In Jamaica, a twist on wine tours for pot lovers

NINE MILE, Jamaica (AP) — Napa and Sonoma have their wine tours, and travelers flock to Scotland to sample the fine single malt whiskies. But in Jamaica, farmers are offering a different kind of trip for a different type of connoisseur.

Call them ganja tours: smoky, mystical — and technically illegal — journeys to some of the island's hidden cannabis plantations, where pot tourists can sample such strains as "purple kush" and "pineapple skunk."

The tours pass through places like Nine Mile, the tiny hometown of reggae legend, and famous pot-lover, Bob Marley. Here, in Jamaica's verdant central mountains, dreadlocked men escort curious visitors to a farm where deep-green marijuana plants grow out of the reddish soil. Similar tours are offered just outside the western resort town of Negril, where a marijuana mystique has drawn weed-smoking vacationers for decades.

"This one here is the original sinsemilla, Bob Marley's favorite. And this one here is the chocolate skunk. It's special for the ladies," a pot farmer nicknamed "Breezy" told a reporter as he showed off several varieties on his plot one recent morning.

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The Ganja Law Reform Coalition, an island group that is calling for the government to decriminalize and regulate pot, is preparing to host an international conference in the capital of Kingston later this month, where topics will include prospects for cannabis commercialization.

Despite its laid-back international image, Jamaica is a conservative, religious place and many people bristle at the country's Rasta reputation.

Marijuana has been pervasive but prohibited on the island since 1913. The illicit marijuana crop has declined since the 1970s due to global competition and the U.S.-led war on drugs. Still, Jamaica is the Caribbean's leading supplier of pot to the U.S. and tourists often don't need to look any farther than their hotel lobby for assistance buying weed.

"There's already a high degree of marijuana tourism in Jamaica; they just don't call it that," said Chris Simunek, editor-in-chief of the magazine High Times, based in New York.

In Nine Mile, Breezy says Americans, Germans and increasingly Russians have toured his small farm and sampled his crop. There were no takers for the $50 tour on this morning among a couple of busloads of cruise ship tourists arriving at Bob Marley's childhood home, though more than a dozen lined up enthusiastically to buy baggies of weed from Breezy's friends, sold through a hole in the wall of the museum compound.

Indentured servants from India are thought to have brought the plant to Jamaica in the 19th century. Its use as a medicinal herb spread rapidly, with some people using ganja tea to alleviate aches and others using rum-soaked marijuana as a cold remedy. By the 1970s, marijuana became even more popular due to Rastafarian reggae stars like Marley and Peter Tosh.

For now, criminal gangs dominate the island's marijuana trade, and turf wars fueled in part by pot profits have long plagued gritty parts of Jamaica. But advocates say decriminalization or legalization would shift profits away from gangs, freeing money that now goes for arresting and jailing pot users.

For Breezy and his friends, any reforms couldn't come soon enough.

"The government needs to free up marijuana soon, man, because it's a natural thing, a spiritual thing," Breezy said before sticking his nose in a clump of pot plants and taking an appreciative sniff. "And the tourists love it."

Never smoked the stuff so I don't have a clue. Prolly not the tour for me.

Snoop Dog's new hang out

Or as he likes to be known as Snoop Lion

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So when you sample you just simply don't inhale, similar to the wine tasting of not swallowing, you just roll it around on the back of your tongue and blow it out?

morningsong said:

So when you sample you just simply don't inhale, similar to the wine tasting of not swallowing, you just roll it around on the back of your tongue and blow it out?

Interesting question.

What say the next Org Invasion is planned in Jamaica and we got find out???

I would never inhale.

I personally find seeing weed plantations boring, but I like that song I must confess because it brings back loads of memories

Messed up, and I wasn't even high!

[Edited 9/9/13 14:35pm]

PurpleJedi said:

In Jamaica, a twist on wine tours for pot lovers

These are some pindling looking plans if you ask me. Mine look better than these! They are so top heavy with bud, they often topple over. Even still, mine might not be as "powerful" as pue Jamaican Ganja. Haven't harvested yet, so jury's still out. I'm going to give mine another week or two to "ripen." I'll let y'all know.

PurpleJedi said:

morningsong said:

So when you sample you just simply don't inhale, similar to the wine tasting of not swallowing, you just roll it around on the back of your tongue and blow it out?

Interesting question.

What say the next Org Invasion is planned in Jamaica and we got find out???

I would never inhale.