Recently, some of Canadas politicians have claimed to introduce the legislation of legalizing marijuana. According to the policy, the possession of marijuana will not be considered as a criminal sanction. Indeed, marijuana will become a legal substance. People who are over 16 can buy it over the counter just as alcohol or tobacco. Although legalizing marijuana may be beneficial to those people with medical purposes, it will create more problems and dangers to the society. The problems that associated with legalizing marijuana are causing negative impacts on public health and increasing marijuana consumption among youths.
Also, the misuse of marijuana may cause people to drive under the influence of the drug, and hence, more accidents may occur, causing more expenses on public health care. Clearly, the downsides of legalizing marijuana outweigh its benefits. Marijuana is a drug that is harmful to a persons health. It has been found to have adverse impacts on ones mental processes such as memory, attention, judgement, and problem- solving (Butcher, Mineka, Hooley, 2004, p. 415). Also, marijuana can interfere with a persons ability to think rationally and logically.
Thus, the lapse in judgement caused by the drug use can lead to risky sexual behaviours and this may result in increasing sexually transmitted disease such as AIDS. Moreover, the long-term use of marijuana may cause chronic breathing problems and cancer to the lungs, as well as, other parts of the respiratory tracts. The immune systems may also be affected and the body may have a more likelihood of contracting infections. Additionally, chronic users might neglect their personal hygiene and nutrition, which can lead to serious health problems.
Hence, the use of marijuana will not only contribute to adverse impacts on an individuals health, but also threaten the health of society. In addition to increase public health problems, legalizing marijuana will lead to increase use of the drug among youngsters. Despite the regulatory approaches, legalizing marijuana has the inevitable effect of increasing the availability and consumption of the drug. Under the current prohibitions, the rate of consumption of marijuana among teenagers is already high; however, the rate of use would greatly increase if the drug was legitimately available to the population.
For instance, despite the prohibitions against distribution of alcohol to teenagers, many youngsters who are under the legal age drink alcohol today. Similarly, high percentages of the young population are currently smokers even though the law prohibit them from buying cigarettes. Therefore, it is expected that the usage of marijuana among teenagers would increase if marijuana was legalized. Notably, the marijuana use will impair the development process of teenagers, which will negatively affect their health in later life. Thus, the increased use of marijuana among teenagers is a great concern.
It will contribute to great dangers on the health of the youths. Like alcohol, marijuana use will affect a persons driving skills and decrease the ability to drive safely on the roads. Several medical studies have demonstrated that marijuana can impair motor coordination, alertness, ability to concentrate, and ability to react quickly (Butcher et al. , 2004, p. 416). Impairing these functions create a dangerous situation for anyone who is driving. As we know, drunk driving is a major problem in our society despite all the stiff penalties.
A lot of alcohol users drink irresponsibly which put themselves and others at risk. Similar pattern could also emerge among marijuana users. This problem would be accentuated if marijuana were more widely consumed, especially if the availability of the drug is increased. Hence, legalizing marijuana will increase impaired driving effects, which may lead to more fatal accidents. Therefore, public safety will be greatly threatened. Every year, large amounts of money have been spent on the treatments and preventions of health problems attributed to alcohol abuse in our society.
Undoubtedly, legalizing marijuana will increase the prevalence of marijuana abuse, which in turn will result in more expenditure in public health care. Variety of marijuana control programs and drug preventions campaigns should be implicated in society for keeping people from using the drug. Moreover, specialized health care services such as detoxification and rehabilitation services should also be increased to face the enormous health problems brought on by the additional use of marijuana.
Anti-marijuana messages should also be instilled to society through various kinds of advertisements. For this reason, the society has to invest large amounts of money and resources in this area in terms of hiring professional trainers, advertising anti-drug messages, and investing in facilities that help with drug prevention. These actions will largely increase the public health care expenses, and also the burden of our health care system. In conclusion, marijuana should remain criminalized in order to bring the greatest good for greater number of people.
In fact, marijuana should only be used for medical purposes and only be prescribed by qualified physicians to treat or cure diseases. Criminalizing marijuana prevents the occurrences of more problems and saves the society from enormous dangers. Also, it prevent the increased of public health care expenses, which is a crisis that faced by the health care system today. As a result, criminalizing marijuana will not only benefit those with medical purposes, but also protect other lives.