| Legalize It Essay, Research Paper
Marijuana should be decriminalized in Canada. The century old debate on whether or not marijuana should be legalized in Canada has been a question since the beginning of time.
Marijuana is used world wide. Every country in the world has a different look on marijuana. The range is widespread, in Holland its looked upon as a blessing. You can buy it in coffee shops that are located all over the country. Some eastern countries are so strict on marijuana that you can loose a hand just for having it. In Canada we are pretty easy on pot. Here if you get caught with a bit you get $125 fine or up to 6 months in jail for possession of a controlled substance the money of course goes to the government. If you have over an ounce you can be charged with trafficking which is selling. Trafficking can be up to 5 years in jail. Over the past couple decades the fight has got stronger and stronger but still has a long way to go. In British Columbia you can actually grow plants in your own home without getting charged. However there is a limit on the amount you can grow. As the fight continues we near decriminalization. Well at least for medicinal purposes that is.
Health Minister Allan Rock has called for proposals to establish a “Canadian source of quality marijuana” for trials in the drugs therapeutic values. Rock has given special authority to 37 Canadians to legally use marijuana, under section 56 of the Controlled Substance Act. He is going to have extra security to make sure that this marijuana doesn t get to people that shouldn t be using it, just the 37 issued. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Once they have a reliable source of marijuana they will recruit trial participants from across Canada.
Marijuana is not only a medicine and a recreational activity its also proven that it can help stop future health problems. The US National Institute of Health has found that chemicals in cannabis can reduce the extent of damage during a stroke in rats. Rats are by no means compared to humans but we function the same and are both mammals so in a larger scale it can probably do the same thing to humans. Experiments with nerve cells, and then actual rats suggests that THC and cannabidiol (both found in marijuana) can protect the cells by acting as antioxidants and are helpful in prevention of stroke, heart attacks and neurodegenerative diseases. 80% of all strokes are “ischaemic strokes”. In these strokes free radicals are released into the bloodstream. These harmful molecules are believed to be the main factor in causing stroke damage such as loss of speech and vision and also paralysis. This study is being constantly looked at to see if we can use marijuana to
prevent strokes in humans. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
THC may also protect against malignant cancers. A study done in the US involved high contents of THC being injected into the stomach of rats, hoping to find a connection between THC and cancer. The researchers found that the rats given high doses of THC suffered far fewer cancers than the unfortunate non-injected ones.
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Researchers of the University of California speculate that THC may be useful in the treatment of schizophrenia. Some types of schizophrenia are caused by a hyperactive dopamine system, and dopamine is regulated by anandamide, which is a chemical with similar characteristics of THC but it is produced in the body. An analysis of the cerebro-spinal fluid extracted from some schizophrenics found levels of anandamide twice as high as a normal persons. The dopamine regulates the anandamide levels, and its found that THC also controls the levels of anandamide bringing the patient comfort and relaxation.
Canada s 37 medicinal marijuana patients have tried such things as synthetic THC, eating cannabis and also smoking it. After studying these patients it was found that smoking it is the most effective method. Many of the patients that took pills containing THC found that they were far to strong and that before they knew it they were far to stoned and it made them uncomfortable. The same thing goes for eating, because once its in the stomach there is nothing that can be done to stop the THC from getting into the blood stream. The patients that ate it found that it upset their stomach and gave their whole body a “buzz”. The patients that smoked it found almost no problems other than coughing, sore throats and a bad case of the munchies. These patients can also stop smoking a marijuana cigarette at any time if they start to feel the effects.
Marijuana may be simply a medicine because it relaxes the patients and takes their mind of the pain. If this truly is the only bonus of marijuana as a medicine it could certainly be affective. It could be used for such things as a common cold or headache. As we know the world of medicinal marijuana is ever changing our world as we know it. In California medical pot groups are popping up and for every 1 that gets shut down 2 pop up. These establishments are underground compassion clubs where people can go to receive marijuana and also talk to other patients. Some charge a small fee which is far smaller than street prices, while others are free. This also avoids getting the drug from people who they don t know and maybe shouldn t trust.
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There is some clubs in Canada, in Kitchener for instance there is a lady that has 47 customers. She goes to there house everyday and delivers 3 grams of bud per day. The reason she doesn t just give them a large amount for the week is to make sure that they are the only ones that receive the drug and also to prevent them from selling the top grade ganja.
Money is one of the most important things involved in the drug war. Police spend billions of dollars a year on the search and seizure of marijuana, the government also spends millions on the research of marijuana every year.
A good reason to legalize is to save/make this money. The following rough calculations suggest that the entire legal medical farming proposal will not be such a big deal, certainly much smaller in scale than many medical pot supporters can imagine.
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Suppose one marijuana plant occupying one square meter of soil, could yield 100 grams of marijuana with 10-12% THC in them when fully mature. Assume one patients dosage for a day is 3 grams of bud. So about 3 joints a day each one containing 1 gram, to receive about .4 grams of THC daily. Therefore one patient requires about 1095 grams of marijuana to last them a year. This is the yield of about ten mature female plants that occupy 10 square meters of cultivated land and produce 120 grams of THC pre year. A years supply of medicinal marijuana for one person could be grown in a space about the size of one parking space.
So now moving on to a larger scale one hectare of farmland (10,000 square meters or 2.7 acres) could produce enough marijuana to supply 1,000 patients with 3 grams of bud each day for one year. That s about a million grams of bud, rolled into a million one gram joints for a total of 120,000 grams or 120 kilograms of THC, from just a single hectare of soil.
If the government took all this marijuana and sold it at a cost of $10 per gram in a licensed facility such as the liquor store they would have be able to come up with anywhere from 5 million to 10 million dollars a year. Remember this all came from one hectare of farmland and doesn t include
any taxes that would go on marijuana. If it was sold in a store and bars just like alcohol is after 5 years the country of Canada might no longer have a deficit.
Or if all of the marijuana grown was used for medicinal users a single farm could generate all the medicinal marijuana required to make medicine for many thousands of patients. Furthermore marijuana can be used to eat, to cook with as gasoline and fabric.
There is a few things that have been left out of my formula that could change the figures, such as tons of leaf from the plants that can be used in teas, or just used for extracting all of the THC from them. Other things thats have left out include male plants because they are unusable. This problem can be easily fixed by using a cloning method to get all female plants.
So the next time you think that marijuana is a teenage gateway drug that will make them not care about anything, just remember that if its decriminalized in Canada we will be able have an age restriction. It may even be for medicinal purposes only. We all know that marijuana is far less harmful than tobacco and alcohol which are both sold world wide. Tobacco is used by more people than any other drug in the world, and it kills more than any other drug in the world but yet we still sell it at the store if your older than 19. There has never been a case of someone dying from inhaling to much pot, its physically impossible to consume the amount you would need to overdose.
Marijuana is used by every color, every denomination, every race and religion in the world. It is time for the world to open its eyes and see the true power of this miracle seed bearing plant. This is one of the most harmless things in the world. In fact it may be the most profitable and helpful one, but time can only tell whether or not the government of Canada will realize this as well as other anti-prohibitionists. There are still people that are solid on there decisions, but maybe if they look past the negatives of the drug and see the true benefit Canada could be a far greater and stronger country.
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