10 reasons to legalize hemp.

Fierce debate reigns around marijuana not for the first hundred years. During this time, civilizations were born and died, the world order was rebuilt, the Great Berlin Wall came to replace the Rhodes Colossus, and it dissolved in a glass of history as well. Only the discussions around cannabis have permanently been remaining. And, it seems, we are honored to live in times of new change, when disputes reached a critical point of boiling, when all the words have been spoken, and it’s time to get down to business! Today it has become obvious – the legalization of cannabis is only a matter of time. Many serious scientific works have already been written on the invaluable benefits of using this plant in medicine, about favorable results in treating the most terrible diseases of the XXI century, such as cancer or HIV. And it is needless to say about marijuana’s anti-stress and analgesic properties. And this is just a faint glimpse of a drop in a raging sea of ​​social and medical problems that will soon have been floored by its legalization. We have selected for you the ten most significant problems of mankind that could be solved with this simple measure!

1. And we will start with what was already mentioned in the introductory part – using marijuana in medicine.

Despite the fact that in ancient times the ideas about medicine were very primitive, even then people noticed a number of health-improving properties of this plant. There is evidence that our ancient ancestors used oils made from cannabis leaves to treat gout, digestive disorders, rheumatism, insomnia, poor memory and much more even in 2700 BC. Nowadays, with the development of medicine, this list has been replenished with dozens of new diseases, as epilepsy, hepatitis, cancer and HIV which deserve special attention, as well as the perennial problems of the elderly, such as Parkinson’s disease or multiple sclerosis! You can read more about the more comprehensive list of deseases in the article “20 diseases that can be overcome with medical marijuana“.

Today it is definitely known that marijuana not only slows down, but also stops the cancer cells development – and this, pay attention, at a time when marijuana is pinned down by an extremely heavy load of the most diverse dogmas. Imagine what will happen when all restrictions on this plant medicinal properties study will be removed!

2. Decrease in a crime situation in the society. This is especially true for youth street crime.

According to a study published in The Economic Journal, legalization of marijuana for medical and recreational use in much of the United States has led to a dramatic reduction in violent crime. The authors of the study have analyzed data from FBI and from other sources for the period of 1994 to 2012 and concluded that the number of drug-related homicides has decreased by more than 40%, robberies have decreased by 19% , murders in general have decreased by 10% in the US states bordering Mexico. Besides, since 2011 the number of marijuana detained annually at the border between Mexico and the United States has decreased from 1,150 tons down to 390 tons, i.e. by 66%.

The same dynamics can be observed in all countries where marijuana has been legalized at least partly.

Besides, marijuana brings up to 30% of revenue to international drug cartels. Thus, legalization undermines the economic base of criminals and contributes to the situation improvement in the global war against drugs.

3. Reduced alcohol consumption.

This item follows directly the previous one. These days it is difficult to find a person who would not know that alcohol is a much more dangerous substance than marijuana: Alcohol is toxic, and marijuana is not. Alcohol causes physical dependence, and marijuana does not. It is rather difficult to find a comparable parameter which would allow to say that marijuana is more harmful than alcohol. And there is nothing to say about how frequent are domestic crimes motivated by alcohol intoxication.

According to a study conducted at the University of Connecticut and the University of Georgia, the legalization of medical marijuana has had a significant impact on alcohol sales. Thus, in the states where the use of marijuana was allowed, alcohol sales had decreased by 15%.

4. Reducing hard drug use.

Despite the fact that the level of drug use continues to grow in the EU, according to the latest report of the EMCDAD Commission, the use of all drugs in Portugal has significantly decreased after the legalization of marijuana for the last ten years.

The mechanisms by which the legalization of marijuana affects the reduction of hard drug use are obvious, and have been described a little earlier: the marijuana decriminalization takes away a lot of consumers from the criminal hands. The distinctive feature of this fly-by-night business lies in the fact that the drug dealer, taking advantage of the teen’s little life experience to increase the profit, is interested in transmitting the “client” to hard and therefore more expensive drugs. These days, those countries in which marijuana is prohibited are personally pushing young people into the criminal hands, with all the consequences!

