A white guy getting down to the sound of oppression.

Pot and reggae go hand in hand. There was no other way for the international symbol for reggae – the mop of dreads on Bob Marley’s head – to go out but be physiologically dependent on a pair of lungs chock full of cancer. Although it must be noted that Marley’s cancer began as melanoma, so he did die of lung (and brain, liver and stomach) cancer but it wasn’t directly caused by smoking the ‘erb.

Marley actually died, in part, because of his Rastafarian religious beliefs (like Jehovah’s Witnesses refusing blood transfusions or Christian Scientists resisting medical treatment altogether). The melanoma started in a football wound on his foot but he refused amputation because of the Rastafari belief that the body must remain whole. He also is said to have regarded doctors as samfai, meaning “tricksters” or “deceivers”. And to pour salt on the cancerous wound, he didn’t write a will because Rastafaris believe that doing so acknowledges the inevitability of death and refutes the “everlasting character of life”.

But the doofus at your university doesn’t know this. She’s probably got arse-length turd-tubes hanging off her head because it’s “funky”. And surrounding herself with the accoutrements of Jamaica makes her feel more at one with being a privileged white person. So she has enough time before her ‘Ethnicity and Identity: social and political approaches’ class to get nicely toasted.

Get up, stand up. Stand up for your doobies.

Of course, hippies can align themselves with Sufism, Hinduism or even the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church if they want a free religious pass to huff bongs, but decorating yourself in the garb of Rastafarianism and bumping some reggae is the most identifiable way to justify smoking pounds and pounds of schwag.

When talking to Ziggy Marley recently, our conversation turned to his father (while I’m sure we would’ve got around to it eventually, trust me when I say that he was the one who brought Bob up). I wanted to ask him if he’s ever been miffed that his father’s political message was wasted on millions of white stoners who just want to get a nice mellow buzz happening.

In the conversation, I ended up suggesting that a lot of outsiders perceive reggae and Rastafarianism as an excuse to smoke weed. People adopt the music and the lifestyle and the iconography, and they ignore all the revolutionary politics, just so they can legitimately get stoned all the time.

“I mean, people get stoned even if they’re not Rastafarians,” Marley contends, “Do people need an excuse to get stoned?”

Yes, I think some people use this as an excuse.

“If they’re not getting stoned about this they’re getting stoned somewhere else. Maybe they just like getting stoned,” he chuckles, “What I’m saying is that people are getting stoned everywhere. What is the excuse for the guy getting stoned who’s not Rastafari, does he have an excuse?”

Musician, soccer player and citizen of the world, Ziggy Marley.

I’ve seen a lot of university kids wearing the red, yellow, black and green, putting up the Legend poster, and I’m thinking, “You don’t care about this, you just love getting high!”

Marley had a good ol’ laugh of recognition, before saying, “I don’t know about these guys. Everybody be free, man. Some people are on a journey, searching. And maybe some of them are passing through a certain stage in life and maybe this is what they choose to pick up. Maybe they won’t eventually end up there [involved in Rastafarian culture]. But everyone’s on a journey and they go through their stages.

“The philosophy of Rastafari is more about loving each other, it’s about peace, unity, consciousness, rights. It’s about living with the environment as one. There’s also the belief in the Almighty. Some people like to seek a spiritual life in Haile Selassie I. That’s how I would put it.”

Rastafarianism is as curious as any other religious ideology, so if you’re stoned right now, blow your mind here.