...The Great Marijuana Debate Cory Williamson Keri Keith University Composition and Communication 2 May 08, 2014 The Great Marijuana Debate A question that has been asked over decades is “What should the US do about marijuana?” Recently Colorado voted for the legalization of recreational marijuana, and according to the New York Times article by Rick Lyman (2-26-14), the state is bringing in more money than expected. There are Arguments for and against the legalization of marijuana. Some of the arguments for legalization are the medical benefits, high taxation dollars, and the creation of new jobs. Those who oppose the legalization of marijuana cite a higher crime rate, consequences of smoking to both the user and the family, and more people becoming addicted. The medical advantages of marijuana are well documented, but many people prefer to keep it illegal; however, economic possibilities compared to criminal consequences show the benefits of legalization. “Something that cannot be argued is the stimulation that selling and taxing marijuana would provide to both the state and national economies,” according to Rick Lyman. Colorado governor John Hickenlooper, in a CNN.com interview with Evan Perez (2-17-14), said that marijuana shops opened in Colorado and the revenue from sales alone was over one million dollars. Colorado also has a 12.9 percent tax rate statewide on regulated recreational marijuana. Using those statistics, the predicted sales and tax...
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...Legalizing Marijuana Article Rebuttal Bruce Wayne BCOM/275 October 24, 2011 Dr. Phil Jackson Legalizing Marijuana Article Rebuttal A persuasive article on legalizing marijuana was published by TIME magazine. The reasoning for legalizing marijuana was that it would generate the government an estimated 1.4 million dollars in tax money. This figure does not include additional taxation which could be applied to activities or jobs within the agricultural, marketing, and retailing sectors that would be generated if marijuana where to be legalized. Although legalization of marijuana may produce more jobs, stimulate the economy, and possibly reduce the majority of crime produced by the illegal distribution of marijuana. I still disagree with the idea and choose to rebuttal this article for the lack of reliability, validity of data used, and the faulty comparison that was displayed in this article. First off, TIME magazine is a well-known newsmagazine that has been publishing articles on politics, world issues, and business related topics since March 3, 1923 (TIME magazine, 2012). They are also partners with Cable News Network (CNN) which is a respected news source. Both of these factors are enough to convince the majority of individuals to think they are reliable sources when reading information regarding certain topics. For the most part they are, unfortunately I found a correction noted on the bottom of this article which causes me to think otherwise. The correction...
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...Dominic Terrible 9/28/14 Essay The Effects of Legalization of Marijuana Americans have gone back and forth about whether to legalize marijuana or not , in some states this has already been done and there are pharmacies that sell medicated marijuana to patients who have glaucoma. Legalizing marijuana could solve some of the US's problems , but could also create a plethora of new ones. One of the very few pros of legalizing marijuana is that it would put most of the drug dealers out of business. Why would anyone want to go to a drug dealer when they could go straight to the store and know exactly what they're getting and most importantly know what they're doing is legal. They would also go to the stores because there would be a variety of marijuana. There would probably be all the essentials you need to smoke marijuana which would be very convenient for marijuana smokers. One of the many negatives it can cause is more fatalities with driving. In 2007 , marijuana was not legal in Colorado but pot-positive drivers accounted for 7% of total fatalities in Colorado. In 2012 Colorado legalized marijuana for usage other than just medical usage. In 2012 , pot-positive drivers accounted for 16% of total fatalities in Colorado. This is a serious problem that would only become worse if legalization happens across the US. Another negative effect is that more and more kids would start to get into smoking marijuana. We don't need preteens walking around high as a kite...
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...United States put marijuana in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. They believed it had no probable medical use. Since that time 23 states as well as Washington DC have legalizes the use of medical marijuana. The legalization of Marijuana has been an ongoing topic for the past couple of years in the United States. Several different opinions have been made but ultimately it comes down to people who are pro marijuana and those who oppose it. Some argue that medical marijuana is safe and effective for several different diseases such as cancer, AIDS, glaucoma etc. Although marijuana use has been around for ages and probably has done more to help then hurt many people do not want to see it legalized. People who are opposed to the legalization fear that it is dangerous and leads to harder drug use. This argument is has been presented quite often. Health classroom across the United States teach children that marijuana is a gateway drug. Some of the other reasons for not legalizing marijuana are that if legalized for medicinal use recreational use will spike, especially among teens and adolescents. However, studies have proven that inaccurate. According to a study by the National bureau of Economic Research concluded that there was no significant increase in pot use by teenagers who lived in states where it was legalized. I personally believe that medical marijuana should be legalized. It seems to have helped more than it has hurt. I honestly feel that reasons of it not being legalized...
