5 drunken guys will start a fight. 5 stoned guys will start a band:

Is cannabis better than alcohol?

Photo by David Gabrić on Unsplash

According to a survey conducted by American Addiction Centers, 2 in 3 people who used marijuana would choose to make it legal if given a chance. And more than half would choose marihuana over alcohol if only one could be legal. As someone who grew up with a violent alcoholic father, I tend to agree with them.
Yes, I know, any addiction has trauma-inducing potential and a neglected child will suffer too, but looking back at my childhood I can only fantasize about taking the risk with a stoned father instead of the enraged one.

The arguments for legalizing cannabis vary from the moral to the practical range.

Many argue that is unfair and hypocritical that alcohol is socially accepted while cannabis can put people in jail. And no, this is not whataboutism: the degree of demonizing a potentially harmful substance should be related to the harm is doing.

After all, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), people can’t ingest a lethal dose of marijuana, while alcohol is responsible for 3 million deaths every year worldwide. This represents 5.3 % of all deaths. Alcohol abuse is a causal factor in more than 200 disease and injury conditions. (Source: World Health Organisation)

On the practical side of pro-cannabis arguments is the fact that cannabis has strong medicinal benefits. Some countries throw away the baby with the bath and outlaw the use of medicinal cannabis. Romania is one of those countries. People who are in desperate need of pain-reducing treatments do not have access to medical cannabis because the legislation does not allow it.

Innocent people are needlessly suffering because of the stigma associated with cannabis. For them, a change in the health legislation to approve the medicinal use of cannabis would be a chance for longer and healthier lives.

However, there is a shift in the public’s opinion. More and more people are advocating for the legalization of marihuana. And more and more studies are being done about the benefit of medicinal cannabis.