I attended a marijuana meeting on April 14, 2018, at Middlesex County College, located at 2600 Woodbridge Avenue, Edison, NJ 08837. Several different people were there at the assembly such as Chairman Joe Danielson, Vice-Chairman Eric Houghtaling, Assemblywoman Yvonne Lopez and Annette Quijano and Assemblyman Ronald Dancer and Brian Rumpf. One speaker that I found interesting who spoke on the marijuana debate was Linda Dorsey-Agudosi. She talked about how marijuana has helped her and how she benefited from it. She stated that she was in a car accident in 2008 and uses marijuana for her medication for chronic pain, she had two surgeries related to the car accident and ten other surgeries previously. “I live in chronic pain and every day is a …show more content…
They took testimonies from invited speakers and the public on the impact of prospective marijuana legalization. The meeting focused was on how marijuana could affect the public health, criminal justice system and the economy in New Jersey. Chairman Joe Danielson, thanked Dorsey-Agudosi for her testimony. He stated that he was already aspired and its people like Dorsey-Agudosi that needs the pharmaceutical medication that is provided by the plant that has charged him. He said that it is truly a calling that he will answer, and so will the other members of this committee and the Legislature. The committee was pleased with Dorsey-Agudosi reasons for wanting marijuana to be legal, and they took her business card and told her that they would get back to her soon. Everybody in the audience applauded her after she …show more content…
Each year, New Jersey police have set new records for marijuana possession arrests, making the largest number ever in 2015: 24, 985 (Sinha, 2017). Enforcement of marijuana prohibition exacerbates deep racial disparities in our criminal justice system and costs taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually (Sinha, 2017). First, there will not be any illegal selling of marijuana. This will limit the people who sell it illegally and facing five to ten years in jail, and hence they can now sell it legally without any fear of being arrested. It would force the people selling it illegally to get a legal job. It also allows police and courts to focus on more violent crimes in communities. It will create a set of standards for quality and safety control in the environment (Hall & Lynskey,
Legalizing marijuana is a concept that can potentially benefit the public as well as the local economies. There has been a nationwide debate on whether marijuana should be legalized or not. The major consensus is that marijuana is not only bad for one’s health, but it is also dangerous to the community. These allegations are not true. Marijuana actually has health benefits that most people overlook. The following essay will address these health benefits in an attempt to present this concept in a way that the audience can better understand how legalizing marijuana can beneficial to an individual health, how it can give an increase to the economy.
Joycelyn Elders, former Surgeon General, once spoke about the legalization of marijuana for medical use in a press conference. "It's criminal to keep this medicine from patients," she said (Silverman, 1995, pg. 2). She received criticism not only from many citizens of the United States, but also strong criticism from the President who appointed her. The legalization of marijuana for medical use has always been a sharply debated subject, and many of the debaters are uneducated about the effects of using this illegal drug for therapeutic use. Many studies have been done and the results are clear. As a medical drug, marijuana should be available to patients who do not adequately respond to currently available
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
The General perspective that society throws on marijuana is that equal to any drug; negative. However, many researchers have found that the effects of marijuana for medicinal purposes can be beneficial to the right patients, as well as the United States government. The negative effects from marijuana use in a medicinal environment are far less than that of most over the counter drugs, while the benefits remain the same. There are instances in which marijuana was legalized for people with prescriptions from licensed doctors; however, full legalization is leaps and bounds away from the current status. Another way full legalization could help is money the government uses to try and fight marijuana
An immense portion of the police task force is dedicated to drug busts focusing on petty marijuana users. Another irritated citizen vocalized his opinion with, “I’d be very frustrated in the fact that I’m supposed to arrest and lock up marijuana users, when I should be fighting real crime,” (Green). The focus on busting minor pot users needs to be decreased for it is consuming too much of the police force’s time. This saved time could be dedicated to fighting more serious crime and problems in communities, thus making it more safer for surrounding neighborhoods. Beyond the police force, it also does not help that recreational marijuana is already a law in several states in the U.S., such as Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and D.C. (Livio). If these locations in America have passed the okay for weed how come NJ has not followed through too? The country’s capital has already made it legal which is massive but people in other states are still suffering with laws preventing treatment and recreational use of marijuana.
