Having always felt strongly that cannabis ought to be legalised, I have decided to make a detailed report on why I have these beliefs. I have tried to use scientific evidence, and a variety of sources to back up what I say. But before I jump right into the debate as to whether cannabis should be legalised, it’s probably best to give an overview of what cannabis actually IS – this means that everyone will then be able to understand and get involved in the debate, because people can hardly discuss whether cannabis should be legal when they don’t know what it is.
So what is it? Well it’s a natural leaf that people then either smoke or eat. It comes in two main forms and different nicknames apply to the different forms: it will either come as quite literally a load of stems and leaves (grass, weed, marijuana) or in a solid block which can then be heated and crumbled for use (hash.) Maybe it’d be good to google pictures of them if you really want an impression of what it is like. The chemical that turns this plant into a drug is called THC (delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol). The concentration of THC is usually greater in hash than it is in weed.
What happens when you use it? The words “high” and “stoned” seem to be used at interchangeably. But I believe that they mean different things, and the terms should be used more specifically. The comparison I like to use is that being high is the equivalent to being tipsy, whereas being stoned is equivalent to being drunk. When somebody is high, as the word suggests, they are often quite euphoric and giggley. Cannabis is seen as a sociable drug so friends often get together, smoke some joints with each other and laugh a lot. Other effects include heightened senses (a greater appreciation of music, a greater sense of taste, increased visual effects e.g. noticing colour more), reduced concentration and coordination and an overall feeling of relaxation. “Space cakes” also have that name for a reason, cannabis can make you feel “spaced out” in other words time can seem distorted. It’s sometimes difficult to tell just how long you have been staring at that pizza slice, it seems like 5 seconds but the fact everyone in the shop is staring at you as if to say ‘hurry up’ suggests it has been a lot longer. But crucially you can still think properly, and you KNOW when you are behaving abnormally. In my opinion this is what leads to the paranoia, because you tend to think “oh God, I acted really weirdly back there, what is everyone knows I’m high?” etc in fact some people even say that you think MORE when high, a lot of creative work was apparently inspired by cannabis. Unfortunately since the ability to articulate these thought processes goes out the window it’s tough to convince a non-user that you’re mind is working overtime. But what about being stoned? In many ways it’s the same, just to a greater extent. You REALLY can’t communicate well when you’re stoned. The term implies the user is “like a stone” i.e. they don’t have all too much energy. This is when is becomes a bit less sociable, and it’s time to sit back and watch MTV for 5 hours, feeling mightily content as you do so. The infamous munchies will be kicking in stronger than ever, so you better hope you can summon that last bit of energy for long enough to order yourself a takeaway. Red eyes are common, but nothing to worry about. Being stoned tends to last longer than being high, in the same way that being drunk lasts longer than being tipsy.
What risks are involved? This is a vital question in determining whether the drug should be illegal, and knowing the risks is also handy if someone you know is using cannabis and you’re getting worried for their well being. Well to start off with the immediate health risks, there is absolutely NO chance of it killing you. (Gordon Brown recently described it as a “lethal” drug; this was a fragrant disregard for the truth.) The note-worthy immediate negative effects are confusion, nausea, a lack of concentration, paranoia, anxiety and hallucinations. That’s not to say if you smoke a joint the above will happen, the above all occur only when you have used too much and I don’t imagine anyone would be unfortunate enough to experience ALL of these effects at once. There is also a term for when you go beyond being stoned, it’s called “pulling a whitey” and is called this because your skin goes very pale. People don’t generally enjoy being this far-gone; I suppose it’s the alcohol equivalent now to being paralytic. But fear not, a whitey can be cured simply by sleeping (which by this stage people are all too happy to do.) It is impossible to “overdose” on cannabis in a truly dangerous manner, it merely results in the whitey scenario I have given above. And a neat little trick: if you ever want to reduce the effect eating food, especially sugary foods, does that. Also, any risks regarding smoking cannabis (i.e. lung or mouth cancer) can be resolved equally easily: by either using a bong, or by eating it. Finally it is worth noting that if you are around people who are high/stoned not everything that happens to them is because of the cannabis. What I mean is that people know that they have taken a drug, they know that the drug is likely to alter their mind and body and they naturally tend to exaggerate their behaviour accordingly. If someone smokes cannabis and then proceeds to get naked and swim around in the nearest river, that does not mean smoking cannabis gives you the urge to do this. It means that particular user was so keen to have a good time that they took it upon themselves to make it have this effect on them, ‘the placebo effect’.
