Self Analysis

When I first heard about this blog project, I decided to pick my topic because I thought that it was something new that people would find interesting. I had no clue that as many people have thought about this idea before as in depth as I had found they did. I had no clue that a bill was just about to be voted on November 2 to decide if it should be legalized. The main reason I thought that my topic was good was because of all of the economic advantages that legalizing marijuana could do. The U.S. National debt is somewhere close to 13 trillion dollars. From all the research that I learned, I concluded that legalizing marijuana could bring in about 10 million  a year from saving on prison and arrest costs and anywhere from 50-100 million dollars on taxes, imports and industries that would produce it. The exact number is unknown because no one knows exactly how much marijuana is smoked in the U.S. With all that said, I quickly learned that marijuana probably wasn't going to be able to bring America out of debt like I thought it might. The main reason I had for thinking marijuana should be legalized, I was able to prove wrong in only a few short minutes. Even the president thinks that marijuana shouldn't be legalized. How was I going to be able to convince people other wise. I began to do more research and I quickly learned that there were more benefits than economic. I had no clue that marijuana was being used in the medical field to help cure people. A drug that is illegal in society was being used to help cure people around the country. I had doubts in the beginning that I would be able to convey a strong point for my topic but I soon learned that there were even more benefits to my topic. Drug cartels all over benefit greatly from illegally importing marijuana into our country. If marijuana was legalized, companies would begin producing in the U.S. and as soon as they did, drug cartels would lose money. The drug would be able to lower crime rates around the country just by being legalized. Debates have gone back in forth over whether the drug should be legalized or not and there are many pros and cons to each side of the argument. I don't know for sure if the drug will ever be legalized, but I can tell you that just by my research over the past few weeks, I have learned great amounts of knowledge that has transformed my opinion on this topic. I truely do think that marijuana should be legalized and I have the knowledge and the information to prove it.

Related Links

Here I have collected an extensive list of 15 websites that have to do with marijuana and facts that could be used to develop an opinion on how to view the use and legalization process of marijuana. The website http://www.greenchange.org/article.php?id=3235is an article that explains the economic benefits that could be gained by legalizing marijuana. It talks about the money that could be brought in and how it would ease the debt problem.  http://www.mytwodollars.com/2007/02/12/9-billion-of-your-tax-dollars-is-spent-dealing-with-marijuana-laws-each-year/ is an entire blog on why it is a good idea to legalize marijuana. David, the writer of the blog explains money benefits that the government could gain and many more good things that could come out of legalizing marijuana. This webpage, http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=37557 is all about the vote that is going to happen in the future in California on legalizing marijuana. Proposition 19 is the bill that is trying to be passed and will be voted on November 2 to see if the drug should be legalized. The drug will be looked at as if it was just like alcohol in that it has an age limit and an amount limit that you can have at one time. It is a very good website that shows the logistics of the bill. This one, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/us/07arnold.html?_r=3 talks about how even Arnold Schwarzenegger thinks it would be a good idea to start more in depth research on marijuana. He feels that if more information was gained on the topic and known then it could persuade the public in one way or the other.  This website is about the spiritual, psychological and physical benefits of marijuana http://www.benefitsofmarijuana.com/benefits.php. It talks about the advantages that the body can gain from smoking marijuana. This website is about the medical benefits of marijuana, http://www.godandscience.org/doctrine/medical_marijuana_review.html. It explains what THC is and it shows how it affects the body. It goes through a whole list of things on how marijuana changes people. This website, http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11850 is like the last website, but it shows how smoking the drug not only for recreational use is good for the body. This website is about the advantages that could be gained in California if Proposition 19 was passed. It discusses the economic and social benefits that could be gained if the drug was made legal.  http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=37557  is about the Mexican drug cartels. It is about how they are illegally trafficking drugs to the U.S. It talks about the problems that are occurring and why these are a bad things for our country. Another website that also has good information on drug trafficking is http://www.policyalmanac.org/crime/archive/drug_trafficking.shtml. This website is a huge analysis of legalizing marijuana. http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/lsd/mcvay.htm goes over things like the benefits of the drug and why it is illegal now. It talks about the taxes that could be brought in and how it affects our prisons in the U.S.  This is another short website about benefits of legalizing marijuana http://www.suite101.com/content/the-benefits-of-legalizing-marijuana-a209552. It is a quick read that shows the benefits and how it would affect our economic status in the future.  This website is on the effects of the cardiovascular system from using marijuana, http://jcp.sagepub.com/content/42/11_suppl/58S.abstract. It is a good website to inform someone on how this drug works and what it does when you smoke it. It is very short but it shows medical terms on how this drug does what it does. This website is about how different drugs affect the brain in different ways including marijuana, http://www.brainsource.com/brain_on_drugs.htm. It is a more in depth analysis on the affects but it doesn’t only cover marijuana. It allows you to compare the drug with other drugs like heroin and cocaine that are also illegal.  This is an article about facts dealing with marijuana and how it’s used, http://atlantarecoverycenter.com/drugs-of-abuse/marijuana/. It may seem like common knowledge to some people but this website explains how the drug can be put in the body and it just lays down some of the basics on how people use it to get high.  This is an article on why people think marijuana should not be legalized, http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/13115/why_marijuana_should_not_be_legalized.html. It shows the opposite opinion on why it is a bad thing and how it would negatively affect people. Along with this website http://www.cnbc.com/id/36267223/Why_We_Should_Not_Legalize_Marijuana, these cover most of the reasons why people feel that the drug should stay illegal. This last website is a website that shows ten reasons why parents should not support legalizing marijuana. http://www.radicalparenting.com/2008/12/18/10-reasons-parents-should-not-support-legalizing-marijuana/. It is another website against marijuana legalization that explains to parents why it is bad. It targets parents so that they can understand and tell their kids that it is not a good idea to smoke marijuana.

