Local farmers seeking to operate large ganja farms as the country’s push towards developing a medical marijuana industry picks up momentum could find run into a brick wall try to insure their enterprises, according to Peter Levy, president of the Insurance Association of Jamaica.

Levy said that as a matter of course, companies may offer coverage for stock, equipment, tools and crops, which are the usual subjects of insurance coverage in agricultural enterprise.

However, the real difficulty lies with policies that involve overseas reinsurers, mainly those domiciled in the United States, since federal law still treats marijuana as an illegal drug.

“Marijuana is a challenging business because our insurance companies buy reinsurance from international companies, many of which have US operations, and since marijuana remains an illegal drug according to US Federal law, those US companies are reluctant to do this kind of business. Therefore, it may pose some difficulties here to cover that,” he said.

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