On the legalization of marijuana, generations have been arguing at the world level. The policy of light drugs and cannabis is different in each region. The reason lies in both the divergent scientific research and the uneven level of liberalization of legislation. It is important to have a certain idea of the subject of the discussion, so in the text I will give not only a comparison of policy in relation to marijuana in different states. We will get acquainted with the history of the use of this plant and describe different points of view of medical scientists on the benefits and harms of cannabis. I think you will agree that, in the face of many other problems, the issue of partial or complete legalization of marijuana does not seem to be a hot topic that requires immediate resolution. But nevertheless, it is necessary to conduct a discussion on this issue right now, because for many, the illegal status of marijuana is not only material loss and career, but often even freedom.
Systematic work on the study of marijuana as a drug was started not so long ago, in the 70s of the last century, and jerks continue to this day. Nevertheless, over the last hundred or more years, a sufficient number of studies have been carried out so that some conclusions can be drawn. The first of these was a study of 1893, when the British Parliament created the Indian Commission on cannabis. Then the scientists said that limited use does not cause almost no harm. In 1925, a similar study was conducted among American soldiers in Panama. The Commission concluded that “the influence of marijuana is exaggerated.” To the same conclusions came the commission of medical experts LaGuardia in New York in 1944.
Activity in this area resumed with an increase in the number of smokers in the 60-70’s. The governments of the USA, Canada, Australia, Great Britain and Holland again formed a group of scientists to study the influence of marijuana. This group confirmed the results of the Indian and New York commissions. Even the Nixon National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Addiction concluded that the effect of marijuana as a drug is not so significant as to introduce criminal responsibility for its use. Still there were counterarguments. In the early 1970s, individual groups of scientists claimed destructive effects of marijuana on the body and the ability of young people to learn, and law enforcement officials defended the view of cannabis as “The sluice drug”. The first said that smoking cannabis causes a violation of immunity, worsens the work of the brain and chromosomes.
The main American commission for studying drugs is called Shafer. It was created back in 1970. Sponsors the activities of Shafer State. In those years, her team structured already known data and conducted some experiments on pending issues. The work involved teachers, doctors, lawyers and law enforcement officials. As a result, the commission came to the conclusion that there is no exact evidence that smoking cannabis is the cause of crime, mental disorders and a drop in motivation. Also, there was no evidence that marijuana is a “slammer drug”. The National Academy of Sciences of the United States agreed in general terms with these results in 1982. Researchers also noticed that the use of a large amount of marijuana is more a consequence, rather than a cause of social and psychological problems of individual individuals. But at the same time, scientists of the National Academy of Sciences were concerned about the harmful effects of marijuana on test animals, despite the poor experimental support for such conclusions. Therefore, her conclusions were not as unambiguous as in the report of the Shafer commission. Despite this, in 1995 the Dutch Commission on Marijuana and their colleagues from the British medical journal Lancet said that the damage to cannabis is still significantly exaggerated.
Now a great emphasis in these studies is being made on the study of medicinal properties of marijuana (I will name them below). This is because for a large part of the scientific community it is now important to prove the necessity of using marijuana in certain areas of medicine and to achieve its relative decriminalization.
What are the arguments used by the parties in the discussion?
Marijuana has a number of medicinal properties
Indeed, smoking cannabis in many ways can have a beneficial effect on the human body. Marijuana improves appetite and taste, relieves muscle tension and pain symptoms , positively influences the prevention of allergic dermatitis . Cannabis can also be useful during the manifestation of post-traumatic symptoms and stressful conditions (but in psychopharmacology it is not used now because of discussions about other possible dangers from its use). It is also appropriate to use marijuana for the relief of pain syndrome: from neuropathic and to pain after surgery , for example, chemotherapy, as well as for the prevention of multiple sclerosis . Basically, marijuana has relaxing properties, relieves spasms, migraines and other types of acute or chronic pain.
– Marijuana is less dangerous for most drugs
It is difficult to make a comparison between marijuana and other drugs. Especially it seems difficult in comparison with alcohol, because, as psychotherapists say, every person has a predisposition to this or that kind of dependence. It is worth noting that in the scientific community in the field of psychology, now the emphasis is more on considering the problem not of physical, but psychological dependence on drugs. The degree of danger of the latter from different substances is investigated (after all, this includes not only drugs, but the same caffeine), but the fact of its presence in marijuana smokers is not questioned.
Nevertheless, supporters of the liberalization of marijuana laws cite the following arguments. “People who try marijuana have much less risk of becoming addicted than consumers of almost any other substance, including tobacco, heroin, cocaine, alcohol, or stimulants. The risk of developing dependence among those who at least once tried cannabis was estimated at 9% in the US in the early 90’s, compared with 32% for nicotine, 20% for heroin, 17% for cocaine, 15% for alcohol and 11% for stimulants. More than 9 people out of 10 who tried marijuana do not become addicted, ” writes the Washington Post . For all the time there has been no recorded case of death from marijuana. That amount of cannabis, which is necessary for an overdose, a person is simply unable to smoke out physically. Due to its tonic effect, marijuana does not lead to aggressive behavior.
From smoking cigarettes, about 5 million people a year die and about 3 million from alcohol. In fact, this is the only objective criterion for comparing marijuana with other substances that cause dependence. Therefore, in the context of direct danger to human life, marijuana looks safer than alcohol, let alone serious drugs.
– Legalization will bring substantial revenues to the country’s budget
Now, drug trafficking is mainly in the hands of criminal groups. Trade in marijuana is no exception. Its legalization can seriously damage the illegal market, as well as increase the flow of funds into the state treasury. For example, the legalization of cannabis can bring $ 17.4 billion to the US budget. Only for one quarter of 2014, the treasury of the state of Colorado received 29.8 million.
In Ukraine, smuggled cannabis is illegally manufactured every year for 2.5 billion hryvnia. About 150 tons of marijuana are exported from the country. Proceeds from taxes on marijuana could become a new source of funds for the economy and be used in the same social sector. But instead all the money is in the hands of the mafia or drug cartels.
