...Future According to the government’s national Survey in 2010 on Drug Use and Health, over 22 million Americans that are twelve years or older use illegal drugs. If so many people are already using them, why not make them all legal? Although the idea of making every drug legal would give a huge economic boost to the economy, it is extremely dangerous. Therefore, the American government should only allow a few less harmful drugs to be legal. Alcohol, nicotine, marijuana, caffeine, and herbal drugs should all be legal as the economic and overall benefit to society outweighs the detriment. Although caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, and herbal drugs are already legal, marijuana is not. Marijuana should be legal as it has very little effect on the health of the user and it has the possibility of lowering the United States current debt. If marijuana is sold as a legal drug and is then taxed like alcohol or nicotine is currently, it would yield tax revenues of approximately 46 billion dollars per year (Ghosh). The legalization of marijuana would reduce government costs and raise tax revenues, saving the government roughly 8.8 billion dollars. As for health concerns, marijuana is not nearly as harmful as many other easily acceptable substances. For example, in Jodi Bullock’s article “Pot’s No Different from Alcohol, Legalize It,” she states that between 2001 and 2005, an average of 80 000people died from direct alcohol use or alcohol-related issues, such as vehicular accidents or violence...
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...Marijuana Be Legal? Marijuana is a drug extracted from cannabis sativa plant. It has several uses, which include smoking, fuel, and manufacturing of fiber. Smoking takes the lead in its uses and bears the identity of the plant. Large volumes of documented facts about this drug are in existence, but the legality of the drug remains arguable. In some countries such as America, the drug is illegal, while it is legalized in other countries such as Jamaica. Research has proven beyond any reasonable doubt that the spread and use of the drug among populations is deep-rooted even in countries where it is illegal. This stamps a question on the illegality of the drug and the effectiveness of its prohibition status. The beneficial documented facts about legalizing the drug critically surpass the benefits gained if it is prohibited. Everything in this world has two faces, the positive, and the negative. Individuals have personal freedom that is protected by the constitution of a given country. Prohibition of marijuana induces restrictions to the excise of this freedom by those who use it (Rosenthal, Kubby, & Newhart, 2003). The government has a right to withhold this freedom, only when its use interferes with or harms another individual. The use of marijuana has neither known direct interference effects to non-users nor does it harm the health of the user; this is unlike other legalized drugs such as alcohol. Therefore, the prohibition is illegal when it limits the freedom of self-determination...
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...historical overview of marijuana and how it became illegal. Then, it will attempt to examine and illustrate the many valuable, and beneficial qualities that marijuana has. Relying on the facts found to ultimately come to a conclusion on whether or not legalization would positively effect our country. Introduction Background Information The legalizing of marijuana for both recreational and medical purposes will have significant benefits for smokers and non-smokers, the economy, and the population. Currently any production, sale, distribution, or consumption of the drug marijuana is illegal in forty-eight states in the nation. Legalizing marijuana in this situation would mean executing the same or similar laws as are imposed on to alcohol. “On November 6, 2012, Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize the sale and possession of cannabis for recreational use since the Marijuana Tax act of 1937 when they passed Colorado Amendment 64 and Washington Initiative 502” (Szalavitz). The few states that have legalized marijuana are instituting practices to integrate the substance into society. To continue, consumption of marijuana would be illegal as well as the purchase of the substance by minors under the age of 21. Driving or performing certain tasks under the influence of the drug would be illegal and result in criminal consequences. The unlicensed sale of the drug, or any sale to minors will be illegal as well. The personal production or growth of the...
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...marijuana’s affect on state and local politics have all contributed to large debates across the states as legislatures decide the right way to regulate marijuana. The prohibition of alcohol and the restriction of cannabis use have certain similarities. Both were directed against the evils of using these substances, the negative rhetoric against both substances was the same, and both started at the state level with congressional action following later. During the prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s, the government spent millions of dollars trying to enforce an ineffective law it had in place.2 The same can be said about marijuana, but one a much larger, more devastating scale. The “evils” of alcohol were matters of public knowledge, with countless debates leading to the Eighteenth Amendment and later the Volstead Act. It was the direct opposite regarding marijuana. There were no public opinion polls before legislation was passed, and narcotics got dragged along with the largely popular alcohol debate. 2 Legislation against marijuana was a result of three things: decisions uninformed by scientific study or public polls, racial bias towards Mexican Americans, and sensationalistic myths.3 With heavy Mexican immigration in the early 1900s, marijuana, a drug with Mexican origins, became more prevalent as...
