Legalising Marijuana

Tobacco; Cancer, colds, bronchitis, Emphysema, Strokes, Heart disease, stained teeth, bad breath and diminished sense of taste and smell.
Marijuana; Prevents glaucoma, controls seizures, slowing Alzheimer’s, eases MS pain, Reduces hepititus-c side effects, relieves arthritis pain and could give the government another source of revenue. Yet Despite all the horrible side effects of smoking tobacco and the positive effects of smoking marijuana the New Zealand government would rather New Zealander’s smoke tobacco over Marijuana. It seems ridiculous that they allow us to smoke a drugs as addictive as nicotine but not let people smoke marijuana. Because marijuana is illegal it is often looked down on by some people and considered bad, along with the people that smoke it. In reality marijuana could be very useful to our society with many positive attributes, like, health benefits, potential income for our government, less people smoking tobacco and a decreased rate of criminal activity in New Zealand, If it was legalised.

While there is no doubt the THC, The active drug in marijuana, like all drugs can be addictive to some people which can be detrimental to your health, There are also 100’s of studies showing how the use of marijuana and refined THC can be incredibly useful in many different medical fields and beneficial to your health. In 2004 The American acocation for cancer found that marijuana slows the growth of tumor’s and cancers. In 2006 the scripts institute proved that THC prevents Alzheimer’s. Marijuana is a muscle relaxant with “antismodic’ qualities which have proven to be a very effective way of treating seizure’s. Marijuana can even help people with metal illnesses. Ive seen first hand the benefits that smoking marijuana can have on people with Eating disorders, Anxiety and even Depression. There are many studies that can back up the positive effects on mental health as well. New Zealand could be taking advantage of all these health benefits, If it was legalised.

Between 2010 and 2015, there were over 40,000 convictions between the ages of 18 and 30 related to drugs. Over this period, New Zealand spent more than $93 million, With an average cost of over $25,000 per person,  imprisoning those who are convicted of minor drug offences and that had to serve custodial sentences. This money is spent on imprisonment costs alone – it does not include costs to Police, the courts, treatment or probation. According to a Ministry of Health survey, about half of all adult New Zealanders – or around 1.4 million people – have used illegal drugs. Around 485,500 had done so in the past year. 78% of people admitted to using marijuana and 35% of people convicted for minor drug drug offences were due to illegal position or illegal use of marijuana. New Zealand could be saving huge amounts of money, up to $25 million, if marijuana was legalised. Along with savings potential there is also a huge opportunity for the government to gain revenue from the legalisation of marijuana, through controlling the drug just like alcohol and collecting tax’s from the sale’s of the drug.

When someone we think of someone that smokes marijuana, we often think of some good for nothing stoner that does nothing but cause trouble, If we actually looked we would find that in reality it is people who drink and use other illicit drugs that cause the most trouble in out society. We always see photos of drunken drivers who have crashed their car or killed someone in a car crash, but we never hear about someone smoking marijuana killing people and causing caous, Yet marijuana is not socially acceptable. In New Zealand drugs like Tobacco and alcohol are the real thing that are ruining our communities. In our country Every 2 hours, a tobacco smoker dies and every 3 days alcohol takes the life of another human. So that must mean that thousands of people have died from the use of marijuana, right? Nope. There have never been any recorded incidences of people dyeing directly because of the use of marijuana. So if alcohol and tobacco are legal drugs and are socially acceptable surly marijuana should be too.

Marijuana is a drug, It is no different to legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco in the sense that if it is abused it can cause serious problems. But, used responsibly it can be an incredibly useful and beneficial drug, it can give people better options that Tobacco or alcohol or even other illicit drugs, it can be a source of revenue for our government and it can even be used to save lives. It is time for us to look up at the worlds leaders like America and Europe and begin the process of legalising marijuana.