If we need money so badly, work hard, not drink the poison to quench the thirst!

Is our government too starved of cash or brain that the most heated topic of discussion at this moment is the legalization of cannabis? What after cannabis is legalized? Of course it will become a common product readily available in the market, encouraging more people to grow and consume it!

Let’s first put aside the addictive ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol or the antipsychotic cannabidiol (CBD), be it recreational marijuana (200 g THC/kg) or “medical marijuana”, the legal use of marijuana is not as high as we think.

So far only a handful of countries have legalized recreational marijuana, including Mexico, Canada, Thailand, Uruguay and some states of the US. As for medical marijuana, only 29 countries have legalized its use and production, including Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Canada and some states of the US.

Whether the growing of cannabis or ketum should be allowed in this country can be explored from different angles.

From the economic point of view, indeed it is a global trend now to legalize the use of cannabis, and the market is going to be enormous.

According to Euromonitor’s April white paper on cannabis consumption, the global legal cannabis market will top US$90 billion by 2025, or three times the current level.

In short, cannabis holds tremendous future prospects and is therefore an economically feasible cash crop.

From the medical perspectives, THC boasts psychoactive, sedative, analgesic effects, and can effectively relieve the nausea symptom of chemotherapy patients. For patients suffering from terminal cancers and AIDS, other than serving as a painkiller, THC also helps improve appetite.

Despite its addictive side effects, cannabis has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for some time now. Talking about its analgesic effect, opium (heroin, morphine) boasts better effect, but how often is it used for medical purposes today?

From the legal point of view, Malaysia is among very few countries in this world that will send an individual in possession of minimum amounts of drugs to the gallows.

Under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act, the penalty for any person in possession of 15 g or more heroin and morphine, 1,000 g or more opium, 200 g or more cannabis and 40 g or more cocaine, is mandatory death.

Today, drug traffickers make up as much as 73% of all condemned convicts in Malaysia. Now that drug possession is perceived as a capital offense, and anyone in possession of 200 g or more cannabis will be sent to the gallows, why encourage Malaysians to grow cannabis then? It seems that the government is even prepared to promote the growing of cannabis as a nationwide campaign. How absurd!

Medical Cannabis Caucus (MCC) member Khalid Samad said we should not reject the lucrative income from cannabis because we don’t understand its extensive uses, adding that cannabis does not make us addicted, but because we abuse it!

Deputy communication and multimedia minister Zahidi Zainul Abidin even promotes the growing of cannabis, saying young Malaysians can have RM1,500 of income each year by growing only five ketum plants.

If young people can control themselves so well, we would not have 73% of condemned convicts being drug-related.

Perhaps some might argue that dug abuse can be prevented through stricter control. Forget about it! Now that cannabis growing is said to be so profitable, many young people might go for it and the scale could be too large for the authorities to exercise any effective control over its plantation and use.

Unchecked abuse of dangerous drugs can kill a nation. We already have the example of Qing Dynasty China.

Cannabis is akin to the modern version of Trojan horse that could bring down Malaysia if we allow the extensive cultivation of cannabis which could go out of hand. Its dangers must never be underestimated.

There are plenty of other cash crops that are equally profitable, why insist on marijuana?

If we need money so badly, work hard, not drink the poison to quench the thirst!