–measure the human casualties first

MIND-altering substances have always been a part of human culture, but never before have we been in a position to weigh the consequences as we are today.
I was in school when I confronted the first physical manifestation of addiction; the music at the time was Santana’s ‘Black Magic Woman’.
The followers of the local ‘hippie’ movement, ‘Pop-along’ gathered on D’Uurban Park, shredded their bell bottoms and painted slogans like ‘SATAN’S EVIL WAYS’ on their shirts.
I traversed from the Coast, where I lived with my godparents and went to school, to my father’s relatives in West Ruimveldt. Nicky ‘A’ was the first addict I knew; he seemed far out and always hyped happy, with his trendy bell bottoms and slogan- covered treads. My godfather subscribed to, or bought, ‘LIFE’ magazine which was full of Vietnam pics and stories. My godfather told me that the US Marines were given ‘pot’ to enable them to survive in combat, and that they would never be normal again. The latter registered with me. ‘Pot’, of course, covered everything on the mind-altering menu.
Nicky ‘A’ remained a tortured appendix to his mom, and died much older and still addicted.
Last week I lost an admired friend. Ray Hunt was one of the best street fighters of south Georgetown; a one-time force of physical fitness. I and others learnt a lot from this elder brother while he was in his prime.
Ray Hunt, like numerous others, became a Rasta and changed the course of his life. He admitted to me in a conversation a few years ago of experiencing paranoia and hallucinations overseas as a result of marijuana use. I told his older brother, Leroy, and I think we both considered it something of the past.
The symptoms of his introverted mood, and developed isolative custom; strange but undefined to untrained minds, but significant as in keeping with common medical knowledge on the marijuana habit, quote as follows:
“THC overactivates certain brain cell receptors, resulting in effects such as: Altered senses; changes in mood; impaired body movement; difficulty with thinking and problem solving; impaired memory and learning.”

THC IN MARIJUANA
The amount of THC in marijuana is now greater, since its commercial potential has bordered on greed levels. This brother passed from the effects of a stroke. How much of it has to do with the retreat into excessive marijuana usage cannot be dismissed, because we have witnessed this before.
No area of this country is without its records of substance abuse destruction; south Georgetown has constant episodes. I personally know dozens of young brothers and sisters whose lives were destroyed by marijuana and cocaine addiction, and the false spirituality and pusher hype that was used.
I don’t speak from hearsay; I lived in West Ruimveldt, in a home where marijuana was pressed for export. I know the people and the casualty list. Certain music is not played in my moments of solitude because of the memories archived, and the fact that many of the faces that appear on the memory stage are untimely dead, while others live broken lives.
Now, a new dimension has emerged. A few days ago, a friend witnessed a known Guyanese journalist who has lived a long time overseas but is now restlessly exiled in Guyana, telling schoolchildren on Smyth Street to use marijuana because it can help them pass exams.
To escape Guyana, he appears to have decided to be the local Pied Piper for Ganja addiction. My friend also referred to another operation at Leonora, where a supposed aerated drink seller is filtering marijuana to schoolchildren, using the same lies.
Our children need to know that the formula for learning begins with the atmosphere created at home by parents; the availability of the tools for research and references and the student’s own efforts, coupled with solid nutrition.
There’s no drug that can empower the mind to enable effortless passing of exams. THC in marijuana is destructive to the development process of young people. “It can change the way the developing brain grows,” says Dr. Raphael Mechoulam in the June 2015 edition of National Geographic.
“In some people, cannabis can provoke serious and debilitating anxiety attacks,” he said, adding that studies also suggest that “cannabis may trigger the onset of schizophrenia among those who have a genetic predisposition to the disease.”
I told this brother that this can happen, because, since the proliferation of marijuana and cocaine in this country, the State has not seen it necessary to implement as yet an effective education programme directed at our young people, to inform them of the down side of this drug. For, it is a drug; as is tobacco. We did little to inform our humanity about the dangers of tobacco either, but borrow from the North American anti-smoking campaign.

FOR WANT OF FUNDING
I have before protested the laws on marijuana, when there is nothing philosophical from the state to justify it. I founded RESCU, a substance abuse group that used to visit schools, which has halted because of funding and no response from the entire international and local entities that should have been concerned.
I still maintain the RESCU Facebook page.
Marijuana undoubtedly has potential for the treatment of ailments, as long as the positive/negative components can be separated: THC from CBD. But not in its ‘Pot usage’. Ailments that include Glaucoma, Crohn’s Disease, Inflammation, Loss of appetite, Tourette’s syndrome and Asthma. We make our national dish [credit to our Amerindian brothers and sisters], the pepperpot, from casareep, which is made from bitter cassava. But the lethal poison in the bitter cassava has to be first skimmed off in the process of making the casareep, before the product is useful. This is the balance of nature with all things.
There’s another player on the stage that our authorities have to take into deep focus: The presence of ‘Synthetic Marijuana’, said to have been developed in China.
This is lethal stuff, and carries the following severe disposition: Agitation, vomiting, hallucinations, paranoia, tremor, seizure, chest pains, cardiac problems, stroke, kidney damage, acute psychosis, brain damage, and death.
This product is also competing on our local market, and from what experienced brethren have concluded, it is becoming difficult to differentiate this robot plant from the almost normal.
Even the so-called normal itself is subject to fast growth chemical methods. Because of its medical potential, I support a seriously local management of the cultivation of cannabis.
We have witnessed the ‘Free-fuh-all ganja hustle’ and its damage toll. It has not slipped observation that in crime reports, the impact of drug addict crimes and direct drug hits are not highlighted and are dumped into ‘Crime’ while references are made to robbery under arms, etc.
It must be realised that 80% of this population who have struggled, and are still struggling, with addiction in their homes and with family members, whom in many cases they have released to the streets because of helplessness, are paying attention to what can easily become worse case scenarios of ‘Russian Roulette’ with their lives, especially since their underaged children are targeted.
The members of society who make these issues their causes, have not lived their nightmares; nor have they witnessed or do they care about most of what I have written in this letter. When dangerous issues become socio-political opportunities, the sincere in the midst may not even realise what is transpiring; that there is little concern for those who will inevitably get hurt.