By Makeda Mikael
The Minister of Health needs to call an urgent meeting of Teachers and Parents of our cannabis smoking youth in an effort to remedy an out-of-control situation where our young people are killing their future with ‘weed!’
The weed brain destruction is now compounded by unscrupulous persons who are blending other hard drugs and synthetic imports with the weed sold to children.
Any given day if one takes the time out to be in St. John’s when school lets out, observing the behavior of the youth, it is clearly not just normal children being rowdy and extrovert.
There is a lot of rage even when they humorously rag each other, ticking off physical responses which can easily break into a fight or quarrel, using filthy language with knives and cutlass drawn.
When one considers that Cannabis use was decriminalized as a leg up in exchange for the Rastafari vote in the previous election, the beneficiaries of the Cannabis business laws are the foreign and monied investors.
The Rastafari community whom the laws were expected to impress, are prevented from making real money from the production of the ‘sacrament,’ which cannot be sold, and their children too are stunting their mental growth by the freedom to smoke as much ‘weed’ as they want, with legitimate production all around them.
When the Cannabis Consultations were held by the Government, there were several serious attendees questioning the fallout impact on our youth, demanding that Licenses all have Rehabilitation Center fees built in to protect youth, and persons whose mental stability under the influence of cannabis is compromised.
Whereas discussion established the necessity, the Consultations ended without any consideration, except the Minister of Health promised that the NGOs would be given authority to establish Rehab Centers.
To this day the establishment of one rehab center is still being awaited, while several cannabis licenses have been issued to foreigners, whose cannabis farms help to destroy the brains of our youth.
Rastafari children are not exempt from the ravages of weed consumption, and their behavior in school generally appears somewhat different to their contemporaries, as they are used to seeing their parents smoking the ‘holy herb.’ This however does not lessen the impact on their juvenile brain development.
It is important to expose the additives, synthetic and otherwise, which the vendors are mixing in their cannabis, and which is resulting in madness in our youth.
Where smoking clean weed caused the young boys to slow down and ‘cool out’ the additives which include hard narcotics is driving the youth wild, angry, irrational and violent! Something must be done urgently if we are to save the future generations.
It is a known fact that young men’s brains do not mature until year 25, so the sooner the Minister of Health gets active to save the youth the better for all of us who care.
Cannabis must be controlled as alcohol is, preventing the young people’s access to ‘weed’ even as it is to alcohol, and moreover, those who are lining their pockets earned from Antigua Government Cannabis Licenses MUST PAY FOR THE REHABILITATION CENTERS NOW!
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The youths them always been this way, it’s not since the discrimination of marijuana. Stop blaming everything that happens in society on marijuana. People talking about marijuana how those same people not talking about alcohol.
@1king – She has an axe to grind hence it serves her purpose to forget
You don’t care about the children? You prefer to grind your axe instead of caring for the brains of our children. Support the bid for rehabilitation instead of riling up politics.
EXACTLY!
In my opinion,Children should not be smoking weed.Could that be one of the reasons.Why there are so many fighting among the young ones around the Island.
Weed on a whole should have never been allowed to kids under 18. Same ad alcohol isn’t supposed to be given to minors.
As adults they can choose to do whatever really but since the PM made it with the weed vybe, I see lil 12yr old kids walking pass me in the mornings with spliff well light up and acting like they grown man/woman.
Gone are the days that even parents take pride in their kids and let them know this shit not gonna work. It sets an extremely bad and scary path going forward
It is not a very popular topic to discuss but it must be told. The teen brain is actively developing and continues to develop until around age 25. Marijuana use during adolescence and young adulthood harms the developing brain. and Increase risk of mental health issues. When there young people smokes marijuana, the THC, the primary psychoactive chemical, rapidly crosses the lungs into the bloodstream, where it is then carried to the brain. When THC makes its way to the brain, it acts on specific cannabinoid receptors that otherwise interact with naturally occurring, endogenous cannabinoid substances, which play a role in normal brain development and function, and plays a salient role in kids awkward behaviour.
I think we all can agree on the fact that weed is bad for a child for various reasons. However what it doesn’t do is make children violent. It’s rather the opposite. Weed makes you relaxed, tired or sleepy. That’s why it’s used medical to treat various deseases. So to argue it’s the reason because children get more violent is absolutely rubbish.
Weed sold on Antigua’s streets is blended with stuff which makes the kids crazy and violent.
RIGHT!
My opinion is even though Marijuana is decriminalized an age limit should be placed on it. Not everybody is built the same way and what 14g won’t do to you, it will do to me. Just like sex has a age limit so should Marijuana. The young people are frying their braids “help now”!!! please.
