Legalizing Marijuana The ongoing debate on legalizing marijuana has been going on for the past 20 years. Never before have this many Canadians supported legalizing marijuana. According to Grenier (2013) 57% of the Canadian population supported legalizing marijuana in November 2012. Growing up as an adolescent, you were told by the adults that marijuana is harmful for your body, but they never gave a brief explanation about why it was harmful. Adolescents now days have a better understanding about marijuana than adolescents back then, for they have better access to research about marijuana on the internet. They know marijuana is less harmful than alcohol, tobacco and other drugs such as cocaine, heroine. Like alcohol and cigarettes, marijuana should be regulated and legalized to adults above the legal age. Legalizing marijuana can benefit patients by alleviating medical condition, decreasing marijuana related crimes, which eventually boosts our economy. However, marijuana use in adolescent can delay their brain development. Does marijuana alleviate medical ailments? Yes, research has shown that marijuana has been known to alleviate various medical conditions. Such as, Marijuana alleviates nausea, vomiting, pain, it also stimulates appetite in cancer and AIDS patients. Marijuana is a plant that contains cannabinoid. Joy, Watson, and Benson (1999) found, “the combination of cannabinoid drug affects (anxiety reduction, appetite stimulation, nausea reduction, and pain relief) suggests that cannabinoid would be moderately well suited for particular conditions, such as chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and AIDS wasting.” Cancer and HIV patients normally have a hard time maintaining their weight, for cancer and HIV makes the patients loose their appetite. Marijuana is known for increasing appetite in a person. Dronabinol is a man made form of marijuana and it is used to treat HIV patients with loss of appetite. Joy, Watson, and Benson (1999) found the following:
The only cannabinoid evaluated in controlled clinical studies is THC, or dronabinol. Short-term (six-week) and long term (one-year) therapy with dronabinol was associated with an increase in appetite and stable weight, and in previous short-term (five-week) clinical trial in five patients, dronabinol was shown to increase body fat by 1%.
Legalizing marijuana will benefit all the patients that use cannabis as a major component in their medicine and its natural. Where as, other medicines usually have harsh side effects. Marijuana is the most commonly used drug in Canada. Statistics Canada reports that marijuana related crimes have been decreasing but yet it is still the most commonly used illegal drug and has the most common drug offence. By legalizing marijuana, marijuana related crimes would significantly decrease, for the government would be in charge of all sales of marijuana. Therefore, it can be legally purchased at a store and it is much safer to purchase from a store than from a sketchy dealer. According to Shoichet (2013) former Mexican President Vicente Fox approves legalization of marijuana, for he states, by legalizing marijuana it reduces drug trafficking organizations revenues and related violence. Those who use marijuana usually feel lethargic, for marijuana is known as a hallucinogen. Marijuana users are less likely to commit a crime compared to an alcohol user. According to Miczek, DeBold, Haney, Tidey, Vivan, and Weerts, (1994) marijuana users usually repress aggressive behaviors and are believed not to be a significant contributor to a wrongdoing. Legalizing marijuana will easily decrease overall crime, for marijuana related crimes are the most drug related crimes. The economy will see a drastic increase if marijuana were to be legalized. If the government were to