Your Life on earth
personal Philosophy project
Visual piece
written Piece
speech and artist statement
Hello everybody my name's clay kinder thanks for coming out today. Do you ever think about your role on earth as a human being? Most people see us humans as the reason the earth exists. It's a largely believed philosophy in america's culture known as anthropocentrism. Someone who is anthropocentric has beliefs that fall under the idea that the earth was created for humans and that we are superior to all other species. I think this belief is well spread throughout the american society because of our religions and the way our society has been conditioned to function. From what I see and know it feels like we have little respect for other species. The things we need in our everyday lives can have great negative effects to other species like driving cars, building new homes, eating fast food, the list goes on and on. The bottom line is some people do things everyday that have negative impacts on other species and plants and either just turn there shoulder to it or don't even know it's happening. It almost seems automatic that people think the earth was created for them. For my project I made a few political cartoons about anthropocentric beliefs from somewhat of a anti anthropocentric point of view. The point of all of these is to get you, my audience, to think. I want these cartoons to either challenge your beliefs and make you think, or just allow you to agree and feel like someone else understands how you feel.
My first cartoon is a picture of two oil rigs drilling with a banner suspended that says happy earth day. Above is written “Thank God For Our Resources”. The idea behind this cartoon is that people are taking resources that other species may need. Because we are the only species with the level of intelligence that we have no one can stop us from taking whatever we want. The message I am trying to get across is that humans take resources from obvious things like oil to other things like trees and water and call it theirs. It's really up to you to and your own beliefs to agree or disagree with this. The point is to just get you thinking.
This second cartoon I have here I made to get people thinking. Once again this picture has a anti anthropocentric point of view but this time it's just on modern society in general. The circle in the middle represents the earth and all the things inside it and around it are commodities that we either use for work, survival, or pleasure. All the things depicted in this picture are convenient for and desired by humans, thus the words an ideal world. But if you think about it all these things like fast food, roller coasters and modern transportation services are usually hurtful to other species in some type of way, thus the words “ But For Who?..” written at the bottom. The reason I created this picture was just to make you think. Almost every convenience we have adapted to in today society has some effect on other species no matter how little. My hope is that this will make you start thinking about the effects of your everyday decisions, i'm not saying it change them but having an idea on how and what you're impacting can actually change the choices you make everyday and who knows maybe it's for the better.
My third and final piece is a little bit of a joke also from an anti anthropocentric mindset. Don't get me wrong, humans do lots of great things to try and help our environment but the funny thing is we probably do just as much to hurt it. The point I was trying to make with this cartoon is that we do lots of things that negatively impact our planet but tend to ignore it and try to fix other problems. We do lots of things to help make sure other species are doing good like creating nature preserves and things like that but the sad part is is that humans are the most destructive species alive. This cartoon is supposed to make you think about all this.
I don't think people think enough about our planet in terms of our role on it. We are a very destructive species that will do just about anything at just about any cost to create convenience in our lives. I hope my cartoons and presentations challenges you to think about these difficult topics and carry on a conversation with someone else later. Thanks.
My first cartoon is a picture of two oil rigs drilling with a banner suspended that says happy earth day. Above is written “Thank God For Our Resources”. The idea behind this cartoon is that people are taking resources that other species may need. Because we are the only species with the level of intelligence that we have no one can stop us from taking whatever we want. The message I am trying to get across is that humans take resources from obvious things like oil to other things like trees and water and call it theirs. It's really up to you to and your own beliefs to agree or disagree with this. The point is to just get you thinking.
This second cartoon I have here I made to get people thinking. Once again this picture has a anti anthropocentric point of view but this time it's just on modern society in general. The circle in the middle represents the earth and all the things inside it and around it are commodities that we either use for work, survival, or pleasure. All the things depicted in this picture are convenient for and desired by humans, thus the words an ideal world. But if you think about it all these things like fast food, roller coasters and modern transportation services are usually hurtful to other species in some type of way, thus the words “ But For Who?..” written at the bottom. The reason I created this picture was just to make you think. Almost every convenience we have adapted to in today society has some effect on other species no matter how little. My hope is that this will make you start thinking about the effects of your everyday decisions, i'm not saying it change them but having an idea on how and what you're impacting can actually change the choices you make everyday and who knows maybe it's for the better.
My third and final piece is a little bit of a joke also from an anti anthropocentric mindset. Don't get me wrong, humans do lots of great things to try and help our environment but the funny thing is we probably do just as much to hurt it. The point I was trying to make with this cartoon is that we do lots of things that negatively impact our planet but tend to ignore it and try to fix other problems. We do lots of things to help make sure other species are doing good like creating nature preserves and things like that but the sad part is is that humans are the most destructive species alive. This cartoon is supposed to make you think about all this.
I don't think people think enough about our planet in terms of our role on it. We are a very destructive species that will do just about anything at just about any cost to create convenience in our lives. I hope my cartoons and presentations challenges you to think about these difficult topics and carry on a conversation with someone else later. Thanks.
