"Cigarettes can kill you immediately if you get an overdose of nicotine or enough at one go and there have been cases of framers who were handling tobacco having allergy reactions and dying."

This was said on the 6th of August, 2003 at St. Stephens Cathedral by Dr. Ahamed Ogwel during a one day workshop jointly organised by the National Agency for the Campaing Against Drug Abuse (NACADA) and the Diocesan Clergy of the Cathedral on the effects of alcohol and other drug use.

Addressing senior clergy members, mothers unions and youth groups as well as other stakeholders Ogwel stressed that this was only one of a raft of consequences arinsing from tobacco use revealing that "tobacco is more dangerous than bhang, Cannabis sativa) yet it is legal." Tobacco he felt was more dangerous than bhang as it was both physically and psychologically addictive while bhang was only psychologically addictive.

Men also faced impotence while for women frigidity was a possibility. He caused laughter as he elaborated "many men don't want to talk about it. But if you call them aside and ask them quietly will tell you that things are not as they should be." In fact the whole reproductive system is affected by tobacco.

"We are now getting the information that women who smoke cigarettes even bhang are getting a lot of abortions due to the chemicals in tobacco and cannabis as well as women who don't smoke but have been exposed to tobacco smoke." These women who although were non-smokers, experiences premature or still births. For many many even where the child survived these children would experience problems as they grew up.

When asked by Dr. Ogwel how many of them smoked there were no raised hands. "Are you sure that none of you smoke?" he persisted and still there were no raised hands as the audience looked around perplexed wondering where theis question was leading to. "Well you are all wrong!" he informed them. Every time you are in a room where someone is smoking you are also smoking. "You all smoke unknowingly. When a person smokes next to you, you are also smoking." Thus one is exposed to the same diseases and consequences of smoking as a smoke.

"Yet we know that 70% of people who smoke, want to quit" he said revealing an apparent paradox until one realises that it is not that strange. You are lured into the smoking for whatver reasons and by the time you realsie their fallacy and want to back out you are hooked on the nicotine.

Others continued smoking while justifying their continued use with statements like "I smoke to relax." But says Ogwel smoking does not actually make you relax but just calms down the restlessness brought about when your body craves nicotine. "So when you take, body relaxes as has got the dose."

When it came to bhang (cannabis sativa) however, there was a restlessness brought about from use which you didn't get from cigarettes. When one takes bhang the higher centers which control how we behave "are sat on and everyone looks the same. This is why some time ago you probably read in the media when a certain gentleman named Baraza decided to milk an elephant."

When you took bhang you no longer had control over yourself and the things you did were more by reflex than by reason. "Many think that if you take bhang, you can read better" but that was not true. As for sleep the longer you stayed without, the more it accumulated. "If I don't sleep today, there is arrears and i will have to replace at one point. If you don't then like an engine that engine will knock.

Sleep also becomes a problem when you are addicted to tobacco, so people end up taking something to help them sleep which addicts them as well and brings other complications for instance one becomes unable to pass stool so takes something for this and before you know it you are a poly-abuser.

One consequence of this often seen on Kenyan roads is accidents whereby drivers are not getting enough sleep and accumulates until it catches up with them on the road. At the same time a lot of mone used on these purchases are diverted from other family uses and this brings with it the tension which is always present when money is short and this tension many times leads to violence.

Still on the domestic front, when there is sexual dysfunction as a result of cigarette or bhang use and a wife cannot get enough sex in the house, she will look elsewhere.

Crime also increases as bhang smokers not only need money to purchase the drug, but also commit crimes after taking the drug. Meanwhile the overall health burden becomes worse and this affects all taxpayers.

Tobacco though legal, supplied those who came into contact with it, 4,000 chemicals at a go and yet everytime you send your child to the shop or kiosk, you were opening the gates for them to start using that drug.

So even if you think to yourself that you are not abusing so not your problem, all those who are using will in some way or other affect you.