Free Essays on Marijuana Legalization

With the rise in controversy over marijuana, and its use both medically and recreationally, a need for resolve of marijuana legislation has become evermore important. Modern day society carries a wide spectrum of views on this age-old drug and its use. Some compare its prohibition in the 1920s. Others argue marijuana is less harmful to society than alchol. Fifteen percent of the United States population falling under regular users and our prisons over crowded with people who have commited a victimless crime., clear and decisive legislation should be made on its use(NewScientist). The long-time argument of the benefits of medical marijuana is often the battle cry of the marijuana legalization movement. Granted, a number of supporters have no medical use for the drug, but the claim of its medicinal value is a practical one. The public support for medical marijuana is obvious, with six states having passed protests allowing medical use within their borders. More importantly the scientific support exists. Study after study shows the benefits of marijuana far outweigh its less desirable effects. For the legalization movement the most notable of these studies would be the government's most recent conducted by the food and drug administration(Wikman). This study was commissioned by General Barry McCaffrey, the drug czar of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Arguing that marijuana is a "gateway" drug and that if it was used for medicinal purposes it would lead to greater illicit usage. In the end the study showed that marijuana's medical treatments include pain relief, control of nausea and vomiting, and appetite stimulation. Conceding that while â€Å"some of its effects are modest, and some other drugs may be better for some treatments,† everyone is not responsive to the other treatments and for individuals infected with AIDS or going though chemotherapy marijuana will provide a beneficial multi-symptom relief(360). On top of this... Free Essays on Marijuana Legalization Free Essays on Marijuana Legalization With the rise in controversy over marijuana, and its use both medically and recreationally, a need for resolve of marijuana legislation has become evermore important. Modern day society carries a wide spectrum of views on this age-old drug and its use. Some compare its prohibition in the 1920s. Others argue marijuana is less harmful to society than alchol. Fifteen percent of the United States population falling under regular users and our prisons over crowded with people who have commited a victimless crime., clear and decisive legislation should be made on its use(NewScientist). The long-time argument of the benefits of medical marijuana is often the battle cry of the marijuana legalization movement. Granted, a number of supporters have no medical use for the drug, but the claim of its medicinal value is a practical one. The public support for medical marijuana is obvious, with six states having passed protests allowing medical use within their borders. More importantly the scientific support exists. Study after study shows the benefits of marijuana far outweigh its less desirable effects. For the legalization movement the most notable of these studies would be the government's most recent conducted by the food and drug administration(Wikman). This study was commissioned by General Barry McCaffrey, the drug czar of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Arguing that marijuana is a "gateway" drug and that if it was used for medicinal purposes it would lead to greater illicit usage. In the end the study showed that marijuana's medical treatments include pain relief, control of nausea and vomiting, and appetite stimulation. Conceding that while â€Å"some of its effects are modest, and some other drugs may be better for some treatments,† everyone is not responsive to the other treatments and for individuals infected with AIDS or going though chemotherapy marijuana will provide a beneficial multi-symptom relief(360). On top of this... Free Essays on Marijuana Legalization Most Americans do not want to spend scarce public funds incarcerating nonviolent marijuana offenders, at a cost of $23,000 per year. Politicians must reconsider our country's priorities and attach more importance to combating violent crime than targeting marijuana smokers. Marijuana prohibition costs taxpayers at least $7.5 billion annually. This is an enormous waste of scarce federal dollars that should be used to target violent crime. Marijuana prohibition makes no exception for the medical use of marijuana. The tens of thousands of seriously ill Americans who presently use marijuana as a therapeutic agent to alleviate symptoms of cancer, AIDS, glaucoma, or multiple sclerosis risk arrest and jail to obtain and use their medication. Between 1978 and 1996, 34 states passed laws recognizing marijuana's therapeutic value. Most recently, voters in two states Arizona and California passed laws allowing for the medical use of marijuana under a physician's supervision. Yet, states are severely limited in their ability to implement their medical use laws because of the federal prohibition of marijuana. America tried alcohol prohibition between 1919 and 1931, but discovered that the crime and violence associated with prohibition was more damaging than the evil sought to be prohibited. With tobacco, America has learned over the last decade that education is the most effective way to discourage use. Yet, America fails to apply these lessons to marijuana policy. By stubbornly defining all marijuana smoking as criminal, including that which involves adults smoking in the privacy of their own homes, we are wasting police and prosecutorial resources, clogging courts, filling costly and scarce jail and prison space, and needlessly wrecking the lives and careers of genuinely good citizens. Marijuana legalization offers an important advantage over dec... Free Essays on Marijuana Legalization In the year 1937, the United States government made the drug marijuana illegal. This ban had little effect on people until the mid 60’s and 70’s. This was a time where many mind altering drugs where experimented with and widely used. During this time was also when marijuana research took place. Early researches was vague and bias, but in the years after many legitimate studies have been conducted, and both sides of the issues have been revealed. While looking at these studies with an open mind, one can conclude that marijuana should be legalized. Even though there are some health risks associated with marijuana, it is no different than legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco. Marijuana does have negative health aspects. The main hazard linked with marijuana is the smoke inhaled by the user. This is an interesting point because most marijuana users are not exposed to as much smoke as a tobacco user, and only smoke as much marijuana as necessary to reach their desired effects. Also recent studies show that the marijuana produced today is much more potent than it was thirty years ago. This only makes the hazards less because it will be safer to the user since less volume of smoke will be required to reach the same desired high. Marijuana smoke is very similar to tobacco smoke, and tobacco smoke has been found to cause lung diseases like cancer and emphysema, but marijuana users typically do not smoke anywhere near the volume of marijuana as tobacco smokers smoke tobacco. The other major effect marijuana is said to have is psychological harms. There was a time that marijuana research made it appear as if there was a structural change in the brain of heavy marijuana users, but modern research has disproved those studies (Co and Goodwin 1229). While a person is intoxicated they tend to perform poorly in auditory functions, and this is due to reduction of blood flow to the temporal lobe of the brain (O’ Leary and Andr...

