If anyone asked me to roll a spliff or to differentiate between the varying qualities of cannabis, I would fail miserably. I have never smoked marijuana in my life. The deliberate attempts to stay far from it had hardly anything to do with the plant itself, but rather the ignorant stereotypes that came with it that don’t ever seem to apply to alcohol and cigarettes, both of which contribute to severe health problems.
Growing up, all I ever heard was that marijuana was for people with too much time on their hands, the ones without much ambition. As a practice, we were led to believe it was only for those deeply connected to Black consciousness through the Rastafari movement.
Going through the motions of Dougla identity, I would be lying if I didn’t admit how hypersensitive I was when it came to carefully constructing my image. Avoiding adding layered stereotypes was made to seem very important, either for the sake of remaining accepted or ensuring the Good Black ideology never slipped.
When I later left home for university, imagine my shock when doing assignments over Skype with a friend and she calmly demonstrated how she was rolling her “biftee’’ as she called it. The casualness and the openness still leaves me floored to this day. I wondered a lot where she had gotten that sense of freedom from, when I still couldn’t seem to divorce myself from ignorance. I pondered a lot on how I was socialised to carefully, consciously and unconsciously, demonise practices and legitimise behaviour dependent on which race group it was coming from. For context my friend is Caucasian.
In Guyana, like so many other former British colonies ( India, Mauritius, Jamaica etc ) cannabis was seen as a threat during colonial times. Popular among the labouring/working class and out of fear it would potentially leak over into Britain, marijuana was prohibited in the UK in 1928. One MP openly said, “lunatic asylums of India are filled with ganja smokers”. It is not hard to see why the citizens of countries under social, cultural and economic control would create a prickly bond with tradition and practices.
There are many stereotypes and misconceptions surrounding cannabis but I think the biggest one is that it is only favoured, popular, among one race or in one particular place. This is most definitely not the case.
In India, Bhang, an intoxicant which is derived from the leaves of the female cannabis plant, is said to be the preferred and favoured plant of Shiva a Hindu God also known as Hara. It is believed that the use of Bhang by Shiva aided his focus and helped consolidate his divine powers to use for good in the world. In sacred texts, it is known as one of the five most sacred plants in the world and a tool for liberation. With such realities it’s not hard to imagine why Britain would have been intimidated by its colonies and the heritage of its natives.
Bhang is sometimes added to Thandai, a special Indian drink served during Shivratri and Holi. It is also used in deeply religious parts of India where it is a norm to see holy men referred to as Babas smoking bhang directly from a pipe; the use of cannabis has been here from time immemorial.
Naturally, most of these realities are hidden, rewritten and bent to create narratives that we spend a long time trying to unravel and understand. Though Guyana has passed legislation which allows for no prison time for those found with less than 30 grammes of cannabis, there are still loopholes through which it almost feels as if it’s demonised in a different way. As the law determines, one will still have to come into contact with state authorities leaving room for further stigma and stereotypes to swell.
Part of the legislation reads: “In addition, the offence of handling any package, container or other thing which contains a quantity of cannabis not exceeding fifteen grammes, is now punishable by mandatory counselling for a period determined by the counsellor. Where the package, container or thing has a quantity of cannabis or any substance held out to be cannabis which exceeds fifteen grammes but does not exceed thirty grammes the offence will now be punishable by community service which includes a public work under the Extra-Mural Work Act, Cap. 11:02, for a period not exceeding six months in relation to cannabis and a period not exceeding three months in respect of the substance.”
I may most likely never try cannabis, even though I do enjoy the secondhand smoke at festivals and on the streets of Amsterdam. However, the reality remains that we are still very much stuck in a time where our choices are hardly ever our choices, but rather what we have been socialised to think and feel.
