INTRO
Marijuana like most drugs is considered illegal in many countries for a variety of health and social concerns. But when compared to alcohol and other legal drugs the arguments for keeping it illegal start to crumble. This report will look at the arguments for why cannabis is illegal in NZ and will consider whether it should be legal or not. To do this we will consider the benefits of making cannabis legal, the negative effects, the medical benefits, how it affects teenagers mentally and physicaily, how it can affect our learning, and if cannabis was legal would it have as negative effects as alcohol.
1.What are the benefits of making marijuana legal
There are many benefits to legalising cannabis. One of main benefits is how it could contribute to economic growth. If Cannabis was legal is would allow people to start businesses that could make a lot of money and open up jobs for a lot of people also in new zealand we have great conditions for growing crops. Health not handcuffs - this means that users of marijuana can be rehabilitated and not just criminalized. Prohibition has not stopped New Zealanders from using cannabis. Research shows 15 percent of men and 8 percent of women in NZ used cannabis over a 12-month period in 2012-13. Legalizing cannabis could save the NZ justice system a staggering $11.4M a year. Takes money away from street gangs. Over the past two-and-half years, street gangs in New Zealand have grown by more than 30 per cent. The illegal cannabis market, estimated to be worth $1 -3B , potentially funds these gangs to some extent.
NEGATIVE EFFECTS
A number of negative impacts are associated with the legalization of marijuana due to its adverse effects. Greater accessibility of the drug would likely lead to more use and would entail a new cannabis law or laws. It’s also likely that the marketing of marijuana would include children and teenagers, which would lead to more young people using the drug. Youth using marijuana could lead to higher incidences of abuse and addiction. Some evidence also points to marijuana’s correlation with mental illnesses such as psychoses and schizophrenia, furthering the health impacts. Kids who begin using marijuana can develop cannabis use disorder and may have reduced IQs when compared to young people who don’t use it. Furthermore, the marijuana available today is a vastly different drug than what was available in decades past. THC levels are much higher in marijuana circulating currently, which makes it potentially more damaging to the brain and more addictive.It’s also likely that the marketing of marijuana would include children and teenagers, which would lead to more young people using the drug which can affect their learning massively. Youth using marijuana could lead to higher incidences of abuse and addiction. The health outcomes are vast, and many experts also consider marijuana a gateway drug. This means that people begin using marijuana and then might move on to more lethal drugs such as heroin, prompting even more negative effects.
3.What are the medical benefits
What is medical marijuana. Medical marijuana is derived from the Cannabis sativa plant. Humans have turned to it as an herbal remedy for centuries, and today people use it to relieve symptoms or treat various diseases. The federal government still considers it illegal, but some states allow it to treat specific health problems. Key ingredients Marijuana has chemicals called cannabinoids. Medical researchers usually focus on the health effects of two in particular: delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). THC is the substance that makes you high; CBD doesn’t have mind-altering effects. There are a variety of ways to take the drug. You can inhale a vaporized spray, smoke the leaves, take a pill or liquid, or bake it into foods. All of the types differ in terms of how often you should use them, how they’ll affect your symptoms, and side effects you may feel. WHAT DOES IT TREAT State laws differ on the conditions that you can legally treat with medical marijuana. But you might be allowed to use it if you have Alzheimer’s, ALS, cancer, Crohn’s disease, epilepsy, seizures, hepatitis C, AIDS, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, posttraumatic stress disorder, chronic pain, or severe nausea. But scientists aren’t sure that it helps all of these conditions. The research is most clear that it can work as a painkiller, to stop vomiting during chemotherapy, to relieve some MS symptoms, and to treat a few rare forms of epilepsy.
4.How it affects teenagers mentally and physically?
As mentioned before It’s also likely that the marketing of marijuana would include children and teenagers, which would lead to more young people using the drug which can negatively affect their learning massively. Marajiuana has a big effect on sleep patterns. So what mean by that is you don't enter a certain stage of sleep which helps consolidate your day consolidated means to go over your day so when you sleep your brain is going over everything you did that day ands its getting rid of any irrelevant and its storing the relevant information and when you have marajuiana it stops that process and that's why you get memory deficits and it can make you tired which then affects you physically and then you don't have any motivation to do what you want to do.
5.How marijuana can affect your learning.
Achieving a marijuana “high” creates short-term memory loss,making it difficult to recall information and remember events accurately. For students that use marijuana regularly, this can create issues in school by lowering their test scores and decreasing the quality of critical thinking. It can also be difficult for your brain to create new memories when you are under the influence of marijuana, meaning that students will have a hard time retaining information from lessons and reading. The long-term effects of heavy marijiuana use could be even more concerning than the immediate consequences. Studies have found that people who use marijuana regularly for five years or more can permanently damage their brain’s ability to retain and recall information. This can lead to increased signs of memory loss in middle age. Heavy marijuana use can also affect motivation and the drive to overcome challenges, leading to an increased dropout rate for students. Additionally, research has confirmed that marijuana has greater consequences for young users than for people well into adulthood. The human brain continues to grow and form new connections until around age 23, and young marijuana users are more likely to cause irreversible damage to their mental health and cognition. In your brain there are different parts of it that do different things. The front part of your brain is for your personality and decision making and the temporal part of your brain is for hearing and then the base of your brain is visual and marijiuana affects your frontal lobe development is it makes it slow down and inhibits it from its full potential so that means you would have impared decision making and definition to your learning because you are not able to think rationally.
6. if marijuana was legal would it have as negative an effect as alcohol?
Now for the big question we think that alcohol will still be worse than marjiuana if it was legal because The Daily Mail and The Independent said the study showed cannabis was 114 times less deadly than alcohol and less risky than heroin, cocaine and tobacco. A headline in Newsweek proclaimed: “You are 114 times more likely to die from overdosing on alcohol than you are from cannabis. Here are some negative effects of alcohol: high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, liver disease, and digestive problems. Cancer of the breast, mouth, throat, esophagus, voice box, liver, colon, and rectum. Weakening of the immune system, increasing the chances of getting sick. Learning and memory problems, including dementia and poor school performance. .Here are the effects of marajiuana are that you can get high. It can affect your mental health problems or thinking can get disordered. 1 in 10 people who use marijuana will become addicted. It may impair your brain, your lungs may hurt, it may hurt your heart. As you can see the effects of alcohol are a lot worse than marajiuana. The CDC reports that nearly 88,000 alcohol-related overdose deaths occur each year. And binge drinking accounted for about half of these deaths.In comparison, the number of deaths caused by marjiuana is almost zero. A study found that a fatal dose of THC, the potent chemical in marijuana, would be between 15 and 70 grams. To give you an idea of how much marijuana that is, consider that a typical joint contains about half a gram of marijuana. That means that you would have to smoke between 238 and 1,113 joints in a day to overdose on marijuana. That’s a lot of joints. If alcohol is legal… and marajiuana has zero deaths in history and you can't overdose . Why isn't marajiuana legal
Conclusion
Our pmi table shows us that decriminalizing cannabis is better by 1 point based on use of the drug, police effort, health, and crime. We think that making cannabis legal is better but with the laws of alcohol, you have to have an id showing that you are 18 to purchase it. Thats all from us thank you for listening