Essay on decriminalization of weed

Cannabis, also known as weed, marijuana, pot and many other street names must be decriminalized in Canada. The Canadian government must ensure that marijuana becomes decriminalized in Canada as its health effects are minimal, yet its impact on the Canadian legal system is significant. Marijuana’s negative effects to the human body are minimal; yet it has many medicinal uses and is a lot safer than other drugs, legal or illegal. Decriminalizing cannabis will benefit the Canadian legal system dramatically. The decriminalization of Cannabis would help Canada’s economy significantly. Overall if Cannabis were to become decriminalized it would affect all Canadians in a positive way.
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To start off, Marijuana’s effects are minimal in the negative aspects but have helped thousands with severe medical problems. The smoke ingested from the marijuana plant is our biggest fear when looking at the drug; not because there are any cancer causing chemicals but because the human body is not supposed to inhale smoke. This is where the lie of marijuana killing brain cells comes in; a scientific test was conducted where monkeys were exposed to marijuana smoke. When they looked at the results the scientists concluded that many brain cells were killed; what they didn’t tell us is that they suffocated these monkeys with the smoke, and lack of oxygen to the brain in fact does kill brain cells.(1) Regardless the inhalation of this smoke can easily be avoided by either baking the cannabis into food and then eating it or using a vaporizer which heats the marijuana up to the point before combustion and results in a light vapour. Compared to the legal 250 chemical filled cigarettes, marijuana causes less damage to the lungs and if used correctly no damage at all. "The smoking of cannabis, even long-term, is not harmful to health. ... It would be reasonable to judge cannabis as less of a threat ... than alcohol or tobacco."(2) This was quoted by editors of the prestigious Lancet British medical journal, and is heavily supported. The number one worldwide killer is tobacco, leaving around 5 million dead each year. Alcohol is next on the list with around 2 million deaths caused every year. So with these 2 legal drugs being our planets biggest killers then where does it leave the illegal drug of marijuana? In recorded history there has not been one death to this day as a result of marijuana use. So why is such a harmless drug illegal? And I haven’t even started on its medicinal purposes: Glaucoma, Epilepsy, depression, nausea, multiple sclerosis, appetite, pain relief and many other illnesses all can be treated with one natural drug, cannabis.(3) We could be giving patients of these conditions marijuana to treat their symptoms but instead we give them prescription medicines which total 100 000 deaths worldwide every single year. (4)


(1)\tThe union: The Business Behind Getting High. DVD. Directed by Steve Harvey. Canada, 2007.
(2)\tDeglamorising Cannabis. 1995. The Lancet 346: 1241. Editorial. November 14, 1998. The Lancet.
(3)\t“The Medical "Benefits" of Smoking Marijuana” Rich Deem, accessed 15/12/2011, <http://www.godandscience.org/doctrine/medical_marijuana_review.html>
(4)\tThe union: The Business Behind Getting High. DVD. Directed by Steve Harvey. Canada, 2007.
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The decriminalization of marijuana will lower crime rates and will allow enforcers to focus on more important issues. Marijuana under the Canadian Criminal Code is an illegal substance; making anyone who grows it, sells it or even just possess cannabis a criminal. As we learned with the Prohibition of alcohol which lead to a general disregard for the law in the 1920’s, that illegalization increases organized crime (such as the rise of Al Capone), death rates, addiction and crime rates including homicide, robbery and assault. Decriminalizing marijuana will allow police to focus on more severe drug related crimes. Marijuana, a relatively safe drug, is seeing an excessively large portion of the substance abuse budget. Decriminalizing marijuana would result in $400 million towards enforcing the proper criminalization of life threatening drugs such as cocaine and Methamphetamine's, to name a few, which currently sees one quarter the funding of marijuana criminalization.(1) This money is spent on various operations such as to bust grow ops, these investigations regard “unusually high power consumption” which costs a minimum of $5000 and a majority of the time nothing illegal is found.(2) In 2010, Canada’s police force arrested 18 thousand drug dealers which compared to the 70 000 grow ops in British Colombia alone, shows that little progress is being made.(3) Finally a majority of this money is spent on arresting Canadians for marijuana possession, 58 thousand citizens were arrested in 2010, a 10% increase compared to 2009.(4) This $400 million should be spent to crackdown on the production of harder drugs such as meth labs instead of arresting teenagers who are smoking a joint. Overall there is a lot of evidence that proves that the legal system would benefit from the decriminalization of marijuana.
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The Money that could be made from the marijuana/hemp industry in astonishing, and our government needs to take advantage of it. Hemp which is the male version of the cannabis plant does not contain THC so if the bud is smoked there will be no effects. This plant contains the strongest fiber known to man which can be used to make clothes, paper and many other things.(5) It is also very easy to grow and to process, for paper we have to use trees which take way longer to grow and process; hemp would be an obvious substitute. This would lead to a web of jobs which would stimulate the economy but we are not benefiting from this strong fiber because the female plant “marijuana” contains THC and they are both forms of the illegal cannabis plant. The industry from the drug, marijuana would also make an immense amount of money for the government. Since marijuana is worth more ounce by ounce than gold and the government could mass produce it and they would be making almost all profit if sold by regular prices.(6)


(1)\tThe union: The Business behind Getting High. DVD. Directed by Steve Harvey. Canada, 2007.
(2)\tBeckl Peter. Why Canada should Legalize Marijuana. Accessed 16/10/2011 www.Rxdirect2u.com/marijuana news.html
(3)\t“Canada Marijuana Arrests Jump Dramatically” Phillip Smith. Accessed 6/12/2011. http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2011/jul/25/canada_marijuana_arrests_jump_dr
(4)\t“Canada Marijuana Arrests Jump Dramatically” Phillip Smith. Accessed 6/12/2011. http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2011/jul/25/canada_marijuana_arrests_jump_dr
(5)\t“Growing Industrial Hemp in Ontario” Ontario Government. Accessed 14/12/2011. http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/facts/00-067.htm
(6)\t“Weed Worth More in Weight than Gold” Accessed 15/12/2011. http://forum.grasscity.com/general/303451-weed-worth-more-weight-than-gold.html

government could mass produce it and they would be making almost all profit if sold by regular prices. Decriminalization means that you are allowed to possess it, allowed to use it, allowed to grow it but you’re not allowed to sell it; this is where the Canadian government steps in. It is estimated that yearly about $40 billion is spent on the purchase of marijuana; this money would be better spent in the hands of the government instead of drug dealers.(1) Also if you release the 45 thousand prisoners that are incarcerated because of marijuana related offences, it proves that an unbelievable amount of money would be saved and made if marijuana was decriminalized.
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To conclude, our country would greatly benefit from the decriminalization of marijuana. It would allow us to give medical patients the care they deserve, allow our already greedy government to make more money which could potentially lower taxes and let our police force start the real war on drugs with the extra time and money to shut down the production of potentially fatal drugs. Marijuana, a medicinal wonder that is seemingly harmless needs to be decriminalized in Canada.

 

sorry about the grammar and spelling mistakes i have not yet revised it and was just typing off the top of my head, i posted a revised version. Let me know if there are still mistakes and if i should change anything. Not saying to help me with my essay but it would be appreciated if you notice any errors

Also my thesis is "The Canadian government must ensure that marijuana becomes decriminalized in Canada as its health effects are minimal, yet its impact on the Canadian legal system is significant"

I have a lot of numbers in my essay, is it proper to spell them all out or to just write the number? or does it matter? i think my revised copy is good

 

This is just my 2nd argument, the health effects - good and bad are going to be my first. i dont know what cbds are but i can research them.

 

thanks, and yes if it were up for debate you could reverse everything bad they said about it

 

what would you suggest as a thesis then? and did you read my arguement?

 

i added my 3rd arguement for those who care, Dylan789 thanks for your help and you are correct, i really dont need to put that much work into this paper

 

thanks for the resource, i am using many of the same points brought up already!

 

could you give me an example or suggestion to help? there is a difference between constructive criticism and insulting

Also for others who do care i have posted my finished version of the 3 arguement which are not fully edited yet, help/comments would be appreciated but not needed, thanks!

 

This is actually a very hard topic to write about because there is so much contraversal information and if you have a passion for it there is so much to talk about