Dangerous but beneficial
Pot is proven to be harmful . . . and it couldn’t be better that the government is finally legalizing it.
As Canada takes its baby steps into the world of legalized drugs, the government is facing criticism from all sides of the political spectrum. Activists and journalists alike tout findings from a multitude of studies which purport to show marijuana’s significant detrimental impacts on the developing brain. It affects cognitive functions, memory and brain development.
Even more concerning, marijuana has been proven to be a gateway drug. Over time, regular users become desensitized to marijuana’s ‘high’ and will soon desire a newer and greater fix from stronger drugs, hence the term ‘gateway drug.’
The data seems pretty clear. How could legalizing such an obviously dangerous substance ever do the country any good?
To answer this, we must take a step back and look at the American state of Colorado, which legalized the recreational use of marijuana in 2012.
As is currently the case in Canada, there were initially great fears that in a state already fraught with above-average numbers of both teen drinking and pot use, legalization would achieve nothing but exacerbate the slow increase in teen substance use.
Curious, then, that federal data emerged in 2015 and 2016 showing a marked decrease in pot usage among teenagers. A little more than 9 per cent of Colorado teens between the ages of 12-17 reported using marijuana monthly, a statistically significant decrease. Rates three to four years after legalization showed the lowest rate of marijuana use in the state since 2007 and 2008, and those numbers are still dropping, even today.
How could legalization ever lead to lower usage rates?
Legalization doesn’t mean easier access. With legalization comes strict government regulation, including age barriers and restrictions on amounts that citizens can possess and use.
Some may point out that the government regulations have never succeeded in preventing underage usage, so the recent legalization should have little effect upon illegal teen consumption.
There’s an underlying problem with that argument: the assumption that black-market dealers still have the same access to marijuana growers.
Prior to legalization, drug dealers obtained cannabis from growers. But now marijuana’s legal. What grower in their right mind would risk jail time for supplying their product to drug dealers, when they could avoid that risk by simply selling their product to regulated stores?
So now, growers are working on getting licensed so that they can become part of the legal supply chain for regulated marijuana outlets. Logically, this means that illegal drug dealers now have a much more difficult time trying to obtain weed to sell illegally.
Still another reason explaining Colorado’s drop-in marijuana consumption after legalization is the psychological reaction known as the “forbidden fruit effect”, our desire to experience an activity or substance after it is prohibited.
Historical instances where governments decided to prohibit activities such as teen drinking, pornography, and speeding all failed miserably. We as humans have an inherent desire to push limits, and when those limits are discarded, the reverse is also true.
Once an activity previously condemned is normalized, we are less likely to try it out due to its lowered “forbidden fruit” effect. Conventional wisdom dictates that legalization of marijuana will make people more likely to try the drug. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
History, psychology, and most importantly, hard data from areas which have experimented with pot legalization demonstrate that marijuana consumption, especially among teens, will drop after legalization.
And the best part? The billions of dollars in illegal cannabis revenues that used to pad the pockets of illegal dealers are now redirected to the government, helping to provide services we take for granted such as our universal health care system, large child tax benefits, and the upkeep of publicly-funded infrastructure, to name a few.
It’s up to Canadian citizens like you and me to think for ourselves, look at the data, and realize that legally regulated access to marijuana will safeguard Canadians from underage substance abuse, bolster the national economy, and over time reduce cannabis consumption nationwide.
Lukas Mann is an Islander living abroad in Indonesia, moving there from P.E.I. three years ago, for his father’s work. The 16-yearold is attending an International Baccalaureate World School in Jakarta, focusing on the areas of politics, business, and economics.