In one of my WhatsApp groups, there is a raging debate on a controversial subject: Cannabis, the infamous drug. This follows some pronouncements made late last year by some ‘researchers’ that the Arusha region produces the strongest and most deadly Cannabis in the world. Ha!
Members of the group seem to have suddenly become experts on the drug and its global power. Some argue that the most deadly type is from the Caribbean, while others say it is the Ethiopian type, or that from India, Pakistan or China. Even locally, others argue that the Njombe Cannabis tops the chart.
“The arguments are flying left and right, and I am beginning to wonder and worry whether my group is full of ‘bangi’ smokers. It is with this in mind that I decided to do some brief research on Cannabis.”
It will come as a surprise that Cannabis was initially used for fabric and rope in Central and South Asia during the ancient Neolithic age in China and Japan. It is, however, not known when Cannabis was first known for its psychoactive properties.
A cannabis plant.
The oldest archaeological evidence for the burning of the drug was found in Romanian Kurgans dated 3,500 BC. Scholars suggest that the drug was first used in ritual ceremonies by Proto-Indo-European tribes living in the Pontic-Caspian steppe during the Chalcolithic period, a custom they eventually spread throughout Western Eurasia during the Indo-European migrations.
Cannabis was known to the ancient Assyrians, who discovered its psychoactive properties through the Iranians using it in some religious ceremonies. They called it ‘qunubu’ meaning (way to produce smoke), a name which may have given ‘Cannabis’ its present name.
As stated earlier, Cannabis has an ancient history of ritual use and has been used by religions around the world. It also has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes in various traditional medicines for centuries.
It was criminalised in some countries beginning in the 14th century and was illegal in most countries by the middle of the 20th century.
But Uruguay was the first country to legalise it when President Jose Mujica, in December 2013, signed legislation to that effect. A number of countries mostly from the Americas and Europe have since followed suit.
In 2010, the United Nations in its World Drug Report stated that Cannabis was “the world’s most widely produced, trafficked and consumed drug.”
Cannabis, however, has various mental and physical effects, which include euphoria, altered states of mind and sense of time, difficulty concentrating, impaired short-term memory, impaired body movement, relaxation and an increase in appetite.
At high doses, mental effects can include anxiety, delusions, panic, paranoia and psychosis. Physical effects include increased heart rate, difficult breathing, nausea and abnormal behavioural problems in children whose mothers used Cannabis during pregnancy.
No wonder, Cannabis is still very much banned and illegal in Bongoland and in several other countries around the globe.
The author is a veteran journalist and communication expert/consultant
📧 mpumilwa@gmail.com