There is also, of course, an indirect danger of cannabis. With stoners stumbling around being all spaced out, there is a possibility of not noticing that oncoming bus, not to mention those damn trams in Amsterdam, those things are deadly! So if you are going to use cannabis be sensible and think before crossing roads, cooking and generally doing anything dangerous. And do NOT under any circumstances attempt to drive, as cannabis slows reaction times and you will not break in time if you ever require an emergency stop. That said, these issues can be resolved simply by being sensible and careful, and do not warrant criminalisation.
A popular justification for the current illegality of cannabis is that it is a gateway drug. In other words, people use cannabis and when they notice it doesn’t kill them they then feel secure in advancing onto other drugs like cocaine. Under our current laws, the only way to acquire cannabis is via a drug dealer who may have stronger drugs. If cannabis were to be legal, is would be separated far more from harder substances making them more difficult to obtain. I also see no reason why cannabis is going to lead to other drugs anymore than alcohol would. The following article backs up my suspicions:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2538065.stm I believe that this argument can be entirely rejected – around half of the nation have taken cannabis, with only around 8% having tried cocaine and under 2% heroin.
Another popular argument is that cannabis makes people waste their lives. It seems everyone in the world has a friend who took a load of cannabis and then dropped out of school. Now here we enter the realms of separating correlation from causation. The type of person who is not going to work hard at school and wind up dropping out strikes me as the kind of person who would see the appeal in a substance that mellows someone out, means they don’t need to do much, and relieves stress. If chronic lethargy was indeed CAUSED by cannabis, then should all users not suffer this fate? But I know of many users who have continued to excel at school. Cannabis like all things in life is best used in moderation, and when used excessively of course it is bad for you. When I was at university the first time around I played World of Warcraft for hours everyday, that game did more harm to me than cannabis ever has, and I am not alone. Many children are addicted to this game … so should that be illegal? Someone died once from drinking too much water, should water be illegal? Sometimes the blame needs to shift away from the substance itself, and lie on the individual who is smoking away all day everyday. If these people were not wasting their lives with cannabis, they would waste their lives another way … their lack of self-control shows this (bearing in mind that cannabis is in no way addictive.)
There is a growing concern that cannabis these days is getting stronger. This stronger form of cannabis is referred to as “skunk” and has a particularly high THC content. This has been one of the leading arguments in the latest reclassification of cannabis to a class B drug. However it makes absolutely no sense – the alcohol content of vodka and beer is very different, but that is not a problem. Common sense dictates that you drink pints of beer, and shots of vodka. So when it comes to skunk you can simply take less to gain the same effect. If the user is smoking their cannabis then using skunk is surely a good thing, because less smoking is then required which means less chance of lung cancer.
The final health risk is the long-term possibility of schizophrenia.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...llness-40.html In fact this is the biggest problem people seem to have with the drug and is the only argument in my opinion that warrants even considering making it illegal. However the above article is shameless scare mongering and misinformation. Half the population has tried cannabis, so if the article was correct a quarter of the population would be schizophrenic by now. When discussing the mental health risks you have to be very careful that proper scientific evidence is being looked at, and not the daily fail. The issue of causation crops up once again. It is all well and good to say that a high proportion of mentally ill people smoke cannabis, but to then conclude that this is because cannabis causes mental illness is naïve and incorrect. By nature cannabis has a massively calming effect, and this effect is very tempting to those who are stressed and have something wrong with them, which would make them seek self-medication in the form of a spliff. In my opinion mental illness leads to cannabis use, it is not the other way around. Here is a detailed article on the subject:
http://www.aph.gov.au/library/Pubs/r...-07/07rn21.htm Note this line in particular “It is also notable that alcohol abuse is a stronger predictor of psychotic symptoms than regular cannabis use (by a factor of four).”
