Marijuana critic William Breathes's Jamaica travel diary, Part 3: Trip tips and video

By William Breathes Fri., May 6 2011 at 10:52 AM

William Breathes.

Editor's note: Medical marijuana critic William Breathes just returned from a honeymoon in Jamaica. Read his first two trip diary entries here and here, and check out part three below.

My vacation was relaxing -- aside from getting constantly hassled to buy herb and my run-in with a Customs drug dog.

For the most part, you can put your life on autopilot when you're in Jamaica and just enjoy yourself on the island -- which is what keeps me coming back. So here are a some tips on how to make the most of your trip to Jam-rock.

Mid-grade Jamaican.

Ganja is still illegal in Jamaica, but people openly smoke everywhere. Walking down the beach, you'll run into locals finishing up joints while cleaning their boats and gutting fish, and at almost every small gift shop I went into on Seven Mile Beach, I encountered someone offering to roll me one for my walk. Cops and soldiers do patrol the beach, so it's best to keep things on the down-low and smoke on your hotel property. If you're out at a beach bar or a spot on the cliffs and want a puff, bartenders appreciate you asking if you can smoke ganja before lighting up a hooter. Otherwise, both resorts I stayed at had placards in my room that said something like "Please treat your stay here as if it were your home" -- so I burned herb all day long, just like I do in Denver.

Here in Colorado, I tend to smoke out of glass pipes and bubblers more often than not -- but in Jamaica, the only thing you should be burning is joints. Some of my non-puffing friends bought a small wooden pipe and passed that around, but if you're used to high-grade ganja, that small amount won't do. I would highly suggest bringing down a clean grinder, mostly because breaking up ounces of herb can get tiring for the fingers. However, I've also found that you can get some pretty good scissor-hash to add to your joints by scraping it out after a day or two of use. If you're picky about your papers like I am, then bring down a few packs in your suitcase. The most popular papers in Jamaica are nearly as thick as notebook pages and burn about as smoothly. The RAW papers were a big hit, too. Every local I showed them to would ask me for a few for their heads.

Tags:

Jamaica travel diary, marijuana, William Breathes

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logantim450

Dude, how can you write such an extensive review about Marijuana in Jamaica and not visit a farm? Then you'd see that the farmers are indeed NOT lazy. They grow from seed, not from clones like we do here and yes, they grow volume because at any given minute a hurricane or soldiers will come and destroy most if not all of their crop. Plus the growing conditions there are very different than in the states, particularly California where the best herb is grown. They have a year-long cycle. Because of the volume they can't pick the seeds out so you get what you get in that way. But its not from laziness, believe you me! I hope you'll visit Jamaica again and get off the beaten path again if not for anything so that you can buy weed much, much cheaper than the tourist price you paid. Going rate for an elbow of what they call "high-grade" from the right people in the right places is around $200USD, so you could realistically get a QB for the price you paid for an O.Z. Good points on keeping it chill and on the down-low and respecting business establishments by not assuming "everyone smokes or enjoys the smell of ganga smoke".

Guest

There isn't much medical relevancy to these articles but I did find the info interesting. ... Start vaping will! Your lungs, sinuses, and taste buds will thank you. :)

William Breathes

Crandle, I'm starting to use my vaporizer more and more. In fact, because of your comment I'll bust it out to review one of the strains I pick up this week for the review.

Thanks (as always) for your comments.

Twat Horse

I think I'll break out my vapo now. Sounds like a good way to spend my evening.

The Truth

Posting about breaking the marijuana laws in another country is neither medical and or helping the legitimacy of the besieged medical marijuana industry here. I strongly suggest the West word hire a REAL patient instead of some young recreational user masquerading as a bona-fide patient. His reviews and behavior makes a mockery of legitimate suffering patients. William Breathes should apply at High times, leaving room for someone to do honest and accurate medicinal assessments of cannabis. That patients could actually benefit from reading. Smoking BHO and other street drug versions of processed cannabis is disingenuous to say the least. These party down 20 somethings abusing the system is part of the negative image that is restricting and impeding medical access for patents state wide.

SHAME ON YOU WEST WORD HIRE A RESPONSIBLE ADULT!

Corey Donahue

William Breathes gave his blood to help stop an unconstitutional law (HB-1261) from becoming law. Although it still might so contact your representatives. So let me repeat that William Breathes gave his blood to fight for our constitutional and cannabis rights, he has done more then most people in the fight for human, constitutional and cannabis rights, so shame on you "the truth." Will keep up the good work, congratulations and next time you venture to Jamaica let me know I have family there.

Kioo

Wow, someone needs to take a big bong rip and chill the f*ck out for a while...

Raswiz_cashus

Must be one who can't stand to see another enjoying themselves and working at the same time... your job must really suck

William Breathes

LOL. Okay "Truth"....

first, my decade-long battle with stomach pains and nausea disagree with you that i'm not a bonafide medical patient. I would love for this all to be fake, including the thousands of dollars I am in debt to local hospitals for my average of 6 ER visits a year.... but it's not.

Second, I was on vacation and figured folks would want to hear about ganja in another country. In case you missed it, marijuana (even medical) is illegal inthe USA too, yet we write about folks breaking those laws all the time right here in Colorado. Personally, I think all laws against cannabis are unjust, regarless of what country I happen to be in so I could care less about breaking them and writing about it.

And as for it being medical... I don't care what country I"m in or what laws there are, cannabis is a medical substnce for me that helps me through my health issues. I also have said and will continue to say that I have no issue with enjoying cannabis both medicinally and recreationally.

Third, how do my reviews make a mockery of patients? Because I call it how I see it? Because I can have a sense of humor bout this? I Because I (like thousands of other patients) use BHO from time to time? Disengenuous? Please. I take this medicine and this position seriously. Also, I'm 30 and married -- my party-down 20s are well behind me.

Finally, it's Westword. Not West Word. If you're going to complain about the newspaper that you claim to read and be offended by, you should at least know how to spell the name correctly.

Thanks for commenting.

William Breathes

sorry to blow up there, folks. I just can't stand it when another patient tries to tell me they know more about my health than me or my doctors. I don't appreciate when people like this guy question my validity as a medical marijuana patient when I would never do that to them.

It's bad enough that th state requires us to have 'qualifying conditions' without fellow patients acting as judges of other people's medical conditions and decidig who is and isn't a valid patient -- especially someon who doesn't even know me personally.

Ecodude

Will - I think most people can recognize that "The Truth" is a bit off base here.

I am a 50 year old business owner, family man, and MMJ patient, and I appreciate your reviews immensely. I don't run in the "hip" circles that know a lot about the MMJ scene and had it not been for one of your reviews, I would not have found my current caregiver.

For that alone, I thank you for your work and your commitment to the MMJ community.

Breathe on -