Theses “AGAINST”
– Marijuana can adversely affect health
There are arguments that smoking cannabis can be harmful to humans. For example, frequent use of marijuana can adversely affect the immune system , increases the likelihood of severe vomiting and inflammation of the gums . After the use of marijuana, the probability of getting into an accident (the argument is indirect, but worth mentioning) increases. Prolonged smoking marijuana can cause irritation of the mucosa and the development of bronchitis. Also, regular use of marijuana for more than 40% increases the risk of developing mental illness . The use of marijuana increases the likelihood of developing depression in people who have a genetic predisposition to this. Long-term use of heavy marijuana varieties like Skunk can adversely affect the smoker’s intelligence and increase the likelihood of developing acute memory loss . Some researchers say that smoking cannabis reduces the ability to learn, worsens attention and activity of thinking. In its report “Health and social consequences of non-medical use of cannabis “, the World Health Organization says that prolonged use of marijuana contributes to the development of myocardial infarction and stroke in young smokers.
During the world debate, various counterarguments appear. David Nutt, former chief adviser to the British government on drugs, commented on the development of psychosis due to smoking marijuana: “If cannabis causes psychosis in a direct way, then it will be easy to prove that when cannabis use goes up, the incidence of psychosis in society will go up and, accordingly, when the use of cannabis is reduced, then this level will decrease. Is it so? We have a lot of data from many countries, and it turns out that everything is wrong. For example, in the United Kingdom, cannabis use has increased by a factor of about 40 since 1960. And the pace of psychosis? They remain unchanged. ”
Conclusion
The relationship between man and hemp goes back to the ages. Unlike synthetic drugs, marijuana is a natural product. In many countries, its smoking has a long tradition, and some social movements regard the consumption of marijuana as part of its philosophy. Therefore, it is very difficult to put cannabis in a row with narcotic substances like the same “hair dryer” or heroin, which are created artificially and, undoubtedly, have an exclusively destructive effect on human health and psyche.
The possible legalization has many supporters and opponents. Some talk about the medicinal properties of marijuana, citing an example of centuries-old practices and modern experiments. Others say that cannabis may be the first stage in the transition to more dangerous drugs and apathetic behavior. Supporters of legalization argue their point of view with a huge amount of money that will come from taxes if you make marijuana legal; their opponents see a dangerous prospect of increasing the number of smokers “grass” due to advertising and the release of cannabis to the open market. A kind of “golden mean” seems to be the decriminalization of this plant. However, there are disputes. Indeed, both points of view have the right to exist, but in itself important is the existence of a different vision of this problem, and, correspondingly, an active public debate.
On the legalization of marijuana, generations have been arguing at the world level. The policy of light drugs and cannabis is different in each region. The reason lies in both the divergent scientific research and the uneven level of liberalization of legislation. It is important to have a certain idea of the subject of the discussion, so in the text I will give not only a comparison of policy in relation to marijuana in different states. We will get acquainted with the history of the use of this plant and describe different points of view of medical scientists on the benefits and harms of cannabis. I think you will agree that, in the face of many other problems, the issue of partial or complete legalization of marijuana does not seem to be a hot topic that requires immediate resolution. But nevertheless, it is necessary to conduct a discussion on this issue right now, because for many, the illegal status of marijuana is not only material loss and career, but often even freedom.
Cannabis: history and distribution
Past
In order to understand how deeply the relations of man and marijuana send us to the past, I offer you a small historical educational program. Here I will briefly describe the practice of using cannabis in different cultures and the stages through which this plant passed, turning into a drug prohibited by law.
The first mention of cannabis as a medicine is attributed to the beginning of the third millennium BC. e. The Chinese emperor Fu Hex mentioned a certain Ma (the researchers translate this word as the local name of cannabis), characterizing it as a common medicine. In the future, according to tradition, Emperor Shen-Nun was expressed in a similar vein. The first written references date back to the fifteenth century BC. e. in the collections of medical properties of all the same China. According to many researchers, hemp is also mentioned in the Jewish Book of Exodus and Zend-Avesta. In the ten centuries BC. e. In India, special drinks were prepared from hemp and milk with anesthetic properties, and two centuries before, the Egyptians used hemp to treat inflammation and glaucoma (its pollen was found on the mummy of Ramses II). Already 200 years before BC. e. Cannabis was used as a medicine in the territory of Hellas, and a century later and in Rome in the writings of Dioscorides. This practice took place in subsequent epochs, from late antiquity to the New Times. Cannabis was used in different regions of the Eurasian continent – from modern England to the Far East. All these data tell us that mankind has long been familiar with this plant and its various properties.
In the XVII-XVIII centuries hemp was actively imported to North America. Made from her fibers, which have unique strength, have become an important part of exports. In Virginia, even a material reward was introduced for the active cultivation of cannabis. For example , during Benjamin Franklin’s time in the US, a law was passed that obliges farmers to grow cannabis. Moreover, some lines from his letters indicate that he himself grew and used marijuana to reduce pain from dentures. Fifth US President James Monroe, according to his contemporaries, began to use marijuana as an ambassador to France and did not leave this habit until the end of life ( Sheppard 2015). And in France itself, hemp from Napoleon brought troops of Napoleon. In the UK, marijuana in the form of a medicine has been widely used since the middle of the XIX century and has spread very quickly all over Europe and the United States.
History of the ban
At one time hemp took the leading place in the list of the world’s most cultivated plants and was absolutely legal. It made fabrics, lamp oil, paper and much more. In the XIX century, most of the relevant materials produced in the US were made from cannabis, which was facilitated by the very same Franklin laws supporting paper mills. Also, about half of the medical products sold were based on cannabis. Already at the end of the XIX century, timber processing enterprises in the US tried to lobby for a ban on cannabis, because the paper produced from it cost much less than paper made of wood. But because of the lack of scientific arguments, due to the small number of studies, their goals have not been realized. They have not even managed to raise a serious discussion on this topic.
Everything changed at the beginning of the 20th century. The second decade of the last century in the West was characterized by increased state restrictions and a wave of various prohibitions. The government of the same United States sought to establish a monopoly on public morality, in addition to marijuana and alcohol, raising issues of gambling, prostitution and sexual deviation. The government wanted to reduce the number of available drugs and, accordingly, reduce the demand for them. From 1911 to 1917, cannabis was banned in some states and regions of the United States. Ten years later, hemp ceases to be legal already in 10 states. In 1915 the Harrison Act was signed – a bill that regulated the supply of opium and its appointment by doctors. Now every recipe needed registration, and the doctor himself was required to register annually with the federal government. It was this act that became the legal foundation of the “Law on the Marijuana Tax” of 1937. After its adoption, an excise tax was introduced on the cultivation of cannabis for industry, which became the only evidence of the legality of production (Rosenfeld 2012).
