The use of illegal drugs

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Introduction

The use of illegal drugs in general, and cannabis (marijuana) in particular has increased in the last few decades. Cannabis is by far the most frequently used illegal drug in the world (although it is legal in several places). Globally there are at least 158 million users annually, which is over 3.8% of the world’s population. The name marijuana comes from a Mexican slang term for cannabis and is believed to have derived from the Spanish pronunciation of the names Mary and Jane. (The two names were also common Mexican military slang for a prostitute or brothel.) Cannabis has become illegal in 1937 with anti-marijuana groups.

When gathering evidence to address behavioral questions surrounding human consumption and production of potentially psychoactive cannabis preparations, it is absolutely essential that this long, co-evolutionary arc of human history with this cannabinergic plant be appreciated in order to understand underlying human values, and desires that motivate cannabis use and prevent smokescreen prejudices from taking root.

Research Questions

1. Does a Cannabis subculture exist?

The fast-growing culture of Cannabis smokers has created its own place in society. Hence, many people see this phenomenon as a subculture. The subculture theory refers to the particular values and lifestyles of special groups, or it is the collection of rituals, stories and symbols. They revolve around certain perceptions of the world and are often linked to general culture currents in society. (Gelder,2015). These subcultures explicitly position themselves as being oppositional to the norms of society at large, and they provide space and legitimacy for alternatives and oppositional attitudes and understanding, often expressed through style, songs, clothes and language.

In the western world cannabis has long been a marker of an identity and culture that resist majority norms. Its use has been associated with special kind of music, milieus and lifestyles. For example, snoop Dog, Willie Nelson, Bob Marley and Wiz Khalifa are just a few of the artist who have introduced their own lines of Cannabis products from plants strains to vape pens. Furthermore, the users of Cannabis have their special style of wearing clothes. They prefer to wear clothes that is related to the Cannabis culture, particularly the young people. They recognize as it makes them different from the other and they think it makes them look good.

In Cannabis cultures there are many symbols, including dreadlocks and other indicating Rastafarian ideology, clothes made of hemp or a chillum- a particular smoking device. The cannabis sativa plant itself is of special significance as a symbol. However, the cannabis plant is more important symbolic marker in cannabis culture then equivalent raw materials in other drug cultures.

According to Bridgette Wilcox (2017) Marijuana is without a doubt becoming less of a taboo, and the trend seems to continue not just in the United States but in other parts of the world. Several countries are showing a more open attitude towards the psychoactive drug: the German parliament has recently legalized the use of medicinal marijuana, this shift in preference comes as marijuana legalization becomes more commonplace in the United States and across the world.

2. Consumption Patterns -From tourism point of view-

Nowadays, lots of people they are travelling to places where they can smoke legally, and this is called usage of Cannabis in tourism. The motives of tourists who use cannabis should be distinguished according to the context and the significance they assign to their drug experiences while traveling. There are four plausible groups of tourist motivations: experimentation, pleasure orientation, quest for authenticity, and purchasing.

Cannabis experimentation, experimental motives in which tourists are mainly motivated by the novelty of cannabis usage and by the opportunity to consume cannabis during their vacation.

Pleasure orientation, perceptions of cannabis are creational product during a pleasure-oriented vacation. In other words, in this context, cannabis is perceived by tourists as a complementary product of fun-seeking while on vacation.

Quest for Authenticity, the search for cannabis authenticity. In this case, the tourists are motivated by the quest to see the sources of the cannabis industry, such as by visiting the village of Malana in northern India and/or the Rif Mountains in Morocco. In the case of Malana, tourists reported that they were drawn by an interest in seeing the village where the valuable ‘Malana Cream’ (awell-known brand of Indian hashish) is grown and imported to Amsterdam. Similarly, tourists who visited Morocco reported that they wanted to see the plantations of cannabis and the way the famous hashish is produced in the local factories.

Purchasing, Tourists who travel in order to purchase cannabis in a country in which they do not live, mostly for practical reasons.

3. Thoughts on legalizing Cannabis

The increase of popularity of Cannabis lead to the development of three different groups. Those who wants it legalized, those who wants to keep it illegal and those who wants to legalize it for medical uses only. Currently 24 states and Washington DC have a law legalizing Cannabis in different forms. Therefore, there is economic impacts of Cannabis legalization. It has a direct economic benefits and economic and social cost.

First, Regarding the direct economic benefits of legalizing cannabis, the Marijuana legalization advocates have argued that whether the direct costs of legalization are outweighed by economic benefits depends on economics concerns which are, budgetary savings, revenue gain and the new expenditures.

Budgetary savings, Estimated Saving from reduced spending on the criminal justice of Cannabis law enforcement and revenue losses from shifts in law enforcement policies. According to Harvard economist Jeffery Miron, Legalization will reduce the need for prosecutorial, judicial, correctional, and police resources spending by approximately $7.7 billion- $13.7 billion per year.

Revenue gains, projected revenues from additional taxes and streams of income. Marijuana advocates claim that marijuana taxation, licensing, and industry could generate more than $8.7 billion in government revenue. However, the value of gains cannot be gauged at this time because revenues from licensing and industry vary by state. Additionally, tax revenue projections are inherently uncertain because of the unknown impact of black market.

New expenditures, immediate and projected expenditures to address the known harms of marijuana use and to implement and enforce policy reforms. Adding to the direct costs of implementing policy reforms, legalization will cause consumption of marijuana to increase, and this increase will have direct economic costs in terms of healthcare, social services and criminal justice. The magnitude and cost of increased consumption can be predicted by estimating supply and demand, but historical data from local marijuana markets does not exist, and data from foreign markets fails to reflect the influence of local mores and cultural norms on consumer behavior.

Secondly, The economic and social arguments against legalization of Cannabis. A survey of available research regarding the fiscal impact of marijuana found a number of economic analyses that address the fiscal costs associated with existing laws but none that address the costs of legalization. Because the data required for a formal cost-benefit analysis is not available at this time, invoking fiscal rhetoric to advance the legalization agenda is not merely irresponsible, it is also deceitful

According to one of the articles that we have analyzed which was about a survey that they have done among 388 students in Canada sixty percent of respondent were users and 90% percent of the user has tried it between age 15 to 17 which is early ages. Another important point on this article was nearly half of past-years users indicated that it was gifted, or that friends had shared it with them. So this let us think that for the starting for being a user environment is really important factor because most of the people first time they try with their friends or friends of friend.

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