₦airaland Forum

Amid economic problems, an increasing number of Nigerian youths are turning to marijuana as a means of escape. Many of them are resorting to the use of edibles infused in pastries and other foods which are offered to friends, minors and even unsuspecting people, leaving behind a trail of consequences in their wake, writes VICTOR AYENI

With a warm smile, Mark Osagie extended a welcoming handshake as he gracefully opened the door and gestured for our correspondent to enter.

Osagie’s friend, Joe, sat on one of the couches, half-absorbed in a Netflix action movie, its booming soundtrack filling the well-furnished apartment.

Most Sunday afternoons, the 33-year-old Lagos-based logistics manager hosts his friends for lively house parties which often stretch into evenings.


In a corner of the glass centre table in the dimly lit living room, this reporter spotted small transparent packs containing what appeared to be marijuana and other substances wrapped in brown paper.

“These are different brands of weed and those wrapped ones are colorado,” Osagie said with a wry smile, in response to our correspondent’s inquiry.

Weed, variously known as marijuana, loud, grass, hemp, or reefer, is made from the dried buds and leaves of the cannabis plant. In local parlance, colorado is a name given to a drug derived from potent synthetic cannabinoids.


In Nigeria, the possession of cannabis is illegal and is punishable by a minimum sentence of 12 years in prison. In serious trafficking cases, life imprisonment may be imposed.

“The difference between weed and colorado is a matter of intensity,” Osagie told Saturday PUNCH. “Colorado is stronger than weed, so I don’t offer it to newcomers. Whenever I take colorado and it wears off, I eat like a beast because it makes me very hungry.

“One time, I went outside to a woman not far from here to buy fried pieces of yam for N1,000 and was eating them like a goat while walking home. I didn’t even have the memory of how I finished the food.”

When our correspondent questioned Osagie about offering psychotropic substances to someone who does not use them, he responded in a more serious tone, admitting that he derived some thrill whenever he tests these drugs on “newcomers.”

“I once had a work colleague in my house and I laced his food with weed. He began telling me unpleasant things from his childhood,” Osagie recounted

“Before I knew it, he started to cry. In another instance, I gave another friend colos and he started to have hallucinations.

“He went to my door and was trying to chase what seemed like chickens away. Later, he started shouting that my living room was filled with water and jumped on the couch looking for something to remove the water.


“I had to lock the door so he doesn’t go outside and jump off the balcony outside. After the hallucinations wore off, he slept for hours and couldn’t go to work the next day.”


Brownies laced with weed
‘Mind benders’

A report by the United States National Institute on Drug Abuse explained that the cannabis plant has “many different chemical compounds, including Tetrahydrocannabinol which has intoxicating—mind-altering—effects.”

For years, many cannabis users commonly use it by smoking the dried plant material in joints like a cigarette, or in blunts—cigars or cigar wrappers that have been partly or completely refilled with cannabis—or in pipes or bongs (water pipes).

However, Saturday PUNCH learnt that over the years, many products from the cannabis plant have been constantly developed and sold to a large number of users.

One of these involves the making of edibles which involves the mixture or addition of the psychotropic substance to foods like pastries, cooked rice, spaghetti, and drinks.

“Edibles typically take longer to show effects. People may use more of a product as a result, increasing the likelihood of serious negative health effects,” says NIDA.


Oils and compounds derived from cannabis are also extracted to make oils and concentrates that can be vaped or inhaled with devices that are like e-cigarettes.

Variants of marijuana like spice, hash or molly or drugs like tramadol, Rohypnol, codeine, or a mixture of all of these called ‘omi gutter’ (gutter water) are also mixed with food and drinks.

Many of these drugs are taken to find temporary relief from stress and anxiety, and also to boost sexual performance. In some cases, however, they are used to knock individuals unconscious for crime.

“There are times when these area boys lace malt drinks with tramadol and give them to mentally unstable girls who wander the streets aimlessly. These victims are knocked out for hours, during which the boys take turns assaulting them.