Until then, the result of the Hague Convention of 1915 was the signing of a multilateral treaty, the participants of which were limited to applying hemp exclusively to medical and scientific needs. Later, the Geneva Conference of 1925 decided that drugs should be sold exclusively in the requirements of the state (Toporygin 2013). 1936 was marked by decisive blows to the cannabis industry. Morphine, aspirin and other painkillers appear, which displace marijuana. In its report, the US Bureau of Drugs alleges the dangers of marijuana for society. A well-known film , “Crazy Frenzy” , tells about the problems in the life of a young man associated with the use of marijuana.
Harry Anslinger, who became head of the aforementioned bureau in 1934, played an important role in the propaganda of marijuana as an indispensable attribute of a black criminal, which was combined with the general racist rhetoric of the authorities of those years ( Sheppard 2015) . For the sake of completeness, it’s worth taking a deeper look into the activities of this character. English journalist and scientist Johan Hari studied the history of the ban on marijuana in the US and raised the archives of the 1930s. He noted that at the beginning of his work as head of the Department of Prohibitions in Washington Anslinger did not speak negatively about marijuana, and his activities focused on the prohibition of alcohol – the implementation of the “Dry Law”. Over time, the monopoly on the production and sale of alcohol went to criminal organizations that cared little about the quality and safety of the product. Then the US authorities, seeing that it was useless to struggle with the use of alcohol, returned the legal status to the alcohol and the state control over its compliance with medical requirements. So the policy of the “Dry Law” ended in failure.
“Previously conducted experiments did not prove a serious danger from smoking cannabis and the scientific community did not come to the conclusion that it should be banned.”
Then Anslinger began to understand that his department was at risk of simply staying out of work. His attitude to marijuana “suddenly” changed. On the issue of the influence of marijuana on the human body, he turned to the leading American doctors. We already said that earlier experiments did not prove a serious danger from smoking cannabis and the scientific community did not come to the conclusion that it should be banned. 29 out of 30 doctors were in agreement with these conclusions, to which he applied for advice. Anslinger also adopted the words of the thirtieth, who advocated a ban on marijuana, and in his reports presented his findings to the public. Despite the objections of many scientists, such as Michael Bolly, the head of the Department of Prohibitions continued to bend his line and refused to fund additional studies that all the same academic community insisted on. In his statements Anslinger said that ultimately the use of marijuana leads to aggressive behavior, delusions, debauchery and, as a result, to insanity. The media mogul Ulyam Hurst, known for his ultra-conservative views, and the leading pharmaceutical company DuPont joined the movement against marijuana. The owners of the latter clearly pursued economic goals. The catch was that it was impossible to obtain a patent for cannabis and the sole right to implement it, but drugs are another matter.
Propaganda played its role: in the second half of the 1930s, the general population began to fear elementary “demonic grass” and on this wave marijuana was finally withdrawn from use in 1938 (Hari 2016). The United States insisted that allied countries take the same measures. For example, when the Mexican authorities, based on the conclusions of local doctors, refused to ban marijuana, the United States closed the supply of all painkillers. As a result, Mexico joined the policy of the United States. In 1938, cannabis cultivation becomes illegal in Canada. After 4 years, she leaves the list of approved medications in the US.
In 1961, the Uniform UN Convention on cannabis was included in the list of plants containing drugs. She ordered members of the congress to begin strict control over the spread of marijuana. Probably the last significant event in the US legal field on banning marijuana was the case of Timothy Leary, a writer and psychologist convicted of possession of marijuana for a total of 38 years. Then the Supreme Court ruled: the 1937 law is unconstitutional, because it demanded self-incrimination and thereby violated the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution. After that, the law on controlled substances of 1970 was passed, which marked the beginning of a large-scale war on drugs by the Nixon administration.
Separately, one has to say about the practice on this issue in the USSR, whose criminal and administrative legislation, with some changes, is the “ancestor” of the corresponding branches of law in the modern CIS countries. By the end of the 1920s, the Soviet Union occupied the leading positions in Europe in the area of cannabis cultivation, selective work was carried out to improve the quality of the sowing culture. In 1934 , a resolution was adopted by the Central Committee of the CPSU (B.), According to which various kinds of privileges were provided for the cultivation of cannabis.
The Soviet Union ratified the decision of the 1925 Geneva Convention. The international protocol of 1953, in the creation of which the USSR actively participated, also introduced some regulatory points into the policy towards narcotic substances. Also, the USSR joined the already mentioned convention of 1961 and its supplement of 1971 (Toporygina 2013). In 1987, the cultivation of cannabis by citizens in the country was banned and the relevant articles on criminal and administrative offenses were introduced into the Criminal Code.
In fact, this can end the chronology of turning cannabis from an important element in production into a drug that is illegal. In general, international legal practice in relation to cannabis has a number of weaknesses:
– on marijuana, there were practically no separate bills and amendments, it was usually considered in conjunction with other drugs;
– social and medical experiments that unambiguously confirmed the danger of cannabis were not carried out (see below);
– marijuana has often become an instrument of government propaganda, and many countries have adopted the provisions of the same Geneva Conventions for political reasons and the banal lack of their own research on this issue.
We will talk about more modern legal practice with regard to marijuana in the world and in Ukraine in the next section.
The popularity of cannabis in our time
Today, marijuana is smoked around the globe. In 2015, the European Monitoring Center for Drugs published a report according to which marijuana was the most popular drug in Europe. About 79 million Europeans at least once in their lives tried to “grass”. Marijuana appears in 60% of the recorded violations of the law related to drug trafficking and in 4 of 5 cases of seizure of drugs (The Big Story 2015). This is a multicultural product, but in different countries the spread of smoking cannabis is different. For example, based on UN data from 2003 to 2014, Recovery Brands in the US and Europe conducted a study . According to him, the largest number of adult people per 1000 people who smoked at least once in the past year was observed in five countries – Iceland, the USA, Spain, the Czech Republic, France (Griffits 2015). According to those few surveys in some regions of Africa and Asia, the situation here is somewhat different. As a result of studies conducted from 2004 to 2006 by the World Drug Report, the following figures were given: people who smoked cannabis for a year at least once were 6.2% of the total population of Egypt; 4.2% of Morocco’s population periodically smoke cannabis, 3.1% – in Kuwait, 5.4% – in the UAE. In Uruguay, cannabis smoked 8.3% of the population. In total, according to UN statistics, marijuana and other drugs on its basis is consumed by 2.5% to about 8% of the world population.
