Legalization of Marijuana .

Running head: LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA
LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA
Name of the student:
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LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA
Marijuana is a recreational drug that is used intentionally by human beings for changing
the state of consciousness of one’s mind and helping to produce feelings of happiness and
exhilaration. Recreational drugs are mainly psychoactive drugs that are consumed by individuals
for altering their mental state in ways that helps in successful modification of the emotions,
perceptions as well as feelings for recreational purposes (Meerkamper & Goldfarb, 2018). When
such substance enters the body of the user, it results in bringing an intoxicating effect that is
often referred as the term “high”. Marijuana is seen to be the most popular recreational drug
worldwide although it is not legal to consume them. Individuals possessing such drugs might be
penalized under the criminal law system of the respective nations. However, Canada had moved
quite forward and had legalized recreational marijuana in the nation on the midnight of 17
October 2018 (Berbar & Persad, 2017). It had become the second nation in the world after
Uruguay that had legalized the use of recreational cannabis in the year 2013. Several other
countries have decriminalized it but have not legalized the use unlike Uruguay and Canada. It
had sparked debates not only within the nation but also by the other nations on the globe. This
assignment would mainly be an argumentative style of paper discussing whether legalizing of
cannabis is a right or wrong step towards betterment of the nation.
On closely analyzing the reasons behind the government in legalizing, the drug in the
nation is to stop the black market of the drug that existed in the nation as well as the improper
distribution of the drug to the users. The drug users are abusing the drugs in huge amounts
resulting in harmful effects on their health and the government wanted to control the buying
behavior and abuses of the drugs (Dyer, 2017). Therefore, they rationalized the legalization of
cannabis in the nation stating that as the licensed sellers of the government can maintain and
ensure the data and information of the sale of cannabis, they will be able to monitor the system

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LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA
and have an upper hand on its control of the sales in the market. Another important factor that
made the government to grant the legalization of marijuana in the nation is to eradicate the black
market and limiting their extent in black market industry preventing economic loss. Bill Blair is
the Liberals’ Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction Minister and he had participated
in the Current Monday night hosted by CBC in Ottawa. In this program, he had discussed the
issue stating, “The sale of cannabis is the easiest money that organized crime makes”. He had
clearly discussed that he estimated the black market weed in Canada is about $6 to $8 billion
industry. Therefore, they are trying to stop the exploitation of the economic situation of the
nation and thereby develop an industry that not only controls health but also acts as a source of
better income (Shwartz, 2017). The leading dailies like BBC news has been quoted saying that
the government is trying to create a new and safer as well as regulated commodities industry in
the nation. It is done so that they can employ Canadians, thereby creating jobs as well as growth
and others opportunities in the communities and displacing this business from criminal
enterprise. He had also told that the government is trying to create new industries that would
actually follow certain rules when there is oversight, testing as well as accountability. The
government also stated that they should be introducing new punishments for the selling of the
illicit cannabis when the cannabis is not provided through the 129 licensed producers (Crepault
et al., 2016). These punishments should be such like including imprisonment for 14 years for
selling cannabis to a minor or selling it without license.
However, many disadvantagesremain intricately suspected with the legalization of the
cannabis in the nation. Marijuana can be harmful in various ways. Some of the symptoms are felt
immediately when consumed while others face deterioration in their health over time. This drug
affects short-term memory as well as the ability to handle different types of difficult tasks. With

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LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA
the use of stronger types of cannabis, even the simple tasks are seen to become more difficult.
Therefore, even if legalization could be helpful in controlling the sale of the drug and stop the
back markets from becoming successful, it cannot control the negative effects that the drug takes
place on the mental and physical health of the users. The drug also affects the ability of
individuals in understanding and reacting on time and hence, they are found to be associated with
different accidents in car crashes than those people who do not use the drugs (Fishcher et al.,
2015). The government in order to handle such crisis has ensured strict vigilance and decided to
impose strong penalty for individuals driving under the influence of such substance. Saliva
testing had been one of the procedure by which police would be able to estimate the level of
drugs used by drivers before driving their cars. Although, it had been one of the measures to stop
accidents, but it cannot ensure effective stopping of such incidents. This is because surveillance
cannot always ensure catching of all drug abusers at the right time before accidents occur.
Therefore, the entire approach can be criticized (Davis et al., 2018). Exposing citizens to its uses
and then constraining their uses with the viewpoint that all citizens would be responsible to use it
according to laws or take responsibility of their own health is questionable.
Learning activities and studying needs the huge investment of attentiveness and alertness
which is hindered due to the intake of drugs by the students. Even young athletes perform poorly
when they get addicted to its use. The chemicals present in the recreational marijuana can affect
timing, movement as well as coordination thereby affecting their performances in their sports.
Studies have shown that marijuana also contains of compounds that can cause cancer like that of
tobacco smoke and even sometimes in higher concentrations (Fischer, 2017). Some of the studies
have found that the use of the drugs can cause long-term impacts like antisocial behaviors like
lying or stealing of money, relationship issues, intimate partner violence, financial difficulties,