Project Reflection
I think that this project was really just to get us thinking about our own philosophy. High school is an odd time. Us kids are just now started to think about our future and what we will do with life. But really in order to find out what we want to do we need to find out why we are living our life's, the hardest question to answer yet its one with so many different answers. This was good for because I have no clue what I want to do when Im older and I have no clue why I am here on earth doing the things I do everyday. I decided to take this project in an interesting direction. I wanted to get people to think and challenge there own philosophies and I knew exactly how to do it. One thing I have always thought a little odd is how humans think we are the best. If you think about it most of our population believes the world was intended for humans and there enjoyment only. My problem with this belief is that there are too many other things on this earth that help it keep turning. It would make no sense that the world was , made for us humans because we cant even live on it without other species. So I decided to make a few political cartoons from a anti anthropocentric view. The point of all my drawing are to get people thinking and hopefully help them realize that the world was created for more than just human enjoyment.
This project gave me lots of new ideas about how I believe the world works. I never put much thought into this before this project but knowing your own belief on the world can give you a sense of reassurance that can actually be very helpful. My project was all about anthropocentrism and how I don't agree with it. Before I kinda had somewhat of a selfish outlook on my life. I never thought twice about the things I have and how they effect other species and living things on our planet. Eating fast food, driving cars, using electricity, littering, using more water than necessary, and so many more basic things, all of these things are convenient to us but they have nothing other than negative impacts to the rest of the world. Species of living things are dying because of humans. What I learned is that most humans think we could survive on our own but the truth is all these living things that we are screwing over are necessary to our survival. We need to share our planet equally with it's other inhabitants. Humans are incredibly selfish and only consider the gift of life when its a human. As long as is convenient for us its happening no matter its effects later on. The point my project was to expose how selfish humans are because its hard to see. It seems so obvious that we should have whatever we want because of our superior intelligence to other species. But the crazy thing is is that we cause so much harm to our world compared to any other species, human beings are way over populated but there nothing we can do about, and even though we are the most intelligent species to exist some of us are still to ignorant to realize we are not the only reason this earth is here today and if we keep thinking like that it wont be around tomorrow.
Decostructing America
This project to me was a start on my political opinions. Before the project I was not very politically aware… who knew it could get so heated. Throughout the course of this project I did lots of research on both sides of issues whether that be my topic, the legalization of marijuana, or others. What I found is that when trying to agree on a solution it's almost always an argument. Many political “discussions” I have seen, and you more than likely know exactly what I am talking about, tend to be loud, angry and somewhat aggressive battles of opinions. The crazy thing is is that when you really deconstruct the values of each side, you see many common trends, just different ideas on how we achieve them. What I learned from this project is that that loud angry political battle you fight so hard to win, will never be won; At least not with that approach. In order for someone to understand you you must be willing to be disturbed. What I mean by this is that if you listen to one's opinion to prove to them that they are wrong then you never will. Instead you must listen to their opinion with the intent of learning something new and gaining another perspective. If you do this, your opposing side will be much more likely to hear you out. There's something about a peaceful understanding conversation that allows one to be more open minded. Now more than ever we live in such a politically tense nation, this project taught me many skills that will allow me to stroll through the political nonsense with ease.
Reflection
After taking a deep look at both sides and really figuring out why and why people are not pro marijuana legalization I have a lot more respect for the other side. I read about lots of their opinions that did make sense. The only problem is most of their arguments were preventable, things like keeping it out of kids hands, smoking at the workplace and abusing the medicinal system to avoid taxes or get weed in non recreational states can all be avoided with a little bit of maturity and regulation. This is why my perspective has not really shifted but I have definitely gained a little bit of respect for the other sides arguments.
Over this project I noticed that I found values that I never noticed before. One of the big ones being that I now see this issue in a totally different view and value the resource of medicinal marijuana more than I used to. Coming into this project the legalization of marijuana to me just ment legal pot. But after going out and have real experiences with real people I find that I value this issue for completely different reasons. During the project I spoke with many professionals, like real people(not potheads), that use marijuana not for its psychotropic powers but for its healing abilities. Until I actually talked to people about how much it helps them in their daily life I never fully understood that marijuana fixes so many people's terrible medical problems.
One thing I found about the other side is that they really value morality. Many of the reasons for being against the drug are to benefit others. The recognize that marijuana has been a financial success in the places it's been legalized. Yet they still say a strong no because of things like risk of increasing youth use, less productive work due to high employees, danger to the roads because of people driving high and so on. I really respect this because there putting their morals ahead of the main stream and the money. Although I respect it I have to say that with their moral reasonings there are ways to avoid the things they are saying could happen.
One thing I can say I learned about a democracy is that never will everyone be happy, sometimes even the majority of the people will be left unhappy. Looking at websites like procon and various other political comparison sites I found that most political issues are split real close to 50-50. Usually most things get shut down or passed because of a difference as small as 5 or 10%. That means 45-40 percent of the people who voted are left unsatisfied. In some cases like the presidential debates the majority of the voters could be disappointed and the “minority” group is not. This is all because of a confusing process called the electoral college but you most likely already know what that is. It's next to impossible to get everyone to agree on a common solution.
I would say my political views have not changed at all over the project rather than they have started. Before the project I knew I was a democrat because my parents were and I can vibe with them, but I didn't know what exactly. After looking at the difference between a liberal and conservative or democrat or republican it made perfect sense to my why my family and I identify the way we do. I value things like the earth, its people, and its inhabitants. Not to say that a conservative doesn't respect those things but they're not there highest values. Throughout this project I became more politically aware than I ever have been before and even have found a slight fondness is reading up about politics.
