The Paper Describe Effects Of Legalization Of Marijuana (Essay Sample)

Legalization of Marijuana
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Legalization of Marijuana
Marijuana, also known as cannabis, refers to a drug prepared from a mixture of greenish-grey finely chopped leaves, flowers, and seeds extracted from the hemp plant known as Cannabis Sativa (Iversen, 2003). It goes by several street names, such as bhang, weed, pot, grass, and ganja. The shredded leaves, flowers, and stems of Cannabis Sativa can be smoked in various ways, such as pipes, cigarettes, and pipes when tobacco is removed and replaced with marijuana. Some marijuana products are ingested orally while others are added to food products. It is a drug that distorts the perception of the real world of the user. Its long-term usage leads to addiction, a serious problem many people around the world are facing.
Despite being the most commonly used drug globally, possession and use of marijuana is considered illegal in many countries and constitute a criminal offense that attracts a penalty or serving a jail term. However, many people, especially the youth, are the regular consumers of this drug. The negative effects of marijuana range from physical to psychological. Some of the immediate physical effects include disorientation, increased heart beat rate, dizziness, slowed reaction time, blood-shot eyes and increased appetite. Psychological effects of marijuana usage are depression, anxiety, impaired thinking, paranoia, and hallucination.
The argument of whether marijuana is actually harmful or beneficial has remained a subject of a fierce debate. There have been cases of marijuana being used for medicinal purposes, such as treating nausea and chronic pain caused by cancer and other health conditions. It is claimed that marijuana cures Alzheimer and Glaucoma, and helps in relieving anxiety as well as slowing down cancer growth. The existence of beneficial impacts of marijuana has led to calls for its legalization. In fact, the possession of marijuana in small amounts and controlled usage has been decriminalized and legalized in some parts of the world. Several publications have been released regarding the subject of the legalization of marijuana. Media coverage articles have also been released on the issue of marijuana legalization. Different media articles portray the issue of marijuana legalization in different ways. The New York Times released an article titled “The push for legal marijuana spreads” on 5th of November 2015. Similarly, the Los Angeles Times also released an article on 4th of November 2015, titled “Legalizing marijuana is gaining support, so why did Ohio vote against it?” by Matt Pearce.
In the “Push for legal marijuana spreads” by the New York Times, the support for the campaign to legalize Marijuana is commended as a great thing. The article gives an account of four people in Mexico granted the right to cultivate cannabis Sativa for uses termed as personal. The article further shed light on the intentions by the newly sworn in prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, of amending the law in order to enable people to use marijuana recreationally in his country where the drug is already in legal use for the medicinal purpose. The article also reports on the newly introduced bill by a democratic presidential nomination aspirant in the United States that seeks to give people an opportunity to decide for themselves whether to legalize marijuana or not.
Laws prohibiting the possession, production, and distribution of Marijuana are considered destructive to the society. A substantial amount of money is lost through apprehension of violators of what is termed as insignificant laws since marijuana is proven to be less harmful as compared to other legalized addictive substances, such as tobacco and alcohol. The article predicts futility in the future prohibition of marijuana usage in both Mexico and America in case the recreational use of marijuana is voted for in California as advocated by activists. Being the first state to authorize marijuana usage for medicinal purposes, California is a hub for illegal marijuana from Mexico. Despite the rejection of marijuana legalization initiative in Ohio that could have seen the emergence of a monopoly over production and distribution of marijuana, the article calls for the adoption of the bill meant to give the people a chance to decide on whether marijuana should be legalized or not.
The Los Angeles Times’ article “Legalizing marijuana is gaining support, so why did Ohio vote against it?” explores the push for legalization of marijuana in the United States. The article opens up by reviewing the growing support accorded to the campaign of legalizing marijuana. In the article, Pearce (2015) states that solid majority now respond that they want legal weed. The article reviews the defeat of marijuana legalization initiative in Ohio through voting. The defeat is attributed to the proposed creation of a monopoly in growing and distribution of marijuana that would have been under the management of a small group of investors who were the initiators of the proposition to legalize recreational and medicinal usage of marijuana.
The article outlines the drive to have polls for the legalization of the majority be incorporated in the 2016 presidential election. Marijuana policy project is upbeat about the legalization of marijuana by 2016 despite the Ohio defeat, attributed to the initiators’ own selfish interest of becoming monopolists. The article explores the build-up to the Ohio campaigns, the defeat and the future similar campaigns whose outcome is unlikely to be influenced by the Ohio’s outcome. The article gives an insight into general views on the Ohio marijuana legalization polls by various people in various capacities. The majority of these views are positive about the legalization of marijuana in the country in the future. They dispute that any suggestion that what happened in Ohio could be repeated in other states. They argue that the defeat in Ohio did not mark the end of activism for marijuana legalization.
In both media coverage articles by the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, a strong support for marijuana legalization is clearly brought out. The articles express a strong desire by a majority to have marijuana legalized. Despite setbacks in the previous attempts to have marijuana legalized such as the recent case in Ohio, there is a great optimism that the marijuana will be decriminalized and the prohibition on its consumption removed as depicted by the two articles.
Scholarly articles have been published on researches carried out on marijuana and its legalization. The articles include “The economic case for marijuana legalization in Canada” by Larissa Ducatti Flister published in 2012 in Journal of Alternative Perspectives in the Social Sciences, and “A greener outlook an examination of the pros and cons of marijuana and its possible legal future” by James Crawford.
In the article “The economic case for marijuana legalization in Canada ,” the effect of prevailing policies concerning the production and consumption of marijuana is examined. Based on the article, many governments globally use substantial amounts or resources in fighting drug production and consumption. Despite the tremendous efforts to curb the menace of drugs, the availability of marijuana on the markets has increased. Just like the rest of the world, the Canadian Government has invested heavily in fighting drug production and consumption. However, the prohibition of marijuana and other narcotics has ensured the industry remains illegal and uncontrolled. This has led to the emergence of monopolies that earn substantial profits from the business. The article does not advocate for the creation of a free market to reduce prices thr...