Number of people who smoke marijuana as of 2012
On the territory of the CIS marijuana is also popular. In Russia, cannabis smokes about 3.5% of the population. For 2015, every ninth teenager in Ukraine at least once used marijuana, reports UNICEF . In 2004, a sociological survey was conducted, according to which about 2 million Ukrainians smoked marijuana at least 3 times a year.
The global nature of this phenomenon, medical reports and long-term practice of use provoke a lot of controversy about the need for legalization or at least decriminalization of cannabis. About the studies, the main arguments of both sides and the conducted practices, we will talk below.
Discussion of the world community on legalization
Conducted research
Systematic work on the study of marijuana as a drug was started not so long ago, in the 70s of the last century, and jerks continue to this day. Nevertheless, over the last hundred or more years, a sufficient number of studies have been carried out so that some conclusions can be drawn. The first of these was a study of 1893, when the British Parliament created the Indian Commission on cannabis. Then the scientists said that limited use does not cause almost no harm. In 1925, a similar study was conducted among American soldiers in Panama. The Commission concluded that “the influence of marijuana is exaggerated.” To the same conclusions came the commission of medical experts LaGuardia in New York in 1944.
Activity in this area resumed with an increase in the number of smokers in the 60-70’s. The governments of the USA, Canada, Australia, Great Britain and Holland again formed a group of scientists to study the influence of marijuana. This group confirmed the results of the Indian and New York commissions. Even the Nixon National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Addiction concluded that the effect of marijuana as a drug is not so significant as to introduce criminal responsibility for its use. Still there were counterarguments. In the early 1970s, individual groups of scientists claimed destructive effects of marijuana on the body and the ability of young people to learn, and law enforcement officials defended the view of cannabis as “The sluice drug”. The first said that smoking cannabis causes a violation of immunity, worsens the work of the brain and chromosomes.
The main American commission for studying drugs is called Shafer. It was created back in 1970. Sponsors the activities of Shafer State. In those years, her team structured already known data and conducted some experiments on pending issues. The work involved teachers, doctors, lawyers and law enforcement officials. As a result, the commission came to the conclusion that there is no exact evidence that smoking cannabis is the cause of crime, mental disorders and a drop in motivation. Also, there was no evidence that marijuana is a “slammer drug”. The National Academy of Sciences of the United States agreed in general terms with these results in 1982. Researchers also noticed that the use of a large amount of marijuana is more a consequence, rather than a cause of social and psychological problems of individual individuals. But at the same time, scientists of the National Academy of Sciences were concerned about the harmful effects of marijuana on test animals, despite the poor experimental support for such conclusions. Therefore, her conclusions were not as unambiguous as in the report of the Shafer commission. Despite this, in 1995 the Dutch Commission on Marijuana and their colleagues from the British medical journal Lancet said that the damage to cannabis is still significantly exaggerated.
Now a great emphasis in these studies is being made on the study of medicinal properties of marijuana (I will name them below). This is because for a large part of the scientific community it is now important to prove the necessity of using marijuana in certain areas of medicine and to achieve its relative decriminalization.
What are the arguments used by the parties in the discussion?
Theses “FOR”
– Marijuana has a number of medicinal properties
Indeed, smoking cannabis in many ways can have a beneficial effect on the human body. Marijuana improves appetite and taste, relieves muscle tension and pain symptoms , positively influences the prevention of allergic dermatitis . Cannabis can also be useful during the manifestation of post-traumatic symptoms and stressful conditions (but in psychopharmacology it is not used now because of discussions about other possible dangers from its use). It is also appropriate to use marijuana for the relief of pain syndrome: from neuropathic and to pain after surgery , for example, chemotherapy, as well as for the prevention of multiple sclerosis . Basically, marijuana has relaxing properties, relieves spasms, migraines and other types of acute or chronic pain.
– Marijuana is less dangerous for most drugs
It is difficult to make a comparison between marijuana and other drugs. Especially it seems difficult in comparison with alcohol, because, as psychotherapists say, every person has a predisposition to this or that kind of dependence. It is worth noting that in the scientific community in the field of psychology, now the emphasis is more on considering the problem not of physical, but psychological dependence on drugs. The degree of danger of the latter from different substances is investigated (after all, this includes not only drugs, but the same caffeine), but the fact of its presence in marijuana smokers is not questioned.
Nevertheless, supporters of the liberalization of marijuana laws cite the following arguments. “People who try marijuana have much less risk of becoming addicted than consumers of almost any other substance, including tobacco, heroin, cocaine, alcohol, or stimulants. The risk of developing dependence among those who at least once tried cannabis was estimated at 9% in the US in the early 90’s, compared with 32% for nicotine, 20% for heroin, 17% for cocaine, 15% for alcohol and 11% for stimulants. More than 9 people out of 10 who tried marijuana do not become addicted, ” writes the Washington Post . For all the time there has been no recorded case of death from marijuana. That amount of cannabis, which is necessary for an overdose, a person is simply unable to smoke out physically. Due to its tonic effect, marijuana does not lead to aggressive behavior.
From smoking cigarettes, about 5 million people a year die and about 3 million from alcohol. In fact, this is the only objective criterion for comparing marijuana with other substances that cause dependence. Therefore, in the context of direct danger to human life, marijuana looks safer than alcohol, let alone serious drugs.
– Legalization will bring substantial revenues to the country’s budget
Now, drug trafficking is mainly in the hands of criminal groups. Trade in marijuana is no exception. Its legalization can seriously damage the illegal market, as well as increase the flow of funds into the state treasury. For example, the legalization of cannabis can bring $ 17.4 billion to the US budget. Only for one quarter of 2014, the treasury of the state of Colorado received 29.8 million.
In Ukraine, smuggled cannabis is illegally manufactured every year for 2.5 billion hryvnia. About 150 tons of marijuana are exported from the country. Proceeds from taxes on marijuana could become a new source of funds for the economy and be used in the same social sector. But instead all the money is in the hands of the mafia or drug cartels.
