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Marijuana: The Intoxication Family’s Black Sheep.

Shitaleni Gustavo

This was the man who told her to sneak out at night and give everyone a reason to smile when her siblings instigated violence and all sorts of mischief. Marijuana wasn’t much of a saint either, whenever she lost herself, she too would become an instigator of mischief and violence. Her mistakes were barely pardoned, just like a song on repeat they would be replayed over and over at family gatherings.

This only further raged her and increased her mischievous deeds. In 2017, her cousins and a group of friends killed over 2.5 million people worldwide and caused injuries to a million more.

In an world of 195 countries, Marijuana’s sisters averaged 12, 820+ deaths in each country, whereas Marijuana as individual killed 32 people in New Zealand in the same year, if we multiply the said number by 195 we get a total of 6 240 deaths caused by Marijuana and friends annually.

Yes, it’s almost two times less than the alcohol deaths in a single country but we can’t justify death and for that reason alone, Marijuana is as guilty as her half siblings.

Having had killed over 2.5 million people in a single year, the three still remain the mass’ favourite, they are the first to get the party invite even before its planned, they arrive at weddings days and weeks before the groom does, they kick start graduation parties, they console the grieving at funerals, they even at political gatherings before the head of the party.

These three have managed to maintain their reputations as the only socially acceptable evil, from their days as the playground villains to being worse than Thanos in Infinity War, something Marijuana has failed to do.

Favouritism has made its way into the parliaments and state houses of various countries, and the same aunts and uncles who preferred the three full blooded relatives over the half-sister made sure their favourite three become available to everyone else, whereas he who falls in love with the half-sister faces the punishment of jail time.

Although not every country follows the same set of rules, most countries do, and Marijuana is perceived as a bigger evil than the three siblings combined and they continue to shut her out of their countries.

But just like her days of sneaking out of the garden to go calm the raged, she finds a way to sneak into countries that declined her entrance, and even though she does contribute to the evil and mischief, she continues to tame the rage instigated by her siblings, she continues to calm the restless.

Marijuana doesn’t go out crying for equal rights or fair treatment, she has no hash tags in her favour, everyone else that tried to be her either fell short or became worse than her evil siblings. She has no movement and she’s no activist, but if she had to protest for equal treatment, her slogan will probably be: #AllFormsOfIntoxicationMatter.

Shitaleni Gustavo is a writer, spoken word poet and a blogger.