“(2) Where a person found in possession of Cannabis or Cannabis resin is a child, he shall be required to participate in a drug counseling programme approved by the Minister, and the child or his parent or guardian may be required to make such financial contribution to the programme as the Minister may determine see THE MISUSE OF DRUGS (AMENDMENT) ACT, 2018 No. 3 of 2018
@I Love.. Country. There is an age limit (Not for minors ie persons under the age of 18. The said youngsters are using it illegally. Adults are allowed to have in their possession a specific amount ( maximum of 15 grams ) or will be fined on second offence:
commits an offence.
(2) A person who contravenes this section—
(a) on the first occasion liable to a warning from the police;
(b) on a second occasion shall be issued with a violation ticket of $500.00 pursuant to
section 13A and failing to pay the prescribed penalty, a case may be filed in the
appropriate magistrate court relating to the non-payment of the penalty and the
magistrate may order the person to perform community service for such period as
the magistrate determines;
(c) on a third or subsequent occasion be liable on summary conviction to a fine not
exceeding $1,500.
(3) A penalty imposed under subsection (2) shall not form a part of the criminal record of the
person
Here’s some data from a 2017 study:
“”A comparative study of secondary students in 13 Caribbean nations presents an insight into risk behavior’s in Antigua and Barbuda. Lifetime prevalence of alcohol use among the country’s students was 71.1 per cent, and past month prevalence increased by 4.5 percentage points in 2010–2013. When examining linkages
between alcohol use and behavioral problems, the difference between those who never had a behavioral problem and those who often had a problem was 49.7 percentage points, the highest in the region. Past year incidence of marijuana use more than doubled from 2010 (7.5 per cent) to 2013 (16.2 per cent), again
the highest in the region. The perception of harmfulness was one of the lowest in the region for smoking marijuana (51 per cent) and getting drunk (under 50 per cent) (see SITUATION ANALYSIS OF CHILDREN in Antigua & Barbuda, Unicef, August 2017)
Reading this article one spends a second wondering if the writer was just born. I recall many of the same issues in existence before marijuana use was decriminalized in 2018. Studies are easily found showing marijuana use by school children was high in Antigua long before 2018. Read the papers in the countries eg St. Lucia, before sept 2021, and you can only conclude they smoke more marijuana there than any other place in the world (per person). Then there is the leap that the marijuana being used by the our children is legally locally grown? Does the writer have evidence to justify such a conclusion or is this all pushed by her bias? Look the truth is we need to all (churches, families etc..) do more in protecting our children from drugs (Alcohol more so not just marijuana)
Plain and simple…
PPP – Piss Poor Planning and PPM – Piss Poor Management are creating the problems not the plant.
Jumbee_Picknee aka Ras Smood
De ‘ole Dutty Peg🦶🏿Foot Garrat Bastard
Vere C. Edwards
ppl been smoking weed for a longggg time so i would not totally blame the weed. was it this bad before covid? thats my first question. the second was it this crazy before we let them inject our children with something that no one can be held accountable for? so many things we overlook.
No one is addressing the synthetic and other drugs that are being mixed with the cannabis. The brain and in particular a developing one needs proper nutrition. The brain is a 60% fat organ — This simply means that the brain requires good fats to function properly; in addition, vitamins and minerals are also necessary for brain health. The brain is filled with cannabinoid receptors — this is an indicator that we are hard wired for cannabis. I’m NOT advocating for the use of cannabis SMOKING in children; however, to assume that cannabis smoking is the only driver of these behavioural issues in children is faulty.
For example, gluten can negatively affect the brain because it decreases oxygen and can cause inflammation in the brain — aggressive behaviours can be one of effects of gluten sensitivity in some individuals — Bread is a staple in Antiguans diet. Too many childrens diets are filled with empty calories that are of no nutritional value.
The medicinal CBD oils from the cannabis plant may actually be beneficial to these children.
A holistic approach to determine the cause of what’s affecting children is necessary. The problem won’t be solved if the approach is to blame one substance when there is no empirical evidence to support such a theory. I’m willing to bet there are a combination of things behind these negative behavioural patterns.
@Cannabis Indica…your reasoning will never register with those with blinders on, and will Miss the forest for the trees.
There’s an article, in the New York Times, titled: The Link Between Highly Processed Foods and Brain Health.
The findings are not from personal beliefs but from actual scientific studies, data and data analysis over decades.
So, while the Nattering Nabobs, the #KARENS, and the #KYLES, keep pointing their fingers at Rastafari(the Scapegoat) and the youths for the uptick in violent behaviours in the youths things such as cocaine, fentanyl, opioids, pedos, pimps, human traffickers which does more psychological damage to the development of young people’s brains are given the green light to be legal and readily available.
I know one thing is certain, if the Marijuana, weed, grass, pot is taken out of the Scientific Equation which controls HUEMAN behaviour and develop traits(knowing that Psychology is a Science), again take MARIJUANA out of the equation and it results from the altered equation will not vary one iota. Crime will still be rising because crimes are not addressed from a criminality perspective, by from reactive state.