Theses “AGAINST”
– Marijuana can adversely affect health
There are arguments that smoking cannabis can be harmful to humans. For example, frequent use of marijuana can adversely affect the immune system , increases the likelihood of severe vomiting and inflammation of the gums . After the use of marijuana, the probability of getting into an accident (the argument is indirect, but worth mentioning) increases. Prolonged smoking marijuana can cause irritation of the mucosa and the development of bronchitis. Also, regular use of marijuana for more than 40% increases the risk of developing mental illness . The use of marijuana increases the likelihood of developing depression in people who have a genetic predisposition to this. Long-term use of heavy marijuana varieties like Skunk can adversely affect the smoker’s intelligence and increase the likelihood of developing acute memory loss . Some researchers say that smoking cannabis reduces the ability to learn, worsens attention and activity of thinking. In its report “Health and social consequences of non-medical use of cannabis “, the World Health Organization says that prolonged use of marijuana contributes to the development of myocardial infarction and stroke in young smokers.
During the world debate, various counterarguments appear. David Nutt, former chief adviser to the British government on drugs, commented on the development of psychosis due to smoking marijuana: “If cannabis causes psychosis in a direct way, then it will be easy to prove that when cannabis use goes up, the incidence of psychosis in society will go up and, accordingly, when the use of cannabis is reduced, then this level will decrease. Is it so? We have a lot of data from many countries, and it turns out that everything is wrong. For example, in the United Kingdom, cannabis use has increased by a factor of about 40 since 1960. And the pace of psychosis? They remain unchanged. ”
Perhaps the use of marijuana is not the cause, but the consequence of a low level of intelligence development? In any case, on the issue of the influence of marijuana on intellectual activity, there is a large space for discussion, in which the point will not be put soon.
– Legalization will lead to an increase in the number of smokers
It is likely that if cannabis enters the open market and becomes a commodity of large companies, then advertising will play a popular role. “Travka” has long been an attribute of many subcultures, musical directions and performers. Therefore, in case of legalization, cannabis may well become a part of mass culture, as in its time cigarettes of Marlboro brand or beer “Badvayzer”. On the other hand, advertising can always be limited. In addition, legislative changes are likely to have many clarifying points. The state can quite create a monopoly on the trade in marijuana. Yes, and this thesis itself is theoretical and may well be refuted in practice.
For example, in Colorado, after the legalization of marijuana, its consumption among adolescents fell dramatically (David 2016). Because here everything is very ambiguous.
– Marijuana can be the first step on the road to heavier drugs
Supporters of the theory of cannabis as a “sluice drug” suggest that in many cases, before starting to use, for example, heroin addicts “indulge in grass”. After getting used to the pleasure, there is little, and they go on to other drugs. There is no direct evidence of this theory at the moment, but physicians are still engaged in research in order to prove or disprove it. About the first we wrote, let’s briefly describe what the second notice. First, the “arrival” of different drugs is significantly different. Narcotic substances have different chemical composition, and therefore talk about substituting one by another, in terms of physical dependence, is not necessary. Secondly, we must understand that many young people who take part in different kinds of surveys live in disadvantaged areas, and there drugs are in increased traffic. Access to them is always open. Nevertheless, here already the psychological dependence on the receipt of various kinds of “parishes” can play a role, and this can lead to a transition from one drug to another.
In general, the theory of the “sluice drug” for 30-40 years since its formation has significantly lost credibility, if compared with the period of its creation. But among the ordinary population it still enjoys some popularity, and even in the medical field there is no unanimous opinion on this issue.
– Marijuana does not differ from other drugs
This opinion is most criticized by the supporter of decriminalization and legalization of cannabis. All of them refer to studies, which we mentioned above (described by Zimmer), and on the modern scientific opinion. But why then do many consider marijuana to be the same drug as the same heroin? This is due to the fact that in the first half of the last century, when various conventions on the drug problem took place, the policy of states towards this issue was just beginning to form. At the same Geneva conferences, marijuana was not paid attention to as a separate drug, and the laws and conclusions adopted then have a significant influence on the contemporary international discussion. But much has changed since then. The modern opinion about marijuana has undergone a significant transformation. Of course, the use of marijuana has a number of potential dangers. Nevertheless, you can not put it on a par with other narcotic substances.
Liberalization of marijuana laws and similar practices in Ukraine
The international practice of legalizing marijuana in different regions of the world is very different. The only country where the law fully allows to store and use marijuana is Uruguay. Limited turnover occurs in the Czech Republic, Canada, Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain and Israel (Bolotov 2014). In Belgium, there is a restriction on smoking in public places and it is forbidden to buy more than 3 g of cannabis. Since 2009 , low-dose marijuana has been decriminalized in Argentina. In some states of Australia, you can store up to 25 grams of cannabis (but at the same time in Queensland for storing even a small amount of “grass” you can get 15 years in prison). According to a long tradition, hemp is smoked in Bangladesh and the authorities are not going to resist the habits of the population. Also, marijuana, oddly enough, is openly accessible in the DPRK. Citizens can both grow and smoke cannabis (with the death penalty for smuggling and trafficking in other drugs).
The legal status of cannabis in different countries (2011)
The German authorities adopted a project for the legalization of medical marijuana for 2017, and in Berlin will soon undergo an experiment on legalization (Walker 2016). In December last year, the Mexican Senate voted to permit the use of marijuana for medical purposes (Reuters 2016). The main reason for this was that from 2007 to 2014, 164,000 people were killed in the fight against drug cartels (Breslow 2015). In the United States, there have also been significant advances in this matter over the last time: marijuana was completely legalized in Massachusetts and California (McGeevy 2016); in Denver, cannabis was allowed to smoke in most public places (The Daily Mail 2016). Canada in many respects takes the example from the United States, and in 2015, Prime Minister-Minister Justin Trudeau signed an order to start a long-term project for the legalization of marijuana.Marijuana was decriminalized in Georgia at the end of last year .
But probably the most important event on this issue in recent years was a proposal submitted by the Office on Drugs and Security to the UN meeting. It consisted in the fact that the use and possession of drugs for personal use was excluded from the list of criminal offenses. In 2011, the UN decided to revise its drug policy, trying to direct the reform vector from repressive methods to decriminalization. Despite the fact that the proposal was not adopted, it received a lot of support and influenced the creation of new initiative groups to address the issue of legalization. After all, the mere fact of voicing the possibility of implementing such innovations at the international level is a significant step for supporters of obtaining marijuana of legal status (Ryzhov 2015).
