Barker: Cannabis can benefit mental health, should not be stigmatized

People who smoke weed are thought of as lazy, unmotivated and always hungry — they can’t hold a conversation because they’re so zoned out.

I have a hyperactive, anxiety-prone brain and a mood disorder, and consuming cannabis makes these things more tolerable.

“In 1619, the Virginia Assembly passed legislation requiring every farmer to grow hemp” and even allowed it as legal tender in Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland, according to PBS Frontline.

Cannabis started to be stigmatized in the early 1900s after the Mexican Revolution, when immigrants were traveling to the United States.

The Federal Bureau of Narcotics was a precursor to the Drug Enforcement Agency and decided cannabis possession would hold the same legal consequences as possession of heroin or cocaine.

Democrats introduced the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2020 to the House of Representatives, while Republican Representative Nancy Mace recently introduced the States Reform Act.

Cannabis can be beneficial to a person’s mental health in many ways but should always be considered on a case-by-case basis.

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