According to research… Marijuana should be legal.
For the first time in history, a large amount of the population is in favour of legalizing marijuana than they are criminalizing it. In marijuana policy debates, legalization advocates argue that legalizing the drug could reduce the use and make its use much safer if regulated, whilst critics say legalization will make it much more easily accessible, which in turn will increase the use.
With a vast majority of people agreeing that marijuana should be legalized, here are some reasons why those who may still be on the fence about the natural plant should consider changing their feelings towards it.
The time to legalize is here!
Already Legalized drugs are much more harmful than marijuana.
There shouldn’t be any reason for not wanting to legalize marijuana, if you are completely accepting of alcohol and tobacco. In the 2010 study published in the Lancet, a team of drug experts assessed the harm to others and to marijuana users as less harmful compared to the use of alcohol and tobacco. Since using the drug is still illegal, the only people who use marijuana are those willing to break the law, therefore associating the drug with “pothead” culture, this negative stigma of “pot” makes it seem so much worse than it really is. We have been brought up around these preconceived ideas of the plant, leading lots to believe things which aren’t true! It would be a healthier choice for people to “spark up a zoot” instead of drinking a cheap glass of wine, so why does this concept seem so crazy?
Lots of extremely successful people are marijuana users.
Morgan Freeman, David Letterman, Ted Turner, Martha Stewart, Bill Maher and Lady Gaga are all frequent and high-functioning marijuana users. Freeman, who is 80 years old, gave an interview with The Daily Beast in 2015 where he talked about his use of marijuana and admitted “I’ll eat it, drink it, smoke it, snort it!” he then goes on to say how “marijuana has many useful uses” and it was “the only thing that offered any relief” to his fibromyalgia pain. Of course, there is a difference between the marijuana use of a “pothead” and moderate users, but we shouldn’t continue to punish those moderate users.
Marijuana is used to lessen a lot of medical conditions.
Medical marijuana is vital for a considerably large amount of people at combating many health conditions. In a 2012 study conducted in California, they found that 92% of 7,525 adult patients who use medical marijuana claimed that it had really worked for them. Marijuana has been found extremely successful in relieving nausea according to a Discovery Health article, providing tremendously good news for those cancer patients suffering from nausea as a side effect of chemotherapy. Also, marijuana is known for helping to relax muscle tension, chronic pain and spasms. According to CNN the seven main effective uses for medical marijuana are for pain, multiple sclerosis, nausea, epilepsy, concussion, Alzheimer’s disease and bipolar disorder. It also helps people regain a loss of appetite due to diseases such as HIV/AIDS.
No one has ever died from a marijuana overdose.
Some may believe that having a large amount of THC in your system has the potential to kill you, but this is not true! Not one single account of death from an overdose has been recorded since marijuana has been known. However, a shocking total of 8,441 overdose deaths are estimated to have occurred in Europe in 2015, none of which were marijuana related. In the same year 8,758 alcohol-related deaths in the UK alone were recorded. After all, marijuana is only an herb.
It is NOT a gateway drug.
“Smoking marijuana will lead to the use of other drugs” is one of the biggest and most widespread arguments of cannabis critics. Studies have shown there is no link between people who use marijuana first before trying other drugs and so is not the causation, it is just a correlation according to Scientific American. Those who go on to use “harder” drugs also tend to drink alcohol and smoke tabacco before trying other substances. On top of this, almost half the UK population has admitted to trying marijuana at least once or are regular users of the drug and have not tried any other substances.
Mary Jane = happiness.
Let’s just say it. Smoke marijuana makes people happy, it’s fun, enjoyable and brings so many people together as it’s known for being such a sociable drug. Approximately, 1 in 4 adults in the UK will experience some form of mental health problems each year, with such problems increasing a possible solution shouldn’t be ignore. So, why not make something legal which has the possibility to increase happiness and positivity amongst us all?
To conclude…
Legalising marijuana would be such a wonderful thing!
