It’s holy. It heals. Legalize it.

If you’ve ever read a public notice that concludes, “By Order” and never understood what that means; I bet the past 14 days have given you more than an understanding - comprehension – and that’s all I have to say about that. Said like a true Executive huh? I wish I had that kind of authority because I’d have long declared “Legalize it in Swaziland”… and that’s not in reference to Valentine’s Day but Marijuana.

Marijuana is called ‘the holy herb’ so our national status as Christians shouldn’t be under any moral threat. Seriously though, world over, medical researchers agree with what my forefathers knew all those centuries ago, that marijuana has exceptional medicinal properties that can heal even the most painful and deadly of diseases like Cancer, Kidney failure, Epilepsy and Diabetes.

The other day in Manzini, I bumped into a relative that I hadn’t seen in quite a bit. She looked so frail in her black attire…too weary for her age. I wondered if it was because she was terribly missing her husband for whom she sported that black garb. It was that and more. She has an additional thorn to her life. Not much of a life really by her own admission.

My Aunt suffers from kidney failure and requires weekly dialysis at the Mbabane Government Hospital. She sits through four hours of dialysis with each weekly visit. Allow me to say that again – she sits through four hours of dialysis EACH and EVERY week. That’s after travelling through at least two public buses each way from kaHhohho.

Even with the thoughts of all these logistics and travel cost implications rushing through my head, it made me happy to hear that the medical attention she requires for her chronic ailment is available and accessible to her. That was until she mentioned the cost of each four hour session – E900.00. My gaping mouth almost touched the hem of her black skirt – “E900.00 each week?”

“And you still need pills right? And food…good food. How is this even sustainable when you have no steady source of income? Even if you did, that would probably be all of it to medical expenses? What life is this?” I asked; not her in particular but she replied anyway, “Imphilo yekufa sisi” (I’m a dead woman walking child).  

A necessary medical intervention

And yet the truth is that there are equally effective (if not better) means to manage chronic diseases like kidney failure. 

I believe with Swaziland’s vast marijuana fields, the manufacture of medicinal products like hemp oil could save a significant chunk of our population, if only these fields were legal and permits granted for this purpose. By significant chunk I’m alluding to the estimated 220,000 Swazis living with HIV. 

Many clinical trials have reportedly found that marijuana oil is highly effective in reducing the effects and symptoms of HIV. It’s said to have the same pain-soothing effects on cancer - including prostate cancer (I just have to throw this in here for the patriarchs; after all it’s them who make our laws).

In a previous column I briefly mentioned my personal testimony to the healing power of hemp oil. In 2014, I resisted a medical specialists’ advice for my then 3year old son to undergo a third surgery for his ENT (ear, nose and throat) issues. He faced the ENT surgical knife in the first and second years of his life. I know.

I dreaded bedtime. It was horrendous – he would go for up to six seconds without breathing and this happened every other minute of each and every night. It sounded like he was pulling cowhide and was always tired the next day from lack of sleep. So was I. ‘Sleep Apnea’ is what Google said about his condition before she also told me that if left untreated, Sleep Apnea causes heart failure, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke and depression amongst others.

Only 10ml of hemp oil later (taken with copious amounts of water over a 6month period), my son is like Shaka Zulu on Durban poison during the day and as quiet as a church mouse by night. The best part is that, unlike the hospital surgeries, this 5ml was a once-off treatment. 

This is one of the reasons why I applaud the South African parliament for persevering with the Medical Innovation Bill through which now the Department of Health will ensure that access to medicinal marijuana is affordable and available to anyone who needs.

What clinical researchers have also found (the ones that the media will not tell you about) is that drugs like your regular painkillers from the pharmacy are a major gateway for harmful chemicals to get into your body. This means it’s true what my pain-killer popping Aunt says; she’s a dead woman walking, caught in a vicious cycle.

Curbing Unemployment

A vicious cycle of nothingness is what Sifiso Nhleko and his wife Nompumelelo are also caught in. The couple was in the news this week after being disqualified from the army recruitment exercise. Nompumelelo was disqualified for being a mother of two and her husband for living with a disability (he’s on a wheelchair).

Sifiso has a 2008 Diploma in Computer Science but unemployed. In his words, “Since I have a certificate, I felt I would be accepted in the army and do other types of work, which do not require any fitness levels within the force.” Dololo!

I know many other young unemployed fathers who’ve actually asked me, “What do people like us who, because of our rural life social circumstances which have forced us to have ‘half’ an education, do to carve a good future for ourselves?” Shrug.

Imagine if Sifiso and these other young men could at least grow the herbs that could sustain the livelihoods of their families and preserve the lives of others…with dignity and purpose…