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WEED: It may be time for black smokers to give up

I DON’T need to tell you that us black men are a high risk group for prostate cancer. But the really bad news for black men who smoke is that if you’re unlucky enough to get prostate cancer, you’re more likely to die from it compared to someone who doesn’t smoke.

Smoking is also linked to a higher chance of prostate cancer recurrence.

Which is good news for the likes of my Ghanaian security guard friend at the BBC. When he told me he had prostate cancer he danced a jig and praised the Lord and assured me that his Jesus would beat it. You can imagine what my sceptical mind went through when he recently informed me that doctors had finally given him the all clear. I was just about to take my place in the pews and praise the Lord too, and renounce my faith in Darwin’s Origin of the Species when this new survey by the American Medical Association rekindled my belief in medicine and the appliance of science, if not statistics.

My man of course is a non-smoker like most churchgoers. So he probably won’t need Jesus to intervene on his behalf again. Because if this survey is correct his prostate problem ain’t coming back - ever.

Which is bad news for the Rastamen who won’t give up smoking the weed no matter how good it is. We’ve lost so many great reggae weed smokers to serious illnesses at a young age over the years - Delroy Wilson, Dennis Brown, Sugar Minott and, of course, Bob Marley that it’s safe to conclude that the smoking doesn’t help.

Don’t get me wrong my Rasta bredrin and sistren, I’m not fighting down the herb or joining the mob who want to burn down the plantation, I’m just trying to make you live longer. If you believe that ganja is for the healing of the nation, maybe you should eat it or drink it because all this smoking is killing us softly.