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Descriminalization of marijuana essay
Descriminalization of marijuana essay
Descriminalization of marijuana essay
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Reefer Madness Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in The American Black Market, begins with the author defining what the black market is. He leads on to discuss the history and the present size of the black market. The author also discussed the emergence of the black market as an underground economy. Next, the book transitioned to an essay titled reefer Madness. Reefer madness discusses marijuana’s presence in the United States. The essay begins with an overview of the history of Marijuana. It discusses its presence in history as well as how it was criminalized, decimalized, and criminalized again. The next section of the essay covers the penalties for marijuana. The book then details a marijuana growing operation in the American Midwest. Furthermore, …show more content…
The arrests began on March 18, 1990 when Jerry Montgomery, one of the growers, was pulled over for reckless driving. In his car the police found “three empty vodka bottles, a five-gallon bucket full of marijuana, and a gray box containing $13,000 in cash” (41). When the police search Montgomery’s home they discovered evidence of a marijuana growing operation. One of the men indicted for their part in the operation was Mark Young. Young was arrested for his role in distributing 700 pounds of Marijuana as well as conspiracy to manufacture 12,500 marijuana plants. Because of his two prior felony convictions Young faced the possibility of a mandatory minimum sentence of life in prison. Mark young was offered a reduced sentence in exchange for a guilty plea and cooperation. Although urged to cooperate, young refused to accept the plea bargain, even though several others decided to cooperate. As a result, Young received a life sentence. Schlosser then discusses history of the opposition to Marijuana throughout several presidential terms. The book then explores the mandatory minimum prison sentences. The power of a U.S. attorney to decide how to frame the charges is criticize in this
Reefer Madness starts off as a PSA, of an authority figure at a high school which is telling them how this new drug marijuana is sweeping the nation and how to stay away from it. He then tells the young teens a story about how terrible and bad the “menace marihuana” is, and that it is a growing epidemic in the young community. It explains that marijuana is a “violent narcotic – an unspeakable scourge”. The story starts at the house of Mae and Jack. Jack walks in and tells Mae that the “marines” just arrived and that the house should start making their merchandise. A lot of people come to the house and start investing in the idea of the drug house that Jack is offering. Jack goes out and tries to recruit young people right outside the schools,
Reefer Madness is a movie that was made to draw the public's attention toward marijuana, the specific groups that were at risk, and the consequences that were directly related to using the drug. The purpose of this 1930's film was to create a public fear for the well being of society. Knowing that this movie was made decades ago, it is clear to see that the movie exaggerated both the amount of terrifying behavior and the number of people involved in order to emphasize its detriments.
The series “High Profits” demonstrates the works and restrictions of the United States government regarding the issue of legalizing recreational marijuana. Breckenridge Cannabis Club business owners, Caitlin Mcguire and Brian Rogers, demonstrate both the struggles and profits of this up and coming industry. This series portrays virtually every viewpoint possible by including opinions from an array of political actors who discuss the influence of the government on this topic and the impact this topic has on the general public.
Marijuana in America became a popular ingredient in many medicinal products and was openly sold in pharmacies in the late nineteenth century (“Busted-America’s War on Marijuana Timeline”). The National Institute of Drug Abuse defines marijuana as, “The dried leaves, flowers, stems, and seeds from the hemp plant Cannabis sativa, which contains the psychoactive (mind-altering) chemical delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), as well as other related compounds” (“DrugFacts: Marijuana”). It was not until the Food and Drug act of 19...
“Paper Pills” is a short story written by Sherwood Anderson in his most recognized book, Winesburg, Ohio, which has several interrelated stories (Belasco 859). The story is about an older physician, named Dr. Reefy, who is distanced from society, and only expresses his thoughts on pieces of paper, which he stuffs into his pockets (Bort). Eventually, he meets a younger woman who he marries and shares those crumbled pieces of paper with for a brief period before her death. The story is recounted by an unknown narrator, which is the same narrator throughout the book—using several instances of imagery and symbolism to describe Dr. Reefy’s hands, truths, and his courtship and relationship with the younger woman.
