Should Cannabis Be Legalized Essay

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Cannabis is a psychoactive drug, which is derived from the cannabis plant. Tetrahydrocannabinol, also known as THC, is the most active psychoactive compound out of the 438 found within the cannabis plant. Cannabis is used as a recreational or medical drug. Currently, there is an ongoing debate as to whether it should be legalised within the United Kingdom. Due to the Dangerous Drugs act of 1920, cannabis has been illegal in the United Kingdom since the 28th of September 1928, however wasn’t made illegal for medicinal treatment up until 1971. Across the world, there is an uprising change on the view of the drug. Recently, Greece became the sixth country within the EU to legalise cannabis for medical purposes.

The most commonly used argument …show more content…

Cannabis is a class B drug within the United Kingdom and can carry heavy penalties if associated with it. If you get caught with possession of cannabis you can serve up to 5 years in prison or an unlimited fine, but if you get caught supplying the plant you can face up to 14 years in prison alongside an unlimited fine. There are many examples of prison not being an effective deterrent of cannabis, as dealers once out of prison tend to reoffend. One study in Canada studying 95 people who were sentenced for possession of cannabis found that imprisonment did very little to deter cannabis use as it persisted to be used at high or moderate levels (Erickson, P, 1980). It costs about £65,000 to imprison somebody in this country and about £40,000 to keep them incarcerated for one year. Therefore if we were to legalise cannabis, a lot of our tax money that goes towards keeping people in prison for Cannabis related crimes would be able to be put into funding more major aspects of our community, such as our NHS. Not only that, but cannabis related arrests are down by 46% since 2010, as a lot of police officers find targeting cannabis users a waste of time. Overall legalising cannabis would benefit our prisons, reducing population, reducing wasted tax money and save police officer’s