Legalizing The Magical Green Leaf

Canadians are much more open-minded toward marijuana than Americans. Legalizing marijuana has been a very important topic among Canadians and there are a huge number of supporters living among us. Should marijuana be legalized?

Marijuana is a green or gray mixture of dried, shredded flowers and leaves of the hemp plant Cannabis sativa. Cannabis is a term that refers to marijuana and other drugs made from the same plant. Strong forms of cannabis include sinse-milla (sin-seh-me-yah), hashish ("hash" for short), and hash oil and they all contain THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), the main active chemical in marijuana. The original home of Cannabis is thought to be central Asia, but it has spread around the globe with the exception of Arctic regions and areas of wet tropical forests. All forms of cannabis are mind-altering (psychoactive) drugs. Within a few minutes of inhaling marijuana smoke, the user will likely feel, along with intoxication, a dry mouth, rapid heartbeat, some loss of coordination and poor sense of balance, and slower reaction time. Blood vessels in the eye expand, so the user's eyes look red. For some people, marijuana raises blood pressure slightly and can double the normal heart rate.

Most human beings believe in having the freedom to choose their life styles. Choice of exercising, or being lazy, choice of eating healthy, or eating junk food, choice of drinking, or smoking. When the issue of using drugs, especially marijuana, is on the line, all Canadians have the choice to do so as they please, but the freedom to purchase and to grow is illegal. People have the potential and tendency of doing something when they are forbidden to do so, because of the trill and excitement they get. Kids will do anything to sneak into a R rated movie, rent or buy video games that are rated M for mature, buying alcohol and smoke illegally simply because they are not allowed to do so, but when the same kids turn the legal age everything becomes natural for them. Issue of using and making drugs is in every country, but some countries like Amsterdam have legalized laws and others like Canada do not.

Medicines are taken by people every day for relief purposes such as Advil for a simple headache to chemical drugs to control cancer. All drugs have side effects, but people are still willing to take the chance of side effects in order to get temporary or permanent relief of their pains. Marijuana, on the other hand has not shown any life threatening side effects in patience and people who use it for pleasure. Marijuana is considered to be an herbal and natural medicine, and it is a great substitution for any human made chemical pain relievers. Marijuana is preferred by doctors and patience, because patience receive the same results from marijuana than they would from morphine, but with a big difference; morphine shuts the body's nervous system, makes users emotionally vulnerable, and makes users vomit. Marijuana users get the same relief except while high, marijuana smokers, "eat great, sleep great and have the best sex of their lives". (Steven Hagar October 10, 2005)

Falling down from a tree and breaking his back, one of my best friends was in horrible pain. After doctor's examination he was told that he was truly fortunate not to have lost his ability to walk, but had to stay in bed for to months for full recovery. To relief him from his miserable pain he was given a high dosage of morphine, but his body did not respond properly. He was given two choices: take the pain for two months or use medical marijuana. To this day he still thanks his doctor for recommending marijuana because taking the pain would have been a constant torture.

Gamblers, smokers, and hard drug users all have on thing in common; addiction. Marijuana usage increases body's THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) level but it does not produce cravings thus it does not have any addiction. Alcoholics drink because of their habits not cravings, but by doing so they are damaging their bodies' organs such as liver and kidneys. There are no proven cases of non-cigarette smokers who smoked marijuana on a regular basis and developed mouth and lung cancer. Drinking alcohol impairs people's judgments, thus affecting their ability to perform on time and in the right way. Alcohol plays a major role in a high number of car crashes which lead