Question: What are your views on the legalization of marijuana, what are its pros and cons, is it worse or better than tobacco?

Andrew Scott answered on 22 Jun 2015:

I’m not sure whether it’s better or worse than tobacco, although I seem to remember something about it being quite a lot worse. I think that it’s worse because people tend to inhale more deeply with marijuana and it having higher tar.

Whether we should legalise it or not is a difficult question. In my opinion, legalising drugs would allow the government to control the drugs. At the moment drugs are made by criminals and there is no control over what is in them and who is making them. People can be working in really bad conditions to make them and they could be full of poison. If they were sold in government run shops they could be made by people who are paid properly and work in a safe environment. The people buying them would also know what was in them.

On the other hand, all drugs have side effects and can cause harm. One of the big problems is that people who use cannabis often go on to use harder drugs. I haven’t read all the research and I don’t have a straight answer, but I think that we (as a country) need to have a proper discussion about whether we legalise drugs or not.