This was a problem that a number of people mentioned to me during my visit back in January. It’s completely understandable why people would turn to this to feed their families – yet in fact it only makes the situation more dire.

“PIGG’S PEAK, Swaziland, June 9 (Reuters) – After hours of scrambling over rugged mountain terrain, Swaziland’s anti-drug squad finally find what they’re looking for: a secret field packed with some of the world’s strongest marijuana. Prized for its potency across the world, ‘Swazi Gold’ is grown in the remote northern mountains of this tiny African kingdom, then smuggled into neighbouring South Africa and on to Europe and North America. Police in impoverished Swaziland say that despite dousing acres of towering plants with deadly insecticide, they are losing the war on marijuana to dirt-poor peasants bent on protecting their most lucrative crop.”