The Malawian Rasta community on Wednesday, September 11, delivered a petition to government demanding that Chamba (marijuana) be legalized while at the same time homosexuality and abortion should be criminalized.

Led by a higher member of the Rastafarian community, Ras Judah, the members of the dread locked religion did not only press for the decriminalization of marijuana but also extended that their children should be enrolled in government schools with their heads unshaven. The petition further requested that members of the Rastafarian faith should be appointed in government positions in which they are qualified without being subjected to shaving their hair.

The Rastas claimed that marijuana for them is part of their religion and arresting them for using it is the same as suppressing their right to religion.

Lately, Malawi has come under various waves of pressures from organizations and institutions lobbying for the legalization or decriminalization of certain practices of which homosexuality and abortion are chief of them. This is the first time that officially a group has taken up arms for the legalization of marijuana.

According to Internet sources, marijuana from Malawi is profoundly called Malawi gold. The World Bank Report named it as ‘the finest and best’ Chamba in the world yet it remains illegal to possess or use it in the country for any purposes.