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Legalizing Marijuana
There are several issues that are being debated on in America currently. One of the major issues on debate is marijuana Legalization. There exists both medicinal and recreational marijuana. The federal and states governments have fully legalized medicinal marijuana, however, states and the federal government still debate on legalizing recreational marijuana. Some states have legalized it and some have not. Early Last year president Donald Trump supported the states acts which would end the outright on a federal ban of Cannabis. Each state would now be allowed to decide on their own about legalizing marijuana. So far we have ten states that have legalized marijuana for both medicinal and recreational purposes. Examples of such states include; Alaska, California, Massachusetts, Maine, District of Columbia, Nevada, Oregon, Colorado and others who are yet to enact their bills this year. States such as; Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah and West Virginia among others have it legal only for medicinal purposes.
Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts senator supported the bill on decriminalisation but then it hasn’t gone anywhere since Mitch Connell the Senate majority leader still oppose it. He views the drug as any other narcotic substance the likes of heroin and LSD CITATION Las18 p pg.3 l 2057 (Laslo pg.3). Also, in September Senator Cory Booker introduced an act that would legalize marijuana and penalize the communities that want nothing to do with marijuana.
Also there are senators who have been giving arguments on the crucial need for legalization. According to Warren and Rolling Stones discussion, the reason she gave for legalizing Marijuana was that she cares about his state people whore are at risk of being arrested for either selling or using marijuana. She also said that she cares about the state’s decision on the issue since they are the ones in control. The Cole Memorandum during Obama’s reign said that they weren’t trying to legalize marijuana but if legalized within the state nobody was going to push for prosecutions. Jeff Sessions revoked this and would push for prosecutions on the same thus people are at risk of being arrested CITATION Las18 p “pg. 3” l 2057 (Laslo pg. 3). According to Warren Marijuana may be a pain treatment alternative also it will help people addicted to Opioids move away from addiction. Jeff Sessions and McConnell seem to be the main people catalyzing against this legalization.
Marijuana seem not to be beneficial as it is thought to be by the senators and authorities who want it legalized. Colorado has seen an increase in deaths, road accidents and poison calls related to marijuana. Cases of corruption among the marijuana vendors has increased instead of decreasing. Some states have legalized marijuana and there are less positive effects of the legalization. According to Dr Harry Bull (Hunt, J. pg.1) and I quote, “So far, the only thing that the legalization of marijuana has brought to our schools has been marijuana.” Jeff writes that it is sad for the nation to legalize a drug that will have generation consequences (Hunt, J. pg.1). Students who consume marijuana are seen to perform poorly in class and fail their exams. Legalizing marijuana is the worst decision by Senator booker since it has no positive impact on the community especially the coloured.
Across the world majority of the countries have marijuana illegalized since they find it to have negative effects. A research in Colorado found out legalizing marijuana led to utilization of health care facilities where medical conditions such as mental illness were reported. Generally smoking marijuana puts one at the risk of getting cancer, brain failure and poor performance in class. Legalizing marijuana will lead to more negative effects than positive. Even though there will be legalization with policies in place they will be violated. A good example is a synthetic marijuana which entered the market in 2008 and by 2013 more than 2500 calls were received by the poison centre about abuse of the same drug. This shows that despite the efforts by the government to have policies in place it is hard to reduce the rate of substance use.
Not all substance use policies have negative impacts, but some regulations have seen positive effects on society. The reform policy in states with marijuana being illegal, has it that people be jailed if found abusing drugs. The policy gives the criminals a second chance by providing treatment and rehabilitation which would see them better people after their jail term is over. This is a positive thing to the society since once freed they can educate the other substance users. Research shows that society is supporting such policies and recent study claimed that 67% of the Americans were in support of treatment policy on hard drug offenders.
Personal views on the drug, is that it is as any other narcotic substance the likes of heroin and LSD. There is care about states’ people whore are at risk of being arrested for either selling or using marijuana (Auriol, Emmanuelle, Alice Mesnard, and Tiffanie Perrault. Pg. 4). This may be a pain treatment alternative also it will help people addicted to Opioids move away from addiction. Colorado has seen an increase in deaths, poison calls and road accidents related to marijuana. Cases of corruption among the marijuana vendors has increased instead of decreasing. Some states have legalized marijuana and there are less positive effects of the legalization.
Addiction recovery, health treatment and creating public awareness is costly yet marijuana only contributed 1.8% to revenue collected despite expectations to increase the income. In conclusion, the state should rethink on the issue of legalizing marijuana, learn its positive and negative impacts and weigh between the two. The senators need to spend time with the parents, medical experts and learning institutions before rushing to legalize cannabis.
Works Cited
Auriol, Emmanuelle, Alice Mesnard, and Tiffanie Perrault. “Legalizing Cannabis to Fight Organized Crime.” (2018).
Hunt, J. “Marijuana Devastated Colorado, Don’t Legalize It Nationally.” USA Today (2017).
BIBLIOGRAPHY Laslo, Matt. “Elizabeth Warren: Jeff Sessions Acted as “Catalyst” for Weed Legalization by Matt Laslo.” 27 August 2018. RollingStone. article. 5 March 2019.