Do not be surprised if legal cigarettes made from ganja (cannabis) hit the streets soon.
Major producers like Carreras are probing that and other cannabis possibilities, as increasing competition from illegally imported cigarettes continues to burn deeper into the profits of the legal trade.
It is no secret that British American Tobacco (BAT), the parent company of Carrerras, has, like other major US tobacco dealers including Phillip Morris, been looking at the cannabis market and the possibility of producing mild cigarettes restricted by the legal content of the main cannabinoids — cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), although only THC is psychoactive.
Carreras Limited's Managing Director Marcus Steele has said that, like parent company BAT, Carreras is prepared to compete in a legal cannabis environment.
“As long as it is legal, we are in the combustible business. It happens to be cigarettes, but if tomorrow morning it is cannabis, it is another product in the combustible side of the business. I am sure we would be more than interested,” Steele said at last Thursday's sitting of the Jamaica Observer Press Club.
He said that anyone who has been tracking developments at BAT, which owns Carreras and several other tobacco companies in Latin America and the Caribbean, would understand how it has been approaching the issue of smoking cannabis.
“Where the opportunity resides, we are not sitting on the fence. We talk it, we monitor it, and we are preparing ourselves, and Jamaica is no different. I will leave it at that,” he stated.
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