"dead men don't smoke marijuana" was released on 16 may 1994 by real world records in the united kingdom. tony stiles designed the album packaging with consultancy from assorted images and art direction from michael coulson. the packaging is consistent with other real world albums in that it follows garry mouat's identity concept for the label. three days after the album's release, rogie began a tour of germany. against the medical advice of his heart bypass surgeons, he travelled to perform in russia, where he lost consciousness while performing onstage. he died at the age of 68 in june 1994, and was survived by his wife, two daughters and a son. while writing about the album shortly after rogie's death, "west africa" wrote that the performer "is ranked alongside other sierra leonean icons of music and culture such as ebezener calender, ali ganda, dele charlie, salami coker and dr oloh."