The legalization of marijuana continues to brew intense debates and conversations between different people in the United States. Among the states most affected is Colorado which is one of the states which have legalized the drug. According to many residents, it is believed that marijuana use should be regulated by the doctors who are expected to give a directive on the modalities of the use. This comes as a result of physicians being seen as the potential guides in the use as far as generating of perspectives on the use and effects are concerned ( Monte, Zane, & Heard, 2015). This discussion entails an analysis of the implications and effects of legalization of marijuana among different states in the United States.
Thesis Support Argument
Across the world, marijuana has been associated with many negative effects revolving around social fabrics. Most of these beliefs are triggered by the misinformation fed to the public in regard to the effects and the use of marijuana. Therefore, it is seen that the legalization of the drug is likely to brew an unwarranted skepticism among the members of the public ( MacCoun & Mello, 2015). This validates the point that the physicians should come out and emancipate people in regard to the effects of the use of marijuana so as to clear the skepticism that the public holds. As a matter of history, in the 1970s, the entrepreneurs of countercultural ideologies engaged in selling items which aided the smoking of marijuana in their small premises known as head shops. These headshop owners made a number of contributions in seeing that there was a change in the drug laws in the United States (Davis, 2015). These movements saw the owners of headshops make financial profits from their businesses. The situation of the mode of use of marijuana was informed by the headshops who believed that the use of their items was a good way of using drugs. In the year 2014, the state of Colorado legalized the use of recreational marijuana without following any state models. This prompted the health officials to seek medical implications of the drug (Ghosh et al., 2015). It calls that even if marijuana may be legalized for recreational purposes, it is important that the medical output and analysis carried out on the modes of its use.
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The Argument Outline
The legalization of marijuana use is seen as having both long term and short term effects on the social fabrics of the United States. Long term effects will see many people engaging in the use of the drug while in the short term it is seen that the drug prices will reduce ( Hall & Lynskey, 2016). These effects are mostly socially related which creates the need to look on the social loopholes which the drug can negatively exploit. A study conducted to look at the trends in the use of marijuana in the United States before decriminalization and after, shows a difference in the use. The state of California, for instance, the 12th-grade students who use marijuana increased to 25% from 2007 to 2013 (Miech et al., 2015). This statistic affirms the evidence that both decriminalization and legalization of marijuana may result in the acceptance of the use among the youthful generation and increase in the use of the drug. It becomes important that legalization of marijuana use in the State of Washington and Colorado is likely to imbue international law conflicts which the United States is party to. The legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes brought about the portrayal of discrepancies in the relations between the federal and state laws (Bushan, 2015). With the legalization in these two major states, it shows how the international community may regard the United States concerning its stand on the use of drugs and the possibility of the breach of the conventional law. Again there is a portrayal of the perception on the use of marijuana in other countries out of the United States.
Conclusion
It can be summarized that the legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes is a contentious issue which should be looked at in terms of the health and social impact to the drug users. Again medical marijuana users need to be incorporated among the targeted people for the purposes of nonprescription and medical users (Caputin & Humphreys, 2018). This again reiterates the risk of addiction to marijuana for the patients who use medical marijuana if they slip into the recreational use if not guided.
References
Bushan, A. (2015). An evaluation of the effects of the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington from an international law perspective. Can.-USLJ , 39 , 187.
Caputi, T. L., & Humphreys, K. (2018). Medical marijuana users are more likely to use prescription drugs medically and nonmedically. Journal of addiction medicine , 12 (4), 295-299.
Davis, J. C. (2015). The business of getting high: head shops, countercultural capitalism, and the marijuana legalization movement. The Sixties , 8 (1), 27-49.
Ghosh, T. S., Van Dyke, M., Maffey, A., Whitley, E., Erpelding, D., & Wolk, L. (2015). Medical marijuana's public health lessons—implications for retail marijuana in Colorado. New England Journal of Medicine , 372 (11), 991-993.
Hall, W., & Lynskey, M. (2016). Evaluating the public health impacts of legalizing recreational cannabis use in the United States. Addiction , 111 (10), 1764-1773.
MacCoun, R. J., & Mello, M. M. (2015). Half-baked—the retail promotion of marijuana edibles. New England Journal of Medicine , 372 (11), 989-991.
Miech, R. A., Johnston, L., O’Malley, P. M., Bachman, J. G., Schulenberg, J., & Patrick, M. E. (2015). Trends in use of marijuana and attitudes toward marijuana among youth before and after decriminalization: The case of California 2007–2013. International Journal of Drug Policy , 26 (4), 336-344.
Monte, A. A., Zane, R. D., & Heard, K. J. (2015). The implications of marijuana legalization in Colorado. Jama , 313 (3), 241-242.
