People are extremely quick to label Marijuana as a harmful drug and look down upon people who smoke marijuana as deadbeats and junkies. However these people do not even bat an eyelid at regular tobacco consumers who smoke packets and packets of cigarettes daily who are exposing themselves to dangerous diseases like bronchitis, even lung cancer every day.

Although most countries are centuries away from adapting to the same code, countries that decriminalize the use and possession of marijuana are following harm reduction reasoning which has been backed up by solid scientific research.

Even though marijuana has some negative effects, these effects are almost negligible in comparison to the negative impact sending marijuana users to jail have on the nation. These include the creation of a large underground criminal economy, the promotion of gang violence and the destruction of the lives of the users along with using billions of taxpayers’ dollars to lock up marijuana users while there are dangerous criminals being grouped into cells with them.

Considering the harmful effects tobacco on our health, we should ban cigarettes as well?

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