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...Name Course Tutor Date Drug, Alcohol, and Crime Introduction Alcohol refers to an intoxication ingredient that’s found in wine, beer, and liquor while a drug relates to any substance apart from food that if smoked, inhaled, injected, consumed or is dissolved under the tongue it results in a physiological change of the body. The combination of the two might lead in a crime which is can be denoted as unlawful practices that are punishable by the law. Alcohol and drugs contribute much to the high rate of the offence in most societies though considering other risk factors such as child exposure to violence and mental or biological health. The risk factors aside research have examined alcohol and drug abuse to be the major contributor to crime. The relationship of narcotics to crime is quite complex and yet controversial; the puzzling question is whether people who use drugs are already crime oriented or is there a direct connection between drugs and alcohol consumption to criminal activities. Taking a case study of the Australian community it has been documented that the estimated cost of alcohol and drug-related crime range from $1.96 billion to over $4 billion. The statistics are quite the same to every as alcohol and drugs prove to be the biggest ingredient to spark up the crime. Through observational study, it has been identified that illegal drug users who engage in intensive drug use are bound to amplify and take part in pre-existing criminal activities. This has sensitized...
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...Chapter 1 #2. Rising unemployment is related to social and economic deficiency - there is some relationship between rising unemployment and rising crime and falling social displacement (increased divorce, worsening health and lower life expectancy). Areas of high unemployment will also see a decline in real income and spending together with a rising scale of relative poverty and income inequality. Unemployment also costs the government several amounts of money to pay the unemployed individuals. #5. Consumer surplus is the amount that consumers benefit by being able to purchase a product for a price that is less than they would be willing to pay. The producer surplus is the amount that producers benefit by selling at a market price mechanism that is higher than they would be willing to sell for. It depends on if they are buying the product from a consumer or producer that will determine what price to sell the product to maximize profits. #6. Price mechanism is an economic term that refers to the buyers and sellers who negotiate prices of goods or services depending on demand and supply. If there is more demand for a certain product the prices tend to go up. I believe this would not be very equitable due to the fact of the changes in the economy and the fact of people being unemployed. #7. The equilibrium price would be $16.00 at a quantity of 800 apples. The supply hasn’t increased however the price has. The new equilibrium price is $20.00 and the quantity is 600...
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...Drug use is the increasing problem among teenagers in today's high schools. Most drug use begins in the preteen and teenage years, these years most crucial in the maturation process. During these years adolescents are faced with difficult tasks of discovering their self identity, clarifying their sexual roles, assenting independence, learning to cope with authority and searching for goals that would give their lives meaning. Drugs are readily, adolescents are curious and venerable, and there is peer pressure to experiment, ad there us a temptation to escape from conflicts. The use of drugs by teenagers is the result of a combination of factors such as peer pressure, curiosity, and availability. Drugs addiction among adolescents in turn lead to depression and suicide. One of the most important reasons of teenage drug usage is peer pressure. Peer pressure represents social influences that effect adolescents, it can have a positive or a negative effect, depending on person's social group and one can follow one path of the other. We are greatly influenced by the people around us. In today's schools drugs are very common, peer pressure usually is the reason for their usage. If the people in your social group use drugs there will be pressure a direct or indirect pressure from them. A person may be offered to try drugs, which is direct pressure. Indirect pressure is when someone sees everyone around him using drugs and he might think that there is nothing wrong with using drugs. Person...
