By Dennis Walker
In October 2025, the strongest hurricane in the history of Jamaica slammed into the island’s southern coast. The Category 5 Melissa unleashed devastating 185mph winds and pummeled the island’s infrastructure with its monstrous 13-foot-high waves, shutting down the nation for months and freezing its tourism sector. The damage is still immediately noticeable—resorts with missing roofs, gutted beach houses and uprooted local vegetation punctuate the otherwise idyllic tropical landscape. Even so, the resilient residents of Jamaica are harvesting the fruits of a bumper crop of cannabis in the wake of Hurricane Melissa, and the tourism sector is rebounding alongside it.
“Something in the hurricane made the ganja plants go crazy after it—they’re growing stronger than ever,” says Wabba, founder of the iconic Wabba’s Weed Adventure cannabis tourism operation near the tourist hotspot of Negril. Wabba’s family has been growing cannabis on this land for generations, and people from all over the world flock to the farm to sample his crop while taking a dip in the “Blue Hole” mineral spring on site. I join a healthy troupe of tourists from North America on a tour of Wabba’s cannabis farm, which boasts hundreds of plants such as Darkstar and Wabba’s Purple strains. The highlight of the afternoon is taking part in a traditional Jamaican “steam chalice” ceremony led by Wabba, in which a copious amount of his crop is consumed out of a calabash and bamboo chalice.
Tourism accounts for more than 30 percent of Jamaica’s economy, while the cannabis sector is valued by some estimates to be worth billions of dollars. Together, they’re major economic drivers for the country.
At nearby Coral Cove Wellness Resort, further evidence is found of Jamaica’s rebounding tourism sector being anchored by cannabis travel. A group attending the Laughter Is Medicine retreat on-site gathers around a dining table with commanding views of the Caribbean sunset for a beachfront barbecue with lobster and steak while a rolling tray with a mountain of local cannabis sits as the centerpiece of the scene. The boutique resort is fully staffed again, and a lone beach chalet that was irreparably damaged stands as a testament to the power of the recent storm.
“I can’t wait to bring some friends down here to experience this,” says one of the retreat guests as they take another toke of Wabba’s Purple and exhale it into the balmy Caribbean twilight.
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