EMERGENCY measures implemented ahead of Hurricane Melissa prevented a shortage of ganja in the formal system, despite the storm’s impact on key cultivation areas, Chief Executive Officer of the Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA) Farrah Blake said.

Speaking at a Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange at the newspaper’s head office in St Andrew, Blake said the authority introduced emergency harvesting and field management protocols before the hurricane last October, to protect mature crops.

“We put together some emergency steps right before the hurricane, to ensure there was no damage to the ganja that was in the ground,” Blake said.