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RE: Greetings with love from Zimbabwe
Wow, keep it up! Welcome to Steemit!
Some questions:
- What is the legal status in your country? One tend to think that in countries from Africa drugs must be seen with very bad eyes.
- What does the community think about drugs in general there?
- Does lot of people consume it there?
Yes, all your points are valid and can shape economies like it is happening in lot of places right now, like Oregon, California, Canada, Colombia, Uruguay. We must fight to make it come true.
Big enemies ahead too.
Greetings from Argentina! And good luck in your journey!
Thank you @hijosdelhombre. Wow, Argentina! Greetings right back at you! Well, let me address the Africa issue first then I will narrow it down to Zimbabwe. As you know Africa has many countries and I know a few, particular Southern African ones, Mozambique, Zambia, South Africa, Namibia, Tanzania, Angola, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland.
Traditionally marijuana is not seen as a bad drug but is acceptable for occasional recreational use. Despite being illegal in these countries people generally smoke openly in certain places, many places. Some traditional settlements are even tacitly allowed to cultivate and they smoke heavily, daily. A good example is the Tonga tribe in North Western Zimbabwe who reside along the Zambezi River.
When I have travelled to these neighbouring countries, in urban areas it's very easy to spot a place or a guy who is selling. The tradition is that, where you buy, you roll and share unless if its a place thats in the heart of the city. Violent busts and incarcerations are rare. We smoke together with the policemen and the soldiers but in respectable confinements. You just need to show that you have made an effort to get away from other people then you light up and smoke. Many people sell for years in the same place, known by the community. The community looks down on the abuse of marijuana and certainly abhors any hard drugs and they are hard to come by. I have never seen anyone snorting cocaine but there is an upcoming generation which is beginning to get more experimental with codeine.
Going up to East Africa and West Africa, the few friends I have from Ghana, Kenya, Congo, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan all have long-standing smoking traditions which the law may attempt to thwart in one way or the other but still remains pervasive enough to gain a certain level of acceptance but not encouragement.
I am not too sure up North Africa, but I know Morroco is the biggest supplier of hashish in the world, and many people's welfare is supported by hashish trade. You can imagine how much they smoke it then.
Back to Zimbabwe, our government legalised cannabis for medical, research, import and export in April 2018. I would say that there obvious negative attitudes towards smoking from certain people due to addiction fears and legality issue. Yes a lot of people consume it for recreational and spiritual purposes, medical use is rare and hardly known and there not appreciated by non-smokers.