Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records and one of the most successful entrepreneurs in music business history, is urgingJamaicato maximise the potential for tremendous financial benefits made possible from wide-ranging ganja-law reform, including a total transformation of the local economy.

According to Blackwell,who owns and operates the resort hotel collection Island Outpost that includes GoldenEye in Oracabessa and The Caves in Negril,the relevant stakeholders should move assiduously to amend the laws that enable the development of the viable industry.

"The framework protects the interests of thousands of small farmers and pins a model that weighs significantly on benefiting micro and small-enterprise entrepreneurs. In short, we must not only protect the small farmer, but see to it that they can maximise the benefits and elevate themselves," he said.

Blackwell said,in addition to unleashing enormous economic potential,"Jamaicacan be the first nation in the world to develop a truly unique and, legitimate ganja industry that incorporates our cultural norms and, as such, positions the people for wealth creation, the government for substantial tax revenue intake, and the island's social and economic landscape as transformed for the better."

Chris Blackwell started in the music business in Jamaica in 1960 and remains a lasting influence on modern popular music, having brought reggae and Bob Marley to a worldwide audience through his label, Island Records, which also introduced the world to artistes such as U2, Melissa Etheridge, Cat Stevens, Traffic, Grace Jones, and Jimmy Cliff. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.