Clay Kinder
The Legalization of Marijuana
Marijuana has recently become more acceptable in society and many states are now trying to recreate the successes Colorado and Washington have had from legal medicinal and recreational cannabis. Marijuana if consumed at the right age is not as bad as people build it up to be for your personal health. It is less addictive than cigarettes but what really surprises lots of people is that studies show it's less addictive than alcohol as well. On top of that, it proved to be less harmful on the lungs than other smoking herbs and some studies even suggest that marijuana smoke has no link to lung cancer at all and that in fact it can slow the spread of some cancers. While it's not all that bad for a person of the legal age of 21 if recreational or 18 if medicina, what if kids get their hands on this?
The effects of habitual marijuana smoking while the brain is still developing can make a person slower, less motivated, lose appetite and other things of the sort that affect the important skills youth need to get through school and their daily challenges. A major concern about legalizing marijuana is that this stuff will be much easier for youth to acquire. As a highschooler in colorado I have to agree with this. Personally, I knew seniors last year at our school and I know a few at Durango High School this year that can legally walk into a store and buy any form of THC (the main component in marijuana that produces the high) from dry herbs to edibles, drinks, and even highly concentrated forms of THC like oils and waxes otherwise known as hash. Because these seniors are 18 and their medical marijuana card is technically a prescription, parents don't even have to know that their kids can legally own, smoke and buy marijuana because of patient doctor confidentiality. Even though it is against the law it makes it quite easy for these students to go to the marijuana dispensary and buy marijuana for kids who are too young to be using the stuff. With no regulations or anyone watching how much these kids are buying who knows ifs it's really for personal medication or not.
While this is one of the big concerns with the debate I would argue that the benefits exceed the negatives. It’s up to schools and parents to inform their children of the dangers of the drug so that responsible adults can enjoy its benefits. It's much more present in society than it ever has been and it's important not to keep your kids in the shadows with drugs or they might have the wrong picture and maybe even get themselves into something they shouldn't have due to lack of knowledge. Even without marijuana being legal the kids who want to get high are still going to get high. If these kids were to get into some legal trouble, instead of just getting an MIP, Minor In Possession, if it were legal, they would get charged with something related to drug possession and could possibly spend time in juvie just for trying to burn one down.
Unfortunately I can't compare drug use in high school to before and after the legalization of the plant. But one thing I would argue though is that it has brought down the amount of high school alcohol use making the roads and lives of these youth much safer. Studies show 31% percent of all traffic fatalities are caused by a driver under the influence of alcohol, and of that 17% are kids under the age of 21. Every year roughly 2,000 teen drivers will be in a fatal car crash because of driving under the influence of alcohol. Only 8.3% of fatal crashes had anything to do with marijuana, even less than the number of teens alone that got in an accident (Teen Driving Statistics). I personally know people who drive high and who drive under the influence of alcohol. I have never seen any of my peers that choose to drive high get into any accidents. Most of the people I know that made the decision to drive drunk were not so lucky and have either hurt themselves or gotten into some serious legal or financial trouble. I'm not suggesting driving high is a safe alternative for driving drunk or safe at all for that matter, driving while under the influence of any substance is illegal, you’re lacking necessary skills required for being a safe respectable driver, but it can't be a bad thing.
Marijuana needs to be legalized nationwide due to its benefits not only to users but non users as well. At first glance it may seem obvious that legalizing marijuana would make it easier for kids and young adults who are underage to get their hands on it, but what one finds is that it's actually quite the opposite. Not only does the legalization help keep the plant out of kids’ hands and give them they tools they need to succeed, it brings in tons of federal and state tax money that people don't seem to mind paying. To put the cherry on top it is assisting people with very uncomfortable and in many cases untreatable medical conditions.
A major claim that anti-marijuana legalizers use is that legalizing marijuana will make it too easy for kids under the legal age to obtain. Being a high school student and seeing kids using pot almost everyday I thought they may have had a point. But after digging deep into some research what we find is that this is not the case, in fact it's quite the opposite. When marijuana is sold from a dispensary there are lots of restrictions. It’s next impossible for an underage kid to con their way into a dispensary to buy marijuana. On the other hand when pot is being sold on the street there are no restrictions. Most drug dealers could care less what ages are ethical to sell to and what are not. This means kids wanting marijuana now have to find someone who is at least twenty one years of age to go out and break the law and buy it for them. Because of the age gap, most teens don't even know anyone of age well enough that they would be willing to break the law for them. Marijuana use in teens has actually been on a steady decrease since 2012, when colorado decriminalized marijuana, and continued its decrease after 2014 when pot was 100% legalized(Bailey Rahn). Not only do we find that it makes it harder for kids to obtain but legalization of marijuana leads to many healthy conversations about what's ok for kids our age to be doing and not to be doing. If marijuana is seen as something that is acceptable for adults to be trying it will make kids more open to waiting till they're old enough like alcohol or tobacco. If a substance has no age restrictions on it kids and young adults may be tempted to try it in their wild youth because what's the difference, they won't get in anymore trouble now as they would as an adult so why even wait. Knowing that one day it will be ok for you to try makes it less of a temptation as a young adult.