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...studies have shown the benefits of the use of marijuana for certain medical conditions. It is prohibition at its finest, serves no purpose and is a violation of our rights of liberty, due to the misrepresentation of marijuana. The legalization of marijuana has many benefits with increase revenue for the state, enormous medical benefits, and a significant decrease in violent crime and gang activity. A study done in 2010, by Cato, legalizing marijuana would generate over $8 billion in federal and state revenue annually. (HuffingtonPost, 2013) The cost of keeping marijuana illegal to this day is astronomical. “In 2012, Colorado voters approved Amendment 64, which legalized marijuana for full recreational use. The state now stands to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes over the next decade.” The largest boost of revenue from the sale of marijuana comes from taxes. In 2014, Colorado, had a vast number of pot tourists visit the state and bring in over $10 billion in funds, even with the increased snow activity that would normally lower their tourism. Another benefit that comes with the legalization of marijuana is the money saved from unnecessary use of law enforcement and the prosecution of marijuana related offenses. Also, with the legalization of marijuana the government essentially creates a new job market. Marijuana has to have a place for production, then processing, prepared for purchase, and then finally sold. Each step of the process creates jobs, therefore,...
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...a. What will happen to existing supply avenues? Marijuana is mostly sold on the black market, except in states that have legalized the drug. In those states most have stores with specialized licenses, much like a permit to sell alcohol. The supply avenues will change from secret black markets to a farm economy trade system. b. Will legalization significantly change demand? How? Since marijuana use has yet to recede under prohibition, like alcohol did, you can expect a slight change in demand but not a huge jump. 7.6 million frequent users will not have to rely on black market trade and will be able to purchase legally. The 23.9 regular users will also have a place of business to buy. Marijuana market watchers expect there to be an uptick as states legalize but then a slight decline as the novelty will wear off. c. Would one expect prices to change significantly? How? Prices may changes slightly. At this time it costs approximately $15 a gram and $2500 for a pound of marijuana, according the Dan Schneider’s article Pot Economics. If the United States were to open the market for export they could expect a price drop due to competing markets that are already wide open in Uruguay and Mexico. Uruguay has an $1 per gram price. Exporting costs would have to include packaging and freight costs. d. What would be the costs and benefits to governments, both in changes in enforcement requirements and in potential tax revenue? There is a potential taxes revenue base of $500...
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...Misael Ortiz Period 1 3/12/2012 Legalization of Marijuana Should marijuana be legalized? There is currently a debate regarding whether Marijuana should be legalized. Marijuana should be legal in the U.S. This is because there has been a lot of automobile crashes and even deaths. This is all under the influence of alcohol while others are smoking weed and with that it decreases the deaths and the crashes there is. In order to solve this issue of legalizing Marijuana, there should be a law passed. The first reason that Marijuana should be legalize is because it drops in deadly crashes, this is under the influence of alcohol. And it’s tested that when your high there is a less percentage of crashing. According to the article “Medical pot tied to safer roads” Legalization of Marijuana” “is associated with nearly 9 percent decrease in traffic fatalities. Most likely as a result of its important and alcohol consumed by young adults”. This shows that the author suggest that they should put a law, because with the alcohol and the drunk driving has killed a lot of people and has caused a lot of damage as well other people are smoking weed and the traffic in fatalities has decrease a 9 percent in its car accidents. This shows that while you’re under the influence of alcohol there are more possibilities to crash then while been high and driving. As a conclusion there should be a law passes about medical Marijuana. The second reason that “Marijuana should be legalized”...
