Bishop Robert P. Deeley Analysis

1.If the use of marijuana is legal, should there be age restrictions for medical purposes?

Marijuana is amongst one of the most disputable subjects in political issues. It is the most exploited drug in the United States and can even be around the globe. Marijuana is the main source of substance reliance other than alcohol in the United States. Numerous groups in recent years have come forward and claim that marijuana use has been beneficial with numerous medical conditions. In fact, it has helped numerous people with diseases, for example, Glaucoma, Cancer, and any other physical or mental pain. Medicinal cannabis should be legalized in Florida, but should be regulated accordingly. The clear majority trust that marijuana use would be more beneficial if it was not criminalized but most still believe that the government should keep it as a controlled substance. In 2008, 4 million out of the 7 million individuals, ages 12 and older, characterized as having a reliance or abusing marijuana. This implies that two out of every three Americans experiencing any substance abuse have developed marijuana reliance. The legalization of marijuana in the United States such an issue for so many individuals today. Some believe that marijuana should not be legalized in Florida because of physical health, mental health, effects of driving under the influence of marijuana, and increase in use. Others believe that is it marijuana should be legal because of its harmless if used in moderation, limits of personal freedoms, and potential FDA regulations.

According to a 2012 Monitoring the Future study, marijuana is the illicit drug most likely to be used by teens (Maine Integrated Youth Health Survey). Marijuana comes from the plant Cannabis Sativa and appears as a green/brown mix of flowers, stems, and leaves (Teens Health 1). Marijuana is also known as pot, weed, MJ, Mary Jane, reefer, dope, ganja, herb, and grass. Marijuana is most often smoked in cigarettes, hollowed-out cigars, pipes, or water pipes, but is sometimes mixed into food or tea (1). Why are there concerns about teen use of marijuana? During adolescence, many developmental changes are occurring and poor choices could affect a teen’s future

Cannabis is a popular topic amongst teens, adults and medical doctors these days. Cannabis, also known as marijuana, pot, weed and hash can be quite controversial across America, since you have those who disapprove and those who condone its use. You might know someone who uses it, or maybe you have even tried it before. They say more than 1 in 3 people in America have tried marijuana at one point in their lives (Web MD). As of 2017, 29 states plus the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana to some extent (Healthline). Recreational use of marijuana has been legalized in 8 states, with the age restriction being 21 years or older (CNN).

In addition to increase public health problems, legalizing marijuana will lead to increase use of the drug among youngsters. Despite the regulatory approaches, legalizing marijuana has the inevitable effect of increasing the availability and consumption of the drug. Under the current prohibitions, the rate of consumption of marijuana among teenagers is already high; however, the rate of use would greatly increase if the drug was legitimately available to the population. For instance, despite the prohibitions against distribution of alcohol to teenagers, many youngsters who are under the legal age drink alcohol today. Similarly, high percentages of the young population are currently smokers even though the law prohibit them from buying cigarettes. Therefore, it is expected that the usage of marijuana among teenagers would increase if marijuana was legalized. Notably, the marijuana use will impair the development process of teenagers, which will negatively affect their health in later life. Thus, the increased use of marijuana among teenagers is a great concern. It will contribute to great dangers on the health of the youths.

While a majority of individuals in the United States may believe that marijuana should be legal, the support among Evangelical Protestants (32%), Catholics (39%), and Mainline Protestants (45%) is much lower. The majority of Christians in America would say that they do not believe that anyone should use marijuana and that it should not be legal to purchase the drug. The problem with this view is that it mixes two different issues together, whether something is moral and whether the government has the jurisdiction to criminalize a particular conduct. I will analyze both of these separate issues below and provide a conclusion for both.

Five states have implemented way to minimize the amount of crime while people are still able to use. Even though the states have made this determination though a vote. The Federal government still sees it as a felony crime. Within the reform strict policies have been set in place. Should marijuana be decriminalized or legalized? Should there be restrictions based on age. There was an analysis done that compared five states that implemented major marijuana reforms. Evaluating their effectiveness in reducing marijuana arrests and their impact on various health and safety outcomes. The two types of reforms that were evaluated: all-ages decriminalization in the states of California, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. The other reform was 21-and – older legalization in Colorado and Washington. From the analysis out of the five states all five state experienced substantial declines in marijuana possession arrests. There were four states with available data that also showed unexpected drops in marijuana felony arrests. All- ages decriminalization more effectively reduced marijuana arrest and associated harms for people of all ages, particularly young people. The decriminalization in California has not resulted in harmful consequences for teenagers, such as increased crime, drug overdose, driving under the influence, or school drop outs. California teenagers showed improvement in all

Growing up, time and time again, we are urged not to do drugs and are told that “drugs are bad for you,” in schools, at home and by many other authority figures. A child typically does not fully understand the reasoning behind this, all they know is that everyone is telling them that drugs are either bad, unhealthy or unsafe without real reasoning. As a child matures, he or she observes people that use drugs even though it is illegal and they do not understand why someone would go against the law and even jeopardize their health to use such drugs. The drug most commonly seen in our culture is marijuana and it is all around everywhere. Marijuana is shown throughout today’s culture in the media that people enjoy such as: movies, music and TV shows, the people using it do not even attempt to hide the fact that they use this substance. Young adults who have personal experience with the drug know its effects on themselves, as well as others, and wonder why it is still illegal. Why is it that this drug has been illegalized across the globe? The debate to legalize marijuana in the United States of America, alone, has been fought over nonstop since the appearance of the drug in the late 30’s. Marijuana has been tested and proven to provide a very positive impact on the American society for several reasons, including economic, medical and crime factors: all of which could very well help America to thrive in the future.

Medical Marijuana has been an issue that has been occurring and is present on a domestic level. In many ways it is a phenomena that has essentially been integrated across multiple platforms. This includes the application that is present and associated with full legalization. Although states have implemented many regulatory measures, the macro level effect that this has upon the youth has not been fully investigated. Marijuana does however have negative effects upon cognitive development for young adults. This is something that must be taken into consideration when looking to specifically promote a precise strategy that has the ability to be present. As a result Medical Marijuana laws should focus on increasing the age limit from 18 to the

The legalization of marijuana is, and has been a heavily disputed issue for decades. On one hand, marijuana could lead to a medical breakthrough, or at least provide relief to cancer and AIDS patients. On the other hand, legalizing a drug could expose it to too broad an audience. As a drug, marijuana has never proven to be anywhere near as harmful as cigarettes or alcohol. Each year in the United States, 400,000 people die from tobacco, 50,000 from alcohol, and from marijuana, zero. Regardless of what side one may take to this argument, there are some causes to this marijuana debate that everyone should know. Marijuana was not always illegal, and the reasons behind the history of narcotic regulation are interesting when viewed from

There is an intensive debate in society, today, about legalizing marijuana. Supporters of marijuana highlight that legalizing will not increase its consumption, and in fact will provide individuals with a legal choice. Opponents argue that legalizing marijuana will increase consumption, which would expose consumers to health risks as extreme as cancer. I believe marijuana should be legalized by the federal government. It is already being consumed in the society, and legalizing marijuana will facilitate monitoring its growth, usage, and help collect taxes. Marijuana has overwhelming support in the medical field as an alternate medicine. Also, marijuana will provide a legal alternative to individuals who rely on illegal and dangerous drugs, such as cocaine and heroin. Legalization will significantly reduce marijuana trafficking and curtail black market activities. Furthermore, legalizing will divert the cash stream from black markets to the states and the federal government, in the form of taxes. The additional revenue can be used to do additional research on

The use of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana within America throughout the twenty and twenty-first century has been heavily disputed within our own government as well as shaped many of our leaders lives. Even currently, the argument for legalized marijuana is heavily debated and brought to the American public eye through vast media sources. The health risks involved in partaking of tobacco, marijuana, and alcohol can be very consequential, or not at all. Many current political acts, such as Colorado legalizing recreational marijuana, have brought the eligibility of past studies on the health risks of marijuana to the surface as well as the health factors involved with other legal substances. This act followed by many other states has forced the government to reevaluate their stances on the legality of mind altering substances.

Legalizing marijuana would make the drug easily accessible, which could potential lead to abuse and potential health effects in adolescence and adults that abuse the drug. This law could potentially increase crimes and the number of arrests for driving under the influence of drugs, which puts the safety of our citizens at risk. States should consider their options in order to fight legalizing of marijuana in their states. This paper provides some concepts around the impacts a state could incur and encourages the state to look beyond dollars earned and to ensure the state understands some of the impacts associated such as higher accidents and fatalities, increased criminal activity and a higher number homeless people. This could be solved by maintaining the federal regulations on controlled substances by the federal government. It is encouraged that the state careful consider if this is a viable option for the state and consider enhancing the policies around medicinal marijuana

It seems every decade marijuana studies show that it has no side effects on users, in turn it become more available like when some states in America had legalized it. Dr Kevin M. Gray believes that the only side effect of smoking weed is the physical addictions it causes, he believes that over 51% of all teens have used weed at least once and the biggest problem we are facing with this rapidly growing drug use is only addiction. Dr Marshall M. Gay believes that the health effects of weed isn’t that much as smoking cigarettes and doesn’t see it a threat to people’s health. “More than half (51%) of adolescents reported that marijuana is fairly or very easy to obtain.2 this ease of availability may have contributed to a recently reported "reverse gateway" from cigarettes use to marijuana”. The more ignored belief is that marijuana can lead to a variety of developmental, mental and physical side effects. The effects of smoking weed can extend to those of smoking cigarettes “studies show regular marijuana use can lead to many of the same

The second reason that the government should not legalize marijuana is that doing so will send the message that is okay to use other psychoactive drugs. Legalizing marijuana could result in advertising of this drug to adolescents. A study was conducted during 2003 showing that roughly 48 percent of twelfth graders reported using alcohol in the past thirty days and 24 percent reported smoking cigarettes in the past thirty days. Household access to illicit substances is coupled with a greater risk of marijuana use among both younger and older adolescents. This is often coupled with parental drug use which sends the message that it is okay to use psychoactive drugs (Joffe & Yancy, 2004, p. e636). The general idea is that we, as people, shouldn’t be making it easier for our children to get drugs. Thus far, it is shown that there is a struggle to educate the youth to avoid the use of psychoactive drugs. However, certain organizations, such as DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), have made solid efforts to