MARIJUANA : MAKE IT LEGAL

An appeal to the Government of India to industrialise cannabis to make a better world.

Here are some reasons why marijuana should now be legalized in India.

1. It will eliminate illegal trade and associate crimes
   Marijuana legalization (or decriminalization) will replace the black market production and distribution with an ‘overboard industry’. There will be rules and regulations but the trade will be ‘populated by the government, farmers, merchants and retails clerks, not by criminals or drug dealers’.
2. Marijuana addiction is rare . An epidemiological study showed that only 9 percent of those who use marijuana end up being clinically dependent on it. The ‘comparable rates’ for tobacco, alcohol and cocaine stood at 32 percent, 15 percent and 16 percent respectively.
3. Taxing marijuana will increase government’s revenue
   By legalizing and taxing marijuana, the government will stand to earn huge amounts of revenue that will otherwise go to the Italian and Israeli drug cartels.
4. It will create job opportunities, jobs that can be created by the marijuana industry and help reduce India’s unemployment rate.
5. Marijuana use has medical benefits
   Studies have shown that marijuana use has dozens of medical benefits. It treats glaucoma, prevents cancer from spreading to other parts of the body, reduces anxiety, slows the progress of Alzheimer’s disease, improves metabolism and is even said to spur creativity in our brain.
6. It will help the locals
   In states like Himachal Pradesh,Assam,Manipur,Meghalaya,Nagaland,Tripura and Tamil Nadu, where cannabis plants grow, marijuana is the only source of income for many locals. However, being a banned substance, the farmers are forced to sell it at a very cheap price to the drug dealers and they face additional pressure from the police as well, who are paid to destroy the cannabis plantations. Legalizing marijuana will end this ‘war on drugs’ targeting our own countrymen.
7. Legalization will ensure that good quality marijuana is sold to the consumers
   In India, dealers often mix hash and weed with chemicals or other drugs like afeem to improve the taste, color, texture or ‘high’ of the stuff. Legalization will improve the quality of marijuana sold to the users because government will regulate the production and sale of the drug.
8. Marijuana has got no side effects for the human body if it is consumed raw.
9. Prohibition has failed to control the use and domestic production of marijuana as in India if the youth is having 10 grams pack of weed is brought illegally moreover brought from drug dealers.
10. Marijuana is less harmful than alcohol.It has constant tendency to keep a human brain to a calm state of mind.Hence it has been medically proved that weed is better as compared to alcohol.