Not only is legalizing marijuana keeping it out of the hands of america's youth, but it's also setting them up with tools they need for success. When buying marijuana recreationally you pay a special 10% colorado marijuana tax and most towns have their own marijuana tax as well (it’s much lower of course). All this money goes into a special colorado marijuana tax “fund”(Brandon Rittiman). Forty million dollars a year comes out of this fund and goes to schools throughout colorado to put towards renovations and needed things. In cases where the state raises more money, any money that exceeds the 40 million dollar cap will be put into a fund that helps pay the 5.4 billion dollars a year it costs to run schools in colorado. Now 40 million dollars might not seem like a lot out of the total 129 million raised total on all taxes on marijuana but that's because this money is going to other places just as important. Last year 2.5 million dollars of the colorado pot tax went to youth marijuana education and prevention classes, 2 million for bullying prevention school grants, 2 million for high school dropout prevention grants/ programs, 2 million for at risk youth mentor programs, even 4h and the FFA (future farmers of america) receive 300,000 a year. This money does not only go towards youth campaigns; local governments get 15% of the state's marijuana tax plus the standard town tax and are free to spend those as they see fit. Many good things can be done with this money, for instance Aurora colorado took it upon themselves to spend their 1.5 million pot tax on improving their homeless issue and building a new community recreation center (Carlos Illescas).
While marijuana consumption by the general public could help our economy it can also benefit certain people's personal health. Medicinal marijuana is becoming legalized in more and more states. 23 of our states have medicinal cannabis and 11 have legalized any CBD products (pot or edibles containing high doses of the compound CBD and very low to no THC)(The Drug Policy Alliance). Lots of research is being done on the medicinal effects of THC and CBD, the main compounds of marijuana that have an effect, and lots of discoveries are being made. While Cannabis is not known to cure cancer it can definitely can treat most symptoms and even help improve a patient's well being. The THC in marijuana (the main compound that produces the euphoric high) helps prevent nausea and vomiting in uncomfortable chemotherapy patients. Many cancer patients after going through the process of chemotherapy report that eating is not as enjoyable as it used to be and many have to force themselves to eat when mealtime comes around. Consuming marijuana increases appetite and helps these patients recreate healthy eating habits/schedules. This is also an effective way to help people struggling from anorexia to get back into a regular healthy eating schedule. While lots of research about cannabis and its part in helping symptoms of chemotherapy and cancer is being done and proving successful, cancer is not the only medical ailment cannabis can help. Marijuana is incredible for people who have been in accidents or traumatically injured their bodies. While THC does not actually remove or cure the pain it weakens or blocks nerve receptors in the body that are responsible for the irritating feeling we refer to as pain. While people can be prescribed traditional painkillers these are all classified as opioids. If you don't know already opioids are extremely addictive drugs and one of the most abused legal drugs in america. Prescribed opioid painkillers are the number one gateway to meth and heroin or any other hard drugs containing opium for that matter. Many recovering or recovered opioid addicts who have been badly hurt choose to endure through the pain on their own in fear of starting their addiction once again. Medicinal Marijuana is a addictive free way to receive pain relief for recovering addicts or people who are fearful of becoming opioid addicts. Medicinal marijuana has many more medicinal benefits than this. I encourage you to do some of your own research, I think you’ll be very surprised by how many medical benefits it has and how much research is being done despite all of the drug’s negative connotations (ProCon.org).
Marijuana, if legalized recreationally or medicinally, will be a detriment to our society as a whole. Recreational marijuana will become america's new big tobacco. Marijuana is the “cash crop” so who's to say the people growing won’t become all about the money. Not to mention if americans are high all the time the work place will become a dangerous place of distractions and procrastination. Plus in today's society there is no need to legalize medicinal marijuana. Modern technology has ways of extracting the medicinal components from the plant that can then be put into more official medical delivery methods other than a marijuana pipe or pot brownie and make it easier to regulate for personal use only.
We all know about big tobacco in america. These tobacco companies will do anything to make a quick buck from marketing to young people in hopes to get them addicted, acting like smoking cigarettes poses no big risks to your health, and we all know that's not true. If cannabis were legalized nationwide it's more than likely that it would be mass produced. In fact very recently there was lots of excitement amongst the pot smoking community about and new product called Marlboro M. That's right, Marlboro will be selling packs of 20 joints in every legal marijuana shop. This claim was soon found to be false after the release date went by with no word of their release. Marlboro however has been watching marijuana sales and has been openly interested in selling legal cannabis since 2014 when it was legalized in Colorado and Washington. Now Marlboro knows they have the right market group, and based off of pot sales in Colorado and Washington they know the demand more than likely exceeds what they would be capable of producing. If marijuana was legalized nationwide there's no doubt it would be mass produced and the first organizations to do it would be big tobacco. They already have the money and the customers they need so what's stopping them? What's so troubling about this is how immoral big tobacco companies can be. Tobacco advertisements often times depict things that appeal mostly to young boys and men around the age of 13 to 21 like beautiful women, rich and admired men, and friends hanging out having a good time, usually drinking. The sad part about all this is that they do it on purpose to hook the new generations in hopes of creating lifelong customers or in other words addicts. They have even created things like menthols and vape, flavored forms of nicotine that seem harmless and fun in hopes to even suck the kids not fooled by the propaganda into their crooked ways. Do we really want these companies that push such harmful and addictive substances on our nation's youth for profit to be dealing with the world's most up and coming cash crop? Based on the things they have done so far I doubt a little morality will stop them from pushing a product that can not only creates lifelong addicts but actually stunts the development on the growing brain.
