...| Marijuana Legalization: Why Marijuana Should be Legalized in All Fifty States English 102 Final Paper Table of Contents I. Introduction …………………………………………………………………………… 1 II. Is Marijuana a “Gateway Drug?” ……………………………………………………... 2 III. Arguments against Legalization ………………………………………………………. 3 VI. Recent Legalization Efforts …………………………………………………………… 4 V. Medicinal Uses of Marijuana …………………………………………………………. 5 VI. Economic Arguments Against Criminalization ………………………………………. 7 VII. Marijuana Cultivation and DTO ……………………………………………………... 8 VIII. From Decriminalization to Legalization …………………………………………… 8 IX. Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………… 10 Marijuana Legalization: Why Marijuana Should be Legalized in All Fifty States I. Introduction The issue of marijuana legalization in the United States is a charged one that brings forth supporters and opponents arguments alike. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Uniform Crime Reports, one marijuana-related arrest occurs every forty-two seconds in the United States. The government conducted over 1.53 million drug-related arrests in 2011, 90% for possession alone, and nearly 50% due to marijuana (FBI Uniform Crime Report). State governments are currently responding to shifts in public opinion, especially given the recent legalizations that passed in Colorado and Washington. According to Gallup Polls, more Americans supported the legalization of marijuana than not in 2011 (50% vs. 46%)...
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...The Benefits for Legalizing Medical Marijuana: Annotated Bibliography Working thesis statement: Medical Marijuana should be legal in all the United States because there it can treat many medical conditions and the tax revenue it brings can help lower the national debt. Titus, R.D. (2016). Puff, Puff, Pass…That Law: The Changing Legislative Environment of Medical Marijuana Policy. Harvard Journal On Legislation, 53 (1), 39-58. Summary of article: In recent years, a few states have legalized medical marijuana for recreational use. The article identifies how the government is placing their taxes on the newly legalized drug. A sample of what I will be using from this article would be, “Federal income taxation of medical marijuana is the same as for cocaine or heroin; the only permitted adjustment to gross revenues in calculating federal taxable income is cost of goods sold.” (Titus pg. 2). There is a lot of information that I am looking for to help me with my paper. Assessment of article: I found this source on the school library. The author name is R. D. Titus and she is a writer at Harvard Journal. This articles publication was in 2016. The author and the article gave a lot of information about taxing the sale of medical marijuana in sates that already passed the law about recreational use and dispensaries selling the product. I found this article in the school library is it is 100% a scholarly article. I will be using as much information I can find that relates to my topic...
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...The Legalization of Marijuana Marijuana is a very prominent and controversial issue in society today. Although many slanderous claims have been made about cannabis in recent history, the truths are slowly starting to resurface. Unfortunately, these truths are under heavy criticism due to the stereotypical view of what people view as the typical “pot smoker.” This skewed perception of a lazy and unmotivated America is the result of over seventy years of propaganda and misinformation spread by private interests who needed cannabis illegal for their own personal gains. I strongly believe that marijuana should be legalized for all uses. Using marijuana for medicinal purposes is not a recent discovery. In fact, written references to use medical marijuana date back nearly 5,000 years. Western medicine embraced marijuana’s medical properties in the mid-1800s, and by the beginning of the 20th century, physicians had published more than 100 papers in the Western medical literature recommending its use for a variety of disorders (http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5441#f2 Accessed on June 5, 2010). These disorders include pain relief, nausea, glaucoma, and movement disorders. It is also used as a powerful appetite stimulant which helps patients that had HIV/AIDS or cancer patients going through chemotherapy. Today, thousands of patients are able to use marijuana as an effective method of treatment for their ailments. This is possible because fourteen state governments across the country...
