Marijuana is a drug that has been illegalized in many countries. The popular drug emanates from the dried flowers and leaves of the hemp plant. The Vox Newspaper ran an article about “The Trump’s Administration’s New War On Marijuana, Explained,” written by German Lopez, “ Attorney general Jeff sessions is unleashing federal law enforcement- to crack down on Marijuana legalization states,” (German, 2018). At a time when Barack Obama was still the president of the U.S.A, his administration allowed for the legalization of Marijuana under negligible federal interference. Jeff addresses this issue by saying that he will use the prosecutorial principles that were previously established to provide necessary tools to tackle and disrupt growing drug catastrophe and crack marijuana businesses down. He also says that Obama’s administration assumed a soft approach to Marijuana by letting some states legalize it under the condition they meet definite criteria; such states include: Alaska, California, Maine, Nevada, Colorado among others. Jeff also says that marijuana use is associated with crimes of violent around the country. According to the article, a senator, Session also opposes the legalization of Marijuana he said “good people don’t smoke marijuana, we need grown-ups in charge in Washington to say Marijuana is not the kind of thing that ought to be legalized, it ought not to be minimized,” (German, 2018). He also wrote a letter to the state of Washington warning of the side effects of marijuana and confirming of its illegality. Jeff was against the states that had already legalized recreational marijuana saying that it could land on the hands of underage children by irresponsible adults; a result which he termed as disastrous.
However, from the newspaper, New York Times column written by Shane Goldmacher , Cynthia Nixon, the democratic governor candidate and an actress addressed a bunch of followers at a reserved fundraising that on election she would prioritize legalizing Marijuana and advocate that it should get taxed to raise returns for the city of New York (Shane, 2018). A different author Julie Klam who was in attendance of this public speech by Cynthia also said “if Marijuana is legal, we can tax it and make a lot of money from that” The same Newspaper article also addresses mentions of the occurrence of 1 st January 2018, where Mr. Cuomo ordered a case study on recreational Marijuana. This came after Massachusetts voters sanctioned authorizing recreational Marijuana and New Jersey actually making steps on legalizing Marijuana. Mr. Cuomo added that “This is an important topic, it’s a hotly debated topic, pardon the pin, and it’d be nice to have some facts in the middle of the debate once in a while” (Shane, 2018). However, marijuana has been known to be of medicinal value in the form called medical Marijuana. Physicians, according to this newspaper article have prescribed medical Marijuana for various conditions ranging from epilepsy to chronic pain and have proven or validated that the various claims of Marijuana having side effects such as cyclic vomiting were not displayed by the patients.
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The debate on legalization of marijuana has been supported by the fact that Marijuana is used for medical purposes and if legalized it can increase revenue due to the large numbers of people consuming Marijuana illegally. Several countries globally such as Uganda and Jamaica have gone ahead to legalize the use of marijuana without the effect of the much feared rise in crime rate. Although few states in the U.S. such as Massachusetts and Colorado have legalized Marijuana other states like New York and a pocket of some African countries are battling for its legalization arguing that’s it has more use and is of higher importance if it is legalized. However, some people contradict and advocate for Marijuana to remain illegal arguing that it is morally wrong because it interrupts the normal judgment of the human brain and its use is associated with evil, crime and poverty. Several crime cases have been linked to the use of Marijuana. Unlike other stimulants such as alcohol, Marijuana has the ability to distort the entire judgments of an individual, making them totally unreasonable creatures.
Brief review history of the origin of marijuana points at its association with lower class and its supposedly being the “drug of the oppressed.” This drug was known to be used by slaves from West Africa who used to value the drug because it had the ability to enable them cope with day to day struggles and oppression which was as a result of hard labor. The use of marijuana then spread in America as army privates and prisoners were keen to put it into use. Over the years Marijuana use has been incorrectly and stereotypically associated with race, however it is mostly an issue of social classes. Therefore, the call by Cynthia to have it legalized should not come as a surprise at all; the time is due. Its prohibition started with vivid racial undertones but that was not, however, the major cause of its illegalization. Some people also argue that Marijuana should join the group of tobacco as a mild stimulant. Various prescription drugs and alcohol in providing means for people to cope with daily difficult realities of life therefore the energy spent on decriminalizing marijuana markets that should be a possible revenue generating zones should be channeled in improving health and mental services in poor neighborhoods and in training police officers to evade racial bias.
