In October 2025, the strongest hurricane in the history of Jamaica slammed into the\u00a0island\u2019s\u00a0southern coast. The Category 5 Melissa\u00a0unleashed\u00a0devastating\u00a0185mph\u00a0winds\u00a0and\u00a0pummeled the\u00a0island\u2019s infrastructure\u00a0with its monstrous\u00a013-foot-high\u00a0waves, shutting down the nation for months and freezing its tourism sector. The damage is still\u00a0immediately\u00a0noticeable\u2014resorts\u00a0with\u00a0missing roofs, gutted beach houses and uprooted local vegetation\u00a0punctuate\u00a0the otherwise idyllic tropical landscape. Even so,\u00a0the resilient residents of\u00a0Jamaica\u00a0are harvesting the fruits of a bumper crop of cannabis in the wake of Hurricane Melissa,\u00a0and the tourism sector is rebounding alongside it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSomething in the hurricane made the ganja plants go crazy after it\u2014they\u2019re growing stronger than ever,\u201d says\u00a0Wabba, founder of the iconic\u00a0Wabba\u2019s\u00a0Weed Adventure\u00a0cannabis tourism operation near the tourist hotspot of Negril. Wabba\u2019s family has been growing\u00a0cannabis\u00a0on this land for generations, and people from all over the world flock to the farm to sample his crop while taking a dip in the\u00a0\u201cBlue Hole\u201d\u00a0mineral spring on site. I join a healthy troupe of tourists from North America on a tour of\u00a0Wabba\u2019s\u00a0cannabis farm, which boasts hundreds of plants such as Darkstar and\u00a0Wabba\u2019s\u00a0Purple\u00a0strains. The highlight of the afternoon is taking part in a traditional Jamaican\u00a0\u201csteam chalice\u201d\u00a0ceremony led by\u00a0Wabba, in which a copious amount of his crop is consumed out of a calabash and bamboo chalice.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tourism accounts for\u00a0more than\u00a030\u00a0percent\u00a0of Jamaica\u2019s economy, while the cannabis sector is valued by\u00a0some estimates\u00a0to be worth\u00a0billions of dollars. Together,\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0major economic drivers for the country.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
At nearby\u00a0Coral Cove Wellness Resort<\/a>, further evidence\u00a0is found\u00a0of Jamaica\u2019s rebounding tourism sector being anchored by cannabis travel.\u00a0A group attending the\u00a0Laughter Is Medicine\u00a0retreat\u00a0on-site gathers around a dining table with commanding views of the Caribbean sunset for a beachfront barbecue with lobster and steak while a rolling tray with a mountain of local cannabis sits as the centerpiece of the scene. The boutique resort is fully staffed again, and a lone beach chalet that was irreparably damaged stands as a testament to the power of the recent storm.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t wait to bring some friends down here to experience this,\u201d says one of the retreat guests as they take another toke of\u00a0Wabba\u2019s\u00a0Purple and exhale it into the balmy Caribbean twilight.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The post Cannabis Tourism: The Calm After\u00a0The\u00a0Storm<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
In October 2025, the strongest hurricane in the history of Jamaica slammed into the\u00a0island\u2019s\u00a0southern coast. The Category 5 Melissa\u00a0unleashed\u00a0devastating\u00a0185mph\u00a0winds\u00a0and\u00a0pummeled the\u00a0island\u2019s infrastructure\u00a0with its monstrous\u00a013-foot-high\u00a0waves, shutting down the nation for months and freezing its tourism sector. The damage is still\u00a0immediately\u00a0noticeable\u2014resorts\u00a0with\u00a0missing roofs, gutted beach houses and uprooted local vegetation\u00a0punctuate\u00a0the otherwise idyllic tropical landscape.Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":597,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,85,19799,900,4747,4693],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86762"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/597"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86762"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86763,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86762\/revisions\/86763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Cannabis Tourism: The Calm After\u00a0The\u00a0Storm<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"