Why I should not smoke marijuana...

I came upon this article on the internet newspaper " Trinidad Express ", and I really found it interesting. I'm wondering, or hoping rather, that Trinidad and Tobago will really follow this streak and begin rehabiliting our nation's youth instead of locking them away and after finishing their time, they come out worse than before. Now this article is about this young man who was arrested for marijuana. I only hope his words are genuine, and that he is really concerned about rehabilitating. This is the essay that the judge ordered him to write. Pay attention now to his limited vocabulary and in how his essay was written, evidence of when education was not taken seriously, and therefore a lot of errors were made due to pure ignorance. But you know what? From the point of view of this addict, I like this essay for it's simplicity and straight forwardness.

Teen follows court order to write 'ganja essay':

Friday, April 4th 2008



Kester Harper shows his essay on "Why he should not smoke Marijuana" at Express South Bureau yesterday evening. -


Photo: KRISHA MAHARAJ

I should not smoke marijuana because it is a big crime.

It can put me in jail because it is against the law. It could make me a pusher. I will have to work for a drug lord and the police will come for me. They will find me on the block hustling weed.

I may run or not, they may search me and ask me for the weed. I will tell them I do not know. They will beat me. I will feel like a fool when they are done with me.

I should not smoke marijuana because it is not good for my health. It could make me mad or crazy. If I smoke marijuana it will give me bad breath and make my teeth yellow.

Smoking marijuana can get me high and make me do wrong things. It can make my body thin and weak if I do not eat healthy food. I may not want to bathe and end up smelling stink. No one will want me near to them. They will drive me away.

From smoking marijuana I may not be able to have sex. I will be no good for a woman.

If I smoke marijuana I will get addicted and will want to smoke more and more. If I do not have money I will want to thief. I will thief from my family and anyone else to buy the weed. Then I may have to sell things in my mother's home. That will trip her off and she will want to put me out of the house.

If I have to leave I will have to live on the streets. I will be a homeless boy. I will have nothing to eat and nowhere to sleep. I will be a vagrant, I may have to fight other vagrants to survive.

I should not smoke marijuana because it can make people who love me feel ashamed. My mother will cry and my father will cuss. My brother and sisters will cry too. They will talk to me and I will not listen to them. My rest of family will not want me to be around them. I will be like a homeless child. I will be sad and lost.

Smoking marijuana can lead me to harder drugs like cocaine. No one will look at me because cocaine is more deadly than marijuana. Cocaine can make me a crack-head. I will see things that are not real, like a green man. I know I will end up a spranger. I will be so thirsty for the cocaine that I will do things that are not right. I may end up in jail for doing petty crimes like thiefing fruits, picking pockets and snatching women's purses.

I should not smoke marijuana because I will pick up a ghetto girl who nobody wants. She will be smoking more than me and that will make us fight. It will make us both crack heads.

If we should have a baby it will be a crack head too. The baby may be so sick and may die.

If I do not smoke marijuana I will find a prestige girl who does not smoke marijuana and has herself in order. I will want her parents to appreciate me. We may get married and have healthy babies. We will be good parents and send our children to school and church. If I keep on smoking marijuana my dreams will not come true.

If I smoke marijuana I will have to hide from the teachers who taught me in school. They will be upset with me because they thought I was a good boy. They taught me well but I did not follow up. They taught me how to read and write but if I had listened I would be something good out there. I was a fool because I did not take my education, I will have to hang my head in shame when I see the teachers.

But it can be different if I do not smoke marijuana.

Being with friends who smoke marijuana can put me in jail if the police should raid the block. I will not have any weed on me, but if the police find any weed they may plant it on me. I would be innocent but they do not care and no one will believe me. They will tell me to plead guilty because you cannot win the police in court. I will have no choice but to plead guilty. It will be up to the judge to believe me or not. He will give me a fine or send me to YTC (Youth Training Centre). I may even have to write an essay or read a book. These I will not want to do because I cannot read and write too well. No one will want to help me because I should not have smoked marijuana. I should have stayed in school and obeyed my mother.

I should not smoke marijuana because I was taught in church that my body is holy and a gift from God. I must take good care of this gift and not destroy it. I must love my body because to God it is beautiful. He made me in his likeness. He made me special.

I am in court because the police said I had marijuana on me. The judge believed the police. I do not want this to happen to me again. I will lock off the marijuana smoking and the bad company. I will try to get into a Servol Life Centre. I will try to make my reading and writing better. I want to study hard and be smart and make everyone proud.

But mostly I want to be proud of myself. I never want to be in this position ever again. - Kester Harper