The Continuing Debate on Marijuana Legalization
The debate on the pros and cons of marijuana use and its legalization continues to hold the public’s attention. This discussion is good, as it may promote more education and encourage better decision-making about when and under what circumstances marijuana should be used. Research into the medical uses of marijuana and more information on brain development and how marijuana affects such, particularly with regard to young people, will inform this debate.
What people believe about marijuana is complicated. There are those who are in favor of legalization and others who are against. Still others want to see marijuana possession decriminalized, but not legalized. Another group wants to see more research done into the medical uses of marijuana. Opinions are indeed wide-ranging.
Here is a guide to what a few well-known public figures currently think.
• Pat Robertson- Christian Broadcasting Network founder: “I really believe we should treat marijuana the way we treat beverage alcohol. I’ve never used marijuana and I don’t intend to, but it’s just one of those things that I think: this war on drugs just hasn’t succeeded.”
• The Dalai Lama- Spiritual leader of Tibet: Supports the medical use but “otherwise, if it’s just an issue of somebody (using marijuana) to have a crazy mind, that’s not good.”
• Jerry Brown- Governor of California: “Every year we get more and more marijuana, and every year we find more guys with AK-47s coming out of Mexico going into forests and growing more and more dangerous and losing control.”
• Howard Dean- former Governor of Vermont: “I’m actually not a fan of the medical marijuana movement. Most of you know that I am a physician, and as a physician I just don’t believe that marijuana is a medicine.” However, “I believe marijuana should be decriminalized. I’m very much against the war on drugs. It is a total failure.”
What we know from the research and our experience at Cliffside Malibu is this: many people who use marijuana will become addicted to it and those who use it as teens and young adults can do permanent damage to their brain’s development. Whether marijuana is legal or not doesn’t change these facts.
https://gma.yahoo.com/pot-legalization-debate-jimmy-carter-dalai-lama-205331717.html
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