The decision to legalise cannabis for medical applications is way overdue, and is in line with most Western government’s research that shows it to be beneficial for a wide range of illnesses, ranging from glaucoma to cancer-pain relief and prevention.
This cheap natural drug has been demonised by the pharmaceutical companies, because they realise that cannabis will replace the expensive and often poisonous drugs with multiple side effects they produce. Whilst smoking cannabis can lead to lung cancer, there is no evidence that the oral ingestion of cannabis oil has any detrimental side effects.
Cannabis has been used for thousands of years as a safe, natural treatment, and there is evidence that it was widely utilised by societies as diverse as ancient Egypt and Elizabethan England. The greatest tragedy is that there are millions of people today whose pain and suffering could be relieved by a substance, which was originally banned for purely political reasons by the McCarthy witch-hunts in America during the 1950s.
There is also a vast underground of otherwise law-abiding citizens who use cannabis for self medication, but due to the stigma and fear of prosecution are forced to live a double life. The consumption of alcohol causes far more disease, criminal behaviour and tragedy, than this natural substance; but as with the pharmaceutical companies, alcohol is a multi-billion dollar business. I sincerely believe that there is nothing created in nature that is evil, and for society to educate themselves about cannabis before condemning it.
