Shaw to speak on ganja for growth at CIN Lecture this week
Published:Sunday | October 13, 2019 | 5:49 AM
Viewing the marijuana industry as a means of propelling the Jamaican economy, Audley Shaw, minister of industry, commerce, agriculture and fisheries, is looking at exports to lead the way.
Shaw will be the keynote speaker at the annual CIN Lecture Series in New York, United States, a premier vehicle for discourse on issues affecting Jamaica and the diaspora for the past 15 years.
“Ganja is a growth-oriented industry,” says Shaw, who will present on the topic ‘The Search for Green Gold ... Marijuana’, at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture next Wednesday at 7 p.m.
In recent years, there has been an increasing consumer demand for medical and legal recreational cannabis and more and more governments are steadily moving to full legalisation.
A report from the Green Fund states: “The global cannabis market is thought to be worth US$150 billion today.”
Barclays, in their September 2018 European consumer staples report, suggested that this figure could increase to US$272 billion by 2028.
Shaw joins a long list of distinguished presenters, including prime ministers Edward Seaga, P.J. Patterson and Bruce Golding; and successful businessmen such as Douglas Orane, the late Lowell Hawthorne, Don Wehby; and social commentators such as the late Rex Nettleford, Trevor Monroe, Diana McCaulay, Robert Hill and Mark Shields, who have all spoken at the CIN Lecture Series.
Each year, the annual CIN Lecture Series attracts a full audience of more than 600 persons, and this year another capacity audience is expected as the topic has created significant interest.
Stephen Hill, chief executive officer of CIN, said the lecture affords Jamaica the ability to have its voice and ideas disseminated globally as New York is the centre of the global media establishment. In addition, this year the minister will be hosted by Bloomberg at an editorial board meeting.
The CIN Lecture will also be streamed online via The Gleaner’s website at www.jamaica-gleaner.com and via the Caribbean International Network’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/CINTVjamaica. For further information about the lecture contact CIN at mail@ cintvjamaica.com and 347-438-4355 876-906-0432.