...Economics of Marijuana in the USA Millions of people across America, and even around the world, use marijuana everyday, but what exactly is it? The National Institute on Drug Abuse defines marijuana as “the dried leaves, flowers, stems, and seeds from the hemp plant Cannabis sativa, which contains the psychoactive (mind-altering) chemical delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), as well as other related compounds”(NIDA). Marijuana, frequently referred to as weed or cannabis, is the most common illicit drug used in the United States. It is often frowned upon mainly because it is still illegal in a majority of the country. Cannabis activists from all around the US have been fighting for legalization of the drug for years. Their main argument is that marijuana is actually a much less dangerous drug than alcohol and tobacco, which are both legal. About 50,000 people die each year from alcohol poisoning, and there are over 400,000 deaths a year attributed to tobacco smoking. On the other hand, marijuana is considered non-toxic and cannot cause death from an overdose. Because many states have yet to pass laws for legalization, only a small percentage of marijuana is sold legally through licensed dispensaries run by state governments. The rest is sold illegally on the streets, which is where the real dangers of marijuana arise. More and more states are passing laws to decriminalize marijuana and to allow its medicinal use. Recent progress in legalizing marijuana in the...
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...Legalization of Marijuana English 102 Nicole Ramos University of Phoenix The Legalization of Marijuana When an issue receives mixed feedback or stirs up arguments from two different points of views there becomes such a thing called controversy. The legalization of marijuana has always been an issue for many; however they only are basing facts upon it being illegal, so it must be dangerous for the human body? Wrong, the world is so blinded by ignorance that they can’t see statics about alcohol and cigarettes being more harmful to the body and people are dying every day because of these two legal substances. This illicit drug has and can help many medical patients that have been diagnosed with cancer to help cure or ease the pain for good. How is it fair that half the states are legalizing it for medical purposes and even for anyone to walk into a dispensary as if they wanted a scoop of ice cream and then walk out like it’s completely ok? If one state allows it, then every other state should. Not one case has been proven that anyone has overdosed or died because of smoking too much marijuana that alone should show the effects of a true killer that is legal: alcohol, versus one that has never made someone injure themselves to the point of death. In high school students learn that marijuana is known as a gate way drug (studymode).This means that once trying this drug eventually it will lead to wanting to try other drugs. This I know for a fact is wrong because anyone you...
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...from animal studies is so high that it cannot be achieved," stated in a 1995 report prepared by the World Health Organization. (Medical Marijuana Mall USA, 2013). Medical marijuana is safer than prescription drugs, alcohol, and spice. Marijuana is more beneficial to use than prescription drugs because of the lack of serious side effects. The most common side effects of marijuana are coughing, wheezing, and bronchitis. These side effects are easily taken care of by using a vaporizer or preparing foods with marijuana. Marijuana is less dependable than prescription medication such as pain killers. Prescription medications are now killing more people in the United States than illegal street drugs. Even more importantly the consumption of marijuana cannot result in a fatal overdose. (Medical Marijuana Mall USA, 2013). Someone can’t even take a Tylenol or Aspirin without there being serious side effects to the liver and other organs in the body. Medical marijuana is not lethal, prescription and even non-prescription pills, powders, liquids, and injections are. (Medical Marijuana Project, 2012). A CBS news editorial by Dr. Mitch Earleywine mentions that medical marijuana can be marked cheaper to use than certain prescription drugs. This is especially relevant to patients in chronic pain who do not have medical insurance and need to pay out of pocket to see a doctor for a basic pain killer prescription. While THC, an active ingredient of marijuana, is available and viewed...
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...Should Marijuana be Legalized? BCOM/275 November 26, 2012 Should marijuana be legalized? Throughout the years, the topic should marijuana be legalized is often heavily debated. For many years the use of marijuana was forbidden and outlawed in the United States, but in more recent years marijuana seems to be becoming accepted. Scientist has found many useful applications for marijuana. Recently, here in the United States, many states have approved legislation for marijuana for medical purposes. Most recently, two states Colorado and Washington have passed referendums that will allow people over the age of 21 recreational use of marijuana without the penalty of a criminal offense. These two states will oversee the use of marijuana for its constituents similar to how alcohol is controlled. Whereas, the government at the state level in Colorado and Washington is in favor for the legalization and passed legislation for the legalization of marijuana, the federal government has not. This causes legal, moral, and ethical issues and begs that questions; should marijuana be legalized? Pros of Legalization One benefit of the legalization of marijuana would be the ability for state and local governments to tax the legal production and sale of it. Currently, because marijuana is illegal the sale of it is not taxed so the local, state, and federal governments do not reap any of the benefits of this “$10.5 billion dollar industry” (Miron, 2005, p.4). In a report written by Jeffrey A....
