Should cannabis be legalised in the UK?

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Should cannabis be legalised in the UK?                                                                      Clare Kelly

 This question has been asked for many years and still the government has not made a decision on whether cannabis should be legalised in the UK.

 Cannabis, weed, grass, hemp, shit, ganga, marijuana; they are all the same. Completely harmless, and completely misunderstood. 260 million people worldwide use it for its potential advantages. Those who don’t use it, in my opinion, are missing out. In 1973, the drug was banned from use in Britain, much to the dismay of its users. Since then up to now, people have fought for the right to use it as a drug, unsuccessfully.

 Many people believe that cannabis has a worse effect on the user than tobacco in cigarettes. This is untrue.

 One argument is that smoking cannabis when young can lead upto mental health problems such as schizophrenia, paranoia and depression. If it is smoked before the age of 14 it is more likely for the user to have these problems later in life. But shouldn’t this be upto the people who want to smoke cannabis? If they don’t mind taking a risk then I say let them. Just like when people smoke cigarettes they are taking the risk of getting lung cancer, but that choice is theirs and yet cigarettes are legal.

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 However cannabis is definitely 10 times worse for the lungs when mixed with tobacco, but alone, cannabis is a lot less harmful. When smoking cigarettes you are getting tar and many of the other chemicals in your lungs, but when smoking cannabis you don’t get anywhere near as much chemicals in your body that will effect it in a bad way. Tobacco contains over 2000 other chemicals, such as tar and nicotine, which effect the body in negative ways. Alcohol is also worse for the body than cannabis but yet that has been made legal. Alcohol not only effects the ...

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