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People need IEC on industrial hemp legalisation

Recently, there has been, and there seems to continue to be heated debates on Indian hemp, commonly known as chamba. Almost every Malawian, including children, knows what chamba is all about. The reason is that chamba is associated with influencing bad behaviour arising from the mental effects of the chemical (Tetrahydro

cannabinoids) found in chamba on the brain. Of course, that is the sore reason those who indulge in chamba smoking want: a buzz due to effect of Tetrahydro-cannabinoids on the brain. I guess the problem is when it is oversmoked, common of drug abuse.

The other problem with chamba as a drug is that it is very addictive. There are many chamba smokers in Malawi, some of them holding high positions in respected organisations who are said to still be smoking chamba up to this time.

In environmental health, there is an area of study called Environmental Toxicology. Basically, this area of study involves understanding the negative effects of some naturally occurring chemicals, usually found in plants, on human health. These naturally occurring plant-based chemicals are scientifically known as xenobiotics. The study basically involves understanding the nature of the chemicals, how they enter the body and how they cause the effects, including calculating the doses above which effects can occur, otherwise known as allowable daily intakes (ADI).

In public health, this is very important because such pieces of information form concepts for Information, Education and Communication (IEC), which help people understand, in this case, the drug itself and its specifications, dangers of taking such drugs and limits of consumption if they are not to suffer from such effects.

Several people have joined the debate on legalising chamba, some for and some against, including Chancellor College students and professor  of economics Ben Kalua, and a certain musical band which is said to have proclaimed on stage the need for legalising, not only chamba growing, but even smoking.

This sentiment by the band and one radio phone-in programme on the same made my day and I laughed my lungs out. It clearly showed me how naïve and ignorant most Malawians are. We are a nation that jumps and comments on issues we don’t know, let alone, understand to look like we are clever. We are a people who do not want to recognise those that know and listen from them.

The fact of the matter is that the chamba which my good MPs and professor Kalua supported is not the same chamba that these fellas smoke. Nooo. They are completely different. Even if government was to legalise the growing and trade of this industrial (repeat) hemp, the band and the chamba revellers would not benefit because it is not the weed that they smoke during ganja time.

Facts of the matter are that industrial hemp contains only about 0.3 percent-1.5 percent THC (Tetrahydro cannabinoids, the intoxicating ingredients that make you high) while the marijuana they smoke contains about 5 percent – 10 percent or more of Tetrahydrocannabinoids. In order to get a buzz, one would need to smoke 10 or 12 industrial hemp cigarettes over a very short period of time.

I hope those who were supporting the legalisation of the growing of Indian hemp while salivating for marijuana now know that these are two different plant species.

It is pathetic that one radio station carried a full debate without even sharing these simple clarifications.

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