as we all know, cannabis is a plant that has been used for longer than we could know by our ancestors and still used today despite its possible charges for possession. Cannabis (commonly known as "weed" or "bud") contains the compounds THC(tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD(Cannabidiol), THC is the chemical in the plant known to give the feeling described as 'being high' and the CBD relaxes your muscles and reduces joint pain.

There are many reasons why someone may smoke weed but why should it matter? cannabis is one of the safest and most useful recreational drugs out there which any claims to go against that is quickly disputed by the facts and the stats. I will provide reasons why this country would benefit from legalizing recreational use of cannabis

how legalizing cannabis will help the well-being of our nation

more jobs

legalizing the use and sale of recreational cannabis would see the countries unemployment rate plummet as new businesses come to the scene looking to sell cannabis. With the unemployment rate lower and more businesses thriving we could see the homeless population slowly decrease and the economy doing better than ever in decades!

saving tax-payers money

"Taxpayers have spent more than £2.5 billion detaining up to 8,000 people a year for cannabis offences since 2015" - The Sunday Times

Why should the money people in this nation give you(the government) be spent on detaining users of cannabis? Especially when it goes against most peoples beliefs and views of the majority of people in this country. We could be spending that money (around £500,000 a year) on the NHS which is struggling and can use any bit of money possible! We could be spending this money on helping homeless people get their life back together or to help the police stop real crimes like the rape and sexual assault of young women in this country! Children are kidnapped constantly and forced into unspeakable things and police are struggling to stop this due to lack of funding and we are wasting that money on people doing such a harmless crime?

Not only would we save the money by not keeping these people in prison but we would also profit from it! The taxation of weed would be more than profitable and the easy mass production means that it could bring in millions of pounds, if not billions a year. In under 6 months, Canada made the equivalent of £107.5million in taxes! that's over an estimated £200million in taxes a year that can be used to fund the NHS and the police force. Not legalizing cannabis is only holding back this country from being more developed than it already is and we are just delaying the inevitable, people want recreational cannabis and it will happen and it's only beneficial so what reason do we have to keep it illegal and throw innocent people in jail for having fun with a drug that barely even hurts them? Not to mention the fact money from tourists would be higher than people smoking cannabis.

we can move onto more important issues

The people of this nation are very focused on the legalization of this drug and each day more and more people are becoming adamant that weed should be legalized and we will be dead set on this topic until it is legal. Nothing will stop and it will only get harder to keep it illegal as more and more people realize how harmless this plant is! Once cannabis is legalized we can move onto issues that are more important to this country like climate change which is destroying our planet yet we're being forced to focus on this topic do to the ignorance of some of our legislators.

it is safer to make it legal

legal or illegal the use of cannabis will always be accepted by most people in this country with many people partaking in its use. The argument that it's a gateway drug is a good argument but only a good argument if you're using it as a reason as to why it should be legalized. The only reason cannabis is a gateway drug is that you have to meet dealers who oftentimes partake in the sales of harder drugs like crack and heroin. These dealers will offer a free sample of a harder drug to get the person hooked. If people could buy or grow this substance legally that risk would completely vanish and this country would be much safer.

This would also reduce gang activity and consequently knife crime since the way people tend to get into these gangs is they start to sell weed to make some money, they move onto higher more expensive drugs and start competing with much more violent people and they have to adapt to that criminal life. Legalizing cannabis would actually make our streets safer and with less gang activity that means spending even less tax-payer money on criminals being put in jail.

cannabis is less dangerous to you and those around you than tobacco products and alcohol

I'm sure most of you out there have dabbled with alcohol and cigarettes and maybe some of you are addicted to cigarettes or alcohol. No matter which boat you fall under you've most likely seen the effects tobacco and alcohol can do to your lungs and your liver. It completely destroys them! Cannabis, on the other hand, has actually not been proven to be anywhere near as bad for your body as tobacco or alcohol. In fact, the studies suggest cannabis is not only safer than tobacco and alcohol but is actually beneficial to use.

alchol-specific deaths in 2018 - 7551

tobacco-related deaths in 2016 - 77,900

death from smoking cannabis in literally the whole of time - 0

so why is it that the legalization of alcohol and tobacco is allowed despite the number of deaths they cause yet cannabis is illegal and was actually moved from a Class C drug to a Class B drug which puts it in the same boat as ketamine. The drug used at parties that's meant to be for tranquilizing horses.

While cannabis can be addictive cannabis is just as addicting as going to the gym or running and swimming as it can cause a psychological addiction due to how fun it can be but should we ban gyms? No! Alcohol and tobacco on the other hand cause substance addiction where the person literally cannot function without the use of the drugs without extreme withdrawals which is unlike cannabis in which withdrawals are not as bad as other drugs.

there is no good reason to keep it illegal

if after reading this you still think it should be legal read it again and see the harm that is being done to this country by not legalizing it. If a person wants to drink their morning coffee, come home and then smoke a joint before bed why shouldn't the be allowed to do that? the strain of cannabis known as "indica" can help people go to sleep allowing them to wake up in the morning with a well-rested head and to be productive for the day ahead which would make for a happier, more functional and motivated society!

Or if a few buddies want to chill out with each other and just smoke a joint and talk about life why shouldn't they have that freedom? Who are they hurting?

If a person with joint pain doesn't want to use the (oftentimes) addictive pain killers, to help with their pain why can't they be allowed to smoke a joint and take away that pain for a bit while having a good time instead of restricting peoples uses to CBD only

We pump opiates through people at hospitals or give them patches for it at home when many of the same people have found smoking to be just as helpful and unlike opiates, weed will not slowly kill you!

If you read this and you still do not want to sign this petition I do not know what will make you sign it. All I ask is just because you may not want to smoke it doesn't mean you shouldn't stand for the people that do, so please for the sake of our NHS, Police Force, Planet and the future of this country, sign this petition and be part of a change that we need and a change that this country wants!