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...BENEFITS OF MEDICINAL MARIJUANA POST UNIVERSITY GABRIEL JAIME The current United States of America rules and regulations governing the policies on marijuana use stands as perhaps one of the most unwarranted. In a nation where more severely damaging drugs are legal, alcohol abuses being the biggest, marijuana has been illegal for the better part of 70 years. The prohibition on marijuana use is absolutely unnecessary considering that it is safer than either alcohol or cigarettes and does not have the crippling addictive properties of many pharmaceutical prescription pain medication (NORML, 2003). Marijuana has been found to have many, many medicinal purposes. Medically, some of the best uses of marijuana include but not limited to pain relief especially neuropathic pain suffered mostly by those with nerve damage, marijuana has been used as nausea control medication. Medicinal marijuana also has appetite stimulating characteristics, which are extremely beneficial to AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) patients as well as cancer patients. It has also helped many patients with psychiatric symptoms and conditions, withdrawals from other medications, anorexia and controlling inflammation (Cannabis Medicine). Compared to pharmaceutical grade opiates, which have an extremely high dependency level, marijuana is slightly addictive but with similar benefits as opiates. The classification of drug type that marijuana is classified under is held for drugs with the highest possibility...
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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 ANATOMY OF MARIJUANA Marijuana is the dried flowers, leaves and stems of the Cannabis sativa plant. Amazing how just leaves can alter the mind. Weed is normally a green, brown, or gray color. The main active ingredient in marijuana is THC (delta 9 tetrhydrocannabinol). THC binds to specific receptors in the brain called cannabinoid receptors. THC looks for these receptors and brain cells. Therefore marijuana mostly affects the parts of the brain that have the highest concentrations of cannabinoid receptors which are the hippocampus, the cerebellum, the basal ganglia, and the cerebral cortex. When you smoke weed, you have a difficult time learning which is because the hippocampus plays a major role in learning. This overall reaction right here gives you the high that you desire when you smoke weed. WHAT IS THE CONCRETE PURPOSE Smoking weed can relax someone and get them in a good mood. People also become drowsy, feel a sense of euphoria, and if someone is hungry they will smoke before they eat that way they get “the munchies”. Some people smoke a lot in order to feel more hallucinations. But as I said most people smoke weed because they want that high. THE MANY WAYS OF USING MARIJUANA Marijuana is most commonly smoked. Some ways you can smoke weed is in a bong, pipe, or in a joint. A bong is basically a water pipe and a joint is basically a cigarette filled with only weed. You can smoke it in a blunt which is a cigar that does not have tobacco in it, it is filled...
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...address the issue of the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes. The need for laws to be passed in order to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes, in the state of Ohio changes need to be made to our state laws, protecting individuals from prosecution for the use of medical marijuana. History of medical marijuana 2900 BC – 2013: Marijuana has been used for medicinal purposes as far back as 5000 years ago. It was first documented as being used by the Chinese Emperor Chen Nung for illnesses such as; malaria, constipation, rheumatic pains and female disorders and has over the centuries been used for ailments from treating venereal diseases, depression, glaucoma, inflammation, edema, depression and snake bites. It was in 1611 that the Jamestown settlers first brought the marijuana plant, which was commonly called “hemp” to North America; the hemp fiber was an important export at that time. Marijuana was used throughout North America for many years and was even grown by some of our Presidents such as; George Washington who it is said had an interest in the medical uses of marijuana. It was in 1850 that the United States added marijuana to their Pharmacopeia which at that time was the public authority which set the standards for prescriptions and over the counter medications. Up until the 19th century marijuana had been used all over the world for medicinal purposes. The following are events that led to marijuana being classified as a harmful and illegal...
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... Klein 1 WRT 102 Naomi Edwards 11/28/12 Medical Marijuana Legalization The debate over whether marijuana should be legalized has long troubled many American citizens. There are many political aspects that have to be taken into account when making a big federal decision such as this. However, long before America was even an idea, many cultures had harnessed the plant, and used it for many primitive medical procedures. Within certain states it is legal to use marijuana for medical treatments, but this is a relatively new idea in the United States. However, marijuana was not always deemed an illegal substance and because of its inherent medical value should be legalized at the federal level. Many ancient civilizations have been unearthed and found to have used marijuana in medical practices dating all the way back to 8000 B.C. Some of the more notable civilizations who used the plant include the Egyptians who used it to treat sore eyes, the Indians who mixed marijuana and milk to create a primitive anesthetic, and the Greeks who found a way to remedy earaches with the plants properties(Webley 1). Even the Chinese emperor Shen-Nung was known to prescribe it as medicine to many people almost 5 millennia ago(Bostwick 173). Therefore, it can be argued that historically, marijuana has been a crucial influence on some modern day medical treatments. It wasn't until 1930 when a man named Harry J. Anslinger was...
