Anti-Cannabis Persuasive Timed Essay (Year 11) Grade - Excellence

 Cannabis or Marijuana is a drug with both medicinal and recreational purposes. Currently the law in New Zealand uses a prohibition approach to stop the use of recreational cannabis. In the 2020 cannabis referendum only 50.7% of eligible voters in New Zealand voted against cannabis, winning by only a margin. Even though Cannabis is known as a less harmful drug in comparison, legalising the drug will increase health problems, addiction rates and crimes.  

Firstly, legalising recreational cannabis is extremely bad for New Zealand health. Despite many pro-cannabis activists arguing that there are health benefits, scientific facts speak otherwise. ‘Health benefits’ that come from smoking cannabis have not been scientifically proven but on the contrary people who smoke cannabis are five times more likely to be diagnosed with mental illnesses and disorders. This is because of a chemical element that is contained inside cannabis called tetrahydrocannabinol or TNC. What's more, recent studies show that this specific chemical has been increasing since the 1960s where an average cannabis consumption was only around 1% of TNC. Nowadays the TNC levels can be over 30%. Research in Colorado has also shown that the need for cannabis-related emergencies has increased by 40% since they legalised the drug. In other words, cannabis or marijuana is getting stronger and more harmful to the body and legalising it will increase health damage to the population.

Secondly, legalising cannabis will make it more accessible to young people and increase the risks of addictions. Even though cannabis is often argued as a safer drug compared to others, it is also well known as a gateway drug to using stronger drugs. When people use cannabis regularly, it will be harder and harder to get the same high as the first time. This will cause them to seek a drug that is stronger in order to replicate the same feeling as the first time trying cannabis. With this information, it demonstrates the risks of exposing people to the drug.  Another key fact to remember is that cannabis producers are also businesses. This means that rather than caring for the wider public, they only care about the amount of money they will receive. So if recreational cannabis becomes legal in New Zealand, the cannabis companies will quickly try new advertising techniques and increase cannabis stocks in order to earn more money. Often targeting young teens and people with harder lives. 

Lastly, legalising recreational cannabis will not make New Zealand a better society. Although many people argue that criminalising recreational cannabis is not stopping people from using it, is it not the same with any other law? Laws obviously cannot prevent all things from happening. However, it can help people make wiser decisions. Places like Amsterdam and Colorado that legalised cannabis are shown to have higher reported crime rates with increased muggings, prostitution and hard drug use. Provided this evidence, it suggests that legalising recreational marijuana and cannabis does not lessen crimes but creates an unsafe environment for the rest of the population. 

To conclude, recreational cannabis should not be legalised in New Zealand as the benefits do not outweigh the harms. The government in New Zealand should provide better drug education, strengthen law enforcement and have stricter rules regarding the cultivation and selling of this substance. Instead of using reverse psychology to keep a group of five million safe and healthy.