Cpw4U Canadian And International Politics Assessment Answers

Answer:

The Canadian Government should Legalize the Use and Minor Possession of Marijuana

The government of Canada has enacted the Cannabis act which provides strict regulations as far as the production, distribution and consumption of Cannabis is concerned. There are three main aims of the act. One of these is to ensure that the youth have restricted access to marijuana. The second aim is to ensure that criminals do not make profits from sale of Marijuana. The third main aim is to ensure that public health of the Canadian citizens is protected by allowing the adults access to legal cannabis. There are several disadvantages that are related to the use of Marijuana. Marijuana affects the brains and the nervous system of an individual (Volkow, Baler, Compton and Weiss, 2014). The function neurotransmitters (chemical that the brain use for communication) is adversely affected. This leads to poor reasoning and false perceptions. Such a person cannot be entrusted any job and therefore legalization of marijuana would significantly reduce the productivity of a country. Another main disadvantage of marijuana use is that continued use leads to addiction (Suchman and DeCoste, 2018). Addicted individuals usually have a hard time when trying to cease the habit of using marijuana. Extensive evidence has also found out that marijuana use is associated with respiratory disease and testicular cancer (Smith, Mattick, Jamadar and Iredale, 2014). The final disadvantage that will be discussed with be promotion of crime. Marijuana use encourages crime in a number of ways. One is stealing in order to have resources to but marijuana. Secondly, proceeds from marijuana sale may be used to fund crime.

There are some health advantages of Marijuana use. One of the advantages is that moderate use could increase the activity of an individual. For instance, an individual is likely to concentrate more after a dose of marijuana. Another advantage of marijuana is that it helps reduce chronic pain. This explains why the substance is used in making medications. With moderate use, marijuana has been shown to significantly contribute to lowering of chronic pain. Extensive research has also revealed that marijuana can be used to relieve depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (Volkow and McLellan, 2016). It follows that it would be a good move to legalize the use of small quantities of marijuana. There also exists evidence to suggest that oral cannabinoids can relieve vomiting and nausea associated with chemotherapy. This would be very helpful for patients who are under chemotherapy. It seems that the government had thought about all these factors before allowing use of small quantities of marijuana by adults. Marijuana has been in use since time immemorial and no amount of legislation has proved significant to stop its use.

As observed in the discussion above, legalization and use of marijuana could have both benefits and disadvantages. After weighing the advantages against the disadvantages, the disadvantages are more. In addition, the disadvantages are debilitating. For this reason, I would say that the government should not legalize use of marijuana at all. In fact, it should work to ensure that not a single person deals with marijuana in the country.

References

Smith, J. L., Mattick, R. P., Jamadar, S. D., & Iredale, J. M. (2014). Deficits in behavioural inhibition in substance abuse and addiction: a meta-analysis. Routledge.

Suchman, N. E., & DeCoste, C. L. (2018). Substance Abuse and Addiction: Implications for Early Relationships and Interventions. Routledge.

Volkow, N. D., & McLellan, A. T. (2016). Opioid abuse in chronic pain—misconceptions and mitigation strategies. New England Journal of Medicine, 374(13), 1253-1263.

Volkow, N. D., Baler, R. D., Compton, W. M., & Weiss, S. R. (2014). Adverse health effects of marijuana use. New England Journal of Medicine, 370(23), 2219-2227.