December 2002
French articles
news
opinion
junior reporters
entertainment
arts and expressions
about SNN
newsroom
classroom
magazine archives
links

OPINION

Legalization of Marijuana
By Matt Corey, Grade 12, Carleton North High School, Bristol, NB

There is much controversy surrounding the issue of legalizing marijuana. There are many reasons to support the legalization of marijuana. Marijuana has many medical purposes such as treating nausea and vomiting related to AIDS and cancer treatments. It is also used to treat anorexia, chronic pain, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, arthritis and migraines. So if there are many positive things about marijuana why can it not be legal? You tell me something, what positive things does alcohol bring to the table? What medical purpose does alcohol have? 5000 people die each year from alcoholism.

Did you know that no one in history has ever died from a marijuana overdose and that it would take forty thousand times as much to overdose. That means that you would have to sit down and smoke forty thousands joints one right after another to overdose. I don’t think that would be possible without falling asleep first. Unlike alcohol, when you are under the influence of pot you are still in balance and in control of yourself.

There is an old myth that marijuana use causes brain damage. Actual studies show that marijuana users have shown no evidence of brain damage in the least.

Another myth people believe is that pot is a gateway drug, which leads to the use of “hard drugs” such as heroin, and cocaine. An example of this is when the Dutch partially legalized marijuana in the 1970’s. Since then, the use of hard drugs in Holland has declined substantially. If marijuana were a gateway drug, hard drug use would have gone up rather than down.

I think that prohibition on marijuana has to come to an end. Canadian taxpayers' money is being spent on cases dealing with marijuana in Canada. The government could save the money needed to go through with these cases and if legalized it would be taxed so there is more money, so the savings and profits could be used in a more positive way. Whether it is to punish REAL criminals or use the money to put it towards Canada’s education system or infrastructure. It is a moneymaking opportunity and I think the government should act fast and take advantage of the situation at hand.

To leave you thinking I thought I would leave a passage from the bible. It is stated in Genesis 1:12 “And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whos seed is in its self, after his kind, and God saw that it was good.” If this is stated in the bible then to me that is reason to accept marijuana into our society and realize how can something so bad have so much good to contribute to the human population. God put this plant on earth for us to use fruitfully, so the choice should lie with every individual to use or not to use.

Marijuana.com website


     



Back to Front Page