Throughout history people have used marijuana for its dried leaves, flowers, stems, and seeds to relieve pain, stress, and other medical issues from one’s life. Within the recent years it has become one of the most debated issues in the United States. In the 1930s, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics (now the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs) claimed that marijuana was a “gateway” drug and was a powerful, addicting substance. During the sixties marijuana became a symbol for rebellion against authority so it became very popular by college students and “hippies”. So in 1982, Drug Enforcement Administration increased pressure on drug farms and houses which decreased the use of marijuana. In the past twenty years marijuana has become a
How aware are we, the people, of the destructive and ultimately lethal affects of marijuana? Expert in crime control and national security, Charles Stimson informs the general public about the disasters of marijuana in his essay, “Legalizing Marijuana: Why Citizens Should Just Say No”. He writes about the damaging use of prolonged marijuana and the “additional (financial) strain on an already faltering economy”, while also enlightening Americans on the terrible untruths that supporters of legalization make. Mr. Stimson effectively convinces his audience that citizens should not legalize marijuana by referring to outside sources with credible background, by answering questions from the opposing side, and by explaining the cause and effect of black-market profits.
The article provides statistics regarding the amount of people in prison to the demographics of these prisons. Today, “nearly half of all prisoners in state prisons are locked up for nonviolent offenses” (Sledge). This article also provides a video and image with the demographic statistical information. The video is mainly about the amount of people who are supporting the legalization of marijuana and the amount of people incarcerated in the United States of America. In addition, this article explains that the total cost of the drug war including law enforcement, interdiction, international efforts, state level prisons and jails, federal level prisons, and any drug related arrests estimate to approximately $50 billion annually (Sledge). The image provides a visual to the statistics provided and was created by the American Civil Liberties Union based on statistics of the United States of America prison population and its growth. The general argument in the source is that there is too much money being spent on this war and “the punishment falls disportionately on people of color” (Sledge). The source is accurate because of the statistics provided by American prisoners and was created in order to inform people who may have misconceptions about the drug war. In the video, he explained how felons are not in prison for smoking joints of marijuana but rather drug trafficking and distribution. This source can have a major impact if Americans knew how much money went into the war on drugs. In conclusion, the article “The Drug War and Mass Incarceration” by Matt Sledge focused on why the drug war led to mass incarceration in the United States of America and who the drug war affected. The source provided statistics in order to back up the information stated, however this information could have been
Lately it seems that drug policy and the war on drugs has been in the headlines quite a lot. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the policies that the United States government takes against illegal drugs are coming into question. The mainstream media is catching on to the message of organizations and individuals who have long been considered liberal "Counter Culture" supporters. The marijuana question seems to be the most prevalent and pressing of the drugs and issues that are currently being addressed. The messages of these organizations and individuals include everything from legalization of marijuana for medical purposes, to full-unrestricted legalization of the drug.
For nearly one hundred and fifty years marijuana has been illegal in the United States of America. Though marijuana naturally grew in all of our fifty states, it was outlawed due the superior strength and durability of hemp rope. This threatened to replace cotton rope, which would cost wealthy cotton owners a lot of money. To this day marijuana is still outlawed in the U.S., however rope has nothing to do with it. Once slavery and the “cotton boom” were over hemp made a little bit of a comeback in a smoking form. Then, in the early 1940’s the government began releasing anti-marijuana propaganda. In the 1960’s when marijuana became popular amongst pop-culture, a movie by the name of “Reefer Madness” was released depicting marijuana users as fiends and criminals who’s normal everyday lives fell apart, and spun out of control due to the addiction to the drug. Even in the present day organizations, as well as the government, continue to try and sway people from using the substance by portraying users as irresponsible idiots. Some examples of behaviors portrayed in the commercials are: accidental shootings, running over a little girl on a bike, molesting a passed out girl, supporting terror, and impregnating/becoming impregnated. I feel that these advertisements are ridiculously tasteless and misleading. Through personal experience, surveys, an interview, and a case study I intend to prove that marijuana users do not behave in the fashion that the anti-marijuana campaign ads would suggest, and furthermore, I expect to find that the ads so grossly misrepresent the common user, even those who do not use disagree with the negative portrayals. I also challenge you to think about the suggested situations and behaviors from the commercials, I feel that you’ll see every situation and behavior in the advertisements is much more feasible to a person under the influence of alcohol than under the influence of marijuana.