Enterprise Reporting and News Stories

Enterprise Reporting and News Stories To a good reporter, many stories are obviously important to cover – a house fire, a homicide, an election, a new state budget. But what about those slow news days when breaking news is sparse and there aren’t any interesting press releases worth checking out? Those are the days when good reporters are working on what they call â€Å"enterprise stories.† They’re the kind of stories that many reporters find the most rewarding to do. What Is Enterprise Reporting? Enterprise reporting involves stories not based on press releases or news conferences. Instead, enterprise reporting is all about the stories a reporter digs up on his or her own, what many people call â€Å"scoops.† Enterprise reporting goes beyond merely covering events. It explores the forces shaping those events. For instance, we’ve all heard stories about recalls of faulty and possibly dangerous products related to children like cribs, toys and car seats. But when a team of reporters at the Chicago Tribune looked into such recalls they discovered a pattern of inadequate governmental regulation of such items. Likewise, New York Times reporter Clifford J. Levy did a series of investigative stories that uncovered widespread abuse of mentally ill adults in state-regulated homes. Both the Tribune and Times projects won Pulitzer prizes. Finding Ideas for Enterprise Stories So how can you develop your own enterprise stories? Most reporters will tell you that uncovering such stories involves two key journalistic skills: observation and investigation. Observation Observation, obviously, involves seeing the world around you. But while we all observe things, reporters take observation one step further by using their observations to generate story ideas. In other words, a reporter who sees something interesting almost invariably asks himself, â€Å"could this be a story?† Let’s say you stop at a gas station to fill up your tank. You see the price of a gallon of gas has risen again. Most of us would grumble about it, but a reporter might ask, â€Å"Why is the price rising?† Here’s an even more mundane example: You’re in the grocery store and notice that the background music has changed. The store used to play the kind of sleepy orchestral stuff that probably no one under 70 would enjoy. Now the store is playing pop tunes from the 1980s and 1990s. Again, most of us would take little notice of this, but a good reporter would ask, â€Å"Why did they change the music?† Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes, and Trends Notice that both examples involve changes – in the price of gas, in the background music played. Changes are something reporters always look for. A change, after all, is something new, and new developments are what reporters write about. Enterprise reporters also look for changes that occur over time - trends, in other words. Discovering a trend is often a great way to start an enterprise story. Why Ask Why? You’ll notice that both examples involve the reporter asking â€Å"why† something was happening. â€Å"Why† is probably the most important word in any reporter’s vocabulary. A reporter who asks why something is happening is beginning the next step of enterprise reporting: investigation. Investigation Investigation is really just a fancy word for reporting. It involves doing the interviews and digging up the information to develop an enterprise story. An enterprise reporter’s first task is to do some initial reporting to see if there really is an interesting story to be written about (not all interesting observations turn out to be interesting news stories.) The next step is to gather the material needed to produce a solid story. So the reporter investigating the rise in gas prices might discover that a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico has slowed oil production, causing the price spike. And the reporter probing the changing background music might find that it’s all about the fact that the big grocery shoppers these days – parents with growing kids – came of age in the 1980s and 1990s and want to hear music that was popular in their youth. Example: A Story About Underage Drinking Lets take one more example, this one involving a trend. Lets say youre the police reporter in your hometown. Every day youre in police headquarters, checking the arrest log. Over a period of several months, you notice a spike in arrests for underage drinking among students from the local high school. You interview the cops to see if beefed-up enforcement is responsible for the increase. They say no. So you interview the principal of the high school as well as teachers and counselors. You also talk to students and parents and discover that, for a variety of reasons, underage drinking is increasing. So you write a story about the problems of underage drinking and how its on the rise in your hometown. What youve produced is an enterprise story, one not based on a press release or a news conference, but on your own observation and investigation. Enterprise reporting can encompass everything from feature stories (the one about changing background music would probably fit that category) to more serious investigative pieces, like the ones cited above by the Tribune and Times.