Ziggy Marley Says He Began Smoking Marijuana Aged Nine And Was Encouraged By His Reggae Legend Dad Bob

His father is one of the most influential reggae artists of all time.

Now Bob Marley’s musician son, Ziggy, has revealed he started smoking marijuana aged nine. His was encouraged by his late father who was a Rastafarian.

“Smoking marijuana wasn’t considered a bad thing in Rastafarian culture,” Ziggy told Reader’s Digest. “It wasn’t something to hide from the kids.”

Marijuana is used by Rastafarians to heighten feelings of community and to produce visions.

But the 50-year-old, who is now an eight time Grammy winner, admitted he was “too young” to start smoking the drug. 

Ziggy is still a practising Rastafarian. 

“It was a part of our religion – we’re one of those ancient cultures with traditions that modern society wouldn’t accept.”

He explained that he didn’t smoke marijuana for “fun” and instead used it to heighten his spirituality.

“When I first consciously decided to smoke weed as a teenager, I approached it from a spiritual point of view.”

“It’s given me more insight into myself and into my spirituality, and I use it as a form of influence when reading scriptures and books about spirituality. I use it to give me a different perspective so that my mind isn’t in the same place that it normally is. I turn into a shaman.”

“It was never just about getting high – I educated myself about it in terms of how Yogis in India use it and I went down that route with it, I didn’t go down the ‘fun’ route.”

In 1976, Bob Marley survived an assassination attempt by three gunmen at his home in Hope Road in Jamaica.

Five years later he died from a malignant melanoma originating in his toe.

He discovered the melanoma during a game of football in 1977.

When doctors discovered the cancer, he was advised to have his toe amputated.

But because of his Rastafarian faith he considered it a sin to have a part of his body removed.

He did consent to a skin graft but this didn’t stop the disease spreading throughout his body.

He played his last ever concert in 1980. He sadly died a year later aged just 36.

Ziggy’s mother is Bob’s widow Rita Marley, 73, who had two other children with the ‘One Love’ artist. 

Marley had 11 children with seven women and adopted Rita’s two children from a previous relationship.