Cannabis kiosks planned for Jamaica airports

Jamaica is contemplating installing cannabis kiosks at airports and seaports, allowing tourists to get high as soon as they clear customs.

“The thought is that if you are coming out of the airport, there is a kiosk you can go to. So basically whoever is coming out of immigration can go to that desk and register and get that clearance,” Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA) chairman Hyacinth Lightbourne told the Jamaican publication The Gleaner.

The kiosks will also have trained medical personnel on site, who will be responsible for issuing permits to visitors to Jamaica, which would allow them to buy cannabis.

“It would primarily be for people who have a prescription and, in effect, you’re doing it for medicinal purposes with a permit from the Ministry of Health,” Lightbourne said. “If they don’t have a prescription, then they can do what we call ‘self-declare’, and this will allow them to have the two ounces while they are here.”

The CLA believes that making cannabis more accessible could boost government revenues, and have cited the financial success that certain areas of North America have had from legalising cannabis.

“In Colorado last year, even though it is recreational and medicinal, they sold about $1 billion worth of marijuana and collected $135 million in taxes for the state alone with a population of five million plus,” CLA member Delano Seiveright said.