The first step is to legalise vaping. Next is legalising marijuana. Our youth representatives in the Youth Parliament really set their priority straight.

As far as I can see, they are on the right path on pursuing their ambition of being ministers or comedians.

Local movements to legalise marijuana have been around for quite some time. They previously were just lurking around in closed forum and social media groups.

Sometimes they shared their view on marijuana use by associating it with religious and medicinal claims. Now they have found the right champions and platform to really work on it.

An Umno Youth chief today had made a statement that marijuana should be legalised as it can help youths relax. According to him, we can lower the crime rate with the legalisation of marijuana.

Reading that statement gave me an idea on how to improve the health of Malaysians. The country currently faces a big challenge in controlling noncommunicable diseases, such as hypertension.

Based on his logic, we can lower the number of patients diagnosed with hypertension by simply increasing the normal hypertension level to 150/110 mmHg. We can also lower the number of obese people in the country by simply adjusting the BMI index.

Genius.

A 2013 report found that more than 800,000 of people aged twelve and above had seek treatment related to marijuana addiction in the United States. It was reported that 4.2 million of the 6.9 million illicit drug user there were marijuana user.

10% of those who used marijuana will get addicted to it. People have to understand that addiction is a disease. And diseases must be treated. Currently the government spends millions of ringgit in order to treat opiods and nicotine addiction.

I cannot comprehend why would some think that it is a good idea for the community to have another addiction problem.

Some say marijuana has proven medicinal use. There is no doubt in that. There are several drugs derived from marijuana that are currently being used in the hospitals.

But that does not mean that simply rolling a joint and smoking it will cure diseases. These claims must be based on unbiased and proper clinical researches.

Proper development of medicinal products could deliver the medicinal properties of marijuana but reducing the risk of addiction and other side effects including mental disturbances.

I hope that these people will come to their senses. – February 18, 2016.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.

This article was published at http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/sideviews/article/roll-of-our-youth-pepresentatives-fh-abad on 18th February 2016