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“EXCELLENCE THROUGH KNOWLEDGE” P A G E 67 Mining Medicines from Cannabis in Jamaica: The Devil and the Details In April 2015, the Government of Jamaica amended the Dangerous Drugs Act (DDA) to decriminalize the use of Cannabis and to permit the sacramental use of the drug. This incremental move in Jamaican legislation represented, at that time, the most permissive reform on Cannabis legislation passed by a Jamaican government, short of legalizing the use of ganja in Jamaica. As a signatory to the United Nation’s Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961, Jamaica is bound to the terms of that Convention. According to the Single Convention, Cannabis is placed in Schedule 1 as a substance with no medicinal use. In 2015, Jamaica joined countries like Canada, Uruguay, Israel and several states in the United States that had passed legislation to allow the use of Cannabis for medicinal purposes thus testing the UN stance on the issue and nudging the global entity to reconsider its position. In consort with the DDA amendment, Universities and other research entities were granted special orders by the Ministry of Science, Energy and Technology to engage in Cannabis cultivation, research and development for the advancement of science andmedicinal purposes. This order permitted a narrow scope of operations that provided an opportunity for the University of Technology, Jamaica to engage in further research in the ganja plant and to work with interested parties to identify new cultivars and chemovars, test, formulate products, conduct clinical trials and engage in other innovations. Such activities will push the assertion that Cannabis has medical purposes. However, this decision to foster research and development from Cannabis was not universally accepted. The United States of America held to its the position expressed in the Single Convention on Narcotics, 1961, that Cannabis was Schedule 1, having no medicinal purpose. The opinions of Jamaicans toward the new legislation are ambivalent. The country has a ganja prevalence rate of 16% (NCDA, 2016). There are those who are disappointed that the substance was not legalized while there are others who, for various reasons, believe that the potential for medical use of ganja is real. According to Anderson (2013), findings of a national Knowledge, Attitude, Behavior and Practice (KABP) that he conducted revealed that 56 per cent of those interviewed saw good prospects for the use of ganja for medicinal purposes, while 15 per cent were more interested in the economic gains fromexpanded use. There are still a few professionals who hold to the view that “Ganja will make you mad.” (DeLaHaye, Ellen Campbell Grizzle & Rasheed Perry (Graduate Student) College of Health Sciences EllenCampbell Grizzle