Argumentative Essay: Pot And Public Schools

This paper will look at the benefits and drawbacks to legalizing marijuana by looking in at Colorado.The state made forty million dollars by taxed marijuana in 2014 alone, also Colorado saved countless millions because of the extremely lower amounts of marijuana arrest and court cases. It is not clear how having new recreational marijuana stores opening will affect the cannabis market, or businesses expanding around them. Gov. John Hickenlooper says that the economy is thriving with record setting numbers of tourists (73.1 million). 49 percent of those tourist said that legal marijuana influenced their decisions to vacation in Colorado. The ER’s in Colorado have also seen a rise in numbers of marijuana related cases and those cases in non-residents have almost doubled. An unexpected situation that arose from legal cannabis was the amount of electricity that is being use to grow the drug. Some cannabusinesses have to go green with solar or wind power. There are many varying views on the effects of legal marijuana have developed in Colorado since marijuana became legal in 2014.

The topic of legalizing recreational marijuana in the United States has been a very controversial one. States such as Colorado and Washington have gone on the offensive and have legalized recreational marijuana and have enjoyed the high revenues brought in from cannabis sale. On the other hand other states have kept low profiles because they are wary of the possible negative outcomes of legalizing recreational marijuana and are using the states of Colorado and Washington as guinea pigs to see what their next course of action on this controversial topic should be. This is not only a highly debated topic among politicians, but also by the people. According to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center 52% of Americans

“Results released this week for the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as NAEP or the “Nation’s Report Card,” show that Colorado students’ scores in reading and math either remained flat or slipped a bit since 2013…” (Colwell). Experts are worried that the same will happen to California students if “Mary Jane” is legalized in California, and they should be. If California Proposition 64 is passed, California students will be negatively impacted. Since legalization will make it easier for one to obtain and use “Mary Jane”, the number of students using marijuana will increase, just like what happened after her legalization in Colorado (“The Legalization of Marijuana”). The students who use “Mary Jane” will experience, firsthand, her often adverse effects on users’ cognitive and psychological abilities/skills. Those effects will distract students from school and prevent them from achieving academic success, just like how it affected students in Colorado (Colwell). Therefore, the academic performance of students in California will decline under the legalization of the recreational use of

Right after the U.S. Department of Justice announced in March 2009 that it would no longer prosecute marijuana patients and providers whose actions are consistent with state medical marijuana laws (Meyer & Glover, 2009, para. 1), political windows suddenly opened for California marijuana reform advocates to push for legalizing the recreational use of marijuana. As a result, California Proposition 19, the Regulate, Control & Tax Cannabis Act, became a ballot initiative on November 2, 2010 statewide ballot. Supporters argued that legalizing creational use of marijuana would help California to regulate the use and sale of marijuana, reduce correctional costs, redirect its court and law enforcement resources to other more serious crimes, and collect additional exercise taxes and sales taxes that would help with California’s budget shortfall. In spite of being a

Colorado voters do not realize how easy they have made it for children to obtain marijuana. When Amendment 64 was passed, an already troublesome condition escalated to a more dangerous level for our youth. School officials are “reporting an increase in marijuana-related incidents in middle and high schools” (Nancy Lofholm). Sadly, parents smoke openly, in front of their children. Now that they can legally obtain one ounce of marijuana, they do not see the need to keep the drugs out of sight. Once in plain sight, kids have more access to marijuana to share or sell with their peers. Easy availability of weed to minors has very harmful effects on the young mind. Amendment 64 needs to be altered to include more stringent controls to keep the

On November 8th 2016, Arizonans will exercise their right to vote for or against Proposition 205, the Regulation and Taxation Act, that could legalize the recreational use of marijuana in Arizona. Currently, in Arizona, marijuana has only been legalized for medicinal purposes and participants must be registered and carry a medical marijuana identification card. Similarly to when Colorado, Washington and Oregon all proposed the same measures to legalize the recreational use of marijuana over the last four years, there is strong opposition as well as solid support of the amendment in Arizona. In spite of the rhetoric from the opposition, the passing of proposition 205 will prove to be far more beneficial than risky as it will generate revenue

Proposition 64 addressed whether recreational marijuana should be legalized on a state level in California. Although both sides made strong arguments, the pro side won the majority of the votes in class as well as my vote. The pro side utilized the argument that the state is in massive debts and taxing on marijuana would bring in a billion dollars each year to help with funding, which gave their argument fiscal support. Additionally, they stated that this money would also go towards drug research programs and other beneficial programs, giving their side a moral justification on top of fiscal backing. They also further strengthened their moral argument by giving statistics comparing the number of deaths annually related to alcohol versus marijuana.

