Lesson 11 Assignments
Draft, Review, and Reflect:
Step 1: Complete a rough draft of your research paper. When it is complete, write three categories in which you feel your essay could be stronger, or choose areas in which your writing has shown weakness in the past. Also remember to submit this draft to It will allow you and your instructor to see the "originality index" which will help you determine if you are using too many sources. Depending on its length, your paper should fall below 25 to 30 percent similarity in terms of the use of outside sources.
Step 2: Submit the Rough Draft for peer review. There are various options for completing this part of the assignment. Choose ONE that works for you.
SHOULD RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA BE LEGALIZED IN THE STATE OF ARIZONA AND THE UNITED STATES?
Some believe that the legalization of marijuana will lead to the legalization of other illicit drugs and be a stepping stone to harder drugs. Alcohol and tobacco are legal, so my opinion is that marijuana should be legal to any one over the age of 21. Medical marijuana has proven very helpful in depression, pain management, post-traumatic stress disorder and many other conditions. However, in order to get this help, they have to jump through hoops of paperwork and doctors, to get a card that must be renewed yearly, at a very high cost that is not covered by insurance. I believe the war on drugs started by the United States in the 1960's is big business. If this country will legalize recreational marijuana, it will cut deep into the pockets of lobbyist and politicians who are personally making the money in this war.
Alcohol once illegal also, was fought by the politicians of the time, but the people rose up and had their views known and it was legalized in 1933. Now people are rising up for the legalization of recreational marijuana. I would like to see recreational marijuana legalized throughout all the United States in the next ten years or less.
The definition of marijuana is the dried leaves and female flowers of the hemp plant. Cannabis sativa L. is the binomial name or the species name for the cannabis plant. It is from the family of plants known as Canabaceae, which includes other plants like Hops and Hackberries, [High Times, 2014] the herb has relaxing benefits, something to let you forget about the worries of your day. It has not been proven to be addictive or deadly.
Marijuana is consumed or used in many ways. The five most common that people use are smoking it rolled up as a cigarette, it can be vaporized and then inhaling the active ingredients instead of smoking, many times it is made into edibles (like brownies, gummy candy), marijuana can also be made into topicals (lotions), the final way to use marijuana is as a tincture (made by dissolving the drug in alcohol). Most people I have known smoke joints or use bongs to smoke marijuana. Hemp is used to make some types of rope. The Chinese, were the first people to find the potential healing properties of marijuana. They also grew the plant for its oil and fiber. Marijuana was brought to the United States sometime in the 16th century by the Spanish for its fiber.
We look at the difference between recreational and medical marijuana now. With medical marijuana, you must have a doctor's order stating a medical condition making it necessary. There are doctors who do this exclusively for as little as $99. How can they really know your medical history? You also have to renew the card every year, with a cost of upwards of $300. According the Arizona Department of Government website, there are checklists and forms galore just to get the process started to get a card. I don't know about you, but if I am in pain or ill, I do not want to wait weeks to feel better. If recreational marijuana was available, it would be walking into a store, providing your driver's license for proof of age 21 and purchasing whatever kind of marijuana you want. You would also pay tax just as you do with tobacco or alcohol. The reason that politicians do not like this idea is because it would cut deeply into their coffers of the war on drugs. Marijuana when legalized would also be decriminalized, making arrests of possession non-existent if the possession was within the legal guidelines.
An article from January 2015, shows Dr. Wayne Hull, the director of the Centre for Youth Substance Abuse Research at the University of Queensland found both good and bad in his 20 year study of marijuana. The study from 1998-2013, examined the effect of marijuana over 20 years and was made possible due to the fact that recreational marijuana use has risen dramatically. When the study began the THC level in the marijuana was 2% by the year 2013 the THC level had increased to 8.5%. Hull found in his study, that it is essentially impossible to overdose on marijuana. However, the study was also inconclusive for the long-term effects on the respiratory system. Unlike tobacco which does have a highly negative affect on the respiratory system. Additional studies are being done on the benefits of marijuana in the treatment of cancer pain, type 2 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and my favorite study, pediatric epilepsy.
Currently legislation is pending in several states including Arizona to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. There are two bills in the Arizona legislature for recreational use of marijuana, House Bill 2006 and House Bill 2477. Six more states are moving toward the legalization of recreational marijuana, they are Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, and Nevada has the initiative approved to be on the 2016 ballot. [Smith, 2015]
Many believe that the Arizona bills will be hard pressed given the conservative-led Legislature. But in strong defense of his Bills, Representative Mark Cardenas is taunting the $50 million in potential tax revenue that could help offset the budget shortfall in Arizona. House Bill 2477 would establish a $50 per ounce tax benefit to schools, substance abuse programs and the general fund. House Bill 2007, is to legalize the purchase, possession and consumption of up to an ounce of marijuana for those over 21 years old. According to current polling, proponents of legalizing recreational marijuana want to get it on the ballot for 2016.
As democratic society look into how the legalization in all states will help the government and its people. Based on the state tax figures of those states who have already legalized recreational marijuana, legalization would help eliminate the national deficient or at least put a large dent into it and law enforcement could concentrate on real crimes. People who prefer to have a toke after work in the privacy of their own home or yard rather than or with a beer or a glass of wine, would not be doing so illegally.
The end of 2014 into 2015 saw many changes regarding marijuana. Oregon and Alaska, voted in November 2014 to legalize growing recreational marijuana at home for personal use. The commercial market and regulatory system, in these states will take one to two years to build. In Washington, D.C. the people voted to legalize recreational marijuana. The year 2016 appears to be even more favorable for the initiative of getting legalization on ballots in several more of our United States.
In 2015 and beyond, Colorado and Washington will continue to collect data on the sale of recreational marijuana. Which I feel will provide other states with great information to become a proponents of legalizing recreational marijuana. With the upcoming elections of 2016, I feel that candidates will use recreational marijuana to promote their campaigns to the younger generations in those states who are looking to legalize. And those who are sick or in pain. It won't be a campaign of who toked in the past, but of how they as president will treat those who do toke.
You have been given statistics, laws, and definitions in this paper all supporting legalized. Are you convinced that marijuana should be legalized in Arizona and all of the United States just like alcohol and tobacco are?
