My 2 cents in a sea full of Men....

Pros and Cons to legalising Marijuana

Many can argue that smoking marijuana is tearing down the moral fabric of society, but what we need to think about is why they would say that. 

There's the stigma that it causes more bad than good and that's what we're here to argue.

Yes it can be said that marijuana leads to societal ills, can cause chemical imbalances, damage brain cells and the biggest topic at hand, the fact that it fuels an illegal drug trade and a lucrative one at that. In Barbados and throughout the Caribbean, the use and sale of illegal drugs has always been a serious problem, but let us look at certain things.

It might more benefit us to legalise marijuana than to keep it illegal. For example, how is it possible that the plant on which Marijuana comes from, that being the 'hemp' plant is used around the world for manufacturing and that indeed is not illegal? Is it because it's not being smoked or consumed via tea. The fact of the matter is that people love to rebel against the system, i.e. the man, and these things will happen because it is human nature.

Statiscally, marijuana is the most used illegal drug, but causes less harmful effects. Yes, based on the genetic make up of an individual, it can indeed cause chemical imbalances, and my work as a counsellor as well as working with young people has shown that to me. Yet, alcohol, a legal substance has more damaging effects than that of marijuana and most other illegal drugs. It damages the liver, eats away at the stomach lining, can cause cancer etc. A study done by the NCSA amongst secondary schools in Barbados with the exception of one school, as well as tertiary institutions showed that 94% of respondents consume low content alcohol, 79% high content alcohol, 63% marijuana and 59% medium content alcohol, wow, just a 4% difference. Any time a country can have an act as it relates to alcohol that does not stipulate any actual legal drinking age nor has it been changed since implementation in 1957, realising that alcohol causes more health and safety damages than marijuana cannot be thinking about the public health safety of its people. 

Meanwhile it has been scientifically proven that marijuana has more healing properties, saying that it has and is being prescribed as glaucoma medication, pain, nausea and vomiting, loss of appetite, muscle tension and spasms, insomnia and even to treat depression,(Health and how Stuff works)which is almost amazing because some of these symptoms practitioners will say can be caused by marijuana, i.e. Nausea and depression. If so, why is it increasingly being prescribed medicinally? Why are more countries lobbying for it to be legalized. Ralph Gonsalves stood at this same university, just next door in the lecture theatres a couple weeks ago and said, re the US , 'if they cannot impose federal law within your own country with regards to medical marijuana, how can you tell me what to do in mine'.

Policies are not working, there is no common ground and let's be realistic, legalising marijuana might actually bring about more benefits from a criminological standpoint via decriminalization. The drug trade as it relates to marijuana is seen as a tight end, big fish and pawns in water business. Let's think about it this way, if we legalise it, it means anyone can sell it, ANYONE, taking away from the criminal aspect of it. We minimize the possibility of turf wars and retaliation killings. It's almost as we though take away the possibility of the amount of arrests that arise. Already our prison population as it relates to men and drug traffickers whether female or male, is way too high for our prisons (prisons? wait! we only have one!)to handle. And most offences are those of a drug related nature. Legalising marijuana can take away that pressure and thus reduce the amount of tax payers dollars spent each year to feed and clothe prisoners. 

Also, let's look at Labelling Theory. Don't you think that if you continuously say that someone who smokes marijuana is a criminal, that you project that label unto them thus creating a criminal? Can I then say that we, the society creates criminals and not genetic and biological make up? Yes, predecessors exist, yes we are products of our environment, but we need to learn that we cannot continue from this aspect. 

Shall I delve into the agricultural benefits since our agricultural system is failing or should I leave that to the imagination and how much money could be saved by not only those bring in the substance, but tax payers who pay the Coast Guard and the RBPF. 

To sum it up, in my opinion there are more pros than cons, from both a criminological and psychological aspect. Yes there will always be that fear of the chemical imbalance and what it can do to those who consume it psychologically, but at any rate on the whole, we need be wary of the mental health of our people, whether young or old. This is the age of modernisation and globalization. Anything can happen. Anything.