Cannabis Plant For Drug example essay topic

Lately, cannabis use has been a highly controversial subject. Some talk about decriminalization, some are all for legalization, and others want harder laws altogether. Although there are currently laws prohibiting its use, cannabis still grows wild in many parts of the world. It is much like other plants such as the red poppy, a national Remembrance Day symbol, which is rich in a much more potent and dangerous drug, opium. Cannabis should be legalized. Its uses should be maximized, ranging from medical treatment, to responsible use and growing, though not trafficking.

It could be regulated much the same as alcohol. After all, we are allowed to make our own beer, wine, and spirits in the confines of our own home. Marijuana should be the same. Common to many prize roses and flowers cannabis has been grown and crossbred for about sixty years. The most important things when crossbreeding a cannabis plant with another cannabis plant for drug uses are: the size of the plant, the bud to leaf ratio, the yield, the taste, and the hardiness of the plant. The two main varieties of cannabis found in the world are Cannabis Sativa, and Cannabis Indica.

The Cannabis Sativa plant is much the same as a small pine tree with light green foliage. It is native to Mexico, Columbia, Thailand, India, and Africa. The second variety of the two plants is the Cannabis Indica. The Cannabis Indica is a smaller plant that has wide dark green foliage. The Indica is of the hashish variety and matures much quicker than a Cannabis Sativa.

The Cannabis Indica is much hardier than the Cannabis Sativa and is indigenous to the high northern mountain ranges of the Afghani Hindu Kush, Pakistani Kara Kora ms, Russian Pamirs, and the Indian Himalayas. There are two main stages in the life of a cannabis plant. The two main stages are the vegetative, and flowering stages. The cannabis plant will continue its vegetative stage until the days begin to shorten past twelve hours of sunlight a day. Sensing winter is on its way, the plant will begin to bud and produce flowers.

Depending on the breed a typical cannabis plant will flower for six to ten weeks. For example: a cannabis plant, which has been crossbred with eighty percent Sativa, and twenty percent Indica, will flower for nine weeks. The highest concentration of THC is in the buds of the cannabis plant. When deciding the right time to harvest the harvester must harvest just before the plant stops flowering. This will be when the most buds are available.

THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) has many side effects. They can vary from user to user, the method that the THC was consumed, and the content of THC in whatever was consumed. Some users of THC have negative short-term effects with their memory; perception, coordination, heart rate, and some people experience panic attacks. On the other hand THC has some good side effects as well. The main reason THC is a popular drug is because one of the side effects of the drug is having a feeling of well-being.

Although THC has many short-term side effects that are pretty harmless, THC also has many long-term effects, which are not so harmless. Smoking marijuana is more harmful than smoking cigarettes and has many of the same effects on your body due to it having many of the same chemicals in it as cigarettes. The resinous hash oil is a purer form of THC and has less ill effects, however it must be used with caution as it contains such a high concentration of THC. Hash, Hashish, and Hash Oil are the most common forms of marijuana used when baking. When marijuana is ingested without heating it to its combustion point it is relatively harmless when used responsibly. Some of the side effects of smoking marijuana are: cancer, respiratory problems, immune system deficiency, decreased testosterone and sperm levels in men, and some people may also experience diminished or extinguished sexual pleasure.

Marijuana seems to damage short-term memory because the THC alters the way in which information is processed by the hippocampus. The hippocampus is a brain area that is responsible for memory formation. A study was done that exposed laboratory rats to THC every day for eight months, which is approximately thirty percent of their lifespan. When the rats were examined at eleven to twelve months of age they showed nerve cell loss equivalent to that of an unexposed rat twice their age. This could prove harmful to chronic THC users because people already lose neurons in their hippocampus as a result of age. A chronic user of thirty could have the memory or that of worse than a sixty year old.

Marijuana was first banned in Canada in 1923 under the Opium and Drug Act. Ever since then there has been a problem with the laws being too harsh on marijuana. Activists have been trying very hard to get the laws changed and they have had some success. In July 2000 The Ontario Court of Appeal decided to strike down the federal law prohibiting the possession of less than thirty grams of marijuana; and one-year later Canada was the first country to regulate the medical use of marijuana. Some people are pushing for complete legalization and regulation of marijuana. Others want the drug to be decriminalized.

They want the government to keep the rules on marijuana but lower the penalties from a criminal to a civil offence. This would be much the same as a parking ticket, or a speeding ticket. No criminal record of a civil offence is kept. It is estimated that six hundred thousand Canadians have a criminal record for the possession of marijuana.

A long-standing special senate committee on Illegal Drugs that is headed by Senator Pierre Claude Nolin studied this issue. In May of 2002 this committee presented a paper summarizing the scientific evidence and their opinion of marijuana. Some of the key points made in this presentation were: . "Marijuana is "not a gateway" to harder drugs, such as cocaine and heroine". . "Fewer than 10 per cent of users become addicted".

. A lot of public money is spent of law enforcement, even though public policies don't seem to discourage use of the drug". Nolin also stated, "Scientific evidence overwhelmingly indicates that cannabis is substantially less harmful than alcohol and should be treated not as a criminal issue but as a social and public health issue". This is how Irvine Welsh, author of the best-selling novel about heroin addiction, "Trainspotting", recalls his experience with drug abuse. "I'd always done a lot of (sniffing) glue as a kid.

I was very interested in glue, and then I went to lager and speed, and I drifted into heroin because as a kid growing up everybody told me, 'don't smoke marijuana, it will kill you'... ". Perhaps one of the larger deciding factors in the matter is the United States. They threatened further border crackdowns on our lumber and all other exports.

This could be detrimental to Canada's already weak economy. One of the reasons for the United States' reasoning is that they do not want their citizens to push for laxer marijuana laws. Should the laws of 1923 be changed, of course. All laws need to have the ability to be flexible and change over time. Maybe it was impractical to regulate marijuana in 1923. However, over time things change and with change come new opportunities.

The government should take a serious look at the legalization of marijuana. United States President Jimmy Carter said it best when he delivered a speech to congress in 1977; "Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself; and where they are, they should be changed. Nowhere is this more clear to me than in the laws against possession of marihuana in private for personal use... Therefore, I support legislation amending Federal law to eliminate all Federal criminal penalties for the possession of up to one ounce of marihuana". The possibility of more money should be enough to get any democrat on board. If the government regulated the product much the same as they regulated alcohol the results would be much the same.

There would be more money coming into the government, and less money going out trying to catch people with marijuana. It seems to be a "win / win" situation for the government. If the production of marijuana were regulated, marijuana would potentially be a lot safer. Many times marijuana growers add other chemicals, or drugs to the marijuana they sell to make it more potent.

This is dangerous because when people buy marijuana off the street, they cannot really be sure what they are going to get. Marijuana should be legalized. However complete legalization may be several years down the road, the government should set itself in motion and start renewing the policies on marijuana. If they bring it into the system eventually, there will be less of a craze for people who are for it, and there will be hardly any opposition from those who oppose it.

Marijuana is a relatively safe drug when used responsibly, much like alcohol. If we are permitted to make worse drugs in our houses using an alcohol kit, why then are we not allowed to grow and use marijuana?