5. Reducing mortality from drug use.

Again, back to Portugal, because it was in this country that the cannabis legalization has passed the most significant way. As of today, the death rate caused by drugs in Portugal is three people per million inhabitants, that is about 30 people a year. It’s the lowest rate in the European Union. For comparison: in the United States, where a rather harsh drug criminalization policy is being pursued, 52,000 people died from overdoses in 2016.

6. The increase in tax revenues into the budget.

The American market volume of legal marijuana is about $6 billion, and if the trend towards its legalization in the US continues, the figure can reach $50 billion a year by 2026.

In particular, in the state of Colorado, where marijuana was permitted earlier than in other states, tax revenues from businesses involved in growing and selling cannabis were $200 million. Besides, the growth of the state economy was indirectly affected by the increased demand for local goods and services – special lamps for greenhouses, irrigation equipment and rental of warehouses.

Imagine the great profits that can be brought to Europe by widespread legalization of marijuana, and think about how rationally can be used the money received: improving education, medicine, helping the poor, promoting a healthy lifestyle in the result.

7. The hemp development as a valuable agrarian culture.

On top of all, hemp was and remains a universal agrarian culture, and its products can be successfully used in many industries. Unfortunately, in most countries the fight against cannabis has taken on such a form that even the cultivation of cannabis for the industry needs is illegal in those countries. This creates big problems, in particular, for researching the hemp potential as a source of pollution-free bio-fuel.

8. Creation of new jobs.

October 17, 2018 marijuana was legalized in Canada. About 300,000 new jobs have been created  in the US since the cannabis legalization. The same will happen in Canada, taking into account that, unlike American companies, Canadian marijuana producers are not prohibited from exporting their products.

 Lawyers, accountants, logisticians, contractors, botanists and representatives of other professions will be involved in the new jobs.

9. Law enforcement bodies easing-off.

Legalization will eliminate not only the costs of investigation, arrest and detention of prisoners on charges related to marijuana, but will also allow the state to receive additional income as tax charges from the sale of cannabis derivatives. Instead, millions of people are arrested every year for marijuana in the world, and that makes justice more costly and less effective – prisons are overcrowded, the attention of police, judges and prosecutors is distracted from more serious offenses. Thus, the cannabis criminal status significantly reduces the efficiency of the police and the courts.

10. A blow to international terrorism.

It is a secret to no one that a large source of income for radical extremist Islamist groups is the illegal trade in marijuana. Full legalization of the plant could knock the bottom out of a very profitable layer of financial flows out from under the extremists’ feet.

In particular, Franco Roberti, the Italian federal prosecutor, proposed to legalize marijuana for an effective attack on ISIS. Referring to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime data, Roberti said that trafficking in illicit drugs, including hashish and hemp, brings more than $36.10 billion per year to Italian organized crime.

Police have found evidence of cooperation between the Italian criminal gangs controlling most of the drug trafficking in the country and North Africans suspected of terrorism. The part of the North African route, on which drugs enter Italy, is controlled by the “Islamic State”.

Of course, will be a slight exaggeration to say that marijuana is a panacea for all the ills of the XXI century. However, today one must be blind, mute and deaf to ignore this plant importance in our society life. In countries where marijuana has not been legalized yet, hundreds of thousands of young people go to prison every year (often losing their future). Moreover, it contributes to the exacerbation of interethnic contradictions in the society – after all, the majority of those arrested are African Americans. In countries where marijuana has not been not legalized, thousands of people cannot get the necessary medicines or anesthesia and are forced to literally burn alive in agony; the state loses billions of dollars annually due to criminal structures’ illegal business with marijuana, and the system itself is corrupted because many officials are interested in the prosperity of the underground marijuana trade.

Fortunately, the times of dogmas are irrevocably in the past; today more and more states put their locomotive on the path of enlightenment and rush off into the distance to meet progress. After all, only his majesty of progress can give faith in tomorrow to our children. And the intermediate station on the way from the point of Conservatism to the point of Progress is sure to be the marijuana legalization throughout Europe and America.