I found the movie Under the Influence to be a very realistic look into the functional dysfunction of a family that is besieged by the beast known as alcoholism. I could relate to the characters in this film growing up in a home where both parent were alcoholics. I could see my family in the characters in the film. The role of Noah Talbot (Andy Griffith) the alcoholic would have been my mother or father as they both were afflicted by this terrible disease. The film did a great job of showing how the disease of alcoholism can be passed from one generation to the next. As is the case of Noah’s son Eddie played by (Keanu Reeves) who is portrayed as a heavy drinker. But I think the one of the most powerful scenes is when Noah is laying in the hospital bed talking about his own father and how once in a drunken stupor had a bad dream and leaped from the bedroom window breaking his leg. The look of serene bliss on Griffith’s face in this scene shows how Noah didn’t view his own father as a man with a problem but as a man’s man, he goes on to say in the same scene that
The use of marijuana has been a controversial topic since the early 1900’s. This is a big problem because there are good and bad effects while using marijuana. A movie back in 1939 Reefer Madness directed by Louis J. Gasnier shows that marijuana becomes a big problem and it how quick it is affecting our high schoolers. The movie shows the bad side effects of smoking marijuana, but it is based on additives on marijuana. In the beginning of the movie is trying to frighten us with words such as “ startle, destroying, frightful, alarmingly and violent” to show us marijuana is a horrible drug (Reefer Madness). The purpose of the those words was to show us that your child could be next using the menace drug marijuana. In the “Foreword” of the
Abramsky then goes on to discuss in the article how liberal politicians, Betty Yee and Tom Ammiano, are pushing for a bill to change the drug laws and legalize marijuana. Yee wants to excise “fees on business owners applying for marijuana licenses, impose an excise tax on sellers and charge buyers a sales tax” and if that is done the right way, she believes that the state could gain “about $1.3 billion a year” Timothy Lynch, writing in the conservative magazine the National Review, writes about how the drug war has not made very much progress and has essentially failed. Lynch writes about how voters in California, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Alaska, and Maine that have rejected ideas to improve the war on drugs and instead they “approved initiatives calling for the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes” (40). Lynch also writes that “the supply of drugs has not been hampered in any serious way by the war on drugs” (41).
Drug in the American Society is a book written by Eric Goode. This book, as the title indicates, is about drugs in the American Society. It is especially about the misuse of most drugs, licit or illicit, such us alcohol, marijuana and more. The author wrote this book to give an explanation of the use of different drugs. He wrote a first edition and decided to write this second edition due to critic and also as he mentioned in the preface “there are several reason for these changes. First, the reality of the drug scene has changed substantially in the past dozen or so years. Second much more information has been accumulated about drug use. And third, I’m not the same person I was in 1972.”(vii). The main idea of this book is to inform readers about drugs and their reality. In the book, Goode argued that the effect of a drug is dependent on the societal context in which it is taken. Thus, in one society a particular drug may be a depressant, and in another it may be a stimulant.
“Reefer Madness” is a film that that exploited and helped increase a growing American hysteria concerning the “evils” of marijuana use during the 1930s. Varying claims are made about the films origins with different sources saying that it is a government anti-drug, propaganda film, a religious creation, or possibly an exploitation film seeking to avoid film censorship. Whatever its origin, “Reefer Madness” exaggerated the growing fears of middle-class, Caucasian Americans towards marijuana. During this time period, many feared that if the use of marijuana was not stopped their teenage children would become sexually promiscuous and that violent crime, mainly committed by minorities, would