Jamaica: NCDA Puts Ganja Potency at 15 to 20 Percent

As of 24 August 2026, Jamaica’s National Council on Drug Abuse puts the potency of cannabis on the island at roughly four times what it was in the 1990s. Dr Kristen Robinson Barrett, the Council’s Director for Treatment Services, told the Jamaica Observer that potency sat near 4 per cent back then and that “as of 2024, we’re looking at potencies of 15 to 20 per cent.” If a herb house stop is on your itinerary, that is the most useful number to carry with you.

The Council paired it with a figure on how people use it. Uki Atkinson, a research analyst at the NCDA, said half of Jamaicans who had used cannabis in the previous year were assessed as at high risk of misuse in 2016, and that the share “increased by 16 per cent in 2023.” Neither figure separates licensed herb house product from the wider supply, so read the potency range as a description of Jamaican cannabis in general rather than a label on any one shop’s shelf.

The NCDA raised the numbers for clinical reasons. Robinson Barrett said “the majority of psychiatric admissions in our public hospitals are coming from psychosis or schizophrenia. And the majority of those persons do use cannabis.” Both she and the Observer were careful about what that does and does not establish. There is little Jamaican data on cannabis-induced psychosis, and no finding that cannabis is causing the admissions. Dr Brian Kazaara, a psychiatrist at Bellevue Hospital, said cannabis-induced psychosis “is not the norm. It is rare,” while adding that cannabis brings on an earlier onset in people who develop psychosis, worsens symptoms, and makes the medication used to treat it less effective. It is the second NCDA intervention this year, after the Council reported in June that cannabis drove more than half of referrals involving minors in the western parishes.

None of this changes Jamaican law. The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act, 2015 made possession of up to two ounces a ticketable offence rather than a criminal one and built the medical and sacramental framework the Cannabis Licensing Authority runs today. The Authority put its registered retailer count at 110 earlier this month. The eleven-year mark is a look at what decriminalization produced, not a proposal to undo it.

What This Means for Travelers

The herb house visit works the same way it did last season. What you buy there is stronger than Jamaica’s easygoing reputation suggests. If your reference point is a Negril beach in 2010, start with a fraction of what you would normally take and wait before going back. Edibles deserve more caution again, because the slow onset invites a second dose before the first one lands.

The paperwork is unchanged. The two-ounce threshold, the temporary medical authorization that runs about US$10 at a licensed herb house, and the ban on public smoking all sit where they did in May. Cruise passengers should keep in mind that what is legal to buy ashore is still contraband once you reboard.

What to Watch

The NCDA is pointing at a gap in its own evidence: no Jamaican study currently measures cannabis-induced psychosis directly. Watch for whether the Council commissions one, and whether these potency figures reach the Cannabis Licensing Authority, which has spent 2026 recruiting traditional farmers into the licensed market and setting the rules they grow under.