should cannabis be legalised

On the other hand, Cannabis creates a lot of problems. If Cannabis is not taken under a doctor’s advice, it can create a lot of health problems. As listed in Source 9 and 10, short-term effects of Cannabis include a general sense of well being, relaxation and euphoria. It will also create a sense of dreaminess, increased appreciation of music, sleepiness and time distortion. Physically, bloodshot eyes and a dry mouth are common symptoms, with a slight increase in heartbeat, decreases in blood pressure and impaired short term memory. There will also be balancing problems making the person find difficulties in walking. Cannabis is also famous for stimulating the appetite, therefore, the user will then experience hunger. For long-term effects, according to Source 12, using Cannabis affects the heart and lungs because it is often taken alongside tobacco, which might cause lung cancer, other respiratory conditions such as emphysema, and heart disease. Using Cannabis might also affect the immunes system and reproductive system, as added in Source 13. According to a research done in New Zealand, which is Source 14, Cannabis users were more than twice as likely to be the cause of fatal crash than to be one of the victims. Therefore, more traffic accidents will happen if more people use Cannabis. In Source 15, researches show that there is a trend of using Cannabis in schools. They include both students from city dwellers and people living in rural villages. There is around half of the students who have taken Cannabis into school or college and 43 per cent used it in school or college. This shows how combining drug-use with normal social networking is having the effect of normalising the act of taking drugs. This also suggests the health of this generation is likely to be affected by Cannabis as there are a big proportion of students using Cannabis. According to Source 16, teenagers also get addicted to Cannabis quicker than adults, and are more vulnerable to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active chemical in cannabis as their brains are still maturing.

Cannabis is now an illegal drug classified as a Class C drug. However, previous legislation enacted to control or forbid the use of cannabis has often unnecessarily and unrealistically drawn a large segment of our population within the criminal justice system without succeeding in deterring the expansion of cannabis use as suggested in Source 17.  If the use of Cannabis is legalised, it will benefit in many ways. The economy of a nation would benefit because of the taxation of Cannabis. It will also benefit by having to pay fewer border patrol agents to keep Cannabis from entering the country. The environment will also benefits, as the cannabis plant is actually a weed, it is very easy to grow. Therefore, the cultivation could be done out in the open air rather than having to be in the backwoods where ecosystem might be destroyed. The society or the community would also benefits as more people are being employed, and farmers would be able to grow. This would help raise more taxes for the government. However, the serious health problems caused by using Cannabis have kept it from being legalised. A trend is also shown that many people are starting to change their attitudes towards the using of Cannabis, according to Source 18 and Graph 3, 5, 7, 8 and 10. People are less worry about Cannabis and start trying it.

In my opinion, Cannabis should be legalised, as all the patients who need medical treatments of Cannabis can benefit and are no longer being treated as criminals.  The country would also be benefited in many ways, all in economic, environmental and social factors. This will also prevent the large number of people who use Cannabis from becoming criminals and get the freedom of choosing what they want to do. Even Cannabis is illegal, there are still many people who use it, and people starting to use it, the difference would not be big after it is legalised, and I think the benefits gain by legalising Cannabis will overcome it.