Should Bob Marley’s name be used to sell marijuana?

Herb like fruit, no? Bob Marley relaxes with a spliff in Kingston, Jamaica, March 1980. Photograph: Patrick Chauvel/Patrick Chauvel/Sygma/Corbis Ian Thomson, author of The Dead Yard: Tales of Modern Jamaica A kind of political correctness dictates that one should not be too unkind to Bob Marley, but to turn him into the “Marlboro Man of Marijuana” is a cynical, money-generating move on the part of his estate. During the 1970s, when Marley’s was the best-known name in Jamaican reggae, he was actually very much removed from the Jamaican music scene, wasn’t he? Island Records transformed him into a semi-divine rock star for a mostly white audience. Today, that same audience will be able to buy...