Known in real life as Emmanuel Botchwey, controversial rapper, Kwaw Kese, has revealed that he still actively smokes cannabis and even the police are fully aware of it.

According to him, not even his imprisonment in 2015 for smoking weed in public deterred him from engaging in the act.

Kwaw Kese was arrested by the police in Kumasi on Saturday, November 22, 2014 for allegedly smoking cannabis in public.

On Thursday, April 23, 2015, Judge William Boampong sentenced him to a day’s imprisonment and a fine of GH¢1,200.

Speaking in an interview on Accra-based Joy FM on the programme Cosmopolitan Mix with host, Doreen Andoh, the rapper revealed that he “is still a wee smoker.”

“As we age, you can’t hide the truth forever…I smoke and it’s good for me…I’ve been smoking for almost 20 years or more; there’s never been any implication,” the controversial rapper, popularly called ‘Abodam,’ declared.

“I still smoke…before I got arrested, I was doing music to please people, I was ‘spoiling’ every stage which I still do and I was smoking weed doing that so I don’t want people to be like ‘because he got arrested, he’s stopped what he is doing’ Then I have to stop music; I still smoke weed…I used to be hiding it [but] now I want the world to know…” he said and cited that Nigerian musician Wizkid also smokes weed on stage.

Kwaw Kese added that, “I know a lot artistes smoke who smoke, nobody cares. Why is it because Kwaw Kese says he is Abodam and he’s caught smoking weed…me I don’t care, I smoke and the police know I smoke.”

According to the Section 5 of the Narcotic Drugs (Control, Enforcement AND Sanctions) Law, 1990 (PNDCL 236) states:

“No person shall without lawful authority or excuse smoke, sniff, consume, inject in his body or otherwise administer narcotic drug on his body.”

But, he said the law that makes it a crime to smoke weed was outmoded and must be amended.

“I know some people in Parliament who smoke weed…I know a doctor who smokes weed and he still performs alright,” he further alleged.

Kwaw Kese was quick to stress that, “I’m not advocating for people to go and do [it]” while claiming “more than 60% of the youth smoke.”

According to him, students smoke in tertiary institutions and the same students turn out to become bank managers, medical doctors and lawyers later.

“People are hypocrites…I don’t want to be a hypocrite anymore. I can’t come and sit here and say I don’t smoke and go back [home] and smoke.”