Running head: SHOULD MARIJUANA BE LEGAL?

Active Breaks, Activities that Are Being Practiced for Avoiding Health Risks on
Workers

Marco D. Leon S.

University of Cuenca
SHOULD MARIJUANA BE LEGAL? 2

Did you know that marijuana is one of the most used drugs around the world? A
2.9 - 4.3% of the world population that is between 15 and 64 years consume it
daily, after tobacco and alcohol. Marijuana has been considered one of the
millenary plants that are used in different religious and medicinal rituals, and
nowadays it has been used in the creation of food, textiles and, what makes the
subject more controversial, in recreational use from the previous century
(Rodriguez, 2013, pp. 1-4).

The current use given to this plant has caused various social groups to hold
debates, round tables, discussion forums and other events in different media to
show how favorable it can be to remove the illegality imposed decades ago in
several countries. These events have led several countries decriminalize
medicinal use, recreational consumption, cultivation, and even industrial
production, which has raised the controversy of whether it is actually feasible to
legalize the use of cannabis.

Research has shown the consequences that the use, production and
legalization of this drug have at a social, economic and political level. It is for
these reasons that in this essay we are going to demonstrate the reality behind
this plant, trying scientific arguments and sociological studies to make readers
realize how wrong the myths and comments of several supporters of
legalization are based.

As we had indicated, the use of this plant is considered medicinal in several

tribes around the world, but in 1900 this plant was considered a recreational
drug. Then in 1914, in the United States it was forbidden for the first time with
"the El Paso Ordinance", and in 1937 they began to control it because of the
negative effects it had on health and society. In 1961, the Single Convention on
Narcotic Drugs was enacted, which authorized all the participating countries to
prohibit the cultivation of: the opium poppy, coca or cannabis, with the aim of
protecting public health and the problems that would encompass illicit
trafficking. Therefore, from that moment, marijuana became illegal throughout
the world.

Over time, some countries legalized the cultivation of cannabis after analyzing
several arguments that were supposedly valid to improve the situation of the
SHOULD MARIJUANA BE LEGAL? 3

countries. Such arguments made people believe that by applying rules to the
use or production of this drug, many of the bad consequences of its use could
be controlled.

The decrease in marijuana consumption is the first benefit that legalization (or
decriminalization) would bring, but after applying the regulations, studies were
carried out that proved otherwise. NovaK (2010) shows us the example of
Sweden and Great Britain, which had applied very docile policies that eventually
ended up eliminating or replacing them due to the remarkable increase in
consumption that the drug had shown. In the same way, Alaska realized its
error, after five years of legalizing cannabis, taking 9 years to remedy what this
decision had caused. They tried to address the demand and supply of
marijuana for consumers, and thus avoid consumption at an early age by
adolescents. But the surveys showed that this objective could not be achieved,
since 54% of them showed that consumption was an early event, where the
increase in consumption among adolescents and university students was 11%
(Monckerberb, 2014).

The reduction of people in prison and of investment in security is another

argument in favor, since the incarceration rate increased more than 100 percent
in the last 15 years, and that being 300 $ the average cost of maintenance of
private persons of freedom, it was beneficial to make this decision. This
increase was due to the fact that some countries penalized any case involved
with this drug, reaching 344 behaviors punishable by jail. After the possession
of this law, studies were carried out to show if positive results were produced,
but we left the conclusion at your discretion. For example in Colorado (United
States) the illegal traffic of this drug showed an increase of 33%, being the state
with the highest records, since in all the states illegal traffic was registered. This
consequence shows that new strategies should be used and created to control
production, manufacturing, distribution and even effects on consumption. We
must also mention that in 2004 studies were conducted in federal prisons in the
United States to determine how many people were there for crimes related to
this drug. But the results were not very encouraging, showing that only 1.5% of
inmates registered crimes for possession, trafficking or cultivation of marijuana
(Philipson, Lopez, Ahumada, & Ayala, 2016).
SHOULD MARIJUANA BE LEGAL? 4

Finally, we are going to talk about health. In addition to the psychological

traumas suffered by both the consumer and his family, it is necessary to show
the human losses that surround the areas where the cartels are the dominant
ones. However, this is only the beginning, since for the consumers the
consequences in the short and long term are worse. QEV Analytics (2012) tells
us that the consumption of this drug causes difficulties in the proper
development of the brain of adolescents who consume it, with addiction being
one of the long-term consequences. The reduction of affective abilities, school
performance, and concentration are short-term consequences that have been
proved to be irreparable, for this reason all consumers will have difficulties in
their daily performance which will make a society less favorable and with less
expectations of success (Madoz-Gurpide & Ochoa, 2014).

In conclusion, state resources must be applied in order to correctly handle the

consequences, and we also know that the effects of marijuana consumption will
produce people less able to lead a full life. Therefore all that is spoken is
sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the decriminalization of any activity
related to marijuana is not at all convenient in any of the cases.

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SHOULD MARIJUANA BE LEGAL? 5

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