In October 2018, Canada officially legalized the recreational vaping** of adults, which attracted widespread attention. Canada** believes that legalization can reduce the number of convictions for drug use**, thereby saving social costs and cutting off the financial resources of drug cartels. However, there is a certain gap between expectations and reality.
According to an article published in the Journal of the Canadian Medical Association on October 10, 2023, the legalization policy implemented in Canada five years ago has significantly reduced the number of arrests related to **, but the number of people who have been taken to the hospital for emergency treatment due to drug use has also increased. In addition, there has been a sharp increase in the number of people who smoke**, with young people vaping the most frequently. 2 out of 3 users are able to buy it through legal channels. In some of Canada's major urban areas, the streets are full of shops, even more than convenience stores, due to the excessive number of retail licenses issued.
Globally, countries and regions, including Uruguay, Canada, Mexico, South Africa, and 23 U.S. states, have legalized recreational use**. Germany also approved a bill on August 16 this year to try to legalize the cultivation and use of recreational **, allowing adults to buy and own up to 25 grams**. Germany believes that legalization is the way to protect children and young people. At present, the German Bundestag is still considering this bill, and if passed, Germany will become the second EU country to legalize **.
Under the principle of economic priority, the trend of legalization has also quietly spread to Asia. Although countries such as Myanmar and Cambodia strictly prohibit smoking at the legal level, due to economic and political power issues, local people can only ignore the situation of people smoking**. However, it was Thailand that pioneered the legal scene. Previously, smoking a small amount of ** was punishable by one year in prison, but on February 8, 2022, Thailand** announced that it would remove ** from the drug control list, becoming the first country in Asia to legalize the cultivation, production, import and export**.
This legalization policy has completely discarded Thailand's decades-old anti-drug tradition, and has wiped off the blood debt between the anti-narcotics police and drug dealers. However, just a few days later, there were multiple cases of misuse** being rushed to the hospital for emergency care, and even a few patients died from cardiac arrest. According to official statistics, in 2021, there were only 1.89 million users** in Thailand, while in 2022 this number soared to 11 million, and the proportion of teenagers who smoked** increased tenfold.
As for the economic pull effect, it is not obvious, but the hospital business is booming. In some parts of Bangkok, the streets are lined with bright green leaf signs, ranging from drinks to salads, cakes and dishes. However, Thailand's original vision was to deregulate and effectively regulate and guide. But the problem is that if you can't control it when it's prohibited, why do you think you can control it after you release the control?So now Thailand** is a little bit regretful. Thai Prime Minister Setha said in an interview in September this year that he would correct the policy and reformulate the law within six months to limit it to medical use.
Regarding the addiction and harmfulness of **, some people believe that ** is not as addictive and harmful as tobacco and alcohol. They cited an article published in the British medical journal The Lancet to try to show that ** is not as harmful and dependent on the body as tobacco and alcohol. However, this article is about the fact that it is impossible to directly compare tobacco and alcohol with other drugs. The author is actually complaining about the classification of illegal drugs in the UK, and then using legal drugs such as tobacco and alcohol as references to prove his point more favorably, rather than comparing the harmfulness of drugs and legal drugs.
In fact, according to internationally published data, about 9% of ** users will become addicted, compared to 16% of young users, and 25% to 50% of frequent users. In 2012, 4.3 million of the 7.3 million people over the age of 12 who were addicted to illegal drugs were addicted, accounting for 1 of the total population over the age of 12 in the United States7%。According to data from 1998 to 2008, the number of people receiving **addiction** in the United States rose by 30%. At the point of addiction, some people will confuse naturally grown varieties with very little THC content at 05%-3% of ordinary people don't feel anything, but if they change to **resin, then the situation is completely different.
And over time, the THC content in ** products continues to climb. According to a study by the University of Mississippi in the United States, the THC content of the most popular products on the market is as high as 126 per cent, compared to 4 per cent in 1983. This shows that the harm of ** is gradually increasing, and the impact on individuals and society is becoming more serious.
*The harm to health is manifold. First of all, long-term use** can cause permanent damage to the brain, affecting the ability to learn, remember, and concentrate. Second, tobacco contains 50 to 70 percent more carcinogens than tobacco, increasing the risk of lung cancer and other respiratory diseases. Third, long-term use** will lead to the body's strong replacement of other drugs, and it is easier to form dependence on other drugs.
In addition, ** is a stepping stone to the drug addiction circle. Many people think it's not exciting enough after taking it, so they try more dangerous drugs like ***, etc. If you start using ** as a teenager, you will eventually develop **dependence 2-4 times higher than others. Moreover, it is easy to get involved in other drugs after smoking, especially in China, drug trafficking is basically equated with the death penalty.
In Western countries, whether or not it is considered a drug depends mainly on political factors. Some countries have chosen to legalize in order to win votes and create jobs. However, this practice ignores the harm that drugs can do to individuals and society. **It's a stepping stone on Huangquan Road, it's not an exaggeration at all.
China has done a relatively good job in anti-drug propaganda, so the group of international students who have just arrived in Canada basically stay away from drugs. However, the environment can subtly affect young people. When non-leaves are packaged as some kind of high-end culture, opening a legal and compliant ** store on the street will give young people a cognitive illusion that smoking ** is an encouraged behavior.
We should strengthen the fight and prevention of the drug problem, especially the education of young people. The so-called self-control is not blindly believing that you will never be addicted, but sticking to the bottom line no matter how bewitched by others. There is no difference between standing by the abyss and staring at the abyss, we should cherish life and health and stay away from drugs.