Tucked within the boundary between Onitsha and Obosi, behind an Army Barracks is Solar Lawrence Road, the unofficial headquarters of illicit drugs in Anambra State. It was the thick choking smoke of marijuana that announced another dimension of human activity on the narrow road that led to this doppers’ enclave one early Saturday morning.
Eight out of ten commercial motorcyclists plying Awada routes in Onitsha along MCC junction may not know the location of Solar Lawrence Road by any other means, but by simply placing two fingers on your lips and feigning smoking they’ll exclaim “oh yes, let’s go” provided you can pay the right fare since the area attracts a special fare on Okada. Apart from being a jungle of sorts threaded only by brave hearts, the route leading to Solar Lawrence Road is deplorable due to erosion and neglect.
In this area of Onitsha, every resident is a smoker. Those who don’t smoke do so passively. Wheeling and dealing in cannabis sativa popularly known as Indian hemp, Igbo or marijuana and other narcotics is their stock-in-trade.
Jamaican reggae legends like Robert Nester Marley, Peter Tosh , and artistes like Prof. Linkin, the jogodo master who sang popular lyrics calling on governments to legalize Indian hemp may have wasted their precious time singing out their hearts, because at Solar Lawrence Road, it’s done with impunity. 365 days in a year, youths “burn down the walls of Babylon” with their lighter and Rizla.
Story From ALOYSIUS ATTAH, Onitsha
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