Legalizing Cannabis in the UK
- Legalizing cannabis is quite controversial.
- Legalizing cannabis agents have highly defended the move.
- Proponents of the move argue that legalizing the drug will decrease the social evils witnessed.
- Opponents feel that legalizing the drug will rot the society.
Advantages of legalizing cannabis
- It will save on funds used to fund drug wars.
- Cannabis can be sold under license to reduce the chances of it being sold alongside hard drugs.
- Cannabis in the right doses is not harmful as popularly claimed.
- Experts have proposed that properly packaged as other stimulants like cigarettes, cannabis would not pose any risks to the society.
Advantages of legalizing cannabis continued
- Keeping the drug illegal enhances its use in the wrong way.
- Legalizing cannabis will enable competent pharmaceutical companies to handle the drug thus ensuring that all the hazardous elements are extracted.
- Cannabis is not as dangerous as alcohol or cigarettes.
- Cigarettes due to their bad effects should be illegal as is the case in Holland.
Disadvantages of legalizing cannabis
- Opponents have forwarded the following:
- Cannabis is harmful to human health.
- Cannabis has been linked with affecting people psychologically.
- Prolonged use of cannabis is likely to make users dangerous and highly dependent.
- Cannabis has been associated with degrading the mind status of its users.
Disadvantages of legalizing cannabis Continued
- Cannabis will drown society in mediocrity
- Legalizing cannabis will likely act as motivation for more people to start using the drug.
- Due to the hazards covered in slide four, cannabis will degrade the living standards of the UK people.
Conclusion
- Whether cannabis should be legalized or not is still a controversial issue.
- There is a general belief among research and scientist that if cannabis is legalized it will reap benefits.
- Opponents fear that a move to legalize cannabis in the UK will have far-reaching effects on the society.
- There is a need to carry out further studies on how Holland as fared before a move can be made to legalize cannabis.
References
BBC. (2002) Legalizing cannabis ‘will save money.
Cannabis. (2010) Legalise Cannabis in the UK. Web.
Macrae, F. (2010) Legalise cannabis sales to cut crime and save the NHS millions, says expert. Web.
Sample, I. (2010) Cannabis should be licensed and sold in shops, expert says. Web.
Telegraph. (2010) Don’t legalise cannabis. Web.