A Research Paper on Marijuana Legalization

Marijuana comes from the plant cannabis sativa. It is one of the oldest naturally psychoactive substances known to humans and recreationally thought the world for thousands of years, it still remains illegal to grow, use and possess in most countries, including Canada, which has been illegal since 1923.Tobacco products whether smoked or chewed, are toxic and cause cancer, marijuana smoke is similar to tobacco in many ways. Currently, evidence about the actual effects of marijuana smoke on cancer is suggestible but not conclusive. There are not enough high quality, rigorous clinical and cohort studies of marijuana smoking, particularly those involving regular long-term use. On the basis of a rigorous scientific review of evidence that does exist. The authors noted that there were considerable flaws in the few studies conducted to date that the possibility of potential adverse effect of heavy consumption cannot be excluded. (Schwartz, 2017). This research paper will focus on whether marijuana should be legalized.

Recommendations for the future marijuana should be legalized. Legalization of marijuana would lead to lower prices to consumers. Although one could try to raise the price of regulated marijuana all the way back to its illegal underground market price through taxation or fees. This strategy encourages current illegal producers and sellers to remain in the market or for gray market arbitrage be low-and high-tax jurisdictions.Undergorund markets have emerged across states and nations in response to much smaller economic gains per unit or volume when smuggling tobacco and home growing. (Pacula, Kilmer, Wagenaar, Chaloupka, & Caulkins 2014).

Research demonstrates that benefits for the use of medical marijuana, conditions such as severe nausea and vomiting, glaucoma, anorexia, chronic pain, and spasticity related to diseases such as multiple sclerosis. Smoking is the main form of marijuana consumption in research studies.

However, subjects also ingest marijuana through vaporization, or orally for example desserts, candies and sodas. Results from some studies are difficult to extrapolate to the general population because of a lack of standardization of the active compounds in marijuana, and because of the difficulty in adequately blinding patients.

However a recent study sort to determine the effects of medical marijuana laws on adolescent marijuana use. It concluded that the results were not consistent with the hypothesis and legalization of medical marijuana caused an increase in the use of marijuana and other substances among high school students. The estimates from the preferred specification were small, consistently negative, and are never statistically distinguishable from zero. The intervals around estimates suggested that the impact of legalizing medical marijuana on the probability of marijuana use was longer than the percentage points.

However high demand for marijuana for example in Canada resulted to expansion of black market. By taking control of the distribution of marijuana, legalization could reduce the flourishing black market for the drug, which is the cause for a large amount of illegal activity in Canada as indicated by the rate of police-reported marijuana offences legalization can address some of the social problems such as unsafe environments created by the illegal distribution of the drug and the negative consequences of criminal labeling foe possession of small amounts of marijuana. (Hajizadeh, 2016).

Moreover, the use of medical marijuana is essential. Patients need for relief of debilitating or refractory pain-either physical or mental. Failure to legalize marijuana for medical purposes is outdated. For example, if cannabidiol oil could help a patient more than what we currently have on the market for pain or seizure control, then it’s our duty as healthcare providers to enter new territory in treatment regimes. Indeed, it’s needed to be more educative on the topic and study cannabis appropriately. However, regardless of the rigid algorithms, patients are finding their relief elsewhere. (Gardenier, Brennan & Weber 2017).

Marijuana prohibition fails the society’s normative standards of what should be labeled a crime. Despite the fact that marijuana arrests have escalated from less than a third of all drug arrests to more than half a million in the past 20 years, usage rates have not gone down. More than 40 percent Americans have tried marijuana at some point. Clearly, the threat of arrest does little dissuade, despite its enormous costs both to the individual and to criminal justice system. Perhaps it even entices with its allure of forbidden fruit. Policing and enforcement.

Legalizing marijuana will not eliminate police interactions involving marijuana. In Colorado and Washington, it is illegal to consume marijuana in public, and possession is still illegal for those under 21, a group that accounts for 20 to 25 percent of the entire market is the United States. Police departments are regulatory agencies will need to decide how much time and effort they want to expand enforcing these laws as well as conducting inspections and minor sting operations. (Kilmer, 2015).

Legalizing jurisdictions will also have to decide if they are going to devote resources to prevention efforts (especially for youth), and if so, whether they plan to change the messaging to reflect the new legal environment. There is also the issue of timing. Many legalization advocates will argue that tax revenues from legal marijuana can be used to fund prevention, but jurisdictions need to decide whether they want to have these prevention efforts developed and implemented before legal marijuana hits the streets.

Ideas about prevention should not be limited to school-based programs.

Penalties, closely related to policing and enforcement is deciding how to sanction those who break marijuana laws. If the criminal offense for minors to possess marijuana, or if it be a civil penalty that only results in a fine. Decisions also needed to be made about how production violations will be punished for those licensed to legally sell marijuana. Will penalties be limited to progressive fines and the possibility of license revocation, or will firms that are illegally producing face criminal charges.

Support for marijuana legalization can be seen as the outcome of three different effects. Age effects refer to changes across lifespan development. So, for example, if young people support legalization, but their support wanes as they grow older, this would be an age effect. This pattern would be consistent with some observations on drug use, which is often more elevated during adolescence and young adulthood, and then declines with age, all three of these effects could be occurring at the same time.

However, since a 1970s, tobacco companies have been interested in marijuana and marijuana legalization as both a potential and a rival product. As public opinion shifted and governments began relaxing laws pertaining to marijuana criminalization, the tobacco companies modified their corporate planning strategies to prepare for future consumer demand. Policymakers and public health advocates must be aware that the tobacco industry or comparable multinational organizations for example food and beverage industries are prepared to enter the marijuana market with the intention of increasing its already widespread use. In order to prevent domination of the market by companies.

In conclusion. Legalization of marijuana not only has the potential to generate tax revenue from the subsequent taxation that will occur, but it will also allow the government to save citizens’ tax dollars currently being spent on prohibition legislation. The profits and saved tax dollars could be spent on public education and health promotion programs. Additionally, legalization will remove the criminal element from marijuana market and reduce the size of black market and its consequences for the society. There is much to learn from what is happening with the earliest adopters Colorado and Washington but their for-profit commercial approach is only one alternative to easing marijuana prohibition. The home production models being implemented highlights, some of them are non-commercial approaches.

References

1. (Schwartz, R. 2017). Legalize marijuana without the smoke. CMAJ, 189(4), E137-E138.
2. (Pacula, Kilmer,Wagenaar, Chaloupka, & Caulkins, 2014). Developing public health regulations for marijuana: lessons from alcohol and tobacco. American Journal of Public Health, 104(6), 1021-1028.
3. (Hajizadeh, M. 2016). Legalizing and regulating marijuana in Canada: review of potential economic, social, and health impacts. International journal of health policy and management, 5(8), 453.
4. (Gardenier, Brennan, & Weber. 2017). Should Marijuana be Legalized? The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 13(2), 116-117.
5. (Kilmer, B. 2015). The “10 Ps” of Marijuana Legalization. Berkeley Rev Latin Am Stud, 54, 55.