Back to CIFAS
Disaster & Science
Drugs & society homeIntroductionBackgroundNews indexAnalysesResourcesSearch

Ganja in Jamaica and the Caribbean


Andrews, George (1967). The book of grass; an anthology on Indian hemp. New York: Grove Press.

Barnett, W. L. (1951). Ganja (resin of cannabis sativa). Kingston, Jamaica: Dept. of Govt. Chemist, 1951

Beaubrun, Michael H. (nd.). Patterns of cannabis use in Jamaica. Alternate title: Sociocultural factors in drug use (World Health Organization).

Broad, K., and B. Feinberg, 1995. Perceptions of Ganja and Cocaine in Urban Jamaica. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 27:261-277.

Broadbent, G. (1998). Polygraph evidence in Jamaica - the door left ajar. Journal of Criminal Law, 62 (6), Dec. 1998, p.585-91.


Bustamante Institute of Public and International Affairs (1987). Drug abuse in the Caribbean: report of the drug seminar held in Trinidad, November 26-28, 1986. Kingston: Jamaica: Bustamante Institute of Public and International Affairs.


Bustamante Institute of Public and International Affairs (1998), Youth, drugs, and morality : report of the proceedings of the second Youth Conference held at Government Conference Center, August 11-12, 1988. Kingston, Jamaica: Bustamante Institute of Public and International Affairs.

Carter, William E., (ed). (1980). Cannabis in Costa Rica: A Study of Chronic Marihuana Use. Philadelphia: ISHI, Institute for the Study of Human Issues.

Centro Cultural Espanol, Enbajada de Espana (1997). Paraisos artificiales : un debate sobre las drogas en Costa Rica. San Jose, Costa Rica: Embajada de Espana, Centro Cultural Espanol : Cooperacion Espanola.

Chevannes, Barry (1988). Background to drug use in Jamaica. Mona, Kingston, Jamaica : Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of the West Indies.


Commissiong, John W. (1978). Ganja — Marijuana. Alternate title: Marijuana. Mona, Jamaica : Dept. of Extra-Mural Studies, University of the West Indies.

Comitas, Lambros (1968). Caribbeana 1900-1965, a topical bibliography. Seattle, Published for Research Institute for the Study of Man: University of Washington Press.

Comitas, Lambros (1973). Work and family life; West Indian perspectives. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press.

Comitas, Lambros (1975). "The Social Nexus of Ganja in Jamaica." In Cannabis and Culture, edited by Vera Rubin. The Hague and Paris: Mouton Publishers, Pp. 119-132

Comitas, Lambros (1976). "Cannabis and Work in Jamaica: A Refutation of the Amotivational Syndrome." In Chronic Cannabis Use, edited by Rhea L. Dornbush, Alfred M. Freedman, and Max Fink. New York: The New York Academy of Sciences. Pp. 24-32.

Comitas, Lambros (1977). The complete Caribbeana, 1900-1975 : a bibliographic guide to the scholarly literature. Millwood, N.Y. : KTO Press.

Dreher, Melanie Creagan (1976). Getting high : ganja man and his socio-economic milieu. Caribbean Studies, vol. 16, no. 2, July 1976, pp. 219 — 231

Dreher, Melanie Creagan (1977). Working men and ganja: commonalities and variations in rural Jamaican communities. New York: Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1977

Dreher, Melanie Creagan (1981). Childhood cannabis consumption in Jamaica: presented at the 80th annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association. New York: 1981

Dreher, Melanie Creagan (1982). Working Men and Ganja: Marihuana Use in Rural Jamaica. Philadelphia: ISHI, Institute for the Study of Human Issues.

Dreher, Melanie Creagan (1983). "Marihuana and Work: Cannabis smoking on a Jamaican sugar estate." Human Organization 42:1-8.

Dreher, Melanie Creagan (1984). Ganja and work. New York: RISM.

Dreher, Melanie Creagan (1984). Schoolchildren and ganja: youthful marijuana consumption in rural Jamaica. Anthropology and education Quarterly. 15 pp 131-50.

Dreher, Melanie C.; Kevin Nugent; and Rebekah Hudgins (1994). Prenatal Marijuana Exposure and Neonatal Outcomes in Jamaica: An Ethnographic Study. Pediatrics, February 1994, Volume 93, Number 2, pp. 254-260.

Forsythe, Dennis (1993).The Law against ganja in Jamaica. Kingston : Zaika Publications, 1993

Fraser, H. Aubrey (1974). The Law and cannabis in the West Indies: presented at a conference on Strategies for the Prevention of Drug Abuse in Developing Countries - With Special Reference to the Caribbean, Nassau, March 2 - 5, 1974 / Kingston: 1974.

