I believe that marijuana should be permanently decriminalized and not be considered a criminal offense whatsoever in Canada. The Canadian judiciary system wastes too much time on such meaningless cases and instead should focus their attention primarily on eliminating real crime dealing with real criminals within our nation. There are several valid reasons that I will address which indicate that Canada would be far better off if marijuana was to be decriminalized for a long period of time. First of all, marijuana should be legally recognized because it is an essentially harmless drug with barely any serious long-term effects to the mind or the body. The only clear long-term effect of smoking excess marijuana is the increase in the possibility of obtaining lung cancer. However, this is still far more unlikely than one who smokes cigarettes, which have been legally recognized by the Canadian government for generations and are far more dangerous to the lungs, liver, blood, and arteries than marijuana is over the long-run. Secondly, such a large portion of Canada's population smokes marijuana on a regular basis. It is unfair to think that people should be given permanent criminal records and lose numerous employment and education opportunities for the simple fact that they have a criminal record stating that they were in possession of a small amount of pot. If, of course, one was found with a large amount of marijuana with the intent to traffic, then criminal actions should be taken. If, however, a person is in possession of marijuana for personal usage and is not smoking in a public area, it definitely should not be considered a criminal offense. Finally, the decriminalization of marijuana would allow Canadian police forces to focus their attention completely on issues of higher importance such as murder, theft, fraud, and the trafficking and/or consuming of more serious drugs such as crack/cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, or acid.