“Months later, you will see these girls with protruding tummies; they are pregnant and in some cases, they keep them in that place and knock them unconscious with laced drinks anytime area boys want to rape them,” a commercial bus driver discreetly told Saturday PUNCH.

The driver further disclosed that this crime is often perpetuated in some uncompleted buildings or deserted mechanic workshops in the Lagos metropolis.

Edible catering


An Ibadan-based weed edible vendor, who identified himself simply as Adeolu, described to our correspondent how he develops his recipes.

The native of Ilesa, Osun State, revealed that he also sells what he calls “weed smoothies” and proudly claimed to have a large clientele in the city.

“There are two ways you can get edibles,” he noted. “One is by making them yourself or buying them from others. In the latter, the measurement of the weed has already been made.”

Noting how illegal it is for people to traffic marijuana, Adeolu disclosed that most of the people who sell edibles have their weed dealers.

“Most of them don’t prepare the weed themselves, they just bake them into brownies, cookies, bread and cupcakes. You can find these vendors online and it’s quite expensive to buy from them because they don’t promote it loudly since it’s illegal.

“Some of us have regular business and sell regular baked foods, but if you know what to look for, you will know whether we sell ‘infused’ products.”

For many users, the street code used pastries laced with psychotropic drugs is “infused” – a term that may not easily resonate with non-weed users.

“They will spell out the prices for, let’s say banana bread, and distinguish its price from the ones that are infused. Some caterers won’t indicate if they are infused or not and only ask you to look to their fliers to select what you want,” Adeolu added.

He argued that edibles are believed to be safer because the people who sell them often instruct their clients what amount of it they are to eat.

“But some people overdo and eat the entire brownies on the first time and they start feeling the effects,” the edible dealer stated.

Findings by our correspondent showed that edible weed vendors sell infused brownies, cookies and bread on X, Instagram and Facebook.

“Instead of taking alcohol all through this festive season,” a catering Facebook page wrote, “why not give our festive flavour fusion combo package a try? This delightful package is filled with delicious treats, specially infused and crafted to give you that maximum pleasure without the hangovers and headaches.”

“Loud-infused brownies are available,” wrote an X page with a similar business. “We sell cupcakes, banana bread, cookies, cake parfait and cake loaf.”

Commenting on the harmful effects of cannabis, a mental health expert, Dr Bright Oris-Ohwerhi, said, “Cannabis has been linked to psychosis and researchers even say that once you develop cannabis-induced psychosis, you are going to be on anti-psychosis medications for the rest of your life.”


Responding to people who argue that marijuana has been legalised in some other countries, Oris-Ohwerhi added, “In these same countries, there are researches now that about 25 per cent of people who smoke cannabis have a higher risk of heart attack. About 42 per cent of them have a higher risk of having a stroke.

“I want to categorically say that marijuana has no single nutritional value to the body. And unlike what some say that cigarettes are more dangerous, marijuana is as dangerous as cigarettes.”



Dealers and spikers

On Tuesday, the Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Brigadier General Buba Marwa (retd.), decried the rising rate of consumption of illegal substances among Nigerians.

He also revealed that the South West geo-political zone tops the list of people involved in the use of illegal drugs in the country.

However, findings made by our correspondent showed that edibles and other forms of marijuana are easily accessible to young people not only through social media but also through user recommendations.


“We are everywhere, even in parts of Lagos where you think there are no weeds,” a dealer who preferred to be called Bode told Saturday PUNCH.

“If you walk to the area boys in the streets and you are generous and secretive in how you approach them and they size you up and see that you can be trusted, then they take you to a dealer.”


When our correspondent inquired if they sell weed to minors, he responded in the affirmative but quickly added that he only sells to boys who are 16 years old and above.

“If a minor rolls with ‘Yahoo boys’ (Internet fraudsters) or is into extracurricular activities, they will try weed one way or the other. Some of them also get it from their friends at school who are already taking and in the case of edibles, if they share food with their friends, they can from there take it,” Bode further revealed.

“Minors also get introduced by cousins and uncles,” an educationist Daniel Adisa, told Saturday PUNCH. “I have seen students who became influenced due to following grown adults in their neighbourhood and this is why parents need to be cautious about who their children are hanging with.

“The potential danger is that you don’t even know what it is you are smoking. The dealers may have added other chemicals and you won’t know. There is a prevailing myth that weed is not addictive and weed doesn’t cause any problems. These are untrue, and recent research studies have documented the harm caused by marijuana.”

‘I had an out-of-body experience’


Narrating his first experience with a drug spiker in 2018, an Ibadan-based songwriter, Wilson Okeh, recalled that he got influenced by a baker friend.

“She was also my coursemate and normally bakes cakes for people. But one day, a group of boys made a special order for a cake infused with a large amount of weed.

“She admitted that she doesn’t usually do that but the guys paid extra for the order. I saw the chocolate cake and it was iced. Despite her warnings, I ate it. It was a horrible experience. I felt like a million bullets were shooting me at the same time.

“I kind of had an out-of-body experience. My body felt like a dead weight. I know people say when they take edibles, it makes them more productive, but in my case, I couldn’t think straight, was unable to do anything and I couldn’t hold my phone,” Okeh told Saturday PUNCH.

Explaining further, the 30-year-old said although he was quiet after he began feeling the effect of the substances, he managed to saunter down to his house and lie down.

“I woke up the next day to the worst migraine I’ve ever had in my life,” he recalled. “That was the last time I ate edible to that extent. I have been in two social gatherings where I would take one bite, but it was nothing beyond what I could control.”

Okeh disclosed that he had another female friend in the South East who sold edibles for a living.


“She used to mix it with butter. There is a way they extract the cannabis oil and use it for their pastries. She makes cookies, brownies and others which have all been laced.

“Her boyfriend was close to a barracks source for weed for her and gave it to her and she would prepare for her. Some also use dispatch riders. For anything that goes unchecked in Nigeria, the police are complicit.

“There are different codes or safe routes that are taken by dealers such that no police checkpoints can stop them and they can deliver the weed straight to your door,” he revealed.

When our correspondent contacted a weed edible vendor, Sufiat (surname withheld) on X, she argued that edibles are not harmful except when the user has a pre-established medical condition.

“I always ask my guests if they want to partake in eating infused food. I had a friend who ate some rice I had laced and she had the normal reactions at first but she suddenly started complaining about her heart beating too fast and that was when she told me that she was predisposed to hypertension.

“On the other hand, regular people make edibles themselves and in so doing, they mix in weed plus molly or colorado. I wouldn’t call that an edible because I always instruct my clients on its usage,” Sufiat said.

NDLEA raids


According to the 2018 National Drug Use Survey conducted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 14.3 million Nigerians aged 15–64 use psychoactive substances.

However, the chairman of the NDLEA recently stated that the figure had been reviewed since then. He revealed that the agency seized about 21 tonnes of illicit drugs in 2022 and 23 tonnes the following year. He noted that the seizure drastically reduced to just seven tonnes in 2024.

In waves of arrests made by the anti-narcotics agency, suspects alleged to sell laced brownies, chin chin, cookies and cake in different states of the country were arrested.

In March last year, NDLEA officials arrested a 20-year-old hair stylist, Josephine Odunu, and a 30-year-old dispatch rider, Edesemi Ikporo, for selling and distributing illicit drug-laced chin-chin to school students and at social parties in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

“Investigations revealed that they distribute the chin-chin, often laced with cannabis and tramadol, to students and at birthday parties. While Edesemi handles the delivery to buyers, Josephine is a major distributor to a wanted suspect who produces the drugged chin-chin,” the spokesperson for the agency, Femi Babafemi, revealed.

Following credible intelligence, in January 2022, NDLEA operatives raided the garden at Wuse Zone 5 behind Shoprite, Abuja, where a lady – Rachael Famiyesun, 29 – who allegedly dealt in drug cookies, was arrested along with her salesgirl, Stella Sunday, 20.

Aside from the infused cookies, they were also caught selling bottles of a Nigerian beverage popularly called Zobo which had been laced with cannabis.


Another business operator in the garden, Moses Obi, 30, was also arrested with his salesgirl, Aisha Abdulrahman, 19, for the sale of cannabis-laced Indomie noodles.

A barman, Ahonye Jonah, 31, who works with the owner of the garden, was equally arrested while one of their customers, 38-year-old Ngozi Emelogu were also picked up during the raid.

Similarly, in June 2021, a medical doctor, Jane Ofoma, was arrested by NDLEA operatives in Auchi, Edo State, for operating an online catering service, where drugged cookies and biscuits were made and sold to the public.

The agency accused Ofoma, 26, of using her restaurant to sell drugged cookies and biscuits.

That same year, NDLEA arrested the duo of Rhoda Agboje, an undergraduate, and Ifeanyi Okonkwo, her boyfriend, for producing and selling drugged cookies to secondary school students in Abuja.

According to the agency, the arrests were made following a complaint raised by a schoolgirl who began to act erratically after she unknowingly ate a laced cookie sold to her by Agboje.

Drugged by friends

Recalling how he was unknowingly drugged in October 2020, a medical doctor, Nicholas Uduak, said he suspected that the brownie he ate was laced with fentanyl (an opioid).

“I never expected my friends to drug me. They knew that I don’t take drugs, I don’t smoke or take alcohol. They were squatting with me in my apartment at the time and it was the COVID-19 era when all the hostels were locked, but I opened my place to them because we schooled together from 100 level.

“The guy who ordered the brownies was the one asking me about fentanyl and I told him that the drug is a highly inducing substance. It was after I ate the brownie that I started feeling sleepy.

“I woke up after like 10 hours or so, and my mouth was dry, and I was very hungry. Then I noticed I was feeling dizzy and I was having hallucinations. That marked the end of our friendship,” Uduak said.

In a post dated January 26, an X user, Whitfield Uchechukwu, recounted how he had his friend arrested for lacing his cooked beans with Indian hemp.

“I was cooking way back in 2004,” he wrote. “I don’t take this, because he knew I would share the food with him and others as I don’t eat alone. He put hemp in the food when I went to have my bath. I ate, and many others ate, I woke up mid-afternoon the next day with the echo of their laugh and jests in my room.

“I heard them all saying it. I arrested the guy and asked him to leave my room as we were roommates then. If you don’t take these things, don’t keep friends that take them around you, they always have this zeal to force them down your throat.”

Collaborative efforts needed

Speaking with Saturday PUNCH, an addiction counsellor and founder of the David Folaranmi Foundation, David Folaranmi, described marijuana use among Nigerian youths as a growing concern due to the way it is being used heavily in rural, urban and marginalised communities.

Folaranmi, who described himself as a recovered drug addict, recounted how one of his friends laced his cooked beans with marijuana years ago.

“I was in university, and we ate that food. Immediately, I felt the intoxication that marijuana gives. That day, I was scheduled to fly from Lagos to Abuja but missed my flight, because I couldn’t even make it to the airport,” he recalled.

He highlighted peer pressure, availability and accessibility of the substance as some of the factors that have increased its usage.

“The normalisation of marijuana consumption and the glorification of its use, especially by our celebrities in the country is a big problem that we are facing. We have musicians, actors, and sportsmen who openly use marijuana, and then young persons who look up to these associate the use of these substances with their success and they start indulging in it as well,” he added.

He further explained that more investment should be made in prevention, sensitisation and enlightenment about marijuana use.

“We need to tell these young ones the truth about marijuana before they are told lies about marijuana. And then after that, we need to provide treatment facilities and treatment centres. These treatment centres must be evidence-based. They must be set up in line with world best practices.

“At the very least, all the primary health care centres in the country, in every local government area, have a help desk on marijuana, addiction prevention and what to do about treatment.

“The government must also eradicate the stigma associated with people who are struggling with marijuana addiction because when they are stigmatised, they wouldn’t want to come out to get help. Faith-based organisations also need to collaborate.

“We are also a very religious country and many young persons listen to their pastors, alfa, imams, reverends, and bishops, even before they listen to their school teachers, so they can incorporate awareness on marijuana into their sermons and help addicts with evidence-based treatment,” Folaranmi said.

Source: https://punchng.com/Deadly-meal-How-mischievous-drug-users-lace-friends-food-with-marijuana

Is ganja part of GDP?

O deep ga-an

Useless idiot

Not yet time to read

You won't see Agbado species here do their usual tribal bigotry

Hahaha using Igbo to cook noodles and spaghetti . Days of way back. Shout out naija

"In a corner of the glass centre table in the dimly lit living room, this reporter spotted small transparent packs containing what appeared to be marijuana and other substances wrapped in brown paper"
Even the reporter na ganja-man

Hmmm
May God help and save us from evil friends

I need igbó and shawo

The causes is bad orientation/mentorship not bad Economy

Dealers and spikers

On Tuesday, the Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Brigadier General Buba Marwa (retd.), decried the rising rate of consumption of illegal substances among Nigerians.

He also revealed that the South West geo-political zone tops the list of people involved in the use of illegal drugs in the country.


No wonder Agbadorians always come to nairaland to defend their druggie and talk like slowpokes.
They are always high on potent synthetic cannabinoid.

Remind me of one of my bad friend, thank God I don't eat at the people house, this guy will laced his family food most especially cooking beans and all of them will slept off after eating , my guy don't eat at home because he cannot eat without smoking or lace goods with marijuana @an once has opportunity, there is a way he will find himself to the kitchen just to lace the food .his father,mother's and sisters will all slept off. It shall never be well with him

These journalist should try and go straight to the point abeg, which kain jagbajantis write-up be this?

How long are we going to remain brainwashed? Why is marijuana illegal in its natural environment? ...because the White man said so. The White man has made it legal in his country...where it is not native. I guess we are waiting for them to tell us we can now make it legal. Marijuana has been used throughout our history ... been part of our culture. It has a whole lot of medicinal benefits ...one being to open appetites Cigarettes have none ...but we import it and made it legal. We need to focus on the other drugs ...especially mind altering drugs that are wrecking and taking lives throughout the country. We need to think on our own and stop being a nation of follow follows.

According to the report it's as dangerous as cigarettes and they lied, telling us that smokers are liable to die young but this guys have been living for so long that only God knows when, there's nothing wrong with marijuana but it could be wrong by the way and manners u consume it, just like every other's drugs if you abuse the dose it can be very fatal to ur health,
my big bro advice is this,
If he good for health smoke but if e_no good 4ur *health quit

This generation, hmmm

Originalsly:
How long are we going to remain brainwashed? Why is marijuana illegal in its natural environment? ...because the White man said so. The White man has made it legal in his country...where it is not native. I guess we are waiting for them to tell us we can now make it legal. Marijuana has been used throughout our history ... been part of our culture. It has a whole lot of medicinal benefits ...one being to open appetites Cigarettes have none ...but we import it and made it legal. We need to focus on the other drugs ...especially mind altering drugs that are wrecking and taking lives throughout the country. We need to think on our own and stop being a nation of follow follows.

Why don't you scoop sand on the ground and eat or scoop gutter and drink? Isn't it in your natural environment? Did you even read to note one if the chemical composition?

Marijuana ain’t deadly. Your title’s fundamentally flawed. Alcohol’s deadly. Cannabis isn’t.

idahme:
Why don't you scoop sand on the ground and eat or scoop gutter and drink? Isn't it in your natural environment? Did you even read to note one if the chemical composition?

Why don’t you eat rats raw? Are they not in your natural environment? Do our bodies have endo-filthy-rat systems just like they have endocannabinoid systems?

X

Wow that was like 3 chapters of the Bible that was put up there. I didn't know what the OP wrote, but I believe he was saying that we should repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.

Originalsly:
How long are we going to remain brainwashed? Why is marijuana illegal in its natural environment? ...because the White man said so. The White man has made it legal in his country...where it is not native. I guess we are waiting for them to tell us we can now make it legal. Marijuana has been used throughout our history ... been part of our culture. It has a whole lot of medicinal benefits ...one being to open appetites Cigarettes have none ...but we import it and made it legal. We need to focus on the other drugs ...especially mind altering drugs that are wrecking and taking lives throughout the country. We need to think on our own and stop being a nation of follow follows.

Most chronic marijuana smokers are the ones that will frown at the thread.
That you like something does not imply that it should be legal in Nigeria. You should have highlighted its numerous benefits to convince us why it should be legalized.
Maybe you fail to read or you totally disagree to the point in response to the writer’s assertion which outweighs your benefits of marijuana said in this paragraph.

”Responding to people who argue that marijuana has been legalised in some other countries, Oris-Ohwerhi added, “In these same countries, there are researches now that about 25 per cent of people who smoke cannabis have a higher risk of heart attack. About 42 per cent of them have a higher risk of having a stroke.

“I want to categorically say that marijuana has no single nutritional value to the body. And unlike what some say that cigarettes are more dangerous, marijuana is as dangerous as cigarettes.”

Originalsly:
How long are we going to remain brainwashed? Why is marijuana illegal in its natural environment? ...because the White man said so. The White man has made it legal in his country...where it is not native. I guess we are waiting for them to tell us we can now make it legal. Marijuana has been used throughout our history ... been part of our culture. It has a whole lot of medicinal benefits ...one being to open appetites Cigarettes have none ...but we import it and made it legal. We need to focus on the other drugs ...especially mind altering drugs that are wrecking and taking lives throughout the country. We need to think on our own and stop being a nation of follow follows.

When and where did the white man tell you it is illegal?
Did the white man make your laws for you?

Abeg make we small small.

Brown skin Girl

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Title: survey plan

Price: 20M (slightly negotiable). WhatsApp: zero nine zero one four four five nine eight zero six for more details and inspection (video available)

This has become so rampant. It was not so many years ago. People don't know that most of these gals you see roaming aimlessly in the streets and passers-by will tell you that some yahoo boys "dropped them off and ran away after using them for juju", were ladies who used these drugs. Maybe they took a lot. Maybe the effects took too long to wear off and the Yahoo boys panicked and dumped them there. Because of our superstitious beliefs, people tend to blame everything on juju thereby letting those responsible off the hook.

Give me 1 indica and 1 sativa too

Igbo, You go sleep tire

Originalsly:
How long are we going to remain brainwashed? Why is marijuana illegal in its natural environment? ...because the White man said so. The White man has made it legal in his country...where it is not native. I guess we are waiting for them to tell us we can now make it legal. Marijuana has been used throughout our history ... been part of our culture. It has a whole lot of medicinal benefits ...one being to open appetites Cigarettes have none ...but we import it and made it legal. We need to focus on the other drugs ...especially mind altering drugs that are wrecking and taking lives throughout the country. We need to think on our own and stop being a nation of follow follows.

Stop talking rubbish. Hard drugs usage should never be normalised. There are no benefits. Even if it helps cancer patients, all of us are not suffering from cancer. Cannabis destroys any society that makes it a staple. Have you read about how the British nearly used opium to destroy China? Read about the effects of the "opium war" crises on the Chinese. The Chinese became a nation of "robots" for decades, and only freed themselves when they managed to shake off the British supplies from India.

You are ranting on how the white man sets agenda for us. Yet the only reason you want these drugs to be normalised is because the same whites said so. Go to Americas streets and see the net effects of massive drug use. That is what you want to see here. As far as I am concerned, lengthy jail terms should be imposed against crimes associated with drugs of this kind. Something starting from 25 years and above.