Fraser, Henry S. (1979). Ganja (Marijuana), by John W. Commissiong Book review in: West Indian Medical Journal, vol. 28, no. 2, June 1979, pp. 65 — 66

Fraser, Henry S. (1983). Drug metabolizing capacity in Jamaican cigarette and marijuana smokers and non-smokers . West Indian Medical Journal, vol. 32, no. 4, December 1983, pp. 207 — 211

Griffith, Ivelaw L. (2000). The political economy of drugs in the Caribbean. New York: St. Martin's Press.

Gruber, Steve (1986). A note on birds and ganja. Jamaica Journal, vol. 19, no. 2, May-July 1986, pp. 24 - 26

Gunst, Laurie. (1995). Born Fi' Dead: A Journey Through the Jamaican Posse Underworld. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

Hamid, Ansley (1979). A Development model for the Caribbean: the ganja traffic in San Fernando, Trinidad. Alternate title: The Ganja traffic in San Fernando. New York: A.A.A. (1978), 1979

Hamid, Ansley (1981). "A Pre-Capitalistic Mode of Production: Ganja and the Rastafarians in San Fernando, Trinidad." New York: Ph. D. thesis -Columbia University, Teachers College.

Hamid, Ansley (1991). From Ganja to crack: Caribbean participation in the underground economy in Brooklyn, 1976-1986. Part 1. Establisment of the marijuana economy. International Journal of the Addictions, 26, no.6 (1991), p. 615-28.

Hamid, Ansley (1991). From ganja to crack: Caribbean participation in the underground economy in Brooklyn, 1976-1986. Part 2. Establishment of the cocaine (and crack) economy. International Journal of the Addictions, 26, no.7 (1991), p.729-38.

Harding, David (2000). Wrecking the joint. Geographical v. 72 no9 (Sept. 2000) p. 56-9

Hayes, J. S. (1991). Five-year follow-up of rural Jamaican children whose mothers used marijuana during pregnancy. West Indian Medical Journal, vol. 40, no. 3, September 1991, pp. 120 — 123.

Henzell, Perry (1997). Power game. Norwalk, CT : Rosset-Morgan Books.

Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1969). Marijuana: Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission 1893-1894. Silver Spring, Maryland: Thos. Jefferson Publishing Co.

Knight, Frank (1979). The Legal and psychiatric implications of ganja use in Jamaica. West Indian Law Journal, no. 5, October 1979, pp. 52 — 54.

Jamaican Government Chemist Dept. (1951), Ganja. Kingston: Printed by the Govt. Printer.

La Barre, Weston (1977). Anthropological views of cannabis. Edited by Vera Rubin. Reviews in Anthropology, vol. 4, no. 3, May/June 1977, 237 — 250

Lee, Wendy (1988). The Impact of ganja cultivation on bat populations in Jamaica. Jamaica Journal, vol. 21, no. 2, May/July 1988, pp. 54 — 55

Lepinske, Harry C. (1955). Jamaican ganja: a report on the marijuana problem. New York: Exposition Press.

Lieber, Michael (1974?). Strategy and style in a "deviant" enterprise : the marijuana trade in Trinidad. (?)

Littlewood, R. (1988). From vice to madness: the semantics of naturalistic and personalistic understandings in Trinidadian local medicine. Social Science & Medicine, 27, no.2 (1988), p.129-48.

Lockhart, A. B. (1977). The Potential use of Cannabis sativa in ophthalmology. West Indian Medical Journal, vol. 26, no. 2, June 1977, pp. 66 — 70

Mahabir, Noor K. (1994). Marijuana in the Caribbean. Caribbean Affairs, vol. 7, no. 4, September/October 1994, pp. 28 — 40

McGlynn, Frank, Ed.(?) (1984). "Maternal-Child Health and Ganja in Jamaica". Health Care in the Caribbean and Central America. Studies in Third World Societies, n. 30, Dec. 1984.

Prince, Raymond (1969). Ganja : the benevolent alternative? Observations on the use of Cannabis and alcohol in Jamaica. Montreal : Mental Hygiene Institute, 1969

Prince, Raymond; Greenfield, Rochelle; Marriott, John (1972). Cannabis or alcohol? Observations on their use in Jamaica. Bulletin on Narcotics, 24(1), 1-9, 1972.

Rogers, Claudia (1976). Illegal entrepreneurship and social networks in rural Jamaica. New York : Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1976

Rubenstein, Hymie (1995). Mirror for the other: marijuana, multivocality and the media in an eastern Caribbean country [French summary]. Anthropologica (New Series). 37:2 pp 173-206.

Rubenstein, Hymie (1998). Coping with Cannabis in a Caribbean Country: from problem formulation to going public. New West Indian Guide/Nieuwe West-Indische Gids, vol. 72, no. 3 & 4 (1998): 205-232.

Rubenstein, Hymie (1998). You Na Want Stop. Anthropology Newsletter, November 1998.

Rubenstein, Hymie (1999). Ganja and Globalization: a Caribbean Case Study. Global Development Studies, Winter 1999 — Spring 2000, Vol. 2, Nos. 1-2.

Rubenstein, Hymie (2000). Reefer Madness Caribbean Style. Journal of Drug Issues, 30(3), 465-496, 2000.

Rubenstein, Hymie (2000). Continuity and Change in a Caribbean Community. General Anthropology, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2000.

Rubenstein, Hymie (2000).Ganja and Globalization: A Caribbean Case-Study. Global Development Studies 2 (1&2):223-250. 2000.

Rubin, Vera D. and Lambros Comitas (19--). Effects of chronic smoking of cannabis in Jamaica: a report by the Research Institute for the Study of Man to the Center for Studies of Narcotic and Drug Abuse, National Institute of Mental Health. New York: Research Institute for the Study of Man.

Rubin, Vera D. and Lambros Comitas (1975). Ganja in Jamaica: a medical anthropological study of chronic marihuana use. The Hague : Mouton.

Rubin, Vera D. and Lambros Comitas (1976). Ganja in Jamaica: the effects of marihuana use. Garden City: Anchor Books, 1976.

Rubin, Vera. (1975). "Cannabis and Culture." in World Anthropology, edited by Sol Tax. The Hague: Mouton.

Rubin, Vera (ed.) (1975). Cannabis and culture. The Hague: Mouton.

Schaeffer, J. (1975), The Significance of Marihuana in a Small Agricultrural Community in Jamaica. in: V. Rubin (ed.) Cannabis and Culture. London: Mouton and Co.

Schultes, Richard E., and Albert Hofmann (1979). Plants of the Gods. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Schwenk, Charles R. and Rhodes, Susan L. (1999). Marijuana and the workplace : interpreting research on complex social issues. Westport, Conn.: Quorum.

Segal, Aaron (1982). Cross-cultural gold : cannabis in the Caribbean. Essay-review In: Caribbean Review, vol. 11, no. 4, Fall 1982, pp. 26 - 27, 48

Simeon, D. T. (1996). Characteristics of Jamaicans who smoke marijuana before sex and their risk status for sexually transmitted diseases. West Indian Medical Journal, vol. 45, no. 1, March 1996, pp. 8 — 13.

Smith, M.G., R. Augier, and R. Nettleford (1960). The Ras Tafari Movement in Kingston, Jamaica. Mona, Jamaica: Institute of Social and Economic Research.

Sobion, Keith S. (1998). In the Supreme Court of Judicature of Jamaica in the Full Court : Suit no. M44 of 1997...between Dr. Dennis Forsythe, the Director of Public Prosecutions, and the Attorney General of Jamaica. In: West Indian Law Journal, December 1998, pp. 41 — 51

Stuart, K. L. (1963). Ganja (Cannabis sativa L.) a review. West Indian Medical Journal (Kingston), 12, 156-160, 1963.

Treaster, Joseph B. (1984). Jamaica, close U.S. ally, does little to halt drugs. Alternate title: Notes on Jamaican drug policy. The New York Times, September 10, 1984

Trinidad and Tobago (1972). Commission of Inquiry into Drug. Port-of-Spain : Government Printery, 1972

U.S. G.P.O. (1998), On-site staff evaluation of U.S. counter-narcotics activities in the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Haiti, November 30-December 5, 1998 : a staff report / prepared for the use of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control. Washington : U.S. G.P.O.

West, M. E. (1978). The Treatment of glaucoma using a nonpsychoative preparation of cannabis sativa. In: West Indian Medical Journal, vol. 27, no. 1, March 1978, pp. 16 — 25

Whipple, Christopher (1981). Island paradise for dope runners: Jamaica gets rich off U.S. market. Life, October 1981, p. 110 — 112

Williams, G. D. (1988). Hash-oil manufacture : an important factor in the occurrence of adult burns in Jamaica. In: West Indian Medical Journal, vol. 37, no. 4, December 1988, pp. 210 — 214

Yawney, Carole D. (1972). Herb and the chalice : the symbolic life of the children of slaves in Jamaica. Alternate title: The Symbolic life of the children of slaves in Jamaica. Toronto : Addiction Research Foundation, 1972