Malabo - Marijuana is all things to all men in Equatorial Guinea, and is openly smoked, in defiance of the law, by government ministers and civil servants as well as street children.
"It makes everybody happy," say the adepts of the weed, many of them dropouts from the recent oil boom here.
In this west African former Spanish colony, marijuana goes by the name of "sacred weed of the people" and was once used only in traditional ceremonies, but now it is everyone's tonic.
In the streets of this capital, a poor man's joint can be had for 100 CFA francs (about 20 US cents).
Richer customers, such as Americans, buy larger quantities at a discount.
In living memory no one has been arrested for smoking or dealing, although both are illegal under the law.
The plants are grown locally between cassava plants or banana trees. According to its fans, marijuana invigorates and provides courage, imagination and inspiration.
According to Christina, a 21-year-old woman, young people use it "to survive constantly worsening poverty and injustice."
"Our parents have no money. We can neither go to school nor to work and people think we are thieves," she said.
Silvano, 19, who sports a shaven head, dark glasses and scruffy jeans and sneakers, said that he and his two identically dressed companions "take refuge in marijuana. At least it helps us to take a less aggressive view of life."
The weed is also widely smoked in the administration, with some saying they use it to find the strength to start their day's work.
Valentino said "I also like alcohol, but it can be smelled on one's breath. So I use marijuana, it's clean and more effective."
Marijuana use is also widespread in the government. In 1997, on the eve of presidential elections which he believed his side would win, a minister, also the leader of a small opposition party, had smoked marijuana before killing his three-year-old son with a machete after a futile dispute.
In tears, he told flabbergasted police that he had lost his mind "as if guided by a strange force."
A senior Malabo police officer said that most of the young smokers "turn into dangerous delinquents. Under the inflence of the sacred weed, they do not hesitate to use machetes, knives and guns to carry out armed robberies."
- Sapa-AFP