The questions about uses of marijuana in the future does not have a clear answer to it. One of the poll represents that two third of Canadians believe that marijuana should be legalized; therefore, people would not have criminal records for non-violent offences. However, there is not a clear understanding of knowing that legalizing marijuana would create future criminal. The uses of marijuana for medical purposes are acceptable; however, there are a lot of people who does not have any diseases, and tries to take advantages of it. Government is certainly worried about recreational uses of marijuana, and started to collect dates about driving impairment. Many people are worried about the fact that teenagers will take advantages of marijuana as
Legalizing marijuana has become a controversial and highly debated topic. More specifically, the question under investigation is will the taxation of marijuana provide relief for our Connecticut's budget crisis and shortfalls. Legalizing marijuana has been a topic of conversation more and more as the year's pass. First, it started off with decriminalizing marijuana to provide relief to the justice system. Recently there have several states, including Colorado, Washington, and Oregon who have legalized the use and sale of marijuana to provide revenue for the state. It is anticipated that Colorado marijuana tax will yield more than $140 million in 2016 (Ekins and Henchman, 2016). Given our own budget crisis, which seems to be the topic every
The whole topic on whether marijuana usage should be legal or not has been a hot debate topic for quite a while now. The use of marijuana has become even more popular, mostly with the younger generations. Many people fought on how it could be useful those who are sick in America and that need medications that could maybe help calm their disease and make it possible to overcome. Currently, you can legally smoke marijuana without a doctors note in 9 states and use medical marijuana in 29 states. 64% of Americans favor legalization, and even a majority of Republicans back it as well. (Robinson)
The topic of my debate was “is it okay for Christians to agree on the legalization of Medical Marijuana?”. I was supposed to debate for the no side which meant that I did not believe that Christians should agree with the legalization of Medical Marijuana. Some of our support for our stance on the topic were the effects of using marijuana and our Biblical reference.
Representatives Dana Rohrbacher, and Thomas Massie are among legislators who support a legislative amendment to give states greater latitude concerning marijuana laws. They think of their amendment as a reasonable one, because many doctors support the idea that medical marijuana needs to be prescribed to alleviate the suffering of their patients. Representative Massie encourages his colleagues to support the amendment. He highlights that research has shown very promising results with the use of cannabis for epilepsy and some others neurological disorders. On the other hand, Representative Frank Wolf disapproves with their opinion. Wolf is concerned that the public and policymakers do not have an accurate understanding of the health and public safety impacts of widespread marijuana availability. Providing different opinions given by the U.S House of Representative members bring important points regarding to marijuana legalization, how can they make and pass it as a federal law if some disagree with the
Marijuana has been used for thousands of years to treat many conditions and has never caused a single human death. The 1999 institute of medicine proved that it did not in any part reach the legal definition of a schedule 1 drug the US law put it under. The institute of medicine established that marijuana has positive medical benefits in a variation of illnesses and has a lower chance for drug abuse than alcohol and tobacco which have a higher rate of being a gateway drug used by minors. In 1988 the Drug enforcement administration also started to investigate the medical uses of marijuana. As a result the DEA discovered that there are positive medical uses for marijuana and was uncovered to be “one of the safest substances known to man” DEA Administrative Law Judge Francis Young said during a two year hearing on marijuana for medical use. Soon after the facts about the acceptable medical uses of marijuana were noted it started to attention publicly, increasing its popularity and supporters quickly.
Throughout time there has always been a debate on whether or not marijuana should be legal or not. The most recent drug survey, conducted in March 2015, “finds that a slim majority (53%) of Americans say Marijuana should be made legal, compared with 44% who want it to be illegal”, and the opinions have changed drastically since 1969, when only 12% favored legalizing marijuana use. Marijuana is a plant that people use for various things, including medicinal use, recreational use, and personal use. Although most people believe marijuana is a dangerous drug and inflicts damage to society, legalizing it actually has many benefits, from marijuana having positive health effects, to not being as dangerous to other legal drugs like Alcohol and Tabaco,
Today, Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington state, and Washington, D.C. have all legalized medical and recreational marijuana. Additionally, there are also twenty other states that have made medical marijuana legal. Furthermore. about fifteen states are trying to pass laws in which marijuana would be decriminalized (DeMaria, M.). In our opinion, another aspect we would also like to point out is the concept of lessening the overcrowded prison system. Just think how many first time offenders could be exonerated if marijuana was deemed
The medical use of marijuana has been a discussion that has been in the news and all around us recently. This is currently a hot topic of interest. There is an enormous amount of evidence that marijuana could be effect against many things. For example evidence shows it could be used to help relieve pain during chemotherapy, but along with this there is also evidence that at times marijuana can cause harm to someone as well. As nurses we must see each side of the debate to make our care for our patients sounder. One quote that directly applies to this topic, which is very important, was written in the Journal of Clinical Nursing:
As the debate about marijuana’s use as a medicine continues, experts have given us information pertaining to