Out of the ashes The Rastafarians digging in to grow Caribbean's legal cannabis market

On Golba Hill on the Caribbean island of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), just below a cluster of colourfully decorated homes, are rows and rows of premium marijuana plants.

- Natricia Duncan and Demion Mctair

On Golba Hill on the Caribbean island of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), just below a cluster of colourfully decorated homes, are rows and rows of premium marijuana plants. Gleaming like green gold in the Caribbean sun, they lead up to a hut where Bobbis Matthews spends most of his time nurturing his precious plants.

As he did his routine inspection, removing male plants that could diminish the potency of his crop, Matthews recalled a time, not too long ago, when the idea of a cannabis farm in a residential area was unthinkable.

Like many of SVG's cannabis farmers, Matthews is a Rastafarian who spent years hiding illegal cannabis fields deep in the mountains and living in fear of US-backed antinarcotics operations that would destroy millions of dollars' worth of the plant.

"It was hard! At least three times a year, US helicopters would come and tear down the crop. In those days, it felt like you couldn't even say the word marijuana because just to say marijuana, you could get arrested," Matthews said.

"We had a song called Helicopter. It was about the panic and franticness whenever you hear the sound of the helicopter," added Matthew's cousin Erasto Robertson, a conservationist and fellow Rastafarian farmer.

"Back then, we had to develop a good relationship with the police. And some would protect us because the policeman sometimes was the son or the brother of the marijuana farmer. They were the same blood, so they were protecting their family and the wealth of their family," Robertson said.