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...receiving treatment for their addiction (Smith, 2012). A Survey conducted in 2009 by the National Household Survey team on drug use revealed that the primary reason for not receiving treatment was due to a lack of insurance coverage and the inability to pay privately (Smith, 2012). Locating a treatment center that will accept anyone under the age of 21 is nearly impossible. Addiction treatment options and insurance coverage needs to be more readily available and affordable to teens and their families, as they are at greater risk of developing health related issues, run an increased risk of participating in risky behavior, and finally, the teens, and their families, difficulty dealing with the emotional devastation drug abuse causes. The AACAP (American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry) has linked numerous problems related to adolescent drug use in adulthood (Wisdom, 2011). Among these are neurological changes that take place in the Central Nervous System with prolonged drug use. The brain atrophies, grey and white matter decrease, and the metabolism of glucose decreases. (Buttner, 2011). Along with these physical changes, there is a higher probability that, as adults, the addict will suffer from depression, memory loss and a decline in their cognitive development (Buttner, 2011). Another physical complication comes with the use of the substance injection drugs, which increases the possibility of contracting deadly diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis C. This is not due directly...
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...This country’s structure is made up of morals and politics, so anytime an issue receives mixed responses coming from two different points of view it always become controversial. Legalizing marijuana is a controversial topic; however, there many positive arguments to support the idea of legalizing marijuana. First of all, it’s very expensive to keep marijuana illegal. According to Jeffrey Miron, a senior lecturer at Harvard University who studied about the impact of drug legalization, it cost the government almost about 20 billion dollars every year for keeping marijuana illegal. There is no good reason for marijuana not to be legal. From a philosophical point of view, people deserve the right to make choices for themselves. The government only has a right to limit those choices if people’s actions endanger someone else, but marijuana does not The current laws are doing more harm than good, legalizing marijuana would benefit the country in many ways. The government should not tell individuals what to do as long as they not harming others. From a philosophical point of view, individuals deserve the right to make choices for themselves. According to the philosopher Herbert Spencer, what equal freedom means is that: firstly people will have the responsibility for their own lives, rather than surrendering this responsibility to others (or pretending that they have given up responsibility, which is every bit as destructive), secondly since that will be true, fewer mistakes will be...
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...The War on Drugs: What is America Fighting For? Sandra Gailer COM/172 September 25, 2013 + The War on Drugs: What is America Fighting For? With the number of arrests having more than tripled in the past 25 years, and billions of dollars spent annually to fund the war on drugs, the United States (U.S.) should consider decriminalizing and regulating illegal drugs to reduce the number of people incarcerated and produce tax revenue from distribution. Since it was first declared by President Nixon in 1971 (Drug Policy Alliance, n.d.) the drug war proves to be causing America more harm than good. With no end in sight, the government should not be focusing on drug prevention but rather drug policy reformation. The US has been funding the war on drugs for decades. Although the intentions behind declaring the war are to help Americans, the reality is the war continues to be causing more harm than good. America has spent at least $1 trillion dollars on the war so far (Drug Policy Alliance, n.d.). In 2010 alone, the federal government spent over $15 billion dollars funding the war, that is at a rate of about $500 per second (Drug War Clock, n.d.). With the amount of debt increasing over a billion dollars every day, our government should be directing efforts towards creating revenue instead of continuing to spend money and increasing taxes. One way to accomplish generating revenue would be if some of the drugs that are considered illegal were decriminalized and regulated by the federal...
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...The Blunt Truth Many people including myself have been told that drugs are bad and to never use them, and as a child we listen to our authority figures even though we may not understand the reason behind it. To this day, I still remember the D.A.R.E program in the fifth grade, but now that I am older, I realize that people are going to do drugs despite what laws are in place. The drug in question is marijuana. Marijuana is all around us; it is in the music we listen to, the television shows and movies we watch, and is constantly on the news. The debate to legalize marijuana in the United States has been argued since the existence of the drug and is even more prevalent today. Marijuana today has more uses than just to get “high,” it has medical and financial benefits that are commonly overlooked. Most Americans today believe that someone who smokes marijuana is a lazy, 20-year-old stoner who does not contribute to society other than buying large amounts of Doritos and Taco Bell. This statement is completely false. Marijuana can be used by anyone and has many more uses than just to get high. Marijuana’s main psychoactive ingredient is tetrahydro-cannabinol or THC (Griffiths). Marijuana has been used as a medicine in European colonies in North America since the 18th century (Griffiths). According to Heather M. Griffiths, “people seek out marijuana with medical problems including nausea, vomiting, weight loss, multiple sclerosis, asthma, inflammation, glaucoma, poor appetite...