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...Why Marijuana Should Remain Illegal Published: February 26, 1994 * Sign In to E-Mail * Print To the Editor: I read with concern "Legalizing Marijuana Would Allow Regulation of Its Potency" (letter, Feb. 13). According to the writer, marijuana with high levels of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC (the chemical that causes the psychoactive effects on the abuser), is not a new phenomenon, and this high potency should not be used as a reason to keep marijuana illegal. Marijuana is not the same drug it was 20 years ago. Special fertilizers, plant hormones and steroids, carbon dioxide and advanced indoor horticulture techniques are used by the informed grower to "push" the plant to produce the highest grade, most potent variety of marijuana, sinsemilla. Because of its potency, domestic marijuana is the most highly prized cannabis product in the world. In 1970, the average THC content of a marijuana plant was 1.5 percent. The THC content of today's sinsemilla variety ranges from 8 percent to 20 percent. Today's marijuana is a drug that is significantly more potent than it was during the Woodstock era. The writer then states that "if the Government really believes that stronger varieties of marijuana are less desirable, then it has one more reason to support legalization. If cultivation of marijuana were legal, growers would not be pressed to produce the strongest possible product, and health authorities would be able to regulate its production and strength." This logic doesn't...
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...Learning Team Debate Paper Outline June 5, 2011 BCOM/275 I Introduction • Should the U.S. legalize marijuana? • The U.S. legalization of marijuana has been a controversial subject for many years. Proponents of legalization cite many benefits including, what they claim to be substantial increases in tax revenue, reduction in crime, and widespread medical benefits. Opponents argue that marijuana is a harmful drug that increases crime, causes more problems with health than it benefits, and would cost taxpayers more than the revenue it would bring in. II First Source Klein, J., April 2, 2009. Why legalizing marijuana makes sense. Time magizine Retrieved from: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1889021,00.html • This author expresses the many benefits of legalization, while expressing just a few valid, weak arguments for those against legalization. • This article easily answers the question for the proponents of legalization but doesn’t offer enough information to argue against it. • Evidence is sufficient for legalization • Examples cited are revelant and conclusions do add up for legalization III Second Source DuPont, R., April 20, 2010. Why we should not legalize marijuana, A CNBC special report. Retrieved from http://www.Why_We_Should_Not_Legalize_Marijuana.cnbc.com/id/36267223/ • This article supports the opponents of legalization and offers nothing for the opposing view. • Evidence is sufficient and well written...
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...Abstract Throughout this paper, there will be an extremely debatable discussion about legalizing marijuana. Though both sides to this discussion have valid arguments, the pros outweigh the cons by a substantial amount. According to norml.org marijuana is the third most popular 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...
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...The Trillion Dollar Crop Chad Doherty RES 110 July 16, 2010 Jessica Hale The Trillion dollar Crop The nation’s debt is staggering at 13 trillion dollars, and continues to grow exponentially. Advise Men stated, “In answering the question what is the cause for the national debt, the only one right answer is simply that the country’s government gives out more money than it takes in” (Advise Men, 2008). Through the legalization of Industrial hemp and female marijuana growth, the government could add trillions of dollars to our debt and eliminate it within five years. First, legalizing industrial hemp would alleviate our national debt by trillions of dollars. Second, female Hemp growth in America would gross 43 billion dollars a year. Third, by taxing more harmful drugs, using our own oil and higher taxes we could cut our deficit but not nearly what legalizing all forms of marijuana growth would do. Legalizing the growth of industrial hemp in America would create a new gross national product (GNP). By legalizing hemp we would create a new GNP, which in turn would eliminate our debt. With the ability to make roads, highways, and foundations out of hemp concrete that would last for centuries, we could eliminate road taxes and costly repairs. Bio-diesel made from hemp seed oil creates oxygen when consumed by motor vehicles, instead of producing acid rain and smog clouds. According to Meints, America could eliminate non-biodegradable plastics and cars by reintroducing Henry...
