THERE'S A new breed of teenagers. Not the ones interested in deejays, movies and skating rinks, but the ones who are lighting up lighting up ganja spliffs as part of their daily routine.
Harry, 19: Mi a do it from school days, when you study hard, like when you go to college and the pressure start come down, some people draw for a cigarette but weed is a good thing, it calm you down.
Natasha, 19: Weed is a medicine, it can't make you do what you don't want, but if you smoke too much it can make you think all sorts of things, its just that some people's head can't take it...
Will 21: It brings out anything that is inside of you. If you're lazy, it brings that out, it's not really weed that break some people down, it's just their frame of mind, some people are just naturally worthless. For those who want to do their work it will help them. It improves their vibes and reasoning ability and makes the man who smokes it naturally wise.
Lisa, 15: It makes you just sit down and think, it slows you down, meditationwise. If you feel to play ball, you will play good, but if your boyfriend leave you, don't take it, I wouldn't advise it.
Chris, 17: If you think too deep, if you go too far in your thoughts you can't turn back... it's impossible to come back to normal.
names changed on request.
Mitchell's story
Mitchell is only 20, but he has had a long affair with marijuana.
The confident young man, who says he smokes the herb only when he wants to, started using ganja when he was 13 but has seen it widely used in his community from as early as five years old.
"From mi know miself me see dem ah do it. I saw my father with it not smoking it but using it along with rum and peanuts which is used to make a wine. He is always talking about it and saying it is good for certain sickness and swelling and more time when mi uncle come over, him and him friend dem smoke it and so I wanted to do it for myself to find out if it really works," he said.
Mitchell is among thousands of Jamaicans who have been introduced to ganja because their communities regard smoking the herb as naturally as eating rice and peas and chicken.
For many ganja users, their relatives have inadvertently aided their development of a habit, which has remained with them into their thirties and forties and even until death.
Mitchell proudly states that he makes his own ganja tea and enjoys the wine.
"It's nice and very strong. It's a nerve thing and if you going on a job (sex), you'll take a very very long time until you reach there," he said.
In Mitchell's East Kingston community, the use of the herb is highly regarded. "Mi girlfriend mom she ah rasta and she smoke and her mom was smoking from she in her belly. All of the kids she (girlfriend's mother) smoke with and the whole ah dem bright cause it give them more knowledge," he said, although he warns that ganja is not for everybody.
"Not everybody has the head for it. Like this guy I know, it knocked him out cold..."
