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Towards social justice and economic empowerment? Exploring Jamaica’s progress with implementing cannabis law reform

Abstract The Dangerous Drugs Amendment Act (DDAA) 2015 positioned Jamaica at the forefront of international cannabis law reforms in the developing world. The DDAA legalised and regulated commercial cultivation and sale of cannabis for medicinal and therapeutic use, legalised home cultivation and decriminalised personal possession of cannabis. This dramatic policy change came after years of discriminatory drug law enforcement and multiple attempts at cannabis law reform motivated by social justice and cannabis activism. Drawing on ethnographic observations of the implementation of the DDAA and interviews with key cannabis policy stakeholders in Jamaica, we discuss the extent to which the social justice ideals behind the law have translated into practice on the ground. Our analysis focuses on two dimensions of social justice relevant in drug law reform: (1) penalisation and criminal record expungement policies, and (2) economic empowerment and the distribution of wealth (ie the diversity within the new cannabis industry and the transition of traditional illegal ganja farmers to the new legal cannabis economy). Reflecting on the first five years of implementing the DDAA in Jamaica, we explore social justice achievements under the DDAA and discuss persisting structural barriers to economic justice and how they could be addressed.