Friday, March 29, 2024

There is no medicinal value in Marijuana and there is nothing good about it-DEC

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FILE: An amatuer video producer takes time to smoke marijuana during the  Bob Marley Memorial concert in Lusaka west.
FILE: An amatuer video producer takes time to smoke marijuana during the Bob Marley Memorial concert in Lusaka west.

MARIJUANA has no medicinal value and there is nothing good about it, an official of the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) has said.

Central Province DEC education and counselling officer Nellie Mumba has said youths should not be lured into thinking that marijuana, commonly known as chamba, is good.

“The effects of chamba are very bad,” Ms Mumba said.

Ms Mumba urged young people not to be tempted into testing any prohibited drug as they would “get hooked there and then”.

She said this on a KNC Radio One programme recently.

Ms Mumba said young people are being destroyed because marijuana has devastating effects on a person’s health.
She noted that marijuana does not make pupils or students intelligent as is widely perceived.

“Actually it goes to affect the IQ [intelligence quotient] and this is what is in charge of the intelligence levels in a person,” Ms Mumba said.

Ms Mumba said drugs like cocaine are addictive and their withdrawal symptoms are severe.

She said Government has put in place laws that prohibit cultivation, trafficking and consumption of drugs such as marijuana because they are bad to a person’s wellbeing.

“It is something that has got to be stopped and if there are those who smoke and feel that it’s okay, time will catch up with them because they can smoke for two months, two years but the next second they smoke, they can go into mental disorder and it is very sad,” Ms Mumba warned.

She said among the most common signs that parents should look out for if their children are smoking marijuana is poor self-hygiene.

She also implored members of the public to be free in giving information to DEC about people smoking or dealing in marijuana.

“Our eyes are the public, our ears are the public,” Ms Mumba said. “We depend on them to come and give us information.”

43 COMMENTS

    • IWE Nellie Mumba, what’s your profession? Where do you find the courage and authority to talk so ignorantly about a subject that specialists have spent so much time and money researching? Do you know why some states in the US are legalizing chamba?

      My dear Nellie, the best way to take chamba is when it’s dry and with the lowest moisture content – not mixing it with tea like you did, that’s why you end up making such empty and baseless statements.

    • DEC must research so that everyone is not forced to think that is led by grade sevens. They MUST tell me also the benefit of alcohol?? Beer kills 100s of people while no reported deaths of marijuana.

    • Let the entire DEC listen to Peter Tosh’s song ….Legalise it…. and they will appreciate the values of ichamba

    • Ganja Farmer might be right that alcohol make people faint and worse die of get chronicle illnesses.
      But also I agree with gelo Mumba that most Ganja smokers are dirty.
      Alcohol is better, because you have choises of what is best for you…. whisky, wine, bottled beer, paper packaged, Calabashed, (Utu Jirijiri, Chibuku, Katata, Kachasu etc) But Marijuana no one has ever offered me any choice, except SMOKE. I don’t like smell of burning things even Barbeque!!!

    • Additionally tobacco from cigarettes does far much damage to health and puts far more pressure on gov’t budgets due cigarette related illness…the only reason cannabis is illegal is the can not tax it yet…and LT photos published above of dazed Rastafarians is what gives it bad press…I myself DO NOT smoke it but I know a lot of people of high standing in society especially white colleagues who smoke cannabis it frequently.

    • This is a case of talking before thinking. Ms Mumba Google is your friend! Most oncologist in the USA prescribe medicinal marijuana to curb excessive nausea, lack of appetite and uncontrollable pain. As a matter of fact smoking marijuana makes you mellow not violent. It’s actually better than alcohol!

    • Wanu ngwee, your major sickness is that of believing that anything done in the USA is correct. You belong to the group of those Africans suffering from acute inferiority complex, also known as colonial mentality. DEC is a Government wing which employs people who understand issues of drugs, whether it is chamba or whatever. You are just like that fella Peter Sinkamba who defends legalizing chamba because America is doing so

  1. Nellie Mumba, marijuana is not good and can cause mental health. However, medical marihuana given under a physician’s direction can be beneficial to sufferers of certain diseases. Medical marijuana can be a pain relief under the direction of physicians. Go to the website US GAO and other western websites and read and don’t mislead the public. We don’t have medical marijuana in Zambia. Are you a doctor or are you an expert on marijuana.

  2. DEC is now telling the nation lies. Marihuana is used in medicines. In the some states in the US it has been decriminalized. While I do not support this to be done in Zed I also becry misinforming the nation.

  3. The headline is rather misleading. I was going to say ubufi be DEC, but the content of the story centres on smoking, therefore I have withheld my fire. There is medicinal value in marijuana as others have alluded to above, but if smoked in it’s raw form, as DEC says, it has devastating effects on the smoker.

  4. Matokwani processed and used under medical supervision has medicinal effect.
    Pain due to Rheumatism or other nerve related illnesses can be derived from the herb.
    It can be dangerous if used raw as social recreation drug.
    However,our brothers from Eastern province have been known to be inspired in tiling the land when under the influence.
    One even dug up the Great East road in pursuit of that burrowing dish ‘Mfuko.’