If marijuana were to be sold as regularly as tobacco is nation wide it would also be smoked as frequently as tobacco. If marijuana is legalized nationwide america's stoner population will skyrocket and this could be a real scary story. The effects of marijuana cause someone to have reduced reaction time, pay minimal attention to details or most things really, be very forgetful, less motivated, and tired or drowsy. These are big no no’s for a work place. People who are addicted to cigarettes take multiple, usually paid, breaks to go out and have a smoke. Studies show that the average smoker clocks up a total time of 5 weeks a year from smoke breaks alone. For someone who is addicted to marijuana this would be the same thing, possibly even more. Even though being high at work will usually get you fired that doesn't mean there are no organizations/ companies that either tolerate or neglect to notice it. Not only will this take more time out of the work day, it will lower productivity, accuracy, efficiency, and can even make people not excited about work they are usually excited to do. It can also make the workplace and our communities a very dangerous place. Take construction workers for example. Construction workers, while usually being the lowest position for whatever company they work for have a huge responsibility. If construction workers are getting high at work this poses risks for not only the employees but everyone else as well. Heavy machinery is no toy and if used improperly can lead to some serious accidents. If operating a machine while high on marijuana all those unwanted job characteristics are present, lack of motivation, attention to detail, and self pride. If you're exhibiting all these negative characteristics it's likely you may make a mistake that can seriously hurt yourself or others. Even if you don't make a wrong move in the excavator that sends timmy flying across the constriction site, it's possible that you will make simple computation errors due to your lack of attention to detail. If this is for something vital like support structure gas pipes it could one day fail and very likely injure or create a traumatic experience for someone later on. No one wants to be responsible for this and definitely no one wants to be on the other side of this.
While marijuana has been proven to have medicinal benefits our current medicinal marijuana system is flawed. So called “medicinal marijuana patients” can buy up to 2 ounces of tax free pot a day (Deborah England). If you’re unaware this is a lot of marijuana and no one using for medicinal benefits has to smoke or ingest that much daily. Not to mention the fact that many people with medicinal marijuana cards are just savvy stoners that figure they can either get around paying colorado pot taxes, or legally acquire the plant before they turn 21. Not only are they sneaking around these regulations, but most help their friends do it too by buying tax free top shelf medicinal marijuana. Not only is the resale of recreational marijuana illegal but selling medicinal marijuana is equal to selling marijuana and a personal prescription drug on top of that. Not to mention that 80% percent of people with a medicinal marijuana card either don't need it or are right on the edge when it comes to requirements (Michael Mckinney). Because one of the big things marijuana does for people is relieve pain so anyone wanting weed suddenly has “Chronic” pain. Obviously a doctor's not going to hurt you to see if your lying so if your acting skills are on point you're golden. Doctors make money by distributing medicinal marijuana cards and some may be doctors fraud. In fact a doctor in my town recently just lost his license for distributing medicinal marijuana card when not needed. Some say this is making it too easy for people to get it. It's a win win for everyone but the law.
In today's society there is no need for medicinal marijuana shops. Scientist have found ways of extracting the healing compounds in marijuana like THC, CBD, CBC, and many more. If america truly wanted to get the best out of this medicine they would take it from a different approach. There are more effective ways to get the medicine other than a marijuana pipe that can regulate and personalize the amount of these compounds patients are getting. The most popular form of this is a capsule containing usually CBD but sometime THC, CBC and different ratios of them together. This right here really is our future with medicinal marijuana. Pills can be engineered to fit a person's exact needs. When smoking marijuana you really don't know how much THC is going into your body. A pill can give you the exact amount of marijuana compounds you need and can be easily regulated more like painkillers and other prescriptions pills in the sense that that you're only given enough for personal use. There is no opioid store that lets patients buy an absurd amount of pain killers whenever that want so why should we do the same with medicinal marijuana? So while there are medicinal benefits our current system for medicinal marijuana is flawed and needs to be rethought from the perspective of medicinal sciences, not the stoner community.
Sources
"Teen Driving Statistics." Teen Driving Statistics. Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, 2015. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.
@leafly. "Here's Why Cannabis Legalization Doesn't Lead to Higher Teen Use Rates | Leafly." Leafly. BAILEY RAHN, 01 Nov. 2016. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.
[email protected], By Carlos Illescas |. "Marijuana Sales Tax Revenue Huge Boon for Colorado Cities." The Denver Post. Denver Post, 02 Oct. 2016. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.
Rittiman, Brandon. "Where Does All That Colorado Pot Tax Go?" KUSA. 9 News, n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.
"Medical Marijuana." Medical Marijuana Access for Patients. The Drug Policy Alliance, 2016. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.
"Diseases / Conditions - Medical Marijuana - ProCon.org." ProCon.org Headlines. ProCon, 2016. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.
England, Deborah C. "How Much Marijuana May a Colorado Medical User Possess? | Criminal Law." CriminalDefenseLawyer.com. Criminal Defense Lawyer, 15. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.