Individuals advocating for marijuana to remain illegal due to the various documented side effects both long term and short term. The short term Marijuana include paranoia (fear that you are constantly watched or being followed), severe anxiety, extremely strange behavior, smelling and hearing things that are absent, not being able to distinguish between imagination and reality(psychosis), hallucinations, panic, the rate at which a person reacts to things is lowered, may cause heart attacks due to increased heart beats, increase stroke risks, male sexual problems, coordination problem and for females seven times more chance to contact sexually transmitted infections in comparison with non-users. The debate between the legalization and the prolonged ban on marijuana is a topic that is seemingly going to be around for much longer time in the near future. Physician and doctors have also confirmed that Marijuana has long term effects including a decline in IQ which lowers up to eight points in case the use if this drug began in adolescence, high chances of dropping out due to poor performance in school. the thinking of an individual’s thinking becomes impaired and the perform complex activities and ability to learn reduces, the individual has financial difficulties, relationship difficulties also arise in cases of acute marijuana use ( Choo et al., 2014) . Marijuana is also addictive and promotes antisocial behaviors such as lying and stealing among teenager.
Teenagers and people in their middle life are the higher population of people who are in support of marijuana legalization. A Marijuana chemistry expert, A.J. Fabrizio said “in some cases, reported side effects of THC include elation, anxiety, tachycardia, short term memory recall issues, sedation, relaxation, pain relief and many more” ( Mintz, 2015) . This goes a long way to explain how people have taken and put resources in place to keenly study this drug before actually legalizing or illegalizing it. Some high profile people have also been in favor of legalizing marijuana including Morgan freeman an actor, Dalai Lama a religious leader, who argues that drugs like alcohol should be illegalized except for marijuana if it is it is used for pharmaceutical values, Snoop Dogg a rapper, the actor Woody Harrelson, the prime minister of Canada Justin Trudeau among others ( Hariman, 2016) . Legalization groups have also been crated comprising of supportive individuals that are working together in advocating Marijuana policy reform.
In conclusion we can say that efforts have been made to make weed legal in some states in America have succeeded however in Africa, just a pocket of countries have legalized consumption of marijuana whereas in some countries like china, death penalties are given to people caught selling or importing Marijuana or any known drug. Marijuana negative effects outweigh the said positive effects which would only be that it is used for pharmaceutical values. In my own opinion and view only medical Marijuana should be legalized and recreational Marijuana should remain illegal due to its numerous negative effects not only to the individual and the people who they associate with but also to the economy of a country because it affects an individual gross contribution to the economy ( Wilkinson et al., 2016) . Although people may argue that marijuana helps to dissociate a person from the harsh reality they can find alternatives for coping with them like for example involving in hobbies such as swimming, reading among others which are less toxic and enable an individual develop both physically and mentally therefore being of productive use to themselves and the people around them.
References
Choo, E. K., Benz, M., Zaller, N., Warren, O., Rising, K. L., & McConnell, K. J. (2014). The impact of state medical marijuana legislation on adolescent marijuana use. Journal of Adolescent Health , 55 (2), 160-166.
German, L. (2018). “The Trump Administration’s New War on Marijuana, Explained: Attorney General Jeff Sessions is unleashing federal law enforcement — to crack down on marijuana legalization states.” Vox. Accessed on 8 th April 2018 from https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/1/4/16849866/marijuana-legalization-trump-sessions-cole-memo
Hariman, K. (2016). It’sa Man’s Weed: Mainstream Online News and Visibility During America’s New Marijuana Legalization Era.
Mintz, C. S. (2015). Cannabis-derived pharmaceuticals. Journal of Commercial Biotechnology , 21 (3).
Shane, G. (April 3, 2018). At Fund-Raiser, Cynthia Nixon Says She Favors Legalizing Marijuana. New York, Region. New York Times. Accessed on 7 th April 2018 from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/03/nyregion/at-fund-raiser-cynthia-nixon-says-she-favors-legalizing-marijuana.html
Wilkinson, S. T., Yarnell, S., Radhakrishnan, R., Ball, S. A., & D'Souza, D. C. (2016). Marijuana legalization: impact on physicians and public health. Annual review of medicine , 67 , 453-4t66.
