When I was 15, I had my first experience with cannabis.

A few of my more "edgy" friends had started to smoke it secretly at parties and everyone, myself included thought less of them.

Why would you experiment with drugs? Everyone knew they were bad. I told them so and got quite grumpy. Tensions were high with this group of friends for a little while as they tried to explain that it wasn't like adults and the Government had told us.

However, weeks later at another party, shortly after I had finished helping yet another friend vomit their guts out into a toilet due to excess alcohol consumption, I couldn't help but start to wonder; how come those guys who are stoned are never in here? How come they just sit on the couch, make jokes and eat chips?

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Why is it always the alcohol causing the problems but the marijuana that is illegal? I decided to try it for myself.

The first time was crap. My friend punched me for being a hypocrite, I coughed up a lung and barely felt anything. But it was totally different. Guess what? My life went on, I continued to perform well at school, I didn't stop washing or turn to a life of crime and I definitely didn't get addicted. So, I tried it again.

To me, cannabis was awesome; I was bored with school life (in my final year and eager to get out into the world but held back by a family who, rightly, wanted me to finish what I had started), I have ADHD and up until discovering cannabis could honestly say I had never relaxed in my life. Cannabis slowed me down, let me think things through and helped me better evaluate the decisions I made.

Now 21, in my fourth and final year of a software engineering degree with a full-time job (part time during the year) paying well, I am successful for my age. I still use cannabis and have ever since.

Recreationally: Once I got my drivers license I all but stopped drinking and using cannabis recreationally. I prefer the freedom of driving and the comfort of knowing that I can always leave a party/event when I want to, not when the substance has worn out.

Medicinally: I used cannabis every night before bed from mid-2014 to the end of 2015. I wanted to see what happened. I used a sleep monitoring tool during this period as well as monitoring my grades. As that period went on my grades were consistent and actually increased slightly. I quit smoking cigarettes, I got the job I still have now, and my sleep quality markedly increased to the point where I now get eight hours every night.

My anxiety and stress levels, which were crippling as a child (I used to eat my clothes, fingernails, paper - you name it, I'd nervously chew on it), decreased markedly, they aren't gone, but I deal with them rather than letting them overwhelm me. As of today [2016] I still use cannabis regularly but I have stopped using it every day as I enjoy the process of dreaming and these are inhibited by cannabis.

Why does it work for me?

I have ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder).

It's pretty crazy - in some ways it is my greatest strength, but it is also my greatest weakness. Because of ADHD as a child I never relaxed, I stressed myself to the point of almost total self-destruction, I terrorised classmates and classrooms with my endless ability to become distracted.

Ritalin helps during the day, but it just speeds the rest of me up to catch up with the bit that's going really fast. It can't help me slow down.

When I use cannabis everything slows down. I hop in bed and just think about my day. I analyse my decisions and think about those I have to make the next day. Cannabis doesn't impact my morals or logic, I still make good decisions and never act on them until I have thought things through sober.

Rarely do I disagree with a decision I have come to while stoned, but I would struggle to get through the same thought process while sober.

This has, in my opinion, helped me become a much better and more stable person. I have become more emotionally mature and rarely struggle with stress anymore. I'm not going to say it is the miracle cure, I am still impulsive, I am still very easily distracted and I still make bad decisions sometimes.

Why does this make me a criminal?