  5. It is actually annoying that part of the headline says, “marijuana has no medicinal value.” Nelie Mumba should have stopped at talking about smoking marijuana. Obviously she is no authority on medical marijuana. Why spout lies?

  6. Nellie Mumba: You are an adult Zambian govt official telling lies! What you are saying stinks like your pu.s.sy!

    Of course there is medicinal value in Marijuana other than for palliative care. Research has already shown that it reduces cancer tumors – now awaiting further tests to determine it full efficacy!!

    Where did you do your research Nellie? What gives wh.or.es like the audacity to chriminalise everything even without understanding or evidence. Are you really normal or another empty headed PF Zambian Official.

  7. Zambia is endowed with more than 5,000 indigenous plants. Some plants are geographically restricted to Zambia, never found anywhere else in the world – and certainly no where in Africa. Some plants are sources of food (fruits and vegetables) yearning to be domesticated and integrated into agroforestry programmes.

    Besides, there are many plants of medicinal values for various ailments. Zambians must stop being parrots by aping the strange American or European cultures just to prove that one is civilised. Marijuana is of Asian origin – not an African plant. The greatest challenge for Zambia is to evolve pharmaceutical research to unravel the potential of many plants of medicinal value. Legalising Marijuana will be an act of national madness.

  8. Legalise it. Even Billy Clinton smoked it. Some European cities have legalised it. It is better than balani fodya

  9. Support yo local team.Its difikot 2 convince some1 who’s bin taking chaamba 4 15yrs without giving proper health hazards.

  10. The Official GRZ stand on Chamba is that its harzadous and their is no controlled aproach to its use in Z that’s what we mean. Get it at your own risk

  11. Natural products chemistry says otherwise. UNZA chemistry department and other experts in the field must come out and enlighten the nation on the medicinal content of marijuana. I am a chemist and I deeply understand this subject area. Marijuana certainly has opiod receptor antagonists. Most of marijuana extracts will function as pain killers not drugs against infectious diseases. Those are alkaloids.

    In this regard, marijuana is medically useful. The question is whether recreational use can be controlled in this country. The benefits of selling medicinal marijuana may be outweighed by the abuse of marijuana for recreational use. It could be dangerous! But let credible debate be there. Not cadreism where people comment with emotions and without knowledge.

  12. Nellie is speaking from open wounds in trying to decampaign us;u won’t succeed. Don’t mislead the innocent. Carry on a research before making null statements.

  13. It is too sweeping a statement. Even the smoked weed has different effects on different psycho-states. Nellie, do your homework. Why is it that Zambia is basically behind the curve when it comes to progressive thinking and legislation updates? Parliament is just a profit-making house (nothing august about it anymore), law enforcement is largely in the 50s, and now DEC is on the lunatic fringe. What a mess!!!

  14. The western gov’ts in the US that taught you that it was bad for you and have arrested an killed/ murdered a lot of black people in the US ghettos for selling are now the selfsame people who are now merely packaging it and making loads of money…very soon they will start selling it to us via their pharmaceutical giants…time to wake up…legalise it.

  15. Nelly, I have been smoking for the past 25 years and I have never developed any side effects. By the way, not everyone who smokes Chamba looks untidy like you.I’m married to your niece and I’m very clean and smartly dressed.

  16. This is the most frivolous,who cares what one person thinks or an entire agency that has a one side opinion,the marijuana plant is the most versatile crop know to man.

  17. This be a lesson to public institutions to carry out necessary training in both PR and technical matters to officers holding critical public offices to avoid Such Kafwafwa. To the rest avoid personal attacks and conclude in a civilised manner. Thanks Zed

  18. I wonder what benefit can be achieved by smoking this herb. Only it’s smoker can support it defensively.

  19. ZAMBIA ZAMBIA ZAMBIA!!!
    Get with the program already!!
    RESEARCH HAS ACTUALLY FOUND THE BENEFITS OF CANNABIS. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean it is not true. Sorry to burst your bubble and here’s the kicker, I am a medical professional who has NEVER smoked pot or even tobacco in my life!!

  20. I never knew that Chamba is so popula ha?

    100% of the commenters seems offended by Ms mumba statement

    Interesting

  21. CHAMBA is the way of every time life. Chamba ba Nellie is good in all aspects. Its a medicine for various ailments when used properly. Chamba is used in one aspect to relieve pain in patients who suffer from multiple sclerosis. Chamba enhances one ability to complete a given tasks to some other people. Chamba is used to heal skin conditions or dermatological conditions.Chamba when combined with milk and fed to a neonatal who suffer from chest conditionsca help dilate bronchioles and a child can breath well.

  22. I have just completed my online accreditation for medical marijuana prescription with the medical council,,,, gosh they are mislead to think that marijuana has medical values! Quickly I will reference them to the great wisdom of Nellie Mumba. Boy, how ignorant these Americans can be!

  23. Miss Mumba is off truck again, I just wonder what kinda qualifications this chap has. Don’t people ever read what is going around the world especially in research issues that involve their work? Why not just do a quick research before making wild statements. Just because they are fighting to control the use of maryjane does not warrant someone especially those considered as professionals to make such unwarranted and unsubstantiated statements.

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