With the risks now covered, I wont go straight into arguing for its legalisation just yet. Here is the history of its legal status in America which gives an interesting insight into the racist and non-scientific reasons for its initial criminalisation
http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/stori...naIllegal.html This created a culture of it being an illegal drug, and no government since has been brave enough to legalise is because of the outcry it would produce. Indeed to be tough on drugs is a vote winner, and is reserved for times of crisis. Shortly after losing the local elections badly to the conservatives Gordon Brown came up with the following (against scientific advise)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7386889.stm Indeed it seems the governments of the UK or America are all too happy to maintain their war of drugs as a political tool, regardless of potential benefits of its legalisation.
Now we can move onto why I believe cannabis should be legal. There are numerous arguments, and I will begin by discussing the failures of prohibition. Drugs are often seen as a criminal issue as opposed to a medical issue, as seen above. In my opinion this has a big impact on society, but not the impact it is supposed to have. The theory is that prohibition deters people from drug use but this has been shown to not be the case. In Holland cannabis is legal and in America there is the infamous “war on drugs” and what are the differences? This link goes some way to revealing the fallacy of prohibition:
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n1146/a10.html?999 This article brings me onto my next point – not only does prohibition fail to prevent drug use (in the same way capital punishment does not reduce murder rates) but it is in fact has negative consequences. This is for many reasons: firstly it uses police time on trivial matters, and also vastly increases prison population (and remember our taxes are paying for these prison cells, which are essentially hotels, albeit not very pleasant ones.) Worse still prohibition encourages violence in communities because drugs are sold not by a friendly shop owner, but rather by a street dealer. Worried about children getting their hands on the drug? Ask yourself which of the two people above are most likely to have a moral qualm with selling to a minor. Indeed the “somebody please think of the children” brigade, who are often the most anti-drugs need to rethink their stance. Finally prohibition marginalizes users, and this prevents them from becoming useful members of society, not to mention that a prison sentence is far more likely to ruin someones life than cannabis is; it’s like crushing a walnut with a bulldozer, a criminal sentence is simply an inappropriate reaction to somebody using drugs. These negative consequences may be understandable were it to have any positive effects, but overall it seems the war on cannabis is failing – it is ineffective and counter-productive. Maybe it is time to open our minds to alternatives?
Now the problem with arguing about how prohibition marginalizes users, creates drug dealers etc is that these problems hardly effect people who don’t associate with the drug – and of course these are the very people who tend to be the most against cannabis. So what is in it for non-users, to have cannabis legalised? There are tremendous tax benefits to its legalisation. The following link reveals that Canada would earn a whooping $2 billion per year without increase in use from legalising cannabis:
http://economics.about.com/od/income.../marijuana.htm and of course the UK could equally enjoy the money flowing in. The phenomenal profits to be made easily outweigh any costs of increased burdens on our health system. With money coming out of the government’s ears they could afford more schools, hospitals and indeed better drugs education programs. Yet it seems some people would still rather see this money go into the pockets of drug dealers. However many leading economists in the world have been convinced, and have signed a petition to legalise cannabis:
http://economics.about.com/od/income...galize_pot.htm now 500 signings may not sound like too much, but bear in mind this list includes Nobel prize winners – these people know what they are talking about.
With the health risks explained earlier, it is only fair that there should be a section on the health benefits of cannabis. At this point some jaws might drop – surely cannabis can’t be GOOD for you? Well scientific evidence shows that it may in fact help combat cancer, multiple sclerosis and arthritis:
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article....&in_page_id=34 Much of our medicine is derived from natural plants, so it is not surprising that cannabis has health benefits to it.