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...How Legalization Leads to Financial Benefits Alex Bradford ITT Technical Institute Marijuana. It is highly debated topic; this is due to different parties beliefs. The controversy lies within its legalization, and how it should be handled, or if it even should be legalized. It is my intent to use this paper as a way to point out how legalizing marijuana would be good for the economy. I believe the legalization of marijuana would benefit the economy with the generation of jobs, creation of tax revenue, and it would vacate some jail cells which could be used for more worthy purposes. How can the legalization of marijuana generate new jobs? One way they can do this is through the shops that could and would open up as specialty shops, designed to sell precisely marijuana products and accessories. It would also open up new positions for glass blowers, for the pipes and hookahs that people use to self-medicate. There have also been comparisons made between the legalization of marijuana now and when prohibition was repealed back in the early 1900s. “Making alcohol legal again has paid off. Just last year, the industry generated $91 billion in wages and over 3.9 million jobs for U.S. workers. In 2008, alcohol contributed over $40 billion to state and local revenues.” (http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2012/04/20/stirring-the-pot-could-legalizing-marijuana-save-the-economy/) Some people have the opinion that marijuana can damage tax more than aid. Well I have supported...
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...recommended by a doctor who has determined the person's health would benefit from the use of marijuana in the treatment of Cancer, anorexia, AIDS, chronic pain, spasticity, glaucoma, arthritis, migraines, or any other illness for which marijuana provides relief. Nothing in the act permits persons using marijuana for medical purposes to engage in conduct that endangers others, allows distribution of marijuana for non medical purposes or permits the buying or selling of marijuana. Dennis Peron, the man who launched proposition 215 also started the cannabis buyers club in San Francisco. The purpose behind starting this club was to distribute weed to AIDS, cancer and other patients. With only a doctors note the club's 12,000 members could buy pot and then relax while listening to...
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...Legalizing THC By Crystal Zambrano THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol is the chemical responsible for marijuana’s psychological effects. Many feel that marijuana is a harmful plant that can endanger lives and just another problem to be dealt with in society. But times are changing and people are recognizing the pros outweigh the cons for legalization. There are many reasons why marijuana should be legal but today I will focus on its benefits to the medical industry, the health risk as it compares to alcohol, the benefits legalization will have on our economy, and the penal system. For centuries marijuana has been used for medicinal purposes. It has many beneficial properties including: sedative, anti-inflammatory, anti-convulsive, reduction of dizziness, increases appetite, anti-nausea, and a bronchodilator. This can be a relief to so many people with medical conditions such as AIDS, glaucoma, hepatitis, multiple sclerosis, eating disorders, insomnia, seizures, cancer and many other issues. We don’t have the right to turn down a cancer patients request for THC as a treatment, or a child with epilepsy. I believe must have the option of medicinal THC for our loved ones, knowing it could alleviate their pain or prevent their seizures, how could we possibly tell them no? According to the CDC, excessive alcohol use is the third leading lifestyle related cause of death for people in the U.S. each year. In 2007 there were roughly 47,000 deaths due to alcohol and alcoholic liver...
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...The topic I’m discussing today is the legalization of marijuana in the United States. There are so many opinions and views throughout the United States. People that are not for it like the politicians and non-smokers believe that if marijuana was legalized that it would just be everybody getting high everyday and it would just be a “high society” throughout the country. Also the increase of the people that end up getting addicted and have no money have no option but to do illegal actions, which increases the crime rate. Obama explained that legalizing it wouldn’t even grow the economy, and that “legalizing marijuana is not part of America’s plan”. Also violence would increase because of the intake of the drugs on a daily basis. In contrast, there are advantages to legalizing marijuana. The prices on the drug would hit rock bottom which means there would be no more drug dealing for this drug, also that people would be able to get the drug at a government price which would mean no illegal action to obtain the drug. It would also keep more non-violent people out of jail which saves money for the jail system. Even though both sides of this argument are very understandable, I believe that marijuana should be legalized. People that are against it believe that so many more people would start using the drug, and the people that were using it already would start using it way too much. I think that if it was legalized we could regulate it like we regulate alcohol. Just as the...