McKinney, Michael. "80% of People Who Apply for Medical Marijuana Don't Have Qualifying Ailments, Patrick Kennedy Says." @politifact. Politifact, 2013. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.
The Legalization of Marijuana
Marijuana has recently become more acceptable in society and many states are now trying to recreate the successes Colorado and Washington have had from legal medicinal and recreational cannabis. Marijuana if consumed at the right age is not as bad as people build it up to be for your personal health. It is less addictive than cigarettes but what really surprises lots of people is that studies show it's less addictive than alcohol as well. On top of that, it proved to be less harmful on the lungs than other smoking herbs and some studies even suggest that marijuana smoke has no link to lung cancer at all and that in fact it can slow the spread of some cancers. While it's not all that bad for a person of the legal age of 21 if recreational or 18 if medicina, what if kids get their hands on this?
The effects of habitual marijuana smoking while the brain is still developing can make a person slower, less motivated, lose appetite and other things of the sort that affect the important skills youth need to get through school and their daily challenges. A major concern about legalizing marijuana is that this stuff will be much easier for youth to acquire. As a highschooler in colorado I have to agree with this. Personally, I knew seniors last year at our school and I know a few at Durango High School this year that can legally walk into a store and buy any form of THC (the main component in marijuana that produces the high) from dry herbs to edibles, drinks, and even highly concentrated forms of THC like oils and waxes otherwise known as hash. Because these seniors are 18 and their medical marijuana card is technically a prescription, parents don't even have to know that their kids can legally own, smoke and buy marijuana because of patient doctor confidentiality. Even though it is against the law it makes it quite easy for these students to go to the marijuana dispensary and buy marijuana for kids who are too young to be using the stuff. With no regulations or anyone watching how much these kids are buying who knows ifs it's really for personal medication or not.
While this is one of the big concerns with the debate I would argue that the benefits exceed the negatives. It’s up to schools and parents to inform their children of the dangers of the drug so that responsible adults can enjoy its benefits. It's much more present in society than it ever has been and it's important not to keep your kids in the shadows with drugs or they might have the wrong picture and maybe even get themselves into something they shouldn't have due to lack of knowledge. Even without marijuana being legal the kids who want to get high are still going to get high. If these kids were to get into some legal trouble, instead of just getting an MIP, Minor In Possession, if it were legal, they would get charged with something related to drug possession and could possibly spend time in juvie just for trying to burn one down.
Unfortunately I can't compare drug use in high school to before and after the legalization of the plant. But one thing I would argue though is that it has brought down the amount of high school alcohol use making the roads and lives of these youth much safer. Studies show 31% percent of all traffic fatalities are caused by a driver under the influence of alcohol, and of that 17% are kids under the age of 21. Every year roughly 2,000 teen drivers will be in a fatal car crash because of driving under the influence of alcohol. Only 8.3% of fatal crashes had anything to do with marijuana, even less than the number of teens alone that got in an accident (Teen Driving Statistics). I personally know people who drive high and who drive under the influence of alcohol. I have never seen any of my peers that choose to drive high get into any accidents. Most of the people I know that made the decision to drive drunk were not so lucky and have either hurt themselves or gotten into some serious legal or financial trouble. I'm not suggesting driving high is a safe alternative for driving drunk or safe at all for that matter, driving while under the influence of any substance is illegal, you’re lacking necessary skills required for being a safe respectable driver, but it can't be a bad thing.
Marijuana needs to be legalized nationwide due to its benefits not only to users but non users as well. At first glance it may seem obvious that legalizing marijuana would make it easier for kids and young adults who are underage to get their hands on it, but what one finds is that it's actually quite the opposite. Not only does the legalization help keep the plant out of kids’ hands and give them they tools they need to succeed, it brings in tons of federal and state tax money that people don't seem to mind paying. To put the cherry on top it is assisting people with very uncomfortable and in many cases untreatable medical conditions.
A major claim that anti-marijuana legalizers use is that legalizing marijuana will make it too easy for kids under the legal age to obtain. Being a high school student and seeing kids using pot almost everyday I thought they may have had a point. But after digging deep into some research what we find is that this is not the case, in fact it's quite the opposite. When marijuana is sold from a dispensary there are lots of restrictions. It’s next impossible for an underage kid to con their way into a dispensary to buy marijuana. On the other hand when pot is being sold on the street there are no restrictions. Most drug dealers could care less what ages are ethical to sell to and what are not. This means kids wanting marijuana now have to find someone who is at least twenty one years of age to go out and break the law and buy it for them. Because of the age gap, most teens don't even know anyone of age well enough that they would be willing to break the law for them. Marijuana use in teens has actually been on a steady decrease since 2012, when colorado decriminalized marijuana, and continued its decrease after 2014 when pot was 100% legalized(Bailey Rahn). Not only do we find that it makes it harder for kids to obtain but legalization of marijuana leads to many healthy conversations about what's ok for kids our age to be doing and not to be doing. If marijuana is seen as something that is acceptable for adults to be trying it will make kids more open to waiting till they're old enough like alcohol or tobacco. If a substance has no age restrictions on it kids and young adults may be tempted to try it in their wild youth because what's the difference, they won't get in anymore trouble now as they would as an adult so why even wait. Knowing that one day it will be ok for you to try makes it less of a temptation as a young adult.