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...SAPP 407- Pharmacology Fall term junior yr. Term Paper Marijuana – Medicine, Menace, or What? There have been many arguments throughout history about whether marijuana is a source of medicine or whether it’s a gateway drug. This question may never truly be solved but there have been valid arguments for both sides. I would like to delve in on the topic by analyzing what the effects of marijuana are, what the positive and negative aspects of the drug are, and whether or not cannabis should be illegal. The first topic I would like to discuss is what the effects of marijuana are when it is used. The article Marijuana in Medicine: Past, Present and Future in the Western Journal of Medicine wrote about an experiment where marijuana was tested on animals. One reason why they found a lot of variability of reactions among the animals tested was because: “different batches of cannabis derivatives vary greatly in strength” (36). They go on to explain “there is a wide variation among humans in their individual responses to cannabis” (36). This brings light to a very important effect of marijuana, which is that it varies in strength from batch to batch. This is important to know when using the drug because it can affect people very differently based on the strength of the drug. Another effect of marijuana discussed by the Western Journal of Medicine is that cannabis “mildly stimulates, and then sedates the higher centers of the brain” (36). The article continues on to say that...
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...An Argument Against Proposition 19 Abstract This rhetorical analysis examines a response from Stainlislaus County about their feelings and arguments against Proposition 19. Their arguments that they use to refute their opinions had many fallacies, even though they tried to appeal to their audience as much as possible by using pathos, logos, and casual arguments. Proposition 19 was a bill that failed to pass because it was unfavorable. It stated that it would legalize the usage of marijuana along with marijuana related activities, it would allow for the government to regulate the activities and also allow the government to place taxes on it, and it would authorize criminal and civil penalties by the local government. This is an ongoing debate in many states today, and will continue to become more popular because of the uprise in popularity of marijuana. Keywords: Proposition 19, Stainlislaus County, marijuana, legalization An Argument Against Proposition 19 The controversy of the legality of marijuana has been a huge subject for debate for years, even decades. Currently, in modern society, the number of supporters for legal use of marijuana has increased significantly. People often question why this topic is an enormous concern and it is because here in the United States marijuana is the most commonly used illegal drug. It has been recorded by The National Institution on Drug...
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...Final Project Marijuana Use Is Harmful Mariah Di Toto 4/20/2014 CRT 205 Source #1 Title and Citation: Marijuana Use is Harmful This article is convincing readers that marijuana use is harmful for your memory, coordination and respiratory functions. It is also found to raise the risks of heart attacks, cancer and addiction. The only areas that seem to be vague is where this article starts talking about the effects of marijuana, and not explaining how much it takes before it effects you in those ways. Also how long a person has to be a marijuana user in order for these long term effects to actually start to arise. They seem to not know exactly what the long-term effects on the brain are, but says it effects your memory. Their finding seems to be inconsistent, so their argument for saying it is actually bad for your memory can’t actually be proven 100%. I do find this source to be credible based off of the information that is given. This article is broken up into sections that talk about the main effects of marijuana usage. It lists statistics throughout the article and studies that have been conducted. However, I do believe they are only taking one side where marijuana can be useful in a lot of cases not mentioned here. It isn’t all negatives when it comes to marijuana usage. I do not believe that any rhetorical devices were used by this author. The author stuck to simple details and studies, and did not go on exaggerating or relating...
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...Your Name Professor’s Name Course 22 September 2013 Medical Marijuana – What’s the Problem? While the debate rages across the country about legalizing medical marijuana, or Cannabis (Cannabis comes from the plant Cannabis sativa, and is commonly referred to by the Mexican name “marijuana”), apparently the majority of U.S. residents have already made up their mind about it. According to a 2004 AARP poll, over 72 percent agreed with the statement, “Adults should be allowed to use medical marijuana for medical purposes if a physician recommends it.” Perhaps even more astounding are the results of a 2013 Gallup poll which showed that fifty eight percent of Americans favor legalizing marijuana, after both Washington State and Colorado legalized it in November of 2012. Those in favor of the drug claim that it is both an effective and safe treatment for many medical conditions, including; epilepsy, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, AIDS, cancer, and more. They point to the long history of the use of marijuana medicinal purposes and back up their claims with studies, reports, and medical data. So, what’s the problem? Why hasn’t medical marijuana been legalized in every state in the Union? Created in 1970, the Controlled Substances Act, an amendment to the Public Health Service Act, was enacted, making the “prevention of, drug abuse and drug dependence; to provide for treatment and rehabilitation of drug abusers and drug dependent persons; and to strengthen existing law...
