In one way or another most of us have engaged in the discussion about marijuana. The holy herb which has been glorified by rock-and-roll since the 1950s. In many parts of the world, marijuana is known by different names. According to thesaurus.com marijuana can also be referred to as grass, pot, bhang, cannabis, dope, hashish, hemp, herb, tea, ganja, hash, joint, reefer, roach, weed, Acapulco gold, sinsemilla, doobie, Maryjane and loco weed.
In addition to that marijuana has local names. For instance, in my native Ekegusii vernacular language, Marijuana is called “enyasore”. In fact, the “enyasore” is glorified by some farm workers who say that it boosts their energy and enables them to accomplish more work in little time. This is yet to be proven using scientific methods out there.
In the 1960s marijuana became rock’s basic intoxicant of choice despite it being illegal nearly everywhere in the world.
In the song “You don’t know how it feels,” Tom Petty (1994) argues that “let’s get to the point/let’s roll another joint/and let’s head on up the road/there is somewhere I gotta go.”
Tom is just one among many other musicians such as Neil Young, Small Faces, Fraternity of Man (1968), Steve Miller (1973), Paul McCartney and Wings (1972); Bob Dylan (1966) and Black Sabbath (1971) among others who sang in praise of pot or weed.
Writing for the New York Times, Malcolm Gladwell explores the safety of Marijuana use in a well written article published on the January 14, 2019 Issue.
The National Academy of Medicine is reported to have created a panel of 16 medical experts to review literature on Cannabis. These experts ended up producing a 468-page report documenting their findings.
The report discovered that Marijuana has been proven to have power to treat pain and that is why it is used for medical purposes in the United States of America.
In Chapter five of the report the experts argued that marijuana can lead to risks of fatal accidents. They further noted that there is limited evidence that the drug “can impair academic achievement.” Then why were we told that candidates who consumed marijuana to perform well in their mathematics test performed poorly. This needs to be investigated by our Ministry of Education by conducted randomized trials during the examinations. It will be a bomb shell.
Read more:
- Canada decriminalize Cannabis As from October, 2018
- “Come learn about: Caanan, Cannabis and Almighty God,” advert by Prophet Gwada Ogot
Now that Marijuana is used for medical reasons in the USA, why can’t we have ‘truck-trailer load full of documents with evidence” from the pharmaceutical companies which have introduced these drugs in for human consumption.
The reason why there are not many in-depth studies out there on its effects, impact and medicinal values is because the drug has largely been illegal all over the world. I’m yet find out if there are any scientific studies on Marijuana here in Kenya. I can’t imagine the response from authorities on a PhD thesis focusing purely on the side effects of Marijuana. Researchers will talk of research ethics as one of the reasons why they have not conducted any scientific experiments on ‘enyasore’ or marijuana.
We should talk more openly about marijuana the same way we talk about a tequila shot or a bottle of beer.
Consumption of Marijuana
Researchers have revealed that marijuana can be smoked, eaten, vaped or even applied on the skin.
The end. Thank you for reading.
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