The Beneficiality Of Legalizing Cannabis Compared To Prohibition Essay

THE BENEFICIALITY OF LEGALIZING CANNABIS COMPARED TO PROHIBITION
By your name
Class subject and section
Professor’s Name
Name of university
Place where university is located
Date
THE BENEFICIALITY OF LEGALIZING CANNABIS COMPARED TO PROHIBITION
Cannabis sativa L. (marijuana; Cannabaceae) is an annual, dioecious flowering plant. It is believed that its first appearance was in Central Asia, taking us far back to 5000BC (Farag and Kayser 2017, p. 3). It often used as a recreational drug, but also has a medical significance even in ancient times the direct source of evidence that Cannabis was first used medicinally was around 400 AD wherein Δ6-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ6-THC), a minor yet highly stable constituent of Cannabis was found in the form of ashes on the abdominal area of a skeleton found in Beit Shemesh, near Jerusalem (Zias et al. 1993). The debate on whether Cannabis should be legalized or not has been going on for decades now, and is still ongoing both on political views and scientific institutions. I also wonder what is more beneficial to society as a whole, so I went through various journals and articles to further my understanding of this case, and to be able to weigh the pros and cons of the legalization. Accordingly, I believe that it would be better to legalize Cannabis than to prohibit it due to its beneficial and advantageous effects on society.
Body
NCSL (or the National Conference of State Legislators) stated that as of 17th October 2019, eleven states, along with Columbia, legalized the recreational use for adults the small amounts of Cannabis. Twenty-six states (plus Columbia) decriminalized Cannabis in small amounts. States that label it as a low-level misdemeanor without the possibility of jail for offenses are Nevada, North Carolina,Minnesota, and Missouri. Other states, on the other hand, specified and designated that Cannabis is a civil infraction. Other states, namely, Iowa, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Alaska, Arizona, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Virginia, Indiana, Louisiana, New Jersey, and New York passed a decriminalization bill in 2018, yet non of them has been approved as of 4th October 2018 (NCSL 2019). There are only two countries where Cannabis used for recreational purposes is legal, the first to legalize it is Uruguay (BBC 2019), followed up by Canada (Cannabis Act 2018).
There is nothing much of any supporting journals or studies yet on the consequential effects of legalization of Cannabis in Uruguay, yet in Canada, there are some excellent results after Cannabis has been made legal for consumption. Legalization opened the doors to research funds, and as of July 2019, as per Statistics Canada, while accounting for the 9,200 working in the sector, the country’s economy gained a whopping $8.26 billion. One of the main reasons for this is because of the legalization of Cannabis, giving the government a way of collecting tax revenue, and along with it, because cannabis prices went up, they keep the pot of the hands-on most of the youth (Ellis and Silverstone, 2012).
Legalization of Cannabis also opened doors to more funding in research that involves the use of this plant for medical purposes, along with this some medical professionals d...