Cannabis Sativa is probably the most abominated plant ever to exist in the world. As I grew up, bangi, as it is known in Swahili language, was a damnable and most condemned sin in all altars. I din't even get to know what bangi really was before I heard the stunning words, "NEVER SMOKE. NEVER TOUCH, NEVER BREATH AROUND IT!

Even today, I literally veer around a cigarette smoker the same manner you'd an ebola case.

Stories have been told and some I have witnessed of people who smoked weed and started acting bizarre. When I was in high school, a certain boy smoked about two puffs.

The next thing I saw, he had removed his pants and tied them around his waist line calling out deputy principle on a duel right in front of his office! I won't tell the rest of the story. If you were in high school in the nineties, you can pretty guess what happened next!

Weed when smoked, induces an ecstatic feeling which most people calls, 'high'. It is a sense of being nowhere, no worry just a temporary feeling like if the world has ceased to exist and an illusion that you are riding on your problems like a cowboy.

Not that I know the feeling from smoking weed, but I had taken medications before which had the same effect as weed after an angry dentist had plucked out three of my teeth in less than ten minutes!

Weed as well as certain anesthesia drugs have a property known as Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) which is responsible for therapeutic feeling popularly known as, 'high'. There is also another property in weed known as Cannabidiol (CBD).

CS Matiangi highly angry about weed.

Recently, CS Fred Matiangi spoke harshly about a man whom he didn't mention by name, that requested a license to build a factory that, "processes cannabis for pharmaceutical use". Matiangi's intent was good but his ignorance on the topic was extremely diabolic!

Apart from THC and CBD, cannabis has 100 different chemical properties; but the two (THC and CBD) mentioned above have principle medicinal properties.

Am all for cannabis for this one reason; that it could have medicinal properties that could cure certain diseases cheaply and effectively than, 'normal drugs'.

Recreation marijuana?

Yes. More than 25 states in the US has legalized marijuana and more states are gearing up to legalization ending a forever controversy between the weed lovers and the handcuff-wielding policemen.

Canada too, followed suit in putting away shackles for people found in a gutter or at the back of their car smoking weed producing smoke enough to panic a firefighter!

This move met a lot of applause among the weed lovers who consequently filled streets and parks and smoked the heck out of the, 'used-to-be-forbidden-plant'. But this was recreational marijuana, the one that people smoke just for fun.

This means that a man boozing and another smoking weed in the United States or in Canada, are both enjoying their weekend and police can do nothing, but just watch and drive by. Nairobi Governor, Mike Sonko is advocating for this kind of marijuana legalization which is completely different from medical canabis sativa.

Medicinal marijuana

What CS Fred Matiangi, and people who matter in the department of health and interior affairs need to understand is that research has found out that weed has very indispensable medical properties which can actually reduce the cost of treating certain diseases or conditions. Therefore, there is a distinction between recreational and medicinal marijuana!

According to research done by RAND Corporation, a complex research non-profit organization in United States, marijuana can treat various conditions to include:

Alzheimer's disease, Appetite Loss, Cancer, Crohn's disease, Eating Disorder such as anorexia, Epilepsy, Glaucoma, Schizophrenia, PTSD, Multiple sclerosis Muscle spasms, Nausea, Chronic Pain, Wasting Syndrome.

This list of conditions and the fact that cannabis is capable of treating them is incredible and cannot be ignorantly dismissed. In fact, this list is not even at the least, exhaustive.

The list can also be found in WebMD, a popular online medical website that provides, "timely and credible" medical information. WebMD is based in United States and has contributions from doctors all over the world. It also won award for the most reliable medical content in the world of internet!

According to this website, the Federal Drug Agency in the Unites States approved "two man-made cannabinoid medicines -- Dronabinol, (Marinol, Sydros) and Nabilone (Casemet) -- to treat nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy.

It goes on to state that, "the Cannabidiol Epidiolex was approved in 2018 for treating seizures associated with two rare and severe forms of epilepsy, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome."

There are so many other medical research companies including, Arcview Market Research and BDS Analytics that actually weighed on economical factors of legalizing both recreational and medicinal marijuana.

Finally...

All am saying is that weed is not all evil. In fact beer and cigarette smoking can and have had worst nightmares than weed and they have little or no medicinal properties. In fact, according to a research article posted on WebMD, cigarettes' smoking, "affects brain like heroin". The article itself has the same heading: Smoking Cigarettes Affects Brain Like Heroin. The research finds that the 'heroin effect' of cigarettes explains the reason why its so difficult to quit smoking cigarettes "despite all the health dangers" it poses.

People who can make things happen like CS Fred Matiangi and any other future ministers of health and Health CS's, must have an open mind. They should delve into marijuana research before throwing-out-the-window suggestions which, even though they are traditionally known as hazards, could also transform people's lives and bring a new wave of healing.

Our leaders involved in all departments must embrace scientific research. They must find knowledge before they start making ignorant speeches and haphazard decisions. Mixing between recreational use and pharmaceutical use of weed is not an excusable ignorance for people supposed to make serious decisions that can make or break!

This is too embarrassing and in similar situations, this kind of ignorant dismissal could cost the country incredible opportunities from investors thus denying Kenyans possible employment opportunities and even healing opportunities.

As for recreational marijuana, I stand firm with Matiangi. Legalizing recreational weed in Kenya in that, anyone can put their hands on weed and go crazy with it is not really a great idea.

Main reason? We have so many unemployed youth who would really find weed as their, 'safe haven' and consequently ruin their lives without even trying. In the words of an anonymous psychologist; a puff away, a life away!

Plus a country that banned shisha, you cannot expect recreational 'ganja' to become a reality. And no! Jamaicans aren't entirely proud of their weed prowess. Their parliament has severally tried to ban it to no avail. Reason? Too many Jamaicans are severely addicted to an extent if they stopped smoking weed, they'd literally collapse and die on spot! Food for thought!

All being said and none left, weed medicinal properties should not be thrown away together with the chaff of craziness and ignorance!