‘Mi head a guh hurt me bad!’ - Ganja user distressed after Epican plants are destroyed

Customers of the popular marijuana dispensary, Epican, are in a state of panic following the news that more than 1,000 ganja plants were destroyed by the authorities at its farm in St Andrew on Wednesday.

Epican utilises the cannabis grown at its farm in its medical marijuana distribution business. The Cannabis Licensing Authority decided to destroy Epican plants after the company was deemed to be in breach of one of the terms in the extended cultivation licence that they received last January. The company was given a three-month extension to reapply for its cultivation licences. However, because it cultivated new plants during the extension period, the CLA viewed it as a breach and decided to have them chopped down.

One 50-year-old customer, who has requested to remain anonymous, said that she is particularly worried because she needs her Epican products to survive.

"I use it for my migraines everyday, so hearing this now me head a guh hurt me. Mi head a guh hurt me bad, bad, bad. Mi haffi guh go hospital, mi affi guh go doctor," she said.

The woman, who said that she uses marijuana in some form everyday, said that if she is unable to get her supply from Epican, she will be forced to spend a fortune in over-the-counter drugs to mitigate the effects of her debilitating migraines.

"It a guh end up a cost me more now that I gonna have to get drugs for these migraines," she said.

This customer, like many others, according to Kaydean Dawkins, manager at Epican's Kingston branch, only gets her ganja products from Epican.

"You'll find that a lot of our customers, who actually get the products from us, they're not comfortable going anywhere else," Dawkins said.

"Yes, it's the only thing that works for me, the stuff I get here," the customer chimed in.

"And they make you know that there's a difference," Dawkins continued. "Our products are 100 per cent organic, stuff like that. ... When they come here, they're sure they're getting the genuine, whatever it is they came for."

Karibe McKenzie, CEO and co-founder of Epican, said the destroyed plants represented majority of the stock they had to supply the Kingston store for the remainder of the year.