Should Marijuana Be Legalized?

First, from 1900 to 1940, marijuana, including opium and cocaine were considered part of everyday drugs. As time went on, the U.S. cracked down on crack and opium, eventually outlawing them, but continued to be very “loose” with the use of marijuana. Hoxter a weed smuggler explains how he began in the 1960’s trying weed and years later saw himself unloading four hundred pounds of pot in Vancouver. The story of this man ends in his isolation and argument of why he couldn’t smoke weed even if he stopped selling? He asked a parole officer and she didn’t know what to respond. It is true what Hoxter states, fifty years ago alcohol was illegal and now it’s not, was it bad then? Will weed be legalized? And will the conflicts have been in vain? (Schou 8). Around the late 90’s and early 2000’s, scientific studies started to produce jaw-dropping results. Scientists started to discover that marijuana can significantly help people who have become ill. Medical Marijuana has been tested to help people with cataracts, cancer and severe depression (Zeese 1999). With this new worldwide discovery, the argument about medical marijuana ignited. States wanted to only make medical marijuana legal so it may help sick people, but the government did not want any form of marijuana legal. The law that was known throughout the United States was any form of marijuana was illegal. But now with this new discovery, doctors in states across the country want the

This paper will look at the benefits and drawbacks to legalizing marijuana by looking in at Colorado.The state made forty million dollars by taxed marijuana in 2014 alone, also Colorado saved countless millions because of the extremely lower amounts of marijuana arrest and court cases. It is not clear how having new recreational marijuana stores opening will affect the cannabis market, or businesses expanding around them. Gov. John Hickenlooper says that the economy is thriving with record setting numbers of tourists (73.1 million). 49 percent of those tourist said that legal marijuana influenced their decisions to vacation in Colorado. The ER’s in Colorado have also seen a rise in numbers of marijuana related cases and those cases in non-residents have almost doubled. An unexpected situation that arose from legal cannabis was the amount of electricity that is being use to grow the drug. Some cannabusinesses have to go green with solar or wind power. There are many varying views on the effects of legal marijuana have developed in Colorado since marijuana became legal in 2014.

Marijuana was in the United States Pharmacopeia from 1850 until 1942 and was prescribed to patients for various conditions including labor pains, nausea and rheumatism. During the 1850’s up to the 1930’s it was a very popular intoxicant. A movement conducted in the 1930’s by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics (presently the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs) fought to make marijuana appear to be an Addicting and powerful substance that would lead

Marijuana is currently a hot topic of debate throughout Canada, and has been for the past few years. Marijuana was first banned in 1923 under the Opium and Drug Act, but since 1997 the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act have controlled it. In 2000, over 30,000 Canadians were charged with possession of marijuana. Currently, the marijuana laws are not enforced equally across the country, which has prompted the interest in changing the laws or possibly decriminalizing marijuana. Also, those convicted of marijuana related crimes usually don't go to jail, but they do receive a criminal record.

Legalizing marijuana has become one of the most talked about topics in Canada. The Canadian Government has many considerations to digest before they legalize the drug

University students took to the public domain to have their voices heard through newspapers, meetings, and interviews. Marcel notes a 1969 issue of York University’s Excalibur which had “pleaded for the legalization of marijuana” and where it had “denounced what it called the social hypocrisy surrounding the debate on recreational drug use (Martel pg.41).” As the controversial debate surrounding the decriminalization of marijuana escalated, the Canadian government was compelled to respond. Thus in 1962, the Le Dain Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medicinal Use of Drugs was born. Authors, Susan C. Boyd and Connie Carter, outline the Commission's duties in their book, Killer Weed. “The Commission's role was to examine this phenomenon and make recommendations for domestic and international policy and legislative changes (Boyd, Carter pg. 52).” One of the commission’s key resource’s in understanding

Legalizing the use of marijuana has been an ongoing debate since it was first classified as a narcotic in the Narcotic Act in 1970 (Napchan et al, 2011). Once defined as a narcotic, cannabis was made unattainable through a pharmacist, or through prescription by a physician (Napchan et al, 2011). Cannabis, also known as “marijuana”, refers to any preparation of the cannabis plant, most of which are intended for use as a psychoactive substance (Napchan et al, 2011). Marijuana has many benefits in Canada if legalization were to occur. Canada’s economy would benefit greatly from the legalization of marijuana by boosting taxation dollars, as well as creating jobs for many Canadians. Not only would the economy benefit, but communities would benefit

The Controlled substance act pertaining to Marijuana has been a long on going battle as to whether marijuana should be legal in Canada and taken out of this act. The law behind the drug has a long history and many failed attempts at decriminalization. There are both positive and negative effects to this law, but I believe the positive effects weigh out the negative and that because of this marijuana will be legal in the near future.

In Canada, cannabis use became illegal in 1923 after the Act to Prohibit the Improper Use of Opium and other Drugs added cannabis to the list of illicit substances. Cannabis then became an illegal substance under the same category of harder drugs such as cocaine and heroin, despite lack of scientific or criminal correlations to suggest such categorization (CAMH, 2014). An increase in illicit drug use in the 1960’s and 1970’s was met by greatly increased criminalization and the associated individual and social costs. The strain on the courts, and the rising numbers of otherwise law-abiding youth being sentenced for recreational use of cannabis created pressures for the liberalization of Canada’s drug laws. As a result, the Commission of Inquiry

Throughout history, marijuana and its use in Canada has been surrounded with a myriad of controversy. Since its controversial prohibition in 1923 (Schwartz), marijuana has been a hot point of debate amongst Canadians. Although many believe that marijuana is extremely addictive, has negative effects on brain function and creates more crime, it is painfully obvious that Canada would benefit greatly from the taxing and selling of marijuana. The decriminalization of marijuana will not only salvage hundreds of millions of dollars in wasted law enforcement, but also will create a large financial windfall for the government in addition to directing more citizens to a less harmful drug than alcohol. According to many people who disagree with the sale of marijuana, “marijuana has serious health implications” (Berman). However, a recent study

In the 1800’s marijuana was sold in the drugstores and was used to treat migraines and menstrual cramps. In the early 1900s some states required you to have a prescription for the medical use of marijuana. By the 1930’s marijuana was being tied with criminal cases being the lead cause of the crime. In the 1960-70’s Congress with Richard Nixon as President passed the Controlled Substances Act classifying marijuana as a drug with a “high potential for abuse” and “no currently accepted medical use” (Bronner, 2013).

These days the legalization of marijuana has been heatedly debated on this planet, especially in Canada. Production of Marijuana for Own Medical Purposes and Production by a Designated Person has been completely allowed by Canadian federal government since 2016, but some people have not been satisfied by that. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced the bill to legalize cannabis for recreational use, which the Trudeau ambitiously promised during his campaign, and Trudeau’s government announced that hopefully the detailed regulations and taxations of normalization of cannabis will be released before 2018. Even though, in an August poll, more than 66% of almost 1,800 respondents across the country supported either complete legalization or decriminalization

Marijuana makes you calm. Marijuana reduces stress. Marijuana cures diseases such as cancer. Marijuana is not a drug. Marijuana is a plant; therefore it is not dangerous to one’s health and overall being. Many have heard it all before, the hundreds of reasons as to why marijuana is deemed as a “safe” drug and why it should be legalized, yet people have not quite heard the hundreds of reasons as to why it should stay illegal. In today’s society, there is a huge controversy on the topic of marijuana legalization. Marijuana, or Cannabis, is a greenish-gray mixture of dry, shredded leaves of Cannabis Sativa, a hemp plant. It has many different uses, including smoking for a high effect, brewing into tea, mixing it into foods, and for medicinal purposes. Although marijuana is currently illegal in Canada, at one point it was not. It was not until 1923 that cannabis was added to the schedule of the Opium and Narcotic Act (Dyck, 2014). Also, it was not until recently that the Canadian Medical Marijuana Access Regulations allowed legal access to cannabis for individuals with severe illnesses; only authorized personnel can grow pot or obtain it from authorized producers or Health Canada (Dyck, 2014). In 2014, Canada banned Canadians with a permit for medicinal marijuana use to grow their own supply, the only way they would be able to receive it was by going to an authorized provider (Dyck, 2014). However, many people do not feel as though marijuana should be illegal, as it has upsides,

Cannabis is becoming increasingly widespread and increasingly common in modern-day society for both recreational use and for medication. The article by Craig Reinarman, ‘Criminalisation, legalisation and the mixed blessing of medicalisation in the USA’ generates many controversial issues of cannabis.

Cannabis, formally known as marijuana is a drug obtained from the tops, stems and leaves of the hemp plant cannabis. The drug is one of the most commonly used drugs in the world. Only substances like caffeine, nicotine and alcohol are used more (“Marijuana” 1). In the U. S. where some use it to feel “high” or get an escape from reality. The drug is referred to in many ways; weed, grass, pot, and or reefer are some common names used to describe the drug (“Marijuana” 1). Like most drugs, marijuana has a very long history. People have been using the plant around the world for thousands of years. The oldest record of the marijuana plant dates back to 2727 B. C. in China where the plant was used as a medical herb for treating conditions like rheumatism, gout, malaria and even absent-mindedness (“Cannabis, Coca, & Poopy: Nature’s Addictive Plants” 1). Slowly, the plant started spreading around the world. By 1545, cannabis was starting to appear throughout the western worlds. Being introduced to South America by the Spanish to be used as fiber. The crop also had many other common uses around the world. In North America, cannabis was often used to make paper, ropes, clothing and other materials (“The Origins of Cannabis” 1).