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...The list of 5 logical fallacies that are important to avoid in my work are listed below: 1. Red Herring: Red Herring is one of the logical fallacies that we see in some paper where there is uses of unrelated argument. So, I want to avoid the use of argument which is not related to my subject because uses of unrelated argument can distract my reader. Example: Before controlling the population, we must know how the animal suffers when there is global warming. Because, the argument that I provided in the example is not related to the subject. 2. False Analogy: False Analogy is another logical fallacy that I want to avoid in my work. It is the comparison between two subjects which are totally dissimilar to each other which...
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...The subject of my speech today will be the legalization of marijuana. Before you have a heart attack I should explain that I am not drug user. I have never tried marijuana…..had a drop of alcohol….or even smoked a cigarette. This is undoubtedly a bold topic for a seventeen year old to tackle. However, this is an issue that has been debated for many decades now, and with some states now legalizing marijuana I feel that this is something that directly affects the immediate future of my generation. But why? Why would anyone ever want to legalize a drug? Aren’t drugs bad? How would this benefit our society? And how is marijuana different from other drugs? Perhaps it would be useful to define marijuana. According to drugfreeworld.org, marijuana is the dried flowers, seeds, and leaves of the Indian hemp plant. It is normally smoked in rolled paper like a cigarette or in a pipe. In recent years people have found additional ways to consume the plant such as baking it into foods like cookies and brownies. The documentation of its use dates as far back as 2737 BC when Chinese Emperor Sheng Nung wrote about the use of marijuana as medication for rheumatism, gout, and malaria. And herein lies the root of the argument. On one side many people regard marijuana as a natural plant based drug with medicinal properties, while the other side considers it to be a dangerous illegal drug often viewed as a gateway drug that leads young people into experimenting with other more dangerous illegal...
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...Should Marijuana be legalized? In 1545, the Spanish brought marijuana to the New World. The English Introduced it in Jamestown in 1611, where it became a major commercial crop alongside tobacco and was grown as a source of fiber. It was in the 1920'sthat marijuana began to become more popular. Some historians say its emergence was brought about by Prohibition. http://www.narconon.org/drug-information/marijuana-history.html Cannabis sativa commonly known as marijuana is a plant species that is mainly known for its psychotic effects when consumed. It is consumed either through smoking, ingesting, or vaporizing. Marijuana has been used for centuries but has recently been mainstreamed in culture today. It has nicknames such as weed dope, grass, ganja, Mary Jane and chronic. Now, more than ever, propositions to legalize the plant have risen and been the subject to controversy and heated debates. Morals and politics are what make up the structure of this country, so when an issue receives responses coming from different points of views, the issue becomes controversial, and the topic of marijuana is definitely a controversial subject. The legalization of marijuana is a controversial subject; however, there are many positive arguments to support the idea as well. The following passages will discuss some pros and cons to this subject and will provide some insight on just what this drug is. Just saying the word Marijuana conjures...
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...smoking pot is so taboo in our society? After all, numerous famous intellectuals support marijuana. Al Gore is considered by many to be the leading figure in climate change awareness and environmental preservation. But few people know that Al Gore also supports the legalization of marijuana. The famed German philosopher Freidrich Nietzche once said, “If one seeks relief from unbearable pressure one is to eat hashish”. The founding father of our nation George Washington, said, “Make the most of the Indian hemp seed, and sow it everywhere!” Marijuana is one of the safest medicinal substances on the planet and is supported by many acclaimed celebrity role models. Famous Hollywood actor Johnny Depp says, “I’m not a big pothead or anything like that… but weed is much, much less dangerous than alcohol”. Other well known supporters of marijuana include Snoop Dogg, all of the Marley family, Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Michael Phelps, Chris Farley, Al Gore, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Nietzsche, Barack Obama, John Adams, James Madison, JFK, and of course myself. A total of 11 United States presidents either grew, smoked, or supported the legalization of Marijuana. With the support of some of the greatest thinkers and world leaders of all time it’s a wonder that marijuana is still illegal. “Government ties is really why the government lies” – Immortal Technique. Common Misconceptions about marijuana are set about by high end government officials who think only of themselves and own their...
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