Jumbee_Picknee aka Ras Smood
De ‘ole Dutty Peg🦶🏿Foot Garrat Bastard
Vere C. Edwards
@ Ras Smood, exactly. When someone compares when they went to school to today, it is laughable.
I know I never ate a potato chip nor a pizza in my young days in Antigua. Ours snacks were mostly fruits that grew in ours or neighbors yards. Recess was a part of school and we engaged in physically activities during recess time these activities allowed for the secretion of the “happy hormones.”
Watching TV was rare, they were no computers, ipads, smart phone or internet. The EMF exposure from these devices can affect brain function — and children today are bombarded by these frequencies daily in schools and at home. No safety studies on the negative effects of this exposure in children have been done.There are so much more negativity that children are exposed today — to pretend that there can’t be anything else but ganga affecting childrens behaviour is just ludicrous.
In my profession, I’ve watched children transformed from little devils to little angels just from cleaning up their diets. And I can assure you that GLUTEN is addicting and can cause aggressive behaviours in some individuals — Due to its capacity to reduce 02 to the brain. There is a direct connection between the gut to the brain; and what we eat can affect our brains negatively or positively. Smoking cannabis could also have some negative effects on children; however, someone needs to show us that the children engaging in the outrageous behaviour are indeed habitual cannabis smokers.
@Sugarapple…one thing which drives our thought process in Antigua is #gossip not critical thinking to analyse what is in front of us.
The ignorance doesn’t bother me. I just present a different perspective on the topic which will lead some to delve deeper into the subject.
@ Cannabis Indica a true voice of reason – I always enjoy reading your ANR threads.
Keep up the good work! 👍
Listen, people who smoke marijuana will never see anything wrong with the habit. Plain and simple! Teenage marijuana use is at its highest level in 40 years. Whilst adults with a more developed brain are able to cope with the effects of marijuana smoking and usage, it is devastating the kids whose brain are far less developed and simply cannot deal with its effects. This problem we see now with marijuana and kids never existed when I started the Princess Margaret School in the mid 70’s. Today schools have become battlegrounds where even teachers and principals fears the children. Children are warlike today due to drug use and they have issues with concentration and memory, they are fierce and aggressive, they are also experimenting on other drugs and alcohol, they are engaging in more risky sexual behaviour, they have worsening underlying mental health conditions including mood changes and suicidal thinking. That is where we are today and there is no sugar coating it.
Listen, what make you think anyone on this thread smokes weed? Do you know that CBD oil comes from the Cannabis plant — and that the species Indica is known for its cancer curing ability? Rick Simpson oil (RS0) to be precise. You have no evidence to support what you’re spouting is the cause of behavioural issues in children. Just because you think it’s true doesn’t make it true.
Chemical pesticides and herbicides are sprayed on food now more than when you were a student. These chemical can and does cross the blood brain barrier and can accumulate in the brain. Children are more likely to have trace mineral deficiencies because of soil erosion from those chemical sprays. If a child’s breakfast is a piece of bread with margarine and tastee cheese, there is no nutrition in this breakfast. Tastee cheese is not real cheese. It does not melt when it’s heated, margarine become plastic in the body, it is not real butter. Wheat floor is stripped of most of it’s nutrients and bleached to become white flour. Nutrition place a critical roll in proper brain functioning.
I’m willing to bet that these behavioural issues are NOT prevalent in “Real” Rasta children that smokes.
As I’ve said, I’m not advocating cannabis smoking in children, but I’m not going to demonize cannabis without any evidence. I could say the mRNA vaccines are causing these issues — you would think I’m crazy. Well, I feel the same way about what you’re espousing. You’re opinion is just that, an opinion. Bring the proof if you want to challenge other opinions.
*Plays* not place
People who smoke cannabis/weed are complaining about the additives in weed coming into Antigua and sold. Some have decided not to use imports but buy from Rastaman under the table to be assured of clean weed. No one is demanding to stop the weed freedom, but not for kids, and even adults need to check their sources because bad weed turn people crazy, look around you in St. John’s, the crack heads gone, replaced by new spaced-out young men. I support a Rehabilitation Centers especially now! God save our children!
I only read to where the writer said that the rastafari community are not making any money from Marijuana. That is so far from the truth. From my prospective, they should not be selling it because that was not what they were fighting for when they wanted it to be decriminalization.
When you are living in a lawless society, what type of behavior do you expect from young people.
The Prime Minister, the Governor General, Attorney General and the other labor party ministers do not abide by or respect the laws and they go unpunished.
Look how they almost kill up each other at Fort James labor day gathering.
If you come in my space, Ah punch you in you face. Remember Dat!
Leadership Matters!
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