Blog Assignment Five-Keeping it Green

There are a plethora of issues beating the head of the United States as we speak. The legalization of gay marriage, free contraception, redesigning the education system, and fixing the global warming epidemic are all issues I have huge opinions on, but I’d like to take the back road, so to speak, and touch on a controversial subject that isn’t really taking the leaps and bounds that the previously stated issues are currently making, the legalization of marijuana.  I think this issue is not taken very seriously and it’s understandable. People usually associate cannabis with kids that are up to no good or adults that aren’t taking life seriously. Some people even see this drug’s reputation as something linked to hard drugs such as cocaine. With shows like “Weeds” it’s been labeled as something that brings people down the wrong path, but I think that this is actually all very wrong information. I feel that legalizing marijuana would benefit the U.S. medically and economically.

Medically, marijuana has many benefits. In Canada, cannabis is medically prescribed to help with nausea, loss of appetite, chronic pain, anxiety, insomnia, inflammation, muscle spasms, and some diseases like glaucoma. Now of course there are other alternatives to treating these kinds of medical issues. For example, for chronic pain some doctors will prescribe opioid. Well what is opioid? According to Dictionary.com opioid is “any opium like substance”. Last time I checked opium is really bad for you, but for some reason that is the preferred prescription over cannabis. If I could just point out a couple of interesting details in comparison, opioid is a habit-forming drug and can be easily overdosed on if not careful, but marijuana is non habit-forming and has absolutely no record of ever being overdosed on. I honestly can’t understand why anyone would prefer a drug that will not only kill you but also make you think you can’t live without it before it does.

Economically, I think cannabis would only boost the U.S. into a more advantageous situation.  Colorado alone expects to see a $1 billion made in the coming fiscal year. If that isn’t charming the pants off of anyone $134 million from taxes and fees are going to the state. If the government would jump on board they also would be receiving a good part of that 134 million as well. Now if we multiply that by 50 states the number comes out to 6.7 billion. Of course that’s a very loose estimation, but I’m fairly certain anything close to 6 billion dollars would be beneficial to the government. I also want to look at the fact that this would create jobs. Stores for selling marijuana would open anywhere they could.  Opening stores creates jobs for construction workers, designers and stores will also need people to help with the creating and selling of their product.  I’d also like to bring to light that Americans would not be the only ones to come running to buy up this product. With marijuana legalized there will be lots of money to be made from tourism. Like Amsterdam, which is now facing losing the luxury of selling cannabis and suffering for it, the United States could build an empire that could fix our problems with all the money they would gain from making marijuana legal.

If we could just break away from the stereotyping of marijuana and see past the Hollywood façade that has been cast upon it maybe we can see past the green of the plant see the green of money that it could bring.