Niliimba Nyimbo Zote, MP Salasya Speaks About His Experience In Using Weed Cookies For The First Time

Mumias East Member of Parliament (MP) Peter Salasya Has come out to confess to trying weed cookie, a popular drug among Kenyans youths for the first time in his life.

The controversial lawmaker claim a friend talked him into consuming the substance and it had him knocked out, “mtu alinidanga jana akanipa cookie nikala waaah yale nimeona Niliimba nyimbo zote. Nilikunywa maji mengi ambayo sijai kunywa 5 litres of water and maziwa baridi ndio body system ika respond.” Said the MP.

Weed cookies/edibles. Image/Google.

He goes further to say he won’t use the drug again but will instead keep to smoking pot, “I will never take it again afadhali yangu ya kawaida ya Matawi na raw hivyo …sitawahi jaribu tena members.” He posted on his Facebook.

Are edibles safer?

There has been a misconception that using weed cookies is safer method of using marijuana as opposed to smoking and that it’s less addictive and with minimal side effects.

An American Heart Association study analyzed data from more than 430,000 adults collected over four years. Researchers found that marijuana use is linked to a significantly higher risk of heart attack and stroke, with the risk increasing with frequency of use. Daily users had a 25% higher chance of heart attack and a 42% higher chance of stroke than non-users. And the increased danger exists whether users smoke, vape or eat their cannabis products.

A 2014 study from the New England Journal of Medicine showed that nearly 10% of people who try out marijuana get hooked. That figure increases to 17% among those who first try weed in adolescence and to 25% among those who get high every day.

Marijuana is not a harmless substance, especially for adolescents whose brains have yet to fully develop. Yet teenage marijuana use is also at its highest level this century.

Studies have shown that frequent marijuana use can fundamentally alter the brain’s prefrontal cortex (our brain’s “personality center”), the cerebellum (which controls movement and balance) and the amygdala (which processes emotions and memories).

In Kenya, possession and consumption of cannabis is illegal punishable by up-to ten years in jail.

Drugs and alcohol abuse amongst youths in Kenya has in recent times escalated prompting an nationwide crackdown that is still ongoing.