CN - It??s High Time To Legalize Pot
It??s High Time To Legalize Pot
Thursday, May 14, 2009, 6:17
Highly popular in British Columbia, the infamous marijuana smoke-in on April 20 brought in about 7,000 to 8,000 people. The rally, meant to promote legalization of marijuana, is one of a kind on the West Coast, and even thought to be the largest in Canada.
Held at the Vancouver Art Gallery, the event was massive, with reggae music blasting and smoke billowing to the top of the skyscrapers. It was said the distinctive smell could be noticed blocks away from the rally.
Even though marijuana is still illegal in Canada, the event seems to bring in thousands of people who stand against prohibition of the plant.
From my perspective, marijuana can barely be considered an illegal substance in Canada. It??s so easily accessible in this day in age.
For a minor, pot is just as easy to obtain as a case of beer.
At parties, the abundance and regularity of marijuana is no surprise for teenagers today. Whether marijuana becomes legal or not, I believe that for consumers, it will hardly make a difference.
As for the economical arguments, it has been proven that legalizing will cost taxpayers far less than we have to pay currently in order to keep marijuana illegal. In fact, Portugal legalized marijuana in 2001 and it has since proven effective, in that crime rates and drug use among youth have significantly decreased.
Most arguments against legalization are hardly even feasible. While reading a forum on the Global Television website about the possibility of legalization, I was surprised to find that most replies were in favour of legalizing marijuana. In fact, most who supported legalization were middle-aged citizens, rather than young adults.
I also found it quite ironic that the people who were arguing for legalization had articulate grammar and spelling, proving their point in a clear and concise manner, while people who were arguing against legalizing could not spell or use proper punctuation to save their lives.
Their arguments against marijuana stated that the drug was harmful to one??s brain and that it made people violent. But all this proved was that it doesn??t take a few joints to slow down one??s brain.
Even more ironic, I can say that the most violent and aggressive partiers are the ones who drink alcohol, and the ones who smoke marijuana are more laid-back. In all honesty, the most violent act committed after a bong toke could be a belligerent devouring of an entire bag of potato chips.
Most opinions against legalization are based on the stereotype of punks, derived from low-income families who skip school frequently. This label is scarcely true, as plenty of my friends smoke marijuana and they come from average, middle-class families, hold honour-roll status in school every year and are actively involved in extra-curricular clubs. Although they choose to smoke pot, they limit themselves in quantity and refuse to experiment with any hard substances, proving that marijuana can hardly be considered a ??gateway? drug.
Overall, I believe that whether marijuana becomes legal or not, it will still be used as frequently as it is now by youth and remain as easily accessible as it is today. After all, if our politicians and athletes smoke marijuana, then why shouldn??t we?
While alcohol, the substance that has been the cause of domestic abuse, manslaughter and addiction, is legal, the question shouldn??t be whether we should legalize marijuana or not. Instead, we should ask ourselves why it hasn??t yet been legalized.
Source: Now, The (Surrey, CN BC)
Copyright: 2009 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: [email protected]
Website: Surrey Now
Author: Chelsea Noel
