31/07/2025
🚨 Cannabis Fear-Mongering in Fiji Is Nothing New
From Referendum Day propaganda to today’s headlines — the same playbook is still being used.
What you’re seeing in this article isn’t new. Fiji has a long history of using cannabis as a scapegoat — from colonial-era criminal codes, to Referendum-era propaganda, to now:
👉🏾 Associating cannabis with madness, danger, and cultural collapse.
The latest headline? Just another recycled script:
“Samabula temple alleged attacker remanded due to schizophrenia, ma*****na abuse” (Fijivillage, July 2025)
Let’s be clear: This isn’t journalism. This is psychological warfare — designed to deepen public fear, derail reform, and protect the status quo.
🧠 Psychological Deconstruction:
How Propaganda Masquerades as News
1. Associative Brainwashing 101
The article fuses together:
• A sacred religious space
• A psychiatric disorder
• A “ma*****na abuser”
• And an act of violence
That’s not just a story. That’s neuro-linguistic priming — conditioning the public to link cannabis with chaos. No evidence needed. Fear does the work.
• No psychiatric files.
• No toxicology report.
• No trauma history.
• No proof cannabis caused anything.
• Only emotionally loaded language.
2. Weaponizing Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is one of the most misunderstood disorders in psychiatry. Most people with it are victims, not perpetrators.
Yet in this piece, schizophrenia is weaponized — not explained. There’s no attempt to educate. Just criminalize and condemn.
• Did he have prior symptoms?
• Was he receiving care?
• Was cannabis a form of self-medication, not cause?
• You’ll find no answers — because the article isn’t trying to inform.
• It’s trying to inflame.
3. Cannabis = Convenient Scapegoat
Linking cannabis to psychosis has long been used to delay reform. But globally, the science is nuanced:
Cannabis may exacerbate psychosis in genetically vulnerable people. But causation is not proven. And many people with schizophrenia use cannabis to soothe symptoms.
Yet here? One sentence:
“Marijuana abuse.”
No science. No clinical detail. Just a label — used to justify fear.
🧠 This Is Not a Cannabis Problem — This Is a Systems Breakdown
What happened here is tragic. But it’s not caused by a plant. It’s caused by:
Lack of early psychiatric intervention
Cultural stigma around mental health
Absence of trauma-informed services
And a media industry that treats suffering as clickbait
This was a human being in distress. Not a “ma*****na monster.” And this article is designed to dehumanize — not heal.
⚖️ FINAL WORD:
🧠 This isn’t about cannabis.
😔 This isn’t even about schizophrenia.
🔥 This is about fear being used to block progress.
From Referendum Day to today’s headlines, cannabis has been miscast as a social threat — when in reality, it’s often a tool for healing, connection, and sovereignty.
Let’s stop repeating the script.
Let’s start writing our own.
Cannabis Fiji. Decriminalize. Decolonize. Reclaim.
This is not just about a plant.
This is about power.
And who gets to grow from it.
This isn’t a war on drugs.
It’s a war on dignity, memory, and land.
Let’s end it.
Sign the petition for change:
https://www.change.org/p/decriminalize-cannabis-in-fiji-for-our-health-wealth-and-justice
*****na **p *****naFiji