Not only is legalizing marijuana keeping it out of the hands of america's youth, but it's also setting them up with tools they need for success. When buying marijuana recreationally you pay a special 10% colorado marijuana tax and most towns have their own marijuana tax as well (it’s much lower of course). All this money goes into a special colorado marijuana tax “fund”(Brandon Rittiman). Forty million dollars a year comes out of this fund and goes to schools throughout colorado to put towards renovations and needed things. In cases where the state raises more money, any money that exceeds the 40 million dollar cap will be put into a fund that helps pay the 5.4 billion dollars a year it costs to run schools in colorado. Now 40 million dollars might not seem like a lot out of the total 129 million raised total on all taxes on marijuana but that's because this money is going to other places just as important. Last year 2.5 million dollars of the colorado pot tax went to youth marijuana education and prevention classes, 2 million for bullying prevention school grants, 2 million for high school dropout prevention grants/ programs, 2 million for at risk youth mentor programs, even 4h and the FFA (future farmers of america) receive 300,000 a year. This money does not only go towards youth campaigns; local governments get 15% of the state's marijuana tax plus the standard town tax and are free to spend those as they see fit. Many good things can be done with this money, for instance Aurora colorado took it upon themselves to spend their 1.5 million pot tax on improving their homeless issue and building a new community recreation center (Carlos Illescas).
While marijuana consumption by the general public could help our economy it can also benefit certain people's personal health. Medicinal marijuana is becoming legalized in more and more states. 23 of our states have medicinal cannabis and 11 have legalized any CBD products (pot or edibles containing high doses of the compound CBD and very low to no THC)(The Drug Policy Alliance). Lots of research is being done on the medicinal effects of THC and CBD, the main compounds of marijuana that have an effect, and lots of discoveries are being made. While Cannabis is not known to cure cancer it can definitely can treat most symptoms and even help improve a patient's well being. The THC in marijuana (the main compound that produces the euphoric high) helps prevent nausea and vomiting in uncomfortable chemotherapy patients. Many cancer patients after going through the process of chemotherapy report that eating is not as enjoyable as it used to be and many have to force themselves to eat when mealtime comes around. Consuming marijuana increases appetite and helps these patients recreate healthy eating habits/schedules. This is also an effective way to help people struggling from anorexia to get back into a regular healthy eating schedule. While lots of research about cannabis and its part in helping symptoms of chemotherapy and cancer is being done and proving successful, cancer is not the only medical ailment cannabis can help. Marijuana is incredible for people who have been in accidents or traumatically injured their bodies. While THC does not actually remove or cure the pain it weakens or blocks nerve receptors in the body that are responsible for the irritating feeling we refer to as pain. While people can be prescribed traditional painkillers these are all classified as opioids. If you don't know already opioids are extremely addictive drugs and one of the most abused legal drugs in america. Prescribed opioid painkillers are the number one gateway to meth and heroin or any other hard drugs containing opium for that matter. Many recovering or recovered opioid addicts who have been badly hurt choose to endure through the pain on their own in fear of starting their addiction once again. Medicinal Marijuana is a addictive free way to receive pain relief for recovering addicts or people who are fearful of becoming opioid addicts. Medicinal marijuana has many more medicinal benefits than this. I encourage you to do some of your own research, I think you’ll be very surprised by how many medical benefits it has and how much research is being done despite all of the drug’s negative connotations (ProCon.org).
Marijuana, if legalized recreationally or medicinally, will be a detriment to our society as a whole. Recreational marijuana will become america's new big tobacco. Marijuana is the “cash crop” so who's to say the people growing won’t become all about the money. Not to mention if americans are high all the time the work place will become a dangerous place of distractions and procrastination. Plus in today's society there is no need to legalize medicinal marijuana. Modern technology has ways of extracting the medicinal components from the plant that can then be put into more official medical delivery methods other than a marijuana pipe or pot brownie and make it easier to regulate for personal use only.
We all know about big tobacco in america. These tobacco companies will do anything to make a quick buck from marketing to young people in hopes to get them addicted, acting like smoking cigarettes poses no big risks to your health, and we all know that's not true. If cannabis were legalized nationwide it's more than likely that it would be mass produced. In fact very recently there was lots of excitement amongst the pot smoking community about and new product called Marlboro M. That's right, Marlboro will be selling packs of 20 joints in every legal marijuana shop. This claim was soon found to be false after the release date went by with no word of their release. Marlboro however has been watching marijuana sales and has been openly interested in selling legal cannabis since 2014 when it was legalized in Colorado and Washington. Now Marlboro knows they have the right market group, and based off of pot sales in Colorado and Washington they know the demand more than likely exceeds what they would be capable of producing. If marijuana was legalized nationwide there's no doubt it would be mass produced and the first organizations to do it would be big tobacco. They already have the money and the customers they need so what's stopping them? What's so troubling about this is how immoral big tobacco companies can be. Tobacco advertisements often times depict things that appeal mostly to young boys and men around the age of 13 to 21 like beautiful women, rich and admired men, and friends hanging out having a good time, usually drinking. The sad part about all this is that they do it on purpose to hook the new generations in hopes of creating lifelong customers or in other words addicts. They have even created things like menthols and vape, flavored forms of nicotine that seem harmless and fun in hopes to even suck the kids not fooled by the propaganda into their crooked ways. Do we really want these companies that push such harmful and addictive substances on our nation's youth for profit to be dealing with the world's most up and coming cash crop? Based on the things they have done so far I doubt a little morality will stop them from pushing a product that can not only creates lifelong addicts but actually stunts the development on the growing brain.
