Imagup General Magazine 2024
The legalization of marijuana is a controversial topic these days. Many people argue that it’s harmful and as such shouldn’t be legal, while others believe that legalizing it will actually make it safer for everyone. While marijuana for medical purposes is legal in a variety of different countries, Canada is one of the rare ones that has cannabis legalized for recreational use. So what are the reasons behind the legalization of this plant in Canada?
Well, the answer to this question is not that simple. There are many factors that contributed to the legalization of cannabis in Canada, and we will try to go over them all in this article.
So without further ado, let’s begin!
Reducing the impacts of the “black market”
The biggest reason in favor of making marijuana legal in Canada is the easier regulation of the market. When it’s regulated by law, every single product has to be reviewed and the prices can’t get out of the hand. This is also a huge boost for the economy, and it helps take the money from the organized criminal groups and narco-cartels. Organized drug trafficking is a huge issue, and the legalization of drugs is a great way to deal with it.
All in all, a lot of research has shown that the legalization of cannabis is able to hurt organized crime more than any law enforcement ever did. This is one of the main reasons for Canada’s decision to make cannabis legal as it helps reduce the impacts of a huge issue.
It’s much safer
When the market is regulated by law, product quality has to be guaranteed. We all know that the black market has a lot of questionable products as there’s nobody to ensure their quality and safety. There are many horror stories of people getting addicted to hard drugs just by smoking pot. While this is highly unlikely, there are still a lot of marijuana products circulating on the black market that contain harmful substances.
Overall, legalization leads to much better regulations when it comes to product safety, quality, and distribution, so it’s a huge reason to do it. People will be using these products no matter if they’re legal or not, so it’s better to have them use it safely and under the government’s supervision.
Other than the quality of the product itself, a law-regulated marijuana market eradicates the need to rely on questionable sources for people’s marijuana needs. With marijuana legalized, people can buy it with no risk of getting into some shady business.
Medical purposes
Recently, there has been a lot of research done on various health benefits of medical marijuana, especially when it comes to cancer treatment. This is why a huge deal of people suddenly started advocating for its legalization. It’s been proven to ease the pain and symptoms of many chronic diseases, and medical cannabis is in no way harmful or toxic.
Like any country that has marijuana completely legalized, Canada started off by legalizing the use of medical marijuana first. This was done back in 2001, but it’s a huge milestone that paved the way for further changes in Canada’s law.
All in all, the medical use of marijuana is an important reason for considering making it legal. The fact that Canada had medical marijuana legalized a long time ago is what created the possibility of making cannabis legal for any kind of use today.
It saves costs and police resources
Enforcement of anti-marijuana laws can be a quite costly process. It requires a lot of money and effort, and it’s usually not that effective. Also, the police use up a lot of their resources just to deal with these offenses, so making it all legal lets them focus on the more important issues like violence and theft. People will always find a way to do what they want to do, so trying to prevent them from it would be close to tilting at windmills.
What if they suddenly made tobacco or alcohol illegal? Do you think people would suddenly stop drinking and smoking? Of course not! It would be extremely costly to enforce it, and the economy would suffer devastating losses. This is why making it all legal can be such a great way to save funds that go into fighting something that’s impossible to shut down.
It opens a wide range of job opportunities
Making marijuana legal is a great way to open the door to a completely new industry inside of your country. This will of course create thousands of much-needed jobs since there will now need to be someone to produce, distribute, market, and regulate these processes.
So, if you want to start a marijuana business in Canada, where should you look for supplies? Well, since it’s all legal, there are thousands of marijuana seed suppliers all over the country. Luckily for you, there are websites such as Leafly, Grower’s Network, or Vela in which you can find all the info about good seed banks you need.
Other than that, it can be a huge boost for tourism in the country. Even though the fact that marijuana is legal in Canada is not well-known as of yet, many weed lovers choose to research this before visiting a country. Being able to enjoy your favorite cannabis products can be enough to make you want to travel to this beautiful country, and it’s certainly something to think about when considering the pros of making marijuana legal.
It keeps it away from youth
Legalizing marijuana makes it easier to set clear age limitations that prohibit younger people from consuming it. When paired up with the reduction of the black market, this could help to prevent many teenagers from getting addicted to cannabis. It’s no secret that younger people tend to fall into addiction more easily, and they’re more likely to look for stronger alternatives after they’ve tried marijuana. Legalizing it will make it harder for youth to get their hands on the drug, and also preventing them from „mixing with the wrong crowd“. Of course, the legalization won’t completely resolve this issue, but it’s definitely a good step forward.
All in all, Canada legalized cannabis for both medical purposes and recreational use because it comes with a lot of benefits including keeping the drug away from minors.
