I do not smoke but strangely, like the act of smoking, smokers look so cool especially when they look up and blow out some of the poison that they had just inhaled.
As a kid I often secretly played smoking and like many other young kids, smoked paper and put a lit match stick in my mouth just to puff out smoke. Thank God it stopped at that. And the fact that I had a role model mother was enough reason to stay away from such.
Getting to the higher institution, another level of smoking was in vogue, smoking of weed, the closest I came to it was the rumour that the punch drink that was served at the year one students welcome party was laced with Indian hemp and that was the end of school parties for me.
I watched a few friends especially guys try the weed, I knew that experimenting with that would only be in my dreams, once St. Moritz made me feel high and dizzy at the same time; it left me wondering what "guff" would have done to me.
I recently had a chat with some friends of mine; we all agreed that there's a rising drug problem in Nigeria and the authorities are not doing enough to curb it., we also discussed some of the immediate effects of weed.
Some of them shared their weed stories;
While in the University, Vivian gave in to peer pressure and smoked weed with her friends. She slept from that afternoon till evening of the next day, her friends took her to a restaurant when she woke up and she ate three plates of swallow and then a plate of rice. An older student who was there called her and warned her never to try it again. He said he could identify any body who had just tasted the forbidden leaf the for first time.
Bashorun narrated his experience "I remember back when I was a dope head (early days of university) I always had to do a Chioma Ajunwa to cross a gutter in front of my flat.....I dey fear say I go land for inside gutter so I go jump well.lol.
Ogueri's first time he removed his shoes and clutched them to his chest, according to him his legs were telling him to run so he took off his shoes to stop his legs from running.
Ogo's first time was hilarious. "I couldn't jump down from the window sill of an uncompleted bungalow. The distance looked too high! And the bastards (my friends) left me there for 10 mins. I was holding on to the wall for dear life lest I fall to my death" hahaha
According to Micheal, "I had dreamt weed for a long time till I found myself in a room where my friends smoked. I got higher than the smoking participants. There and then I knew it was not my destiny". Hahahaha
I learnt that at least seven out of ten teenagers will try smoking weed a.k.a. igbo, ganja, eja, kukuye, guff etc. For this rrason, I'll intensify my prayers over my boys and also keep saying to them that "the fear of ganja is a valid kind of fear. No big boy or big girl here, let's teach our children to say no to drugs!!
My house helped smoked at my mother's burial with the guys that were digging the grave. She climbed a very tall coconut tree in my compound. and began to cry uncontrollably saying that if my mum did not wake up from death that she will not come down or she will jump and kill herself. We pleaded with her for hours, when she came down she became too violent and destroyed all the louvres and doors. Eventually drank one bowl of soaked garri and slept for 2 days. That was how I was messed through out the burial, I had no help.
ReplyDeleteFor no just cause I never really liked to "fuck" (pardon my french) with my brains!... I always liked to be in control of my mind (I would say!)... My mother never talked about/against it. Lost my father early in life, traveled, lived and studied in Britain at seventeen, yet for inexplicable reasons,I just wasn't interested in trying it out!.... As a fully grown man, adult and in late forties I was once with grown peers in Lekki... Our host and friend drove out momentily and came back with something wrapped in a small nylon bag and there was jubilation as they were throwing it up and catching it as it fell and surprised at their excitement I asked what is that!.,, They mentioned something... I said,... I don't understand!... They called another name!... I still didn't understand... Then one said Marijuana!... Surprised and agape,... I said... You guys smoke it?... They said yeah!.., and baffled...I asked,... At this age??? They all quietly left me down at the sitting room and moved up to the penthouse to smoke... After that day, they never wanted me in there crowd....I wondered what these guys tell their children!!!... PERHAPS IT WAS MOTHERS PRAYERS!... I DON'T KNOW!
ReplyDeleteNever fancied it as a child and till date never seen anything good about it. Those days it used to be in vague, smoking was one of the apparatus to measure a big boy from a jew man but now I feel the awareness of the consequences of smoking is high for people to know that there is no much gain in it. I see these guys around my office sit morning and night to sniff it looking all black and I wonder how their inner organs would look like. They are grown adults and have chosen that path, I don't castigate nor judge them rather i pray for them. Like Amaka said we advice our children, teach them the dangers of it so they would flee from it.
ReplyDeleteI have a brother in his late forties that said he started smoking as a teenager. The experience is.......better imagined.
ReplyDeleteLike Amaka said, let's pray for our children earnestly and also use everything to teach/ point them to Jesus.
God help us
I have a brother in his late forties that said he started smoking as a teenager. The experience is.......better imagined.
ReplyDeleteLike Amaka said, let's pray for our children earnestly and also use everything to teach/ point them to Jesus.
God help us
Nice .
ReplyDeleteGood one
ReplyDeleteMy people, illicit drug is a major problem in our society today, especially with children & minors. The menace is as bad as children in primary 3 smoking Indian hemp & various other substances of abuse. It knows no class & no one's child is immune as kids are vulnerable & will always mingle unchecked in their schools where they are susceptible to peer pressures, especially in the hands of wayward bullies, who are often ironically the influential in-crowd.
ReplyDeleteMy organization, an NGO, is actually seriously doing something about it. It's called Mass Initiative for Non-illicit Drug Society (MINDS). We came up with very awareness & sensitization programs specially for children & young adults, but we are being hindered by a myriad of challenges, especially the attitudes of our people towards social menace which oftentimes is very discouraging.
Our research showed that about every social vice & crime are associated or connected to drug abuse.
We really need help, not just as an organization propagating a sane humanity, but as a society that is rapidly racing towards a calamitous social epidemy at full throttle.
We need all hands on deck.
Our NGO need all the support we can get including quality volunteers. You may wish to visit our website www.minds.life or send us an email via info@minds.life.
Amaka, you did well to bring on this topic. Really, the fear of drug is the road to life with meaning.