In the preceding years, when ferocious battles were waged over the wisdom of legalization, both in direct conversations and of course, on the internet, marijuana proponents made boasts about what a major positive impact on government budgets making pot legal would have. To people familiar with economics, basic math and tax policy, these arguments seemed very weak, and that is exactly what they have been proven to be in the first years of Colorado’s new drug era.

In November 2000, voters in Colorado passed Amendment 20, which enabled patients and their caregivers to obtain a restricted amount of marijuana from medical dispensaries (Sensible Colorado, n.d). The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment faced legal charges for creating an informal rule prohibiting caregivers from providing medical marijuana to more than 5 patients at a time (Sensible Colorado, n,d). In 2007, Sensible Colorado, Colorado’s medical marijuana distribution system, won the lengthy hearing, and its victory made way for store-front dispensaries throughout Colorado. Fast forward November 2012, 55% of Colorado’s voters were pro-Amendment 64 (Sensible Colorado, n.d). Amendment 64 made recreational marijuana use legal to anyone age 21 or older. This law was effective January 2014, and almost two years later the changes in the state are astounding.

Los Angeles and Denver are overrun with marijuana stores, and commercialization is influencing the children who are fooled into thinking it’s healthy. If we allow pro-legalization arguments to fly “high,” your state or community will be next. Poppot is a group of parents opposed to the way the pot lobby promotes marijuana as healthy and harmless...

The benefits for legalizing Marijuana in Arizona would give schools $40 million a year. The money would go to k-12 school operations, maintenance, and all day kindergartens. The new bill that might be passed takes away about $3 million from Glendale Union High School Districts. This not only affects students in high school and in lower levels, but also future college students as the budget cuts would cause new “College and Career Ready Standards”. This can not continue as more money should be going into the Arizona education funding, instead of more money being taken

Since 1996, the state of California, and by default, the city of Desert Hot Springs, have allowed the use of medical marijuana. Under proposition 215, any individual with a prescription could legally possess and use cannabis. And this was the case until recently, when a chain of events led to the legalization of consumption for non-medical reasons in California. Proposition 64 legalizes the private use of marijuana as of January 1st, 2018. However, this decision appears to have been made prematurely as the effects of such an abrupt decision are beginning to manifest themselves. Aside from the palpable consequences of marijuana consumption, including sluggishness and impaired judgement, there are far more serious unintended consequences impacting

Just as there have been many cases of negative consequences for the legalization of marijuana…there have also been positive cases. Over the years, the marijuana industry has developed rapidly and generated thousands of new jobs. After the legalization of weed over 18,000 full-time jobs were created and added roughly 2.4 billion USD (US Dollars) to the state of Colorado’s economy. Colorado also accumulated over 10 million USD in taxes from retail sales in the first four months (“7 Ways Marijuana Legalization Has Already Benefited Colorado In Only 8

The dispute regarding weed, more formally known as Cannabis Sativa, has been a topic of discussion throughout the years as people can’t seem to come to a conclusion about it. One side of the argument claims that people are addicted to this drug and its destroying brain cells of the users, and other people claim it not to be as overbearing as other drugs and it is harmless to use. Upon further research the answer is simple. Weed indeed proves to be beneficial and should not be prohibited or illegal. Society shames Cannabis smokers because it is inhaled the same way as tobacco, and those that are against it have developed the notion that it is bad for people’s health.

For those of you that do not know Marijuana—also known as pot, weed, grass, dope and 420 is an addictive drug made from dried cannabis sativa hemp plant. The active chemical in marijuana is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is responsible for marijuana’s effects. THC moves quickly through the bloodstream to act on cannabinoid receptors in areas of the brain that control memory, concentration , perception and movement. Marijuana is the most commonly abused drug in the United States. It is usually rolled into cigarette form and smoked or smoked through a water pipe or “bong” . Occasionally, it is brewed as tea or mixed with food, such as brownies. A marijuana “high” is achieved when mental and physical faculties are noticeably altered. Long-term marijuana abuse often results in lower motivation and an impaired ability to function.