Hi dear,can you help me to finish this assignment with good quality and be on time please?t e research and critical thinking to describe a contemporary drug use issue, including legislation, po
Discussion 1 sample
ARTICLE/NEWS REPORT:
The article "How Legalized Pot Can Make Up for the Disastrous War on Drugs," written by David L. Ulin, described how legalizing marijuana would help put an end to the war on drugs in California. Additionally, he believes that decriminalizing all drugs could be even more beneficial. Ulin also claims it would help with the overcrowding problem in the prisons and upset the black market for illicit drugs, which would help reduce violent crimes. In turn, the tax revenue gain from legalizing marijuana could be used to fund additional medical help, education, and rehabilitation regarding other illicit drugs. Furthermore, the law to legalize marijuana in cities in California is set up to help lower-income areas and former individuals convicted of marijuana possession by helping them start businesses licensed to grow and sell marijuana (Ulin, 2017).
MESSAGES:
According to the United States federal government, marijuana is a schedule 1 drug, which means there is no accepted medical use and the drug is likely to be abused (Drug Enforcement Agency, n.d.). Yet, over half of the states have legalized marijuana for medical use. This makes the federal law very confusing for the general public.
RESTRICTIVE LEGISLATION:
Marijuana is illegal under federal law. However, many states have legalized marijuana for medical use and a handful of states have legalized it for recreational use. Legislation varies depending on different states and even different cities and counties within a given state. Additionally, one may be disqualified from obtaining some federal jobs if they were to use marijuana for a medical reason in a state where it is legal (Central Intelligence Agency, 2017, "General Requirements").
ATTITUDES:
It appears that the desire to legalize marijuana is increasing among most individuals in the United States. However, the majority of Republicans are still opposed to making marijuana legal. Additionally, most whites and blacks are for marijuana legalization, whereas, Hispanics are pretty much split when it comes to legalizing marijuana (Geiger, 2016).
POPULATIONS:
According to a report from the American Civil Liberties Union (2013), marijuana use is equal among whites and blacks. However, the ACLU report found that blacks are almost four times as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession when compared to whites in the United States. Furthermore, laws vary greatly between states and even cities within the same state regarding how strict law enforcement should pursue and punish marijuana crimes.
PREVALENCE:
Marijuana use appears to increase throughout the years around the high school levels of education (Johnston, O'Malley, Miech, Bachman, & Schulenberg, 2017, p. 11). Additionally, in 2013, about one in three college aged students reported using marijuana in the previous 12 months (Levinthal, 2016, p. 14). Finally, approximately 9% of adults 26 years of age and older reported using marijuana in the previous 12 months (Levinthal, 2016, p. 16).
VIOLENCE:
Marijuana use does not seem to be associated with pharmacological violence since marijuana tends to give a passive attitude and relaxation effect to the user (Levinthal, 2016, p. 38). However, marijuana is associated with systematic violence since it is illegal federally. Therefore, marijuana traffickers will use violence to protect their supply from individual theft and law enforcement seizures (Levinthal, 2016, p. 39).
OPINION:
I agree that marijuana should be completely decriminalized. I think punishing someone for a victimless crime, such as possession of marijuana, is immoral. While I do not agree that excessively taxing a substance is right, the additional tax revenue could pay for more research and further the education regarding marijuana. Furthermore, I do not think the government should regulate what an individual wants to put in their own body; good, bad, or otherwise. I think that proper education is a more viable solution than unwarranted regulations.
References
American Civil Liberties Union. (2013). Report: the war on marijuana in black and white. Retrieved from https://www.aclu.org/report/report-war-marijuana-black-and-white?redirect=criminal-law-reform/war-marijuana-black-and-white
Central Intelligence Agency. (2017, Jul 11). Careers & internships. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/careers/faq
Drug Enforcement Agency. (n.d.). Drug schedules. Retrieved from https://www.dea.gov/druginfo/ds.shtml
Geiger, A. (2016, Oct 12). Support for marijuana legalization continues to rise. Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/10/12/support-for-marijuana-legalization-continues-to-rise
Johnston, L. D., O'Malley, P. M., Miech, R. A., Bachman, J. G., & Schulenberg, J. E. (2017). Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use, 1975-2016: Overview, key findings on adolescent drug use. Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan, 113 pp. Retrieved from http://monitoringthefuture.org/pubs.html
Levinthal, C. F. (2016). Drugs, behavior, and modern society. Pearson Education Inc. Available from http://www.chegg.com/
Ulin, D. L. (2017, Nov 1). How legalized pot can make up for the disastrous war on drugs. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-ulin-marijuana-social-equity-20171101-story.html
