Pubdate: Wed, 11 Sep 2013
Source: International Herald-Tribune (International)
Copyright: Associated Press
Contact:  http://global.nytimes.com/?iht
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/212

FARMERS OFFER GUIDED TOURS OF HIDDEN CANNABIS PLANTATIONS

Farmers in Jamaica Are Offering a Different Kind of Travel Experience.

(AP) - Call them ganja tours: smoky, mystical - and technically 
illegal - journeys to some of the island's hidden cannabis plantations.

The tours pass through places like Nine Mile, the tiny hometown of 
the reggae legend and famous pot lover Bob Marley. Here, in Jamaica's 
verdant central mountains, dreadlocked men escort curious visitors to 
farms where marijuana plants grow. Similar tours are offered just 
outside the western resort town of Negril.

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 United States.

An online vacation guide called Jamaicamax promises to organize ganja 
tours in the Negril area. But there's a caveat: First you have to 
smoke a marijuana "spliff" with your guide, presumably to show you 
are not law enforcement.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom