Legalization of Marijuana for Recreational Use

Running head: LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA FOR RECREATIONAL USE
Legalization of Marijuana for Recreational Use
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1LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA FOR RECREATIONAL USE
Marijuana or hemp is a plant that is believed to be one of the earliest plants to be
cultivated. Recorded history reports its use for various purposes, ranging from its medicinal
usage to use for making fabrics and ropes to recreational and spiritual uses among many cultures.
The plant however began to be banned gradually and from 19th century onwards governments
began to ban the plant owing to its recreational narcotic usage which hampered the functioning
of its users. Marijuana and its use has been a point of contention in the modern medical world for
a long time with a polarized view on the topic. Restrictions on research about Marijuana has
deterred the progression of the debate. Nonetheless, Marijuana today is considered one of the
safer drugs with a promising potential for medicinal use. However there still exists a debate on
the matter in the scholarly sphere. Following much debate, the decriminalization of the drug was
first initiated by the Dutch government which officially categorized it as a safer drug. California
decriminalized Marijuana in 2001 and then Canada relaxed its regulatory law on Marijuana to
legalize its use for medical purposes. Uruguay however became the first country to completely
legalize Marijuana in 2013 and now Canada is seen to be gearing up to officially, completely
legalize the drug as well as opposed to decriminalization. This had sparked controversy and
debate in the public, political and medical spheres with majority voting for the move. The
statement of thesis states that complete legalization of Marijuana is the correct move. This paper
thus argues for the legalization of marijuana for recreational as well as medical and research
purposes.
The first point for the assertion takes into account the fact that Marijuana has been used
for its medicinal properties by mankind for at least as long as recorded in history with large scale
restrictions coming into the picture only in the last century or two due to those who may abuse it.
Even so, harmful effects of Marijuana abuse pales in comparison some of the effects to even

2LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA FOR RECREATIONAL USE
some prescribed drugs that exist in the market today such as Oxycodone. The death rate per
100,000 owing to legally available opioid poisoning was found to be 7.9 in 2016 in Canada, as
per the Public Health Agency of Canada, as compared to cannabis which has no records of
overdose in history whatsoever (Public Health Canada, 2018). Cannabis, in fact, has been stated
to be useful for pain relief both by the ancient Chinese as well as in some contemporary
medical reports (Brand & Zhao, 2017). Regarding the prevalence of its abuse, Philippe Lucas,
conducted a survey in 2013 and found that out of all the anonymous respondents, 41% use
cannabis as a substitute for alcohol, 36.1% substitute it for other illicit substances and 67.8%
substitute is for prescription drugs. It was found by the Lucas that the three main reasons
behind such preference of cannabis over these other substances of potential abuse were that
withdrawal is less for cannabis, it has fewer side effects and it is easier for them to manage the
symptoms. Therefore it was suggested that cannabis is a better alternative to these other
substances health-wise.75.5% of the respondents had cited cannabis as a substitute for at least
one substance of abuse (Lucas, 2013). Therefore recreational and medicinal use of cannabis
would pose much less risks health wise than some of the already substances that are legally
available as well as could decrease the markets of the more potentially harmful substances.
Additionally, in comparison to other recreational substances such as tobacco and alcohol
which are freely and legally available in the market, which young people who are deemed a
vulnerable group to cannabis, use much more than they use marijuana, marijuana proves to
be much less physically damaging, mentally debilitating or lethal as per scientific studies.
They argued that when such prohibitions are not placed on those substances then doing so for
cannabis does not make sense (Crépault, Rehm & Fischer, 2016).

3LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA FOR RECREATIONAL USE
Spithoff, Emerson & Spithoff (2015), in their peer reviewed article raised a very
interesting point highlighting how the UN Drug Report in 2011,reported that countries such as
the Netherland and Uruguay where Cannabis is completely legalized reported lower cannabis
abuse than Canada, US and Spain which reported higher figures regarding use of marijuana
among the general populace. They emphasized how setting up a legal framework with focus on
public health promotion and protection which comes with legalization aided governments to
better control use and abuse of the recreational drug, pointing out that among the 180.6 million
marijuana users, most of them resided in countries where the drug is illegal. Having said that,
UNICEF in 2013 reported Canada as being the country with highest adolescents who use
cannabis with 28% of the population falling into that category being a user. They pointed out
that pre-existing regulations on Tobacco and Alcohol could prove to be valuable in the
framing of such policies (Spithoff, Emerson & Spithoff, 2015). Drawing on the fact that such a
significant figure of users exist in these countries where the drug is actually illegal, it is well
understood that such demand allows the black market to thrive and this has in fact been
pointed out as one of the major reasoning to support the legalization process of cannabis is
Canada by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in their proposed Cannabis
Policy Framework(CPF) as the nation has been gearing up to push the legislation to legalize
the plant for recreational use in addition to medicinal use as it had done back in 2001
(Crépault, Rehm & Fischer, 2016). Taking into account the little impact that prohibition has
had on marijuana use as well as the limitations that would still restrict proper policy framing
and enforcement in case of decriminalization, which has been referred to as a “half measure”,
it stated that instead of regarding the matter as a criminal issue, viewing it as a public health
one by facilitating target based interventions and promotion of awareness could counteract the