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...Legalization Should Happen and Here’s Why BCOM/275 June 7th, 2015 Professor Esquivel Legalization Should Happen and Here’s Why I’m choosing to rebuttal the CNBC article on “Why we should not legalize marijuana”. A poll reveals that for the first time in history, Americans are more in favor of legalizing marijuana than criminalizing it. 2013 has marked a successful year for marijuana legalization, with Colorado and Washington both passing laws to decriminalize the drug. Now, fifty-eight percent of Americans are in favor allowing the plant to be legal. With the majority of Americans agreeing that marijuana should be legalized, those who are still on the fence about the natural plant should possibly reconsider their feelings. Around forty percent of Americans have already admitted to using marijuana. Ever since marijuana has been known to mankind, not one single account of death from overdose has been recorded. On the other hand, in 2010, 38,329 people died from drug overdoses and alcohol abuse. Contrary to popular belief, marijuana is not as addicting as one may think. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent, recently wrote in his essay, "Why I Changed My Mind About Weed," that we have been "systematically misled" on marijuana. He reports that marijuana leads to dependence in around 9-10 percent of adult users. Cocaine hooks about 20 percent of its users, and heroin gets 25 percent of its users addicted. The worst culprit is tobacco, with 30 percent of its...
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...recreational drug in America. Federal law prohibits marijuana; anyone found with possession by federal law is punishable by up to one year in jail and a minimum fine of $1,000 for a first conviction. With making this “troubling substance” legal, the government would be able to reduce the national debt and easily reduce the overcrowding of prisons. I am proposing that people take a second to look past the negatives of drugs and focus on a plant that could better the nation. Purpose Marijuana has a negative shame involved by the government and public, but is actually a natural and successful medicine. Recently marijuana arrests have been exceeding the amount of violent crime arrests and punishments. The Marijuana Policy Project counted 872,720 pot-related arrests in the United States in 2007 alone, according to Cato. Enforcing this prohibition has put taxpayers in almost 10 billion dollars of debt annually. I believe that there are definitely more important issues that the government should be focusing on rather than throwing harmless marijuana smokers in jail. Problem or Need According to norml.org marijuana is the third most popular recreational drug in America. Nearly one in eight drug prisoners in America are behind bars for marijuana-related offenses. With marijuana being illegal, more people are subject to go behind the law and hide the activity of it. It was stated that the United States government spends $10 billion dollars a year in its attempts to keep Marijuana off...
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....“ Legalizations of Marijuana While being interview by a reporter from the New York Times Obama was quoted as saying (Seelye, 2006) “When I was a kid, I inhaled, that was the point.” As referring to when he was a young man that he had inhaled marijuana. And he became the Presidential of the United Stated. In many ways, it’s the way that some people in society has demonized the use of marijuana it, (Scheer, 1999) Eight million American have tried marijuana and report have shown that there is no proclivity to move on to harder drugs. This accorded to an 18 month study commissioned by the federal drug czar Barry R McCaffrey. We will look at the several economy impacts of decriminalizing or legalizations of marijuana. (Brown 2003) One why to assist the farmer's domestically grown marijuana is the second largest cash crop in the United States, behind only corn. The above references are from people that have no finance gain in the legalization of marijuana and the other one is the Presidential and he would not lie. (Schlosser 1998) States According to the detail of the show the numbers of people in Jail for marijuana arrest are one in every six. There are more people now in prison for marijuana offenses than for violent offenses. There are 1.1 million inmates in American prisons. And if 1 in every 6 is held because of marijuana arrests that make it about 180.000 in jail. And certainly, at a time when there's a shortage of prison space and when murderers are serving on average...
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...Rough Draft Chad Coble 1-14-2014 ENG-102 Growing up, everyone is told that, “Drugs are bad for you,” time and time again. When you are a kid you don’t really understand the reasoning behind it, but you listen to your elders regardless. I remember being told this my entire life and even to this very day. But when I got older I realized that people would still use drugs even though it’s illegal. I could never understand why someone would go against the law and risk there future just to use drugs? The drug that I am talking about is marijuana, and surprisingly it is all around us. Marijuana is even referred to in today’s media Mainstream media sources that people enjoy, like music, movies, and TV shows, do not even bother to leave the drug out of their system. Now being a young adult and having my own personal experience with the drug and knowing its effects on others, I wonder why it’s not legal. Why is it that this drug has become illegal all over the world? The debate to legalize marijuana in the United States of America has been fought over nonstop since the existence of the drug and its effects. Marijuana has been tested and proven to provide a very positive impact on the American society for many reasons. Some of these reasons are for America’s economy, health and even crime. These reasons could very well help America thrive in the future and that is why Marijuana should be legalized in the United States of America. This naturally found plant known...
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