The Acceptance Level of Marijuana as a Decriminalization Substance among Police Officers and Substance Abusers in Kuala Lumpur

The issue of decriminalization of medical marijuana has gained public attention
globally due to the action of the National Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) to
remove marijuana from Schedule IV is a new era for the legalization of marijuana
around the world. More than 30 countries around the world have legalized the use of
marijuana for medical purposes, with Canada being the first country to do so. The action
resulted from the change in perception towards medical marijuana use, which is now
believed to be safe, acceptable, and should be decriminalized. With the development of
technology and access to information that is expanding in Malaysia, this change in
perspective may also become more widespread among the Malaysian community.
However, there is still a lack of scientific research and data regarding this content. The
study aimed to examine the perception of the risk of medicinal marijuana and the
acceptance of decriminalizing medical marijuana in Malaysia among police officers and
substance abusers in the Kuala Lumpur area. A total of 168 respondents consisting of
police officers and substance abusers in Kuala Lumpur, answered the questionnaire.
The study results have shown a significant difference between police officers and
substance abusers regarding the level of acceptance towards the decriminalization of
medical marijuana in Malaysia, where the level of acceptance of substance abusers is
slightly higher than that of police officers. At the same time, there is no difference
between the perception of police officers and substance abusers regarding the perceived
risk of medical marijuana use, where police officers have a higher perception of risk
than substance abuse. Thus, further exploration of this phenomenon is needed,
especially by increasing the sample size and expanding the study location to other states.