THE question of marijuana rests with the fact that it has been allowed to develop, wooing and damaging our society without any response from the government.

From the mid-seventies when it was packaged in the expression of the Rastafarian cultural advent in Guyana, to then go beyond its initial presence from indentureship, to small exposures here and there, to be enveloped in the untested logic of a philosophy birthed centuries ago in a less wiser world, unhindered, except for a secular penalty of mandatory prison, void of any reasoning from the ‘State’ that was easily shifted in response, to the mythology of ‘Babylon’ against de ‘I’.
Marijuana has been allowed to grow strong roots in Guyana, and can no longer be dismissed. But the territory that Rastafari exists upon is not only occupied by themselves; there are dangerous incursions of Rasta and marijuana imitators who believe in no philosophy but the worship of money. These elements bring a swift destruction to an unwise society, susceptible to the not-so-innocent placebo of weed-smoking habits.
In 2014, I was selected to the ERC, and I sat in discussion with representatives of the Rastafarian community on the question of decriminalising and managing marijuana. I proposed that a community be developed by their group, which they would physically occupy. This is land space I’m talking about. Since they are the ‘poster people’ for the marijuana discussion, they have got to advocate to regulate what they themselves have agreed have become hectic and dangerous, with the presence of chemically- hyped marijuana pushed even to schoolchildren.
Where a plant took nine months to grow, it is chemically dragged out of the ground in six weeks. The Rastafari community must present the collaborative movement with themselves and the State to plant marijuana for their private uses, and to supply for research and other formal purposes.
In my September 15, 2017 article, I outlined the dangers of synthetic marijuana. The architects of this parallel trade are not exclusively ‘Rasta’. Government has to recognise that this is a serious question of health and society; the social impact has so far proven itself, though ignored as a clear statistical issue, which it merits.

NOT FAIR
I have advocated that the mandatory prison term is unfair, as the State has failed to present its educational information case on the dangers of mind-altering substances, which include cigarettes and alcohol, and the current pervasion of dangerous pills hyped as the ‘in thing’ to our bright but not enlightened student corps, which, as with every other mind-altering substance, begins as a party, fun ‘ting’ driven by ego and peer- pressure stupidity, but will impact negatively on the brain development of the young, young adult and the human being in general.
The current administration has the people that can address this issue, and in doing so, diminish the obvious and clandestine drug addict, through informed warnings and applied workable legal mechanisms.
I will make public an incident that occurred in 1979, in South Georgetown. A boyhood friend of mine was part of a sinister bank-robbing enterprise that took him to Linden. A bank manager was killed; he became withdrawn. He was not new to the law-breaking life, but what was new was that a life was lost. He told me he expected to die: “De Babylon in GT gon murder meh.” Then he explained what happened.
Apparently, when he approached the location, he realised that “de man [Bank Manager] was a mystic man. One part stand still, while another part walked off. So he shot at him. I told this weird story to the strangest brother in the area, ‘Deco Mali’, who often claimed to see spectral horsemen and other off-the-wall stuff.
‘Deco Mali’ assured me, “He smoke up de ganja; duh’s why he see mystic things.” I returned to my friend, and he admitted to smoking before they went on the job. The police arrived at his home one afternoon, entered ‘the range’, and though he surrendered, a particular policeman pushed him down over the toilet and shot him behind his head, in front of his younger uncle. Another young policeman walked away from ‘the range’ to the corner, vomited, and sat by himself until the body was brought out among screaming aunts, friends and family members.
The policeman who did that act was later reported to be a man of intense mental illness, and was himself executed by the very police while hiding in a fowl pen on the lower East Coast village where he came from.

DIFFERENT EFFECTS
Marijuana, alcohol, cocaine, even food and the weather have different effects on people. There is no fixed human response formula; but the risks are real and probable. With chemically-altered substances, the danger is real and fatal.
The history of marijuana has several perspectives. It is recorded to have had its industrial, medical and magical origins in ancient China. It is also stated that the Taoists rejected marijuana, because it enfeebled the body when consumed. The scope of this article does not permit even a concise history of marijuana, and the codex of mind-altering botanicals.
What has to be understood is that in many cases, the ancients interpreted hallucinations as real visions into parallel dimensions; we must strive to explain this to our eager minds.
The Learning Channel does have some interesting videos that can definitely help, but what has to be observed and emphasised is the evidence that from Biblical times to the present, mind-altering drug usage among leaders and their societies like the suspect Biblical Prophets, the Romans, Aztecs, Scythians, and modern drug- addicted leaders like Hitler and Jim Jones have relished in egomania, death, gore and mass murder, always proposing to be heeding directions from obviously malevolent higher powers.
This alternate study must be developed for the better understanding of our vulnerable population. The problem will not be wished away; it will only get worse, and the threshold of the worse is already coming up the national steps.