Marijuana in Ukraine
The legalization of marijuana back in 2006 was supported by about 7.5% of respondents. The percentage is small, and therefore it is not surprising that in Ukraine marijuana continues to remain completely illegal. It is forbidden to grow, acquire, store and forward, which is stipulated in Article 309 of the Criminal Code . For such violation of the law, the subject of the crime faces up to 3 years of imprisonment (production and storage for the purpose of sale is punished even more severely – from 3 to 8 years, according to Article 307 of the Criminal Code). It is important to note that storing less than 5 g of marijuana without the purpose of marketing is not a criminal offense and falls under Article 44 Administrative Code. Such violation entails a fine of 18 to 43 non-taxable minimums or administrative arrest for up to 15 days. This point is often speculated by unscrupulous law enforcement officers, threatening detainees with criminal liability. An example can be the story of a Kievite, whom he shared with the journalists of the Air Force Ukraine. He described how law enforcement officers, after discovering 3 g of cannabis from him, took him to the station, took away his passport, blackmailed him and threatened him with prison term, since they could “finish” him with a couple of grams in the protocol. As a result, he had to pay a bribe of $ 2000, and the passport at the time of the interview was never returned.
As stated by Vladimir Yatsenko, who in 2013 was an adviser to the State Service for Drug Control, the main object of law enforcement is small sellers and smokers themselves. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, from 2011 to 2013, 53% of crimes in the field of drugs were associated with production and storage without the purpose of marketing. That is, half of criminal and administrative cases are opened against consumers. “Those who abuse drugs, in life and so not everything turned out, they are already suffering, and we also punish them. They need to be treated, they should be motivated to live without drugs, ” said Yatsenko, who, incidentally, himself is a supporter of the decriminalization of cannabis and the replacement of repressive policies with” alternative treatment. ”
Despite the absence of serious civil organizations to address this issue, as it is in the West, some initiatives are being observed in our country, even by state structures. For example, in April last year, a briefing was held following the results of a regional meeting at which a possible alternative for a repressive drug policy was discussed. The Drug Control Service of Ukraine made a proposal for the permission to use marijuana for medicine. “Drugs should serve people for good, used for medical purposes, for health improvement, human well-being. If the drug is in illegal circulation, outside medical use and use, then, of course, this is already a matter of law enforcement agencies, “said in an interviewOleg Dziuk, head of the civil service already mentioned. He also talked about the need to increase the minimum dose of cannabis, followed by criminal liability. At the moment, this threshold in Ukraine is one of the lowest in Europe and even lower than in Russia.
Nevertheless, as I have already said, there is no organized movement for the legalization of marijuana on the domestic expanses. Usually there are separate small shares , often encountering active resistance among the public. Probably, the atmosphere of constant social, political and economic problems raises such questions in the background.
Conclusion
The relationship between man and hemp goes back to the ages. Unlike synthetic drugs, marijuana is a natural product. In many countries, its smoking has a long tradition, and some social movements regard the consumption of marijuana as part of its philosophy. Therefore, it is very difficult to put cannabis in a row with narcotic substances like the same “hair dryer” or heroin, which are created artificially and, undoubtedly, have an exclusively destructive effect on human health and psyche.
The possible legalization has many supporters and opponents. Some talk about the medicinal properties of marijuana, citing an example of centuries-old practices and modern experiments. Others say that cannabis may be the first stage in the transition to more dangerous drugs and apathetic behavior. Supporters of legalization argue their point of view with a huge amount of money that will come from taxes if you make marijuana legal; their opponents see a dangerous prospect of increasing the number of smokers “grass” due to advertising and the release of cannabis to the open market. A kind of “golden mean” seems to be the decriminalization of this plant. However, there are disputes. Indeed, both points of view have the right to exist, but in itself important is the existence of a different vision of this problem, and, correspondingly, an active public debate.
Sources of information
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Griffits, S., 2015. “Forget Amsterdam! Iceland smokes the most cannabis: Maps show how much drink and drugs countries really indulge in “. In: The Daily Mail. Available 03/03/2017 at: [ link ]
Hari, J., 2016. “Why is marijuana banned? The real reason is worse then you think. ” In: Rawstory . Available 03/03/2017: [ link ]
McGeevy. P., 2016. “Californians vote for legalize the recreational use of marijuana in the state”. In: LA Times. Available 03.03,2017 at: [ link ]
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Sheppard, N., 2015. “Did George Washington Use Medical Marijuana”. In: The Daily Beast.
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Rosenfeld, D., 2012. “75 years of senseless and failed war with marijuana.” In: InoSMI.ru . Access through the 03/03/2017 link: [ link ]
Ryzhov, V., 2015. “What is done in the world for the legalization of drugs in 2015”. Q: Furfur. Access 03/03/2017 at the link: [ link ]
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Marijuana, grass, cannabis, gashish … is a light narcotic containing psychoactive substances, as well as drugs produced from it, is prohibited by law almost all over the world. In previous articles, we considered the harm of cannabis, in this we try to figure out how useful marijuana is, and what heals cannabis. After all, as a medical product, it is allowed in Israel and 20 US states. And also, here is a list of countries where limited marijuana traffic is allowed: North Korea, Canada, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Holland. While the benefits of cannabis smoking are controversial , many people agree that smoking cannabis is useful, and believe that the drug should be legal for medical use. And although the benefits of smoking grass can be overstated by advocates of marijuana legalization, the new laws will help to study for medical purposes, what is useful is smoking cannabis and better understand how it affects the body. Currently, only 6% of marijuana studies have been aimed at analyzing its medicinal properties. Keep in mind that there are also negative consequences of smoking marijuana or using it for non-medical purposes. With excessive use, the drug can lead to dependence and affect your memory and emotions. As in the case of cigarettes, you inhale many harmful combustion products that can cause lung cancer and other diseases of the smoker. Also, for treatment, it is not necessary to use a plant product, it is possible to replace them with tablets with similar contents. It can be used to treat glaucoma. Marijuana can be used to treat and prevent glaucoma (eye disease), which increases the pressure in the eyeball, possibly damage the optic nerve and loss of vision. Marijuana reduces the pressure inside the eye, according to a report from the National Eye Institute: “Studies conducted in the early 1970s showed that from intravenous smoking, intraocular pressure (IOP) dropped in people with normal pressure and those with glaucoma.” These useful properties of cannabis help to slow the progression of the disease, and also prevent blindness. Anasha can help reverse the carcinogenic effect of tobacco and improve lung health. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in January 2012, marijuana does not affect lung function and may even increase their volume. Studies aimed at finding risk factors for cardiovascular disease tested lung function in 5,115 young people for 20 years. In the course of which it was revealed that smokers had worsened lung function for a long time, but people who used marijuana had an increase in lung capacity. The increase in lung capacity may well be due to taking deep breaths while smoking hashish, and not with the therapeutic properties of the chemical in the drug. Can help control epileptic seizures. As the studies of 2003 have shown, anasha can prevent epileptic seizures. In the course of the experiment, marijuana extract gave rats epileptics. The drugs saved rats from seizures for 10 hours. Cannabinoids, such as tetrahydrocannabinol (also known as THC) contained in marijuana, controlled convulsions by interacting with the brain cells responsible for controlling and regulating excitability. The results were published in the journal of pharmacology and experimental therapy. Can reduce anxiety. Medical users of marijuana claim that the drug helps alleviate pain and nausea, alleviate the side effects of chemotherapy. In 2010, researchers at Harvard Medical School suggested that some of the benefits of marijuana may be associated with a decrease in anxiety, which will improve the mood of the smoker and act as a sedative in small doses. Be careful, higher doses can increase anxiety and make you paranoid. THC slows the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. According to research, led by Kim Yanda Scripps Research Institute, marijuana helps slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. In 2006, a study published in the journal Molecular Farm found THC, an active chemical element in marijuana, slows the formation of amyloid plaques by blocking the enzyme in the brain that makes them. These plaques are capable of killing brain cells, which can lead to Alzheimer’s disease. The drug alleviates the pain of multiple sclerosis. Marijuana can alleviate the painful symptoms of multiple sclerosis, a study published in the Canadian Medical Journal proves this. Jody Corey-Bloom studied 30 patients with multiple sclerosis, with painful seizures in their muscles. These patients do not respond to other treatments, but after smoking marijuana for several days they were reduced from 200 to 20 and were accompanied by less pain. THC binds to receptors in muscles and nerves to relieve pain. Other studies show that the properties of marijuana also help control muscle spasms. Reduces the side effects of hepatitis C treatment and increases the effectiveness of treatment. Treatment of hepatitis C is a painful and time-consuming process – side effects last for several months and include fatigue, nausea, muscle pain, loss of appetite, and depression. Many people are unable to complete the course of treatment because of side effects. Studies found that 86% of patients using marijuana successfully completed hepatitis C treatment, while only 29% of non-smokers completed treatment, possibly because marijuana helps to reduce the side effects of treatment. Protects the brain after a stroke. Studies conducted at the University of Nottingham show that marijuana can help protect the brain from damage caused by stroke, reducing the size of the affected area affected by the stroke – at least in rats, mice, and monkeys. This is not only research that showed a neuroprotective effect of cannabis. Some studies show that the plant can help protect the brain after other traumatic events like a concussion. Reduces terrible pain and nausea from chemotherapy, and stimulates appetite. One of the most famous medical applications of marijuana is the fight against the side effects of chemotherapy. Cancer patients are treated with chemotherapy, this is accompanied by nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite. What can cause additional complications. It can help reduce these side effects, relieve pain, reduce nausea and stimulate appetite.
Legalize everything: drugs from marijuana and when they can appear in Ukraine
21:01, 6 February 2017 2221Read the novelty of Ukraine
Cannabis medicines – to be or not to be / 24 Channel
Меньше слов – больше сути. Ежедневная рассылка от 24 Канала What it is?
While the world has already invented medicines to combat epilepsy and cancer based on the active substance found in cannabis, our country still can not figure out whether this substance should be legalized. And it’s not about legalizing drugs. What opportunities are lost by Ukrainian science and medicine and why – journalists of the site “24” found out.
When Ukrainians are asked: “Do you support the legalization of marijuana?”, Most of us have nightmares of the consequences of drug addiction in our minds. A part of citizens have a dissonance: they are aware of the horrors of drug addiction, but they read the news and know that there are even drugs from cannabis!
With good intentions
On the Internet, many websites of organizations advocating the legalization of “medical cannabis.” On these resources, a large amount of information on world research on the medicinal properties of cannabis, on the experience of countries where this substance has already been legalized, about cases in life when marijuana helped or even saved sick people.
Acting Chairman of the State Service of Ukraine for Drug Control Oleg Dzsyak said in an interview with Update (September 2016) that the drug policy of our state with respect to certain substances should change. This does not mean that we should legalize drugs. The main task is to focus on the needs of the individual and his rights, and not on substance.
Why do we restrict ourselves and our people in those drugs based on cannabinoids that can improve someone’s health, save someone’s life, and, in the end, ease the pain? We must remove these restrictions, and the state should provide an opportunity for people to use these modern achievements of medicine,
– Dziasyak is convinced.
The goal is to develop effective medicines from cannabis – a noble one, but it is still necessary to shed a lot of labor sweat before it is realized. To begin, it is necessary to distinguish in the consciousness of society such extremely different concepts as “legalization of free circulation of cannabis for personal use” and “legalization of marijuana for medical research.” After all, Ukrainians put an equal sign between these concepts, which is extremely untrue.
The science of cannabis research
Little is known about medical research of cannabis in Ukraine. At least, to the ordinary person. Site “24” asked the National Academy of Medical Sciences whether there are prospects for researching marijuana for medical use in our country?
Alexander Petrichenko, Deputy Head of the Medical and Organizational Department of the National Medical Academy of the National Academy of Sciences, responded to the request of the site “24”, that although cannabis remains on the list of controlled substances, the studies led to the development and marketing, in the USA, of synthetic cannabinoid products of dronabiol and nabilon .
Dronabinol (trade name Marinol) and nabilon (trade name Kesamet) are used to reduce the manifestations of nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapeutic agents used in the treatment of cancer. Marinol is also used to stimulate appetite in people with AIDS. It is believed that there are eight medical conditions in which patients can use cannabis (cancer, glaucoma, HIV / AIDS, muscle spasms, convulsions, severe nausea, cachexia),
– explained the scientist.
At the same time, as of November 2016, 28 states and the District of Columbia authorized legal access to cannabis (marijuana) for adult Americans for medical and recreational purposes. The rules for such use vary from state to state. But the fact: the use of marijuana in the US continues to be considered a crime in accordance with federal law. In addition, several states are considering the issue of authorizing the medical use of marijuana oil with a low content of tetrahydrocannabinol (TNP) with debilitating convulsions in children with Dravet syndrome.