Only A Few Days Away

There are two types of people in this world. The people that think marijuana should be legalized and the people that think it should not. There is no place in the middle for anyone to hang out. Either you are a believer or not. The way that a person finds out who they are is if they vote for or against marijuana. Proposition 19 is the bill that is trying to be passed to allow the legalization of marijuana. Public opinion polls have been taken many times to try to predict the outcome of the bill and every time, the results have been very similar. Almost a split decision on whether or not the bill should be passed. On November 2, voting will begin and the future of marijuana will be left in the hands of the polls. If legalized, marijuana will be seen almost identical as alcohol. There will be a minimum age limit that is required to be in possession of the drug. Like alcohol’s .08 blood level limit of being able to drive, a person will only be legally allowed to posses 1 ounce of marijuana at any given time. Not only will people be able to use the drug but the government will be able to start using this to their advantage. The government will be able to put taxes on marijuana and be able to enforce and collect marijuana related fees. The main arguments of the bill are that it would be able to help with budget losses in California and that it would cut money revenues from the drug cartels and weaken them. Legalizing marijuana is closer to happening then you might think.

It's Illegal So It Can't Be Good

 Marijuana users have been given a bad name in this country. Whenever someone thinks about someone that smokes marijuana, an immediate thought that comes with that is that they are bad people. I know that is how I used to feel when I would hear a story about someone I knew that was a smoker. I would immediately think that that person doesn’t have “life figured out”.  The whole way that I looked at that person changed and every time I saw them I would think about them smoking. That is not the case anymore for me, but I know that is how most of this country feels when they hear about someone that smokes marijuana. In middle school, we were so young and innocent and I can remember only hearing about it a few certain times that people smoked weed. I thought it was a huge deal when it really wasn’t. As soon as I got in high school, as I sure this is what happened to most people, marijuana was everywhere. Kids would smoke it behind school buildings or skip class to do it. I began to come accustomed to it. I knew friends that did it and my view on how I saw them never changed once I learned they did it. I accepted it and didn’t think anything of it.  Not until one day when I heard some parents talking about it at a basketball game did I realize how marijuana is looked down upon. I asked my parents about it and they thought the same way that marijuana is terrible. I asked them more questions about it and everything they said came back to one idea, marijuana is illegal so it cannot be good.  Marijuana has never been given a chance in this country because people already have their minds made up before they even hear the argument. If people in this country would listen to all the good that it could bring to them, it could change their mind, but because it is never even given a shot, legalizing marijuana might never happen. The idea that marijuana is an illegal drug and no good can come out of it needs to stop. Stop being biased and just listen to what people have to say.

Class Links

Three blogs that I enjoyed reading over this assignment were Education in Public Schools, Park 51, and Gulf Oil Spill. Each of these topics were three very interesting and relevant topics to read. Each was given a clear and concise meaning and the stance that they took on the situation. Not only did I learn a lot of stuff that I had never learned before from these blogs, each one of them dealt  with a situation that is current in today’s society. I had never begun to think about how the education in our public schools is doing in our country. I went through elementary, middle and high school and after reading this, I can look back at my experiences and it brings things back to my mind that I never thought about why they happened before. Events like huge budget cuts,  being in a class were someone can’t read,  and firing hundreds of teachers at once have come together to show me how our education system in our country is not doing a great job. Reading the park 51 blog was interesting because I had heard about it on the news, but never got to follow up and understand the full impact it had. It was a very controversial topic that I had fun trying to pick a side on which to stand with. Many times I had to change my thoughts and still I would like to learn more about it so that I can make a final decision on where I stand. But my favorite out of all of the topics was the Gulf Oil Spill. This was a catastrophic event that is still affecting our country and will continue to affect it many years to come. Oil is a huge necessity for every country and I had never thought about the controversy that it causes. And now that an event on this huge of a scale has happened, it makes me want to learn even more about it. In all I liked reading and learning about all three of these topics very much.

Implications

If marijuana is not legalized in the United States, then the drug problems will get worse in the future. The population is growing everyday and that is just leading to more people that the drug can negatively affect. There are so many views on which way legalizing marijuana could fall in the U.S., but I think legalizing it needs to be done. If it is not, crimes all over the country are going to continue to happen  dealing with marijuana and affect huge amounts of people.  Marijuana is the most common illegal drug that is used and it is only going to increase over time. For all we know, legalizing marijuana could bring the economy out of a depression and heal numerous diseases, but we might never find out if the drug is never given a chance in our society. All we can be sure of is that people are going to continue to use the drug and the negative affects of it today are going to continue to happen unless something is changed.

Mental Health Post-Effects of Drug Deals