Swaziland's grandmothers, who must care for small children in a country ravaged by AIDS, have found a way to make money, The New York Times reports.
The elderly women have begun growing Swazi Gold, a potent form of marijuana that's relatively easy to cultivate in the country's rocky soil, the Times reports.
“Without weed, we would be starving,” Khathazile, who has 11 grandchildren, told the paper, asking only that her middle name be used. "If you grow corn or cabbages, the baboons steal them."
This grandmother and others like her are supplying a thriving marijuana market in South Africa, The Times reports, citing a United Nations report. Swaziland, which has just 1.9 million people, has more acreage where marijuana is being grown than India, which is 180 times its size, according to that report.
But growing pot is hardly easy work for the nation's elderly women. They have to scout out secret fields, toil at clearing a patch of land, and be very careful about weeds.
“Weeds are very bad for weed," 70-year-old Sibongile Nkosi told The Times.
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