Cannabis should be legalised! (Should cannabis be legalised?)

Member Name: ryanbritto

Product:	Should cannabis be legalised?
Date:	24/01/01 (520 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: its only a plant

Disadvantages: more young people will start taking it

The simple answer to whether cannabis should be legalised is ? yes, it should.

There is lots and lots of misinformation about the use of this drug. Even using the term drug is enough to send any politician into a complete and irrational frenzy. Sadly, it is a fact of life, at least in the UK, that it?s the politicians who determine the laws. The judges are allowed to interpret them, but usually within limits.

So, what is cannabis? It is nothing more than a plant. It will grow in the UK but the home grown variety is not as strong as the imported variety. Moreover, the foreign variety can be obtained in the form of a solid block whereas the UK variety is in the form of a leaf. The effect of smoking cannabis is to make people relaxed, make them feel light-headed or giggly, give them the munchies, and if too much is taken, they will simply fall asleep. I am not aware of anybody that has turned violent after smoking cannabis. It usually has the opposite effect. It is not addictive and it is not hallucinogenic. Also, using cannabis does not mean that you are on the slippery slope to becoming a heroin user or future drug pusher.

What are the problems facing its legalisation? The government would be earning money from selling drugs. At present, the British government does not know how to handle that situation. Also, the parties can score cheap political points on drugs issues while it is still illegal. They conveniently forget that they are already earning lots of tax revenue from cigarettes ? a substance that under no circumstance would be legalised if it were introduced today because it is highly addictive. As tobacco is already legal, they don?t have a problem with it.

What happens when it is legal? As most people know, Amsterdam have a very tolerant view of cannabis and it is widely available in the cafes. A recent survey showed that more young people in the UK have tried cannabis than in the Netherlands. I?m sure a large attracti
on is the fact that it?s illegal. It is also over-hyped, by the media and the politicians, and they think they will get more out of it than they actually do. Does anybody consider these people criminals? Of course not. The police are therefore left with the impossible task of chasing offenders who they know are of no danger to society. In short, it is a waste of their time. Would you rather the police spent their time chasing people who smoke cannabis or chasing real criminals that commit robberies and violent crimes? The answer to that I think is quite obvious.

Cannabis has been around for hundreds of years. Recently, people suffering from arthritis and other ailments have found cannabis to be very beneficial. Many doctors agree that this is the case. So why are we making these people out to be criminals? It was not long ago that a case was brought to court locally where a man had bought cannabis for his wife. She was very ill and has found it extremely helpful. The jury took no time in throwing the case out of court and the police looked very silly indeed.

It is now about time that people looked at this rationally. Cannabis is a recreational drug. The disadvantages of taking it, such as they are, are minor. Keeping it illegal wastes valuable police resources. If individuals wish to use cannabis in the privacy of their own home or designated premises, then let them. It is the only sensible thing to do.

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