How marijuana use affects the African Child
Victoria Seiketso Sethibe | Thursday June 16, 2016 15:54
Currently, one of the most pressing struggles of the African child, although this is not only an African problem, is addiction to marijuana, among other illicit drugs.
In Zaria, Nigeria 9.4% of 15 to 19 year old secondary school youth reportedly smoked marijuana (Shebu & Idris, 2008). On the other hand, 10% of self-confessed marijuana use among adolescents were reported (Peltzer & Ramlagan, 2007).
These percentages may seem insignificant but they show high prevalence if translated to real human figures and those who get affected through passive smoking. In Botswana, abuse of marijuana by youth is reported through media, especially newspapers, almost on daily basis.
This also just shows how much of a problem it is in the country. Below are some of the ways in which marijuana use defeats the whole purpose of an African child having access to quality education.
Restrictions on education through:Declined memory
Smoking marijuana undoubtedly lowers adolescents’ ability to retain and recall information. This can be easily evidenced when you randomly ask a marijuana addict to recall some of the key points from a discussion they initiated the previous day and they suddenly appear confused and surprised. Even research has proved that occasional use of marijuana can cause memory problems that can last for some days after smoking (Jensen, 2015).
What this means is smoking marijuana definitely acts as a hindrance on academic performance for school going youth in that the addict develops the tendency to forget easily.
Depression
Just like other illicit drugs, marijuana tends to have some mood enhancing effect on its smokers which makes them appear suddenly happy and excited. Extended use of this drug builds dependency or addiction. When sober, marijuana addicts appear withdrawn and sad.
When they manage to quit, they become subjected to high risks of experiencing mild to severe depression (Jensen, 2011). Depression puts schoolgoing youth at high risk of absenteeism or withdrawal from school, hence limitation to education.
Hallucination
Hallucination makes people see images and believe those images are there before their eyes when they are actually are not there. This state of mind defeats the whole effort of accessing education because it affects attention in a negative way. Marijuana addicts have a tendency to display inattentiveness especially when hallucinating. Interestingly enough, it seems like marijuana addicts usually have a passion for art and graphics and are somewhat artistic people. However, this does not mean that when a young person shows aptitude and interest in art they necessarily smoke marijuana. It seems that adolescents smoking marijuana can easily communicate what they are seeing through drawing or painting. There is a general belief that smoking marijuana can lead to more creativity and expression, something I believe is misguided.
Crime
Marijuana addiction makes it hard to escape criminal offences for a number of reasons because it is illegal, an expensive habit and adolescents may feel inclined to start to sell marijuana in order to make money. The implication is that addicts sometimes find themselves under pressure to steal money in order to finance their addictive needs. Or, even if they can afford this expensive habit they still face a high risk of being caught by the police and being arrested. Or even worse, they get sucked into the dangerous world of drug-dealing. All of these factors can obviously lead to criminal charges which in turn, can lead to loss of access to education.