One of the most common points made by those in favour of legalising cannabis is that it is less dangerous than both alcohol and smoking, both of which are of course legal. In fact the entire drugs classification system is contradictory and outdated but I wont go too much into that right now. The following link shows a graph in which drugs were ranked in order of how harmful they are – this is a study based on true scientific evidence as opposed to the propaganda of “talk to Frank” and the government, so the findings can be held in high esteem.
http://transform-drugs.blogspot.com/...ng-bigger.html Now you might then say “woah according to that, you must want to legalise ecstasy, LSD etc” well yes I do, but this is about cannabis only so that’s what I will focus on. Now earlier on I said the following “The note-worthy immediate negative effects are confusion, nausea, a lack of concentration, paranoia, anxiety and hallucinations.” I wonder how many people read that and nodded along, happy with the confirmation that cannabis should indeed remain illegal because of these awful consequences. But what about this list?
http://www.eastbourne.gov.uk/health/...l/health/risks Now that is centered more around long-term effects but a link is not required for the short term effects because we are all familiar with these: vomiting, loss of coordination, aggression, losing the ability to think (the latter to be is the main difference between alcohol and cannabis in my opinion – I feel much safer when I am constantly able to control my thoughts and think rationally.) Alcohol is also highly addictive, and is the only drug that can kill you from withdrawal. Cannabis on the other hand is not physically addictive at all, an emotional dependency is the only risk which is much less dangerous comparatively. The same point can be made regarding smoking:
http://www2.netdoctor.co.uk/health_a...mokehealth.htm and again, nicotine is incredibly addictive, unlike THC. Now I know this is a long essay and it’s quite heavy/boring reading but take a moment to really open your mind about this. If someone came up to you and told you how drunk they were last night: they got into a fight, they urinated in public, they vomited everywhere, they had a massive hangover the next day – we might think they behaved stupidly but we would not deem them a menace to society or massively judge them. Some people may even laugh and encourage such behaviour. On the other hand if someone tells you they smoked a joint last night they are sometimes met with a look of horror or even anger – how dare you have done something so terrible! When all that happened was that they listened to some music, ate some Doritos and watched TV. The contradictions of the government’s drugs policy have massively influenced the individual members of society, to view drugs inconsistency is part of our culture and it is wrong. The whole reason I am writing this is to hopefully convince a few people that cannabis is NOT the terrible substance that many believe it is. If you are willing to be open minded about alcohol and smoking than why not be more understanding of other drugs?
Finally I would like to end on an overlooked and underestimated argument. To me this is the most important part of this entire essay and hence I have saved it for last, many people sadly do not value the following as highly as I do. This whole argument is an issue of freedom and liberty. As a libertarian this is the most important thing to me, its what defines my entire set of political beliefs. I think that people should have the right to live their own lives, and make their own choices in life without intervention from the state as long as they are not directly harming anybody. Even if cannabis caused mental illness (and as seen above, I vehemently dispute this assumption, but let’s talk hypothetically for a moment) – so what? It does not harm me if somebody else chooses to smoke cannabis and get mentally ill. Yes maybe it’s a family member and maybe it’s sad to witness, but all I can do is offer advice and good intentions, it is not my place to dictate other people’s lives. Nor is it the place of the government, Gordon Brown has no right to tell me that I should go to prison for smoking cannabis “for my own good.” On a social issue there are two positions to adopt: liberal (freedom) and authoritarian (retriction) – and what people have been the most authoritarian in history? Stalin, Hitler … George Bush? Everybody is different and can experience the same events in different ways; for example if two people take magic mushrooms and feel like the floor is melting they’re in an identical position. One might call this a ‘good trip’ because it’s fun, but the other may call it a ‘bad trip’ because it’s scary. Now the danger in authoritarian politics is that it means speaking on other people’s behalf, believing you know best. But only an individual knows how THEY feel about an issue, and what is best for them. What right does the person who had a bad trip have to criminalize magic mushrooms and prevent the person who enjoyed it from using them again? Could they simply not stay away from them in future but leave others to get on with what they want to do so? Here is a quote I quite like: "It is not the business of government to make men virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from the consequences of his own folly. Government should be repressive no further than is necessary to secure liberty by protecting the equal rights of each from aggression on the part of others, and the moment governmental prohibitions extend beyond this line they are in danger of defeating the very ends they are intended to serve." – Henry George.
Thus concludes my argument – special thanks to Elipsis who provided some links, and generally offered advise on this. I’m sorry this was so long, believe it or not this was actually me trying to keep is short. I hope some of you who didn’t know too much about the issue of cannabis have now decided it should be legal!
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Cannabis