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...Marijuana started to become illegal in the United States around the 1930’s. During this time, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics was founded. In 1936, the government produced a film entitled “Reefer Madness” which portrayed marijuana use in an extremely negative view as a mind altering psychological changing drug that is highly addictive. In 1937, the Marijuana Tax Act taxed everyone, including doctors who legally dealt in marijuana. (www.deathandtaxesmag.com). In the decades that followed, especially the 1960’s and 1970’s the people’s experimentation with marijuana has exponentially increased. According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, “marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States. In 2011, 18.1 million Americans aged 12 and older (7.0 percent) reported using the drug.” (Office of the National Drug Control Policy). Compare this statistic, “to the 10.4 million young people between the ages of 12 and 20 who drank more than just a few sips of alcohol.” (National Institute on Alochol Abuse and Alcohlism). While the question of this paper is not the underage usage of alcohol or marijuana, in all the research that topic keeps being brought up. This focus of this paper is on the adult use (over the age of consent) of marijuana used to treatment medical necessity, not recreational use. Marijuana is considered a Schedule I drug as defined by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). According to the DEA website; drugs, substances, and chemicals are classified...
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...review several articles and their position on this controversial topic. We will analyze the main topics of concern for the legalization of cannabis which will include, the history of the prohibition of cannabis, the potential health risks compare to alcohol and tobacco, the criminal affect that this drug can have if legalize and finally the economical side of cannabis. The following paragraphs will dissect the following topics with the help of several articles and experts in the topic. The first topic of discussion will be the history of the prohibition of cannabis which became illegal in September of 1937. To understand this topic we need to submerge ourselves into its history. In the article “How Hemp Became Illegal: The Marijuana Link” explains the detailed history on how this miracle plant became illegal. The main concern of marijuana was that it was a plant that was so versatile not only because it can be used in so many ways but because marijuana can be grown pretty much in any climate and with a minimal water supply. This article goes into detail of all the inside meetings between politicians and multimillionaire tycoons who wanted cannabis to become illegal because marijuana could be used as paper, food, fiber, fuel, plastic and of course medicine. This article mentions the following “Hemp was declared dangerous and a threat to their billion dollar enterprises. For their dynasties to remain intact, hemp had to go. This then led these men to take an obscure...
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...argued for it to be legal for medical uses, and recreationally. Opposing these arguments are the ideas that it’s a “high potential for abuse,” and it is harmful to those who ingest the drug. On the other hand, don’t a majority of prescriptions, drugs, and medicines that are legal, and are heavily used, all have a “high potential for abuse?” Medical marijuana being legalized for specific illnesses such as: epilepsy, crohn’s disease, and multiple sclerosis, will be life changing for those who suffer from those illnesses and diseases. This drug is the most widely used controlled substance in the world. Since marijuana has been illegal...
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...What is the impact of Mexican drug cartels in the United States? Andres F Urueta Dr. Maugh LIB-495-GS001 December 5, 2014 Abstract This research paper examines the impact of Mexican drug cartels in the United States. Most Americans are not aware of how far reaching these cartels are in the United States. Their power has an influence in our government and communities. This project examines who the Mexican Drug cartels are, what their purpose is, where they have influences, and when did they start to become a problem for the United States. This paper also touches base on the impact of the drugs that are illegally brought into the United States by these cartels and their methods for justice. These cartels generate billions of dollars at the expense of Americans who become addicted to the drugs that are transported in the United states. Are these cartels a problem of the past or an indication of the future. Contents Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Literature Review Chapter 3 Research Design and Methodology Chapter 4 Results of Study Chapter 5 Summary and Discussion Table 1 Table 2 Table 3 Table 4 Table 6 Chapter 1: Introduction Introduction The Mexican drug cartels have been a cancer that has grown throughout Mexico. Influenced by Colombian cartels, such as the Pablo Escobar’s Medellin Cartel. In 2008, over 5,600 people were killed in Mexico. Many of them were tortured or beheaded (Hixson, 2009). The cartels have stretched from the border town of Tijuana...
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