“With great power comes great responsibility”-Ben Parker.

Most of you may be familiar with this quote

or even understand it, but only a few can put this quote to life. In this essay we will further elaborate
this quote, but most importantly we will talk about why medical marijuana should not be legalized in the
Philippines. First of all, what is medical marijuana? Medical marijuana is cannabis or cannabinoids that
are prescribed by physicians to their patients. Cannabis is a tall plant with a stiff upright stem, divided
serrated leaves, and glandular hairs. It is used to produce hemp fiber and as a drug. It contains THC
(Tetrahydrocannabinol) a crystalline compound that is the main active ingredient of cannabis, and is the
reason why people who use marijuana get “high”. The point of this essay is to convince you that we do
not need to legalize marijuana in our country. Why? Because the lives of less fortunate people will be at
stake, in short it is anti-poor.

Why did I say it’s anti-poor? Because if we legalize marijuana in our country, a country full of corruption,
injustice, and people abusing their power for their own benefit, what will happen? An example already is
the project “Oplan Tokhang”. It is a national law enforcement project where it allows the police to raid
suspects’ homes even in ungodly hours and without a warrant. This law is a violation against human
rights because even if you were just walking down the street without even doing anything bad, the
police can detain you or even kill you because they are protected by this law. Kian Delo Santos was one
out of 5,021 confirmed deaths this injustice has caused. The police said he was holding a gun and
threatened to shoot them and at the end he shot himself, but according to the forensics team, Kian did
not have any gunpowder on his hands and a CCTV footage was found and saw that the Police were the
ones who killed this helpless 17 year old. The Family of Kian still cries for justice till this day, hoping to
finally get it. All of this injustice happening, and yet people still want to push through in legalizing
marijuana in our country. We cannot handle this big responsibility especially if it falls in the hands of
People who abuse their power. People still get marijuana even if it’s not legal, what more if it is? Let’s
say it is legal. Only the rich will benefit from this because they have power, unlike less fortunate people
who cannot defend themselves. If poor people owned marijuana, People will automatically assume that
they either stole it or purchased it illegally and that’s where discrimination happens, discrimination
against the poor. They will be abused, imprisoned, or even killed even if they’re innocent and that’s
because they do not have power. Yes, Marijuana is proven to be good pain killers and can apparently
cure cancer, but are we willing to risk the fact that it has more bad effects than good ones like
psychological problems, lung problems, and can even lead to cancer? There are plenty of other
alternatives than using marijuana such as Aromatherapy and Acupuncture. Now, let’s look back at the
quote that I’ve put in my first paragraph. With great power comes great responsibility, and the greater
the power the more dangerous the abuse. If you have the ability to do something, make sure you do it
for the good of others and not the other way around.

In conclusion, Medical marijuana should not be legalized in the Philippines because of how incompetent
our government is. Legalizing it would only lead to higher crime rates and discrimination amongst less
fortunate people.