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...Industry $6 - $10 Billion * Others: Spinoff industries, Reduced hard-drug and alcohol abuse untaxed free market In an untaxed free market, cannabis ought to be as cheap as other leaf crops. Bulk marijuana might reasonably retail at the price of other medicinal leaf herbs, around $.75 -$1.50 an ounce. Premium grades might be compared to fine teas, which range up to $2 per ounce, or to pipe tobacco, which retails for $1.25-$2.00. High grade domestic sinsemilla might however cost somewhat more, due to the relatively lower yield of cannabis compared to tea and tobacco, and the high level of U.S. labor costs. Cultivation expert Ed Rosenthal estimates that domestic labor costs could be as high as $5 per ounce. Advertisements from medical catalogs indicate that cannabis cost about $2.50-$5 per pound in 1929-30. [01] Adjusting for inflation, this works out to $1.20-$2.40 per ounce, a breathtaking 100- to 300-fold reduction from today's illicit prices, which range from $100- $200 per ounce for low-grade Mexican to $400- $600 per ounce for high-grade sinsemilla. Abstract: Marijuana legalization offers an important advantage over decriminalization in that it allows for legal distribution and taxation of cannabis. In the absence of taxation, the free market price of legal marijuana would be extremely low, on the order of five to ten cents per joint. In terms of intoxicating potential, a joint is equivalent to at least $1 or $2 worth of alcohol, the price at which cannabis is currently...
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...Medical Marijuana A look into the evolving world of medication. By: Daniel Countryman Medical marijuana is a common topic these days, and while it’s a controversial subject it is something to be looked at as an alternative medication. I want to cover what exactly marijuana is, how it’s produced, where it comes from, the natural compounds, how to use it, and what benefits versus the risks medical marijuana has on its patients. Marijuana is a plant – in fact it’s a weed. Marijuana is actually a slang term, and the proper name for the plant is cannabis. Cannabis is a genus of plants with flowers, and also has a few different species; cannabis sativa, cannabis indica, and cannabis ruderalis. Cannabis contains different cannabinoids to which over 85 of the known are active cannabinoids, and the two most common are Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and Cannabidiol (CBD). While other known cannabinoids such as Cannabigerol (CBG), Cannabinol (CBN), and Tretrahydrocannabivarin (THCV) are known their studies are not as prevalent as THC, and CBD. THC is a psychoactive ingredient which puts you in an altered state of conscious when consumed in moderate to high doses. While THC is psychoactive it does not make you hallucinate as other known drugs such as LSD, and ‘magic’ mushrooms are known for. However, THC is known for changing your appetite and your taste which makes it a good medication for people who have issues with consuming food such as cancer patients. THC is also used for...
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...Marijuana Should Be Illegal Herlina Pryor BCOM/275 March 23, 2014 Instructor: Jamey Pippert Why Marijuana Should Remain Illegal Published: February 26, 1994 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...
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...Medical Marijuana Marijuana legalization one of the most argued and discussed subjects worldwide. The topic is 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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...The Benefit of Legalizing Marijuana Of all legal reformations that should be made, the legalization of marijuana is perhaps the most necessary. If legalized on a controlled basis, it could greatly benefit our country in a variety of ways. Clearly the most controversial topic is marijuana's benefit to the medical community. The economy would also be a beneficiary of marijuana's legalization through taxation and all the while crime rates would inevitably decrease throughout the country. While many citizens are opposed to the legalization of marijuana they are often misinformed and misguided. Marijuana is a drug that is overlooked and can be used in many positive ways. There are many people that oppose the idea of legalizing marijuana and their point of view can be justified, but marijuana can be used for other purposes than getting “high”. Although there are valid points to each side, ultimately, if legalized the benefits of legal marijuana could greatly outweigh the risk. It has been documented that marijuana can severely reduce some effects of cancer. Also, it is known that marijuana has prolonged the lives of people who were diagnosed as terminally ill. Many rely on the drug to ease their pain and suffering. Another useful benefit is its aide in reducing nausea in chemotherapy patients. Medicinal uses for cannabis date back to 2737 B.C. when the Chinese emperor and pharmacologist Shen Neng prescribed the drug for gout, malaria, beriberi, rheumatism, and memory problems...
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... Nishant Grover, Michelle Hollcraft PHIL210 4/9/13 Marijuana and its Dangers Marijuana is a substance that has been known to impact the mental, physical and emotional wellbeing of users. It creates a sense of euphoria, known as a “high”, which gives users a false sense of security and assures them a period of bliss and tranquility. This intoxicated state proves harmful when a user tries to operate a motor vehicle or perform other tasks. When high, one tends to ignore daily responsibilities, such as going to work or tending to family and friends, and instead becomes a vagabond with an aimless future focused on simply getting high. Smoking marijuana over a long period of time can lead to the development of emphysema, chronic asthma & bronchitis and even cancers of the lung & windpipe in the rarest of circumstances. Neurological and cardiovascular effects have been reported as well in strong users such as shortterm memory loss and the possibility of heart disease. And for casual users, the propensity to frequently smoke exists since the high is a feeling that can’t be replicated outside the drug due to the high concentration of THC, the main addictive property in marijuana. Marijuana abuse can cause brain damage, such as shortterm memory loss and the inability to perform motor functions, for an extended period of time, perhaps irreparably. It is not heroin, crack cocaine or methamphetamine but pop culture references portray the results of marijuana use albeit to the extreme. There are no...
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