If marijuana were to be sold as regularly as tobacco is nation wide it would also be smoked as frequently as tobacco. If marijuana is legalized nationwide america's stoner population will skyrocket and this could be a real scary story. The effects of marijuana cause someone to have reduced reaction time, pay minimal attention to details or most things really, be very forgetful, less motivated, and tired or drowsy. These are big no no’s for a work place. People who are addicted to cigarettes take multiple, usually paid, breaks to go out and have a smoke. Studies show that the average smoker clocks up a total time of 5 weeks a year from smoke breaks alone. For someone who is addicted to marijuana this would be the same thing, possibly even more. Even though being high at work will usually get you fired that doesn't mean there are no organizations/ companies that either tolerate or neglect to notice it. Not only will this take more time out of the work day, it will lower productivity, accuracy, efficiency, and can even make people not excited about work they are usually excited to do. It can also make the workplace and our communities a very dangerous place. Take construction workers for example. Construction workers, while usually being the lowest position for whatever company they work for have a huge responsibility. If construction workers are getting high at work this poses risks for not only the employees but everyone else as well. Heavy machinery is no toy and if used improperly can lead to some serious accidents. If operating a machine while high on marijuana all those unwanted job characteristics are present, lack of motivation, attention to detail, and self pride. If you're exhibiting all these negative characteristics it's likely you may make a mistake that can seriously hurt yourself or others. Even if you don't make a wrong move in the excavator that sends timmy flying across the constriction site, it's possible that you will make simple computation errors due to your lack of attention to detail. If this is for something vital like support structure gas pipes it could one day fail and very likely injure or create a traumatic experience for someone later on. No one wants to be responsible for this and definitely no one wants to be on the other side of this.
While marijuana has been proven to have medicinal benefits our current medicinal marijuana system is flawed. So called “medicinal marijuana patients” can buy up to 2 ounces of tax free pot a day (Deborah England). If you’re unaware this is a lot of marijuana and no one using for medicinal benefits has to smoke or ingest that much daily. Not to mention the fact that many people with medicinal marijuana cards are just savvy stoners that figure they can either get around paying colorado pot taxes, or legally acquire the plant before they turn 21. Not only are they sneaking around these regulations, but most help their friends do it too by buying tax free top shelf medicinal marijuana. Not only is the resale of recreational marijuana illegal but selling medicinal marijuana is equal to selling marijuana and a personal prescription drug on top of that. Not to mention that 80% percent of people with a medicinal marijuana card either don't need it or are right on the edge when it comes to requirements (Michael Mckinney). Because one of the big things marijuana does for people is relieve pain so anyone wanting weed suddenly has “Chronic” pain. Obviously a doctor's not going to hurt you to see if your lying so if your acting skills are on point you're golden. Doctors make money by distributing medicinal marijuana cards and some may be doctors fraud. In fact a doctor in my town recently just lost his license for distributing medicinal marijuana card when not needed. Some say this is making it too easy for people to get it. It's a win win for everyone but the law.
In today's society there is no need for medicinal marijuana shops. Scientist have found ways of extracting the healing compounds in marijuana like THC, CBD, CBC, and many more. If america truly wanted to get the best out of this medicine they would take it from a different approach. There are more effective ways to get the medicine other than a marijuana pipe that can regulate and personalize the amount of these compounds patients are getting. The most popular form of this is a capsule containing usually CBD but sometime THC, CBC and different ratios of them together. This right here really is our future with medicinal marijuana. Pills can be engineered to fit a person's exact needs. When smoking marijuana you really don't know how much THC is going into your body. A pill can give you the exact amount of marijuana compounds you need and can be easily regulated more like painkillers and other prescriptions pills in the sense that that you're only given enough for personal use. There is no opioid store that lets patients buy an absurd amount of pain killers whenever that want so why should we do the same with medicinal marijuana? So while there are medicinal benefits our current system for medicinal marijuana is flawed and needs to be rethought from the perspective of medicinal sciences, not the stoner community.
Sources
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@leafly. "Here's Why Cannabis Legalization Doesn't Lead to Higher Teen Use Rates | Leafly." Leafly. BAILEY RAHN, 01 Nov. 2016. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.
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Rittiman, Brandon. "Where Does All That Colorado Pot Tax Go?" KUSA. 9 News, n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.
"Medical Marijuana." Medical Marijuana Access for Patients. The Drug Policy Alliance, 2016. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.
"Diseases / Conditions - Medical Marijuana - ProCon.org." ProCon.org Headlines. ProCon, 2016. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.
England, Deborah C. "How Much Marijuana May a Colorado Medical User Possess? | Criminal Law." CriminalDefenseLawyer.com. Criminal Defense Lawyer, 15. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.
McKinney, Michael. "80% of People Who Apply for Medical Marijuana Don't Have Qualifying Ailments, Patrick Kennedy Says." @politifact. Politifact, 2013. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.