In the United States, states have been allowed to use cannabis for “personal medical purposes”
Petrichenko noted that cannabis research is difficult, because in most countries (including Ukraine) the plant is under control and is inaccessible for research. The same applies to TNP, and designer substances acting on cannabinoid receptors.
In Ukraine, according to the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of 06.05.2000 No. 770 “On the Approval of the List of Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances and Precursors” (as amended), cannabis, cannabis resin, cannabis extracts and tinctures are listed in Schedule 1 of Table I (especially dangerous narcotic substances, the turnover of which is prohibited), and hemp plants (Cannabis) are included in list 3 of Table I (plants containing narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances and whose turnover is allowed for industrial purposes). TNP (tetrahydrocannabinol) is included in list 2 of Table I (especially dangerous psychotropic substances, the turnover of which is prohibited), and dronabiol is included in list 2 of Table II (psychotropic substances whose turnover is limited).
We are not aware of the research of cannabis and synthetic cannabinoids as potential medicines in Ukraine. In case of interest of researchers in the development of potential drugs on the basis of cannabis, the issue of changing the control measure (transfer to the lists of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, whose turnover is limited) can be considered.
– stated Petrichenko.
Medications from the illicit
Talk about medical marijuana in Ukraine early. Doctors do not have the necessary knowledge about the world’s achievements, except newspaper clippings from the rubric “curiosities.” Under the conditions of criminal pressure on consumers of banned substances, the Ministry of Health is unlikely to be able to even approximately calculate the number of potential patients of medical hemp.
But it’s too early to raise the question of a controlled turnover of cannabis for scientific research, “press attache of hemp” March of Freedom “for reforms in drug policy Taras Ratushny said in a comment to the site” 24 “. To investigate cannabis as a potential medicine, it is first necessary to legitimize its limited controlled turnover precisely for the needs of scientific research. In particular, the state should regulate the procedure by which NAMS should investigate cannabis and its components.
Medical research on cannabis with the purpose of making medicines from it is the Everest, on which medical marijuana in Ukraine has not even started to descend.
The bottom line is that in order to get medicine, you need to investigate what substance gives the healing effect, what diseases. Moreover, in cooperation with research laboratories, breeders should bring out the very variety that contains the maximum of useful cannabinoids (tetrahydrocannabinol is only one of more than one hundred cannabinoids known to science today) and a minimum of secondary components.
But most importantly, scientists need a certain amount of substance to conduct research. It can be grown in three months. But under the current legislation it is impossible even in the state greenhouse under protection. There is another option – to officially import from a country where the medical properties of cannabis are actively studied and its limited legalization has long been legalized. In Ukraine, according to government quotas, you can import a variety of dangerous, but also necessary substances. And “especially dangerous” cannabis – among them. But the law directly indicates for what purposes cannabis can be legally imported: for operational-search activities and training of service dogs. No scientific research on cannabis
“Hemp” legislation – there is hope, but in the bud
Now the Ukrainian legislation is able to make this first step towards legalization. There is an existing decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of August 28, 2013, No. 735-r “On the approval of the State Drug Policy Strategy for the period until 2020”, it contains, among others, the item “studying the prospects of medical cannabinoids as analgesics and other medicines” .
A more significant initiative: a bill on amending the Law of Ukraine “On Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances and Precursors” (on the order of turnover of controlled substances) No. 4533 was submitted to the Parliament in April 2016 for consideration. It awaits the consideration of the BP Committee on Health. This bill determines the source of reforms and its main executors, said Taras Ratushny.
Among other things, the project proposes the following:
to liberalize the norms of domestic legislation to control the circulation of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and plants that contain them, with international norms, thereby restoring the centuries-old practice of cannabis and mackerel in Ukraine, and create favorable conditions for investing in these sectors of agriculture.
The changes proposed by the draft law will remove obstacles for the development of pharmaceutical science in the development of modern high-quality medicines and will deprive producers of medical products from dependence on imported raw materials. The implementation of the provisions of the bill in practice will contribute to the positive image of Ukraine as a high-tech country at the international level.
Growing cannabis in Ukraine is outlawed
So, it is necessary that in parliament this bill is supported by people’s representatives. And then the government, as the main executive, and its immediate body on the regulation of drug policy – the State Drug Control Service – must issue a license to a state scientific institution for carrying out the necessary medical research, explained Ratushny.
While there is someone to investigate
Develop drugs based on narcotic plants for Ukrainian scientists – not a novelty. In particular, the cultivation of opium poppy in Ukraine is legalized for medical purposes. Yes, it is protected by the state and monopolized by it. But such drugs we produce.
Today in Ukraine there are still scientists who have been engaged in research for decades, for example, drugs to combat the same epilepsy and cancer. If they give them a legitimate opportunity to bring the matter to an end, they will develop domestic analogues of cannabis-based drugs, which already exist in developed countries. If this opportunity is not given for some time, the specialists will simply leave this country, Ratushny considers.
Professor of the Institute of Physiology. Bogomolets National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Victor Dosenko in the public debate “Marijuana: drug or medicine?”, Held in November 2016, expressed the opinion that in the world to investigate the medical properties of cannabis will not cease, regardless of Ukraine’s decisions on this issue.
Preparations from hemp and on the basis of hemp will be used in medicine. If our state does not legalize their production, it will force them to buy these drugs abroad and thus block their industry, which can produce the same drugs for the treatment of certain diseases,
– said Dosenko.
Ukrainian scientists agree : cannabis- based drugs can overcome diseases
Why cannabis legalization petitions are worthless
A petition for the legalization of marijuana is on the website of the Cabinet of Ministers (since August 2016). As of February 6, signed 62 people out of 25 thousand needed. In August 2015, the presidential website of petitions also collected signatures to support the legalization of marijuana. They collected 2300 votes out of 25 thousand votes.
The problem is that “for medical marijuana” the concept is quite broad – there one can “squeeze” and legalize drugs. And this is precisely what the Ukrainians fear and do not approve of. And what is not at all in the case of medical research.
Therefore, do not believe the myths about “medical drugs”, and vice versa – do not listen to “urban crazy” that “we will all make drug addicts.” If the state has the opportunity to allow the development of medicines that will save hundreds of lives – it must do so. Moreover, if the only obstacle is ignorance and bureaucracy.
