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A farmer tends to dried cannabis bundle in Ketama, in the northern Rif mountains, Morocco March 12, 2021. Picture taken March 12, 2021.
Non-governmental organisation, World Changers Candidate (WCC) is calling on churches, parents, and communities to unite and take action against the normalisation of drug culture among young people.
This as tomorrow, Easter Sunday, coincides with the globally recognised ‘Four-Twenty’ phenomenon, a day synonymous with cannabis celebration.
The organisation’s chairperson Lucas Mahlakgane says that cannabis users celebrate the day on the 20th of April.
Mahlakgane says they highlight campaigns throughout the year; on days they know escalate the use of drugs, such as international day of Anti-Drug use and illicit trafficking which happens on the 26th of June and similarly, the 20th of April is known as the ‘Four-Twenty’ phenomena.
“This is like a culture that started in the United States of America in the 70s where learners from a certain college used to meet every day after school at twenty past four to smoke weed. And when South Africa, started legalizing weed, that is when the phenomena came to South Africa.”
Parents should not be deceived by their children who argue that cannabis is legal, adds Mahlakgane.
“Weed has taken over from what cigarettes used to be now and more than anything, parents are more ignorant because we attend cases whereby you find that the child is using weed in the family and when the family tries to correct that child, the child will tell them, ‘don’t you know that weed is legal?’ So there’s a lot of ignorance that people don’t realise when they’re saying its legalized – but who should use it and where?”
PODCAST | WCC campaigns against drug culture among youth:
