Although I do not know whether it is an intelligent decision or not to legalize marijuana, I do feel that the opinion to have marijuana remain illegal should not be justified on the basis that it is addictive or the effects that it has on any other aspect of the human body. I say this due to the fact that there are countless numbers of items on the market, to which the average American citizen consumes or uses, that also contribute to depression, anxiety, loss of motor skills, increased heart rate etc. We as human beings accept these effects because we are told by propaganda and the media that a particular item will cure a sickness, enhance sexual performance, increase physical endurance, allow you to be more socially accepted by your peers, and more, Or maybe it's just to relax after a hard days work. [continues 257 words]
In the article [editorial] "Finance the bailout: Legalize weed" written April 7, 2009, I found that it lacked strong points for the legalization of marijuana. While the author does make good arguments such as it "generate between 2.4 billion dollars and 6.2 billion dollars in tax revenues." And the point on law enforcement cost. "Costs of law enforcement are estimated to be almost 8 billion dollars a year." I believe the author had the right idea but failed to mention some major points. [continues 150 words]
This letter is in regard to the article [editorial] "Finance the bailout: Legalize weed" published on April 7, 2009 where the author proposes the legalization of marijuana as a possible solution to funding our fumbled economy. While I feel this article touched on some good points I feel it could have elaborated on a few others that would have produced stronger support, and less opposition. For example the author proposes it as a healthier alternative, but does not produce any facts to back it up. A simple Google search would produce statistics from the Journal of the American Medical Association that show alcohol deaths a year at 85,000 and tobacco deaths at a whopping 450,000. Marijuana however, produces zero recorded deaths a year, and will continue to. This would have been a tremendous asset to the argument, seeing as tobacco and alcohol are legal, while marijuana remains illegal. [continues 275 words]
This letter is in response to the article titled, "Finance the Bailout: Legalize Weed" from April 7, 2009. In the article it states that "marijuana is non-addictive, according to health experts." Legalizing marijuana would be a poor choice for this nation considering the additional medical effects it can have on people. Peoples' lives aren't worth the risk for the government to finance the bailout. Marijuana is an addictive drug in more ways than one. It has both a physiological, psychological, and physical effect on people. By definition an addiction is "the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming" (Dictionary.com). Going by the definition alone, marijuana can be deemed an addictive substance. [continues 341 words]
The article [editorial] entitled, "Finance the bailout: Legalize weed", was published on Tuesday, April 7, 2009. It argued that legalizing marijuana would benefit the government by reducing costs on drug control and police resources, and could even be used as a source of tax income. According to the article, the market on legalizing marijuana would bring "between 2.4 billion dollars and 6.2 billion dollars in tax revenues" which would easily counterbalance the 8 billion dollars spent annually on law enforcement. I feel that they are overlooking the fact that if marijuana were to be legalized, there would no doubt be a mass surge of people buying the drug, which would lead to bigger problems. Instead of drunk driving, people may be driving while high, which would still call for police intervention, not to mention the possibility of violence and vandalism while high. [continues 186 words]
On Tuesday, April 7, 2009, the article [editorial] "Finance the bailout: Legalize Weed" simply stated that due to millions of dollars spent every year, marijuana should be legalized. I have many mixed feelings about this being said. It may be true that law enforcement spends too much money on drug control (almost 8 billion states the article) but is it worth the fight. No matter the consequences illegal use in its many forms will continue to be a problem. Legalizing marijuana may lower enforcement costs but I don't understand how it can be a healthy alternative. Marijuana is clamed to not be an addictive drug, so what's the big deal. The article says it's a gateway drug, that leads to other drugs, some more consequential than others. [continues 176 words]
This letter to the editor is in response to the article "Finance the bailout: Legalize weed." In the editorial, the author points out that "there were 117,752 deaths from smoking related cardiovascular diseases and 101,043 deaths from smoking related respiratory diseases in 2004, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." The author can list all the numbers involving smoke related respiratory or cardiovascular deaths that they want but to use these numbers as a valid argument in biases of marijuana being less harmful than cigarettes is completely inaccurate. These numbers are calculated, as you said by smoke related respiratory and or cardiovascular deaths. [continues 315 words]
On Tuesday April 7th an article [editorial appeared titled "Fight [Finance] the bailout: Legalize Weed", the article was an informative piece letting the reader know the advantages that legalizing weed would give to our country in a time of economic decline. After reading the article I found my self strongly agreeing with the author and admired them for speaking out on an issue that is so strongly opposed. I believe that Marijuana is no more dangerous then cigarettes maybe even less dangerous. As the author pointed out many believe that smoking Marijuana can lead to harder drugs and crimes, but lets face it if people want to smoke they are going to smoke legal or not. Legalizing Marijuana may even lower that crime rate, if it was free to purchase without fear of being caught people would be free to purchase it themselves not through a dealer. The economy would be able to save so much money if they stopped trying to locate sellers. [continues 209 words]
The article [editorial] that I will be writing about is called "Finance the Bailout:Legalize Weed" that was published on Tuesday April 7, 2009. The article is about how legalizing weed would be a better use of resources for all levels of government. It talks a lot about how legalizing weed can save us a lot of money from not spending money on Treatment and research, drug education, drug control, imprisonment, and persecution. I feel that it would save some money for people and our country but we would need to do more then just this. Another thing is what about are younger ones that are doing the drugs right now. We will still need them things to make sure or at least try not to have are kids doing the drugs. [continues 184 words]
Finance the Bailout: Legalize Weed" was an editorial published on April 7, 2009. I don't agree with this article [editorial] about legalizing and taxing weed to help produce money , reducing the cost of law enforcement, and a better alternative to cigarettes. Legalizing would generate money, but not enough to make a difference. Today's drug dealers have came up with ways to continue to sell weed while its illegal. If it becomes legal they are going to find ways to sale other things such as heroin, cocaine, and etc. The drug dealers are going to find a way to make money. As long as it's a demand for those harder drug, then that how they are going to make it. The only way the government would be able to make a profit is to sell the weed cheaper than on the street. [continues 195 words]
The number of drug related arrests on campus has occurred most often during the beginning of January to the end of March. Over a four year period Wright State drug related arrest has gradually increased and decreased. According to the "Article Drug Arrest Down twenty six drug related arrest occurred in 2005, and twelve arrests in 2006 and twenty three in 2007" over a three month time frame. This year the number of drug related arrests had dropped twenty one percent compared to the twenty eight drug related arrests of 2008. The editor [writer] (Allison Lewis) "fills that the new narcotics police dog is one of the main factors why there has only been six drug related arrests this year". I somewhat agree with this opinion the editor makes. From my point of view the students that do use drugs get a little skeptical and careful about using drugs on campus because they know it's at a higher risk of them getting caught with the new police dog in effect. I strongly believe just the presence of the police dog has caused some of the Dayton drug dealers to stop coming on campus as much. [continues 217 words]
The response to the article [editorial] "Finance the Bailout: Legalize Weed" was published on 4-29-2009. The author feels that legalizing marijuana for tax dollars has a larger moral cost to it. The reasons that the author gives for not legalizing marijuana are that marijuana leads to harder drugs, marijuana is a harmful substance, and that there would still be other drugs. For some people marijuana leads to harder drugs, for others caffeine, alcohol, or prescription medication leads to other drugs. [continues 289 words]
Kaitlyn Carroll's rationalization (An Argument Against the Legalization of Weed, Apr. 24, 2009) to continue cannabis (marijuana) prohibition is ignorant. Does Carroll even realize She's admitting desires to cage responsible adult humans for using the relatively safe, socially acceptable, God-given plant? Perhaps it's time for Carroll to stop thinking of cannabis as a "drug," and start thinking of it as a plant. Plant, as in, Christ God Our Father, The Ecologician, indicates He created all seed bearing plants saying they are all good on literally the very 1st page of the Bible. A sane and moral argument to continue caging humans for using the plant cannabis doesn't exist. Caging humans for using cannabis can only be rationalized based upon personality traits associated with bigotry, racism or discrimination. Stan White [end]
If the U.S. government were to legalize marijuana, I believe that it would help financially stabilize our economy. The U.S. government is making about $7.7 billion from the sale of cigarettes alone. Imagine how much our government could add to this by legalizing the production and sale of marijuana. Drug reporter Bruce Mirken states, "The alcohol poisoning death rate in the United States is shockingly high, consistently between 300 and 400 a year. It's zero for pot." This proves that alcohol, which is legal for anyone over the age of 21, is far more dangerous than marijuana. Legalizing marijuana does not mean that the government would have no control over the sale and use. I believe that there should be regulations such as an age limit to buy, and strict DUI laws. [continues 324 words]
I found the article, "Finance the Bailout: Legalize Marijuana," from April 7, 2009, which suggested an interesting technique for the government to earn revenue. I would agree with the idea that taxing illegal drugs would be economically beneficial to the erratic American economy. Marijuana has been proven to be useful in the medical field and does not have addictive components like harder drugs that can be quite damaging and dangerous. However, cigarettes contain nicotine, which is an addictive drug, and other contaminants within cigarettes cause cancer and other serious medical issues. Alcohol is another drug that is also more damaging to the body than marijuana, and is responsible for increased blood pressure, liver damage, and alcohol poisoning when consumed in copious amounts. Nonetheless, alcohol, like marijuana, in small amounts can have medicinal purposes, and is not harmful in moderation. [continues 178 words]
Just a couple thoughts for the author of this article. Kaitlyn, I believe is her name. First, "weed" isn't the preferred nomenclature. Cannabis, or marijuana, would do just fine, and would make you sound much less pretentious. Next, 10 Billion dollars (you can check that) is what the Drug Enforcement Agency spent last year on the prohibition of marijuana. Not heroin, or cocaine, just "weed". Ask yourself this: are adults, who partake in their homes; worth those kind of tax dollars? [continues 293 words]
I was reading the piece about all the doom and gloom that would accompany legalization of "weed" (cannabis,hemp,marijuana). The thing the writer left out, was the fact that illegal or not, weed is currently sold everywhere. And it is sold to anyone with cash, by criminals. In reading this piece, a person would get the idea that our authorities, were incapable of controlling a legal substance. In that case we are in dire need of some new and capable authorities. Or does the writer believe that the drug trade is better left in the hands of street gangs, cartels, and even the Taliban? Yes, there are many reasons to hate drugs, but "prohibition" is not working, and current policies only enrich the criminals. To continue on this course, is to condone the deaths of all who die for a failed policy. Jerry D. Lape [end]
In the past days I have read many opinions on the topic of legalization marijuana. "Finance the bailout; Legalize weed" was an article [editorial] in the Guardian on April 7th, 2009, in which the author talked about how the legalization of marijuana could be an opportunity to lower enforcement costs but raise money by taxing the drug. I agree, but I was thinking about how taxing a plant would be possible. Since marijuana grows from a seed it is not possible to be monopolized, therefore the decriminalization needs stricter regulations. [continues 251 words]
Upon reading the article "Finance the bailout: Legalize Weed" I found that I very much agree with everything said. Our country could do a plethora of things with 6.2 billion dollars, not to mention how many things we could also do with the money that would be saved by cutting down on the cost of law enforcement, persecution, etc. Anyone who would argue 6.2 billion dollars not helping our government is misguided, how would it not? Along with that, if they opened up special factories/warehouses for the production and distribution of marijuana, a myriad of jobs would become available. I also read a comment on a response that I completely agree with, stating that they would rather legalize it and require an ID to purchase it rather than having kids risk their lives by going to street corners and buying marijuana off of shady drug dealers. One could argue that this situation could be avoided if they just did not buy and/or do drugs, and this is a noteworthy point, but one must consider that kids will be kids and some people just do not know any better. [continues 87 words]
In fact, weed is a gateway drug that is getting more and more popular in our communities. Marijuana use is increasing everyday and many people get caught with it all the time. However, I do believe legalizing the drug will ultimately help society and the economy. I agree with what Daniel Cwiakala on the statement made which said, "There is no way that simply using money gained by the legalization of weed will save our economy." Of course the sales only from marijuana will not get our country out of dept but it will help. Even if the profit of weed distribution is 6.2 billion dollars a year that is 6.2 billion dollars we would not have had without this upcoming change of law. Each year more money will be made from each sale so more tax revenue will go to the government to help our struggling economy. No, weed legalization alone will not completely clear debt in The United States but overall it will help our country and our beloved America needs all the help we can get. [continues 208 words]
