A 19-year-old college student, the son of a friend, drove onto the sidewalk then crashed into another vehicle after having used marijuana in downtown Austin, TX in February 2019. According to Paul A. Eisenstein (NBC News, Oct.18, 2018), the highway crash was increased about 6 percent in the states that had legalized recreational use of marijuana in 2018. In an early substance use in jobs research, Melvin L.Holcom indicate that drug use changes job characteristics and leads to accident potential at work (Journal of Safety Research, 1993).
However, there are already nine states and the District of Columbia that have legalized recreational marijuana use in the United States. It seems that another nine states are poised to full legalization in 2019, and some are watching and seem ready to do so via ballot initiatives in 2020, including Texas, according to Tom Angell (Forbes, Dec 26, 2018).
It is an unquestionable fact that all drugs change the way the brain works. Marijuana is absolutely dangerous for the long-term effects on the body and the brain (American Addiction Center, 2019). When people use marijuana, even the public may have gotten the impression of its harmlessness, even it is still difficult to accurately measure the impacts, THC effects begin almost immediately that can affect decision making, concentration, and memory for days to weeks after use. This is a drug-impacted disease destroying the people from inside of the bodies.
The question is why marijuana is still increasingly legislated over the country for recreational use. Is it certain that the ballots always show the so-right results are definitely good for the people? If it’s not, who should be responsible for solving the issue? Although the ballot system is an acceptable way to pursuit solutions for disagreements, offering a dangerous option to the children, the youth, and actual everyone to show equality, liberty, and democracy, then achieving the prevention in society relies on Drug Education is not an effective once and for all solution.
The government should take responsibility to solve the drug issue as a whole, no discrimination on different drugs, to protect the people away not only from outside of the bodies but also from inside. Marijuana should not be legalized. Citizens with or without self-control ability should be equally protected.
While reading the blog post “Marijuana Should Not Be Legalized - Drug Education Is No Solution” I disagreed with many arguments. To begin with I do believe that Marijuana can have negative effects in specific situations as it does affect concentration and decision making, however, I do not believe the statistics on car accidents caused by it is not a reasonable justification to ban it completely. There are many other ways to control this such as the campaigns made against drinking and driving.
ReplyDeleteKeeping marijuana illegal causes problems from the very beginning of the production till the end during its distribution. In many countries where marijuana is illegally planted and sold to distributors in america there are many people, including children, involved risking their lives as they are put in dangerous situations. By keeping it illegal the contraband will continue to exist directly affecting the lives of families in these countries ( as well as families in our country), and even encourage the process to continue the way it is. Prohibiting it will not reduce the number of consumers, it will however make it harder and more dangerous to acquire putting users in a situation of potential risk. By having it as an official product the control and regulation of what is being sold would allow the consumer to know what he or she is using specifically.
Another problem that is sometimes unspoken of is amount of people, mainly people of color, sent to prison because they have it on them or are involved in selling. By legalizing it there would be more jobs in the industry that are safe and legitimate lowering drastically the number of convicts associated with it and allowing users to legally carry it.
The war on drugs has been going on for far too long and essentially has not brought positive results, there is a lot of money going to it and no significant difference. There should be a government initiative of accurately educating the people on the drug and its effects on the body. More and more studies are being made as it is becoming a billion dollar industry. The taxes that would be collected from it can be used to instruct the population and so much more. As many negatives marijuana may seem to have, in my opinion, they are not nearly enough to justify prohibiting it considering the negatives that keeping it illegal result in. With the right amount of information and regulation people should be allowed to make the decision for themselves.
Re-comment, since I forgot to put my name.
ReplyDeleteTo start off, I would like to say that I am not a stoner in the slightest, in fact, I’m not a big fan of marijuana in general. However, I do disagree with the article “Marijuana Should Not Be Legalized - Drug Education Is No Solution” by Li Qiu. I’m somewhere between a Republican and a Libertarian, and I put personal freedoms above everything. Moreover, I sternly believe that more government interventions leads to worse results.
As I said earlier, I am not a stoner by any means, but I believe that people should be able to consume what they want if they choose to, and let them deal with the consequences.
In the 1920s, the US passed the 18th Amendment, which which prohibited alcohol and liquor within the states. While Congress hoped that it would “cleanup” America, it ultimately led to higher crime rates, as people still got ahold of their substances and led to the emergence of organized crime, such as the Mafia and Al Capone. Ultimately, this amendment was repealed and was a win for personal freedoms.
The war on drugs within the United States has been going on forever, and there really doesn’t seem to be an end. I believe that we should just legalize marijuana (and in my libertarian fantasies, legalize most drugs), and allow people to choose what they want to do. If we legalize weed, the US will have an even heightened economy, due to legal sales and the ability to tax the transactions, and crime rates will fall, as drug-dealers and drug-consumers won’t be punished anymore. Frankly, even if the substance isn’t legalized, it won’t stop anyone from buying or selling it, so the only way for this issue to be progressed is to create proper legislation in order to decriminalize it.