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Talent Gore Features writer —
Marijuana is considered by many to be a gateway drug. This means that its use could potentially lead to habitual abuse of other illicit substances and addiction.

Traditionally, marijuana is inhaled through smoking. However, in more recent times, those who partake in the drug have resorted to other inconspicuous ways of consuming it.

Cakes made with marijuana as part of the ingredients, more commonly known as weed cakes, have become ways in which teenagers and young adults are discreetly using marijuana.

The effects are as devastating as if one had inhaled.

Sixteen-year-old Rosemary Chitanda (not her real name) of Ruwa on the outskirts of Harare was left devastated after her first and only encounter with weed cakes. The young high school student was lured by her male friends to eat the cake which is trending amongst youths.

According to Rosemary, within half an hour she began to hallucinate and lost control of her senses.

“I was hanging out with my friends at one of their homes when one of the guys who were there offered me some cake.

“It looked like chocolate cake and he said they had added something extra that would make me feel happy. I was curious to try it out and had a rather large piece.

“It tasted different from regular cakes and he told me that was because of the weed they had put in. I didn’t know what to expect but I didn’t panic either,” she said

Half an hour later Rosemary said she started feeling lighter and her vision became blurred.

“I started having hallucinations and seeing different colours. I began laughing uncontrollably at anything and everything, even the TV which was switched off I found hilarious.”

“Maybe an hour later I became afraid my parents would find out what I did. My throat became very dry and I found it hard to breathe.

“I drank water because I was feeling very thirsty and had a few litres but they would not kill the thirst,” she said.

Rosemary said she recalls being confused and failing to distinguish between reality and fiction.

“The situation got worse and I thought I was going to die. My friends were laughing at me and the way I was acting but I was really scared,” she said.

Drugs have a capacity to destroy lives and are difficult to let go once one gets addicted to them. In Rosemary’s case she was fortunate that her first experience was traumatic and became a major deterrent to future use.

Marijuana is a major drug of concern in Zimbabwe and a fight against it has been necessitated by the fact that many youths and elderly persons are wasting away.

Many youths now prefer weed cakes because they want to be “high” for a long time.

Head of the Mental Health Services and Substances Abuse (Drugs, Alcohol and Tobacco Control), in Zimbabwe Mrs Dorcas Sithole said weed cakes have the same effects or impact as smoking marijuana.

She explained that marijuana is associated with schizophrenia, psychosis and a number of mentally related illnesses in Zimbabwe and worldwide.

“Marijuana can trigger bouts of hallucinations and paranoia and one might end up in a hospital. More so when ingested in the form of these weed cakes.

“When you eat marijuana, it goes into your blood stream. Because it goes into your blood, eating it causes the high to last longer, but also takes longer to take effect. When you smoke marijuana, the high is almost instant, but it doesn’t last as long as when you eat marijuana,” she said.

Mrs Sithole added that often in drug abusing households, children drop out of school and start abusing drugs as well. They subsequently fail to get employed when the time comes and will consequently become criminals in order to get money to buy more drugs.

Children of drug abusers are often mistreated or neglected as a result of their parent’s preoccupation with drugs.

They are physically or emotionally abused and often lack proper care, and necessities such as food, water, and shelter.

“Eating weed cakes is part and parcel of drug abuse. It has grave effects since it does not only impact negatively on individuals but the whole community.

“Drug abuse affects not only individuals, their families, workmates, friends, businesses, Government resources but the society as a whole.

“Marriages and families crumble as a result of parents abusing drugs and leads to them failing to provide the necessities for the family.

“If the cycle is maintained no one will work to contribute to the country’s economic growth,” she said.

Apart from sending you to jail, drug abuse brings a myriad injurious penalties which include ill-health and ultimately death. Depending on the method of administration of a drug abuse can also result in contraction of needle borne ailments like hepatitis or HIV/AIDS.

Consultant psychiatrist, Dr Dixon Chibanda said inhaling or ingesting marijuana affects brain activity and can cause people to act differently.

“What happens when a person smokes marijuana or eats weed cakes is that it goes to the brain, and one starts to act abnormally.

“Marijuana has a similar structure to brain’s chemical messengers and this similarity allows the drugs to ‘fool’ the brain’s receptors and activate nerve cells to send abnormal messages,” he said.

“People often use drugs as a way to overcome their depression,” Dr Chibanda added. “But in reality, the drug use can often worsen the situation.

“Drugs contain chemicals that sneak into the brain’s communication system and disrupt the way nerve cells normally send, receive, and process information.

“They either imitate the brain’s natural chemical messengers or over stimulate the ‘reward circuit’ of the brain,” he said.

National Police Spokesperson Chief Superintendent Paul Nyathi said while they were aware of these new discreet methods of using marijuana in weed cakes, they were still to establish the number of cases encountered concerning weed cakes.

“I can confirm that there have been cases across the country involving weed cakes, but we still have to establish the number of cases recorded altogether.

“These cakes are very dangerous and if anyone happens to be caught in possession of them, they will face the full penalty of the law,” he said.

Section 155 of Zimbabwe’s Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 09:23, states a dangerous drug means any coca bush, coca leaf, raw opium or cannabis plant, prepared opium, prepared cannabis or cannabis resin.

In Section 157 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 09:23, says it is unlawful to possess, use, ingest, acquire, smoke, deal in, consume, cultivate drugs. Anyone who manufactures dangerous drugs shall be guilty of an offence.

In some countries possessing marijuana is a serious crime and attracts life imprisonment or a death sentence.

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