The Binoculars of Jah

Available for over a year

The writer Colin Grant weaves autobiography with history and research to allow us to look at cannabis use and abuse from an original perspective. He explores how tendrils of marijuana smoke drift through literature, music, madness, medicine and mankind’s desire to meet and exchange. While the twentieth century was marked by cannabis prohibition, the twenty first century is rediscovering tolerance. Legalisation appears to be snowballing. But this tolerance comes just as scientists and psychiatrists are becoming increasingly concerned about the drug's links to psychosis, particularly with the global prevalence of higher-strength strains. In this final Essay, Colin describes how, in the process of writing a book about one of his musical heroes, Bunny Wailer, he finds himself cursed and fearing his own imminent demise. This Essay interrogates marijuana’s association with culture and creativity and explores the place of the drug in both Hinduism and Rastafari, the spiritual and political movement in Jamaica. Producer: Kirsty Pope A Far Shoreline production for BBC Radio 3