Call to legalise marijuana

GOVERNMENT should consider legalising marijuana.
Before you read on, I know much of what is stated below may sound ridiculous to both the learned and unlearned.
I implore you to research it yourself.
Google is your friend.
Cannabis, also known as marijuana, weed, Mary Jane, pack, and countless other ambiguous titles, is a plant, scientifically classified as a herb.
It is known throughout the civilised world as an illicit substance, mainly due to a lot of common misconceptions about its psychoactive properties. The plant has many strains, the common ones being indica and sativa.
Historically, cannabis has been used, either as medicine or for pleasure, by numerous civilisations spanning centuries, with records of its usage traversing hundreds of different cultures around the planet.
From Ancient China to India during Neolithic times, Rome, Assyria (today northern Iraq), Persia (Iran), etc.
There are a lot of common misconceptions about cannabis today because of the mostly-biased scientific experiments that were done in the 60s and 70s, of which I will not go into detail so research it yourselves.
These were conducted to support the already-established claim that cannabis was evil.
In terms of its medicinal usage, cannabis, with or without THC content (tetrahydrocannabinol, the substance that gives the user the “high”) is medically proven to treat the side effects of patients undergoing chemotherapy (weight loss) with no side effects, as is all too common with prescribed medications.
From my own experience, it is a great alternative to sleeping pills, antidepressants and Viagra, and helps with anxiety and lack of appetite.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be smoked.
It can be brewed for tea, or its oil can be extracted.
The “how to” can be easily found on the internet. I find videos on YouTube to be very helpful. Making something illegal isn’t going to stop people from doing it.
Instead of outlawing it and locking up our youths, and thus cramming up our prisons, legalise it and educate our youths and everyone else on how to use it, its side effects and the whole nine yards.
Educate citizens not only on cannabis but other drugs as well like methamphetamines, cocaine, heroin, etc, so as to discourage them from trying these truly dangerous substances.
I won’t name names but I know of police officers, teachers, Government officials, and engineers, who do superbly in their respective field of expertise, and smoke cannabis in their free time.
Cannabis being illegal forces them to associate with criminals just to purchase it.
The Royal PNG Constabulary with their ‘fight against drugs campaign’ are not using their heads.
Look at how other developed countries like USA are faring.
Their police have far better resources and manpower, and they have yet to successfully tackle this issue. What are the PNG police going to do that the American police haven’t done yet?
Do our police have alien technology? It’s silly and a waste of time and resources that could’ve been put to good use like catching actual criminals.
I think the Government should tax and regulate sale and usage of cannabis, like what’s being done with alcohol, which by the way, is causing more harm to our society than cannabis ever will.

Beric Dondarrion