. Jamaica boasts an optimal year-round growing environment with near-equal portions of daylight and night. Natural humidity is above 50%, ideal for cannabis cultivation. Continuous mountain breezes provide natural air circulation for our mesh-sided greenhouses. Cultivators in many countries are attempting to emulate this natural growing environment within indoor facilities, requiring huge amounts of energy. In Jamaica, nature provides it for JMCC.
2. Unique Jamaican landraces. East Indian labourers in the early to mid-1800’s first brought cannabis to Jamaica. Over generations, as these plants adapted to their new growing environment, with its different climate, soil, weather, pests, etc., they developed unique chemical profiles and other characteristics, to become altogether new landrace strains. Many indigenous landraces used by Jamaicans typically have THC levels of 5-8% -- much lower than varieties developed for recreational purposes.
3. Jamaica’s rich cultivation history. Research institutions, small farmers and householders have grown cannabis for scientific and medicinal purposes for decades, and have a unique understanding and respect for the plant. Combined with their long experience in cultivating a wide variety of crops for food and medicinal purposes, today, Jamaicans are among the best growers in the world and share that expertise as members of JMCC’s Farmers’ Collective.
4. Leading medical research. The University of the West Indies in Jamaica has been conducting scientific research into the medical benefits of cannabis since the 1970s. That research yielded four patented products: Asmasol (for asthma), Cantivert (glaucoma), Canavert (motion sickness), and Cansens (viral infections). Leading Jamaican scientist, Dr. Henry Lowe, through his company, Medicanga, is currently conducting FDA-approved, Orphan Drug trials for treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with medical cannabis-based Chrysoeriol. Dr. Lowe’s team has also applied for FDA approval for a new pancreatic cancer treatment.
In return for all that Jamaica provides to JMCC, we are committed to giving back. JMCC’s commitment to Jamaica extends well beyond our goal of becoming the “Employer of Choice” in the cannabis industry and supporting smaller, independent farmers via our Farmers’ Collective. For example, the JMCC Foundation will invest 10% of JMCC’s annual net profits over 10 years in an endowment to support local scientific, educational, environmental and community support programs.
To find out more about JMCC Group and our commitment to Jamaica, visit our website.