IT'S HIGH TIME TO LEGALIZE POT

Highly popular in British Columbia, the infamous marijuana smoke-in
on April 20 brought in about 7,000 to 8,000 people. The rally, meant
to promote legalization of marijuana, is one of a kind on the West
Coast, and even thought to be the largest in Canada.

Held at the Vancouver Art Gallery, the event was massive, with reggae
music blasting and smoke billowing to the top of the skyscrapers. It
was said the distinctive smell could be noticed blocks away from the rally.

Even though marijuana is still illegal in Canada, the event seems to
bring in thousands of people who stand against prohibition of the plant.

From my perspective, marijuana can barely be considered an illegal
substance in Canada. It's so easily accessible in this day in age.

For a minor, pot is just as easy to obtain as a case of beer.

At parties, the abundance and regularity of marijuana is no surprise
for teenagers today. Whether marijuana becomes legal or not, I
believe that for consumers, it will hardly make a difference.

As for the economical arguments, it has been proven that legalizing
will cost taxpayers far less than we have to pay currently in order
to keep marijuana illegal. In fact, Portugal legalized marijuana in
2001 and it has since proven effective, in that crime rates and drug
use among youth have significantly decreased.

Most arguments against legalization are hardly even feasible. While
reading a forum on the Global Television website about the
possibility of legalization, I was surprised to find that most
replies were in favour of legalizing marijuana. In fact, most who
supported legalization were middle-aged citizens, rather than young adults.

I also found it quite ironic that the people who were arguing for
legalization had articulate grammar and spelling, proving their point
in a clear and concise manner, while people who were arguing against
legalizing could not spell or use proper punctuation to save their lives.

Their arguments against marijuana stated that the drug was harmful to
one's brain and that it made people violent. But all this proved was
that it doesn't take a few joints to slow down one's brain.

Even more ironic, I can say that the most violent and aggressive
partiers are the ones who drink alcohol, and the ones who smoke
marijuana are more laid-back. In all honesty, the most violent act
committed after a bong toke could be a belligerent devouring of an
entire bag of potato chips.

Most opinions against legalization are based on the stereotype of
punks, derived from low-income families who skip school frequently.
This label is scarcely true, as plenty of my friends smoke marijuana
and they come from average, middle-class families, hold honour-roll
status in school every year and are actively involved in
extra-curricular clubs. Although they choose to smoke pot, they limit
themselves in quantity and refuse to experiment with any hard
substances, proving that marijuana can hardly be considered a "gateway" drug.

Overall, I believe that whether marijuana becomes legal or not, it
will still be used as frequently as it is now by youth and remain as
easily accessible as it is today. After all, if our politicians and
athletes smoke marijuana, then why shouldn't we?

While alcohol, the substance that has been the cause of domestic
abuse, manslaughter and addiction, is legal, the question shouldn't
be whether we should legalize marijuana or not. Instead, we should
ask ourselves why it hasn't yet been legalized.