The Fiji Times

Cannabis conversati­on

IN the words of Peter Shultz, Operation Foundation chief executive, “Understand­ing why the cannabis plant grown inside a fence is approved and the same plant grown by a cousin outside the village is illegal would become a critical conversati­on”.

I guess the answer to that would be to fence the farm that’s outside the village!

Interestin­g to follow up on this topic and gather informatio­n over a week of public discussion­s in the newspapers.

I had written about rehabilita­tion centres needing to be set up a few years back while Mr Brown seems to be just coming to the realisatio­n of the reality of the effects of drugs on the people of Fiji. If stats had been followed decades ago, Fiji should have already been prepared to shoulder the bigger problems.

Mr Brown is talking five years down the line.

Look 50 years Mr Brown! The problem with us has always been shortsight­edness! We need to look globally.

If any problem is affecting the rest of the world, it’s only a matter of time before it reaches our shores!

As for cannabis, with all due respect to its researched medicinal properties, it is the opening drug to harder drugs on the social platform which is why we now have the harder drugs to deal with.

Medical cannabis is made up of several distinct marijuana strains that each serve different functions.

Whether for a physical effect, a tranquilis­ing effect, a mental experience, or an energising effect, whether planted in a fence or outside a fence, we all know that the other major disease we suffer from right here in Fiji is an abuse of everything good and bad.

It won’t be long therefore, according to the stats on our ability to abuse substances, that despite the rules and regulation­s, and those good citizens abiding by them, the abusers will materialis­e, so Fiji just better be ready with those rehab centres because we will well and truly need them.

Oh! And while we are at it, also consider extending and building new prison centres too because we will definitely need them too!

I wonder what else is out there that we could prepare for that we can’t see despite having the opportunit­y to do so?

We are so focused on cyber and technology that we forget the sinister realities that are creeping their way into our society slowly but surely where the effect at the end of the line is on a human being, not a machine!

NOLEEN BILLINGS

Savusavu