Walter Melbourne, director of licensing and applications at the Cannabis Licensing Authority, speaking at this week’s Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange. As global powers equivocate with the classification of the weed, leaders at Jamaica’s Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA) are keeping their fingers crossed that the tight hold on the plant will be relaxed to allow the medical and commercial industry to grow. Schedule III drugs are substances or chemicals with a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence. The DEA states that drugs listed under Schedule III are considered to have less potential to be abused than Schedule I and II drugs. They will move cannabis from a Schedule I narcotic like heroin to a Schedule III drug — on par with Tylenol with codeine.