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<br /> was a spiritual thing. It's to be taken seriously in a mature and responsible way. <br /> <br /> A whole set of cultural rules guided use and made sure it was positive. The set and setting and <br /> <br /> cultural traditions in Jamaica made ganja use a positive thing. It's useful to study ganja in a place <br /> where its use is notjust a recreational activity -its use is sacramental, medicinal and social, but it is <br /> <br /> designed to be a thoughtful activity -not like you stop at the store and get a six pack of beer to get <br /> <br /> drunk. <br /> Did ganja culture affect how men and women used ganja? <br /> It did. The men believed that ganja inhaled went to the brain and had a psychoactive effect, but that <br /> ganja consumed as tea or tonic went into the blood and had a health effect rather than intoxication. <br /> They only allowed men to smoke ganja because they didn't believe women had the right kind of brain <br /> for it. <br /> <br /> Now there are physiological differences between men and women, and it's also true that ganja eaten <br /> or ingested as tea follows a different route in the body than ganja smoked, but 1 am not expert enough <br /> in this to comment on whether the cultural tradition is supported by science. <br /> Women were allowed to control the medicinal use of ganja. I spent lots of time with rural women, <br /> who taught me how to make ganja tonics and teas. They were the administrators of ganja, open the <br /> producers and sellers of ganja. It gave them some power and income, like a cottage industry. They <br /> gave ganja to men and children as teas, and they knew how to titrate the strength of marijuana teas so <br /> anew baby would getjusl a teat's worth but men and boys got more, so they could go and work in the <br /> fields with enough strength to survive the hard days. <br /> So women never got to smoke ganja? <br /> When 1 first started research in Jamaica in 1970, women were the ganja medicine specialists but there <br /> was a social rule that women should not smoke. The only time women were allowed to smoke was in <br /> apre-sexual context. Everybody believed ganja was an aphrodisiac, they said it made both sexes <br /> more powerful, makes you like sex more, makes you concentrate on lovemaking more. <br /> It was not used as a clandestine seduction tool like alcohol. That's not to say that like at a dance if <br /> young men were smoking, a young woman wouldn't say "Give me a draw," but it was very innocent, <br /> never saw an attempt to use marijuana as seduction or date rape. <br /> Back then, women were smoking secretly. If a man didn't finish the whole spliffthen after he went to <br /> work the women might smoke a little. Women said it helped them do their housework and be good to <br /> their children. So the women had to sneak around to smoke it but they were expected to openly <br /> administer its medicinal use. <br /> The real focus of the women was to have marijuana to prepare for tea for their <br /> children to make them healthier and smarter and help them have better school <br /> performance and help them concentrate. <br /> Has your subsequent research found <br /> changes in the use of ganja by <br /> Jamaican women? <br /> Yes, as the role of women has changed <br /> economically and socially, some <br /> women have been able to smoke ganja <br /> „ openly with the men. They're called <br /> "roots daughters", which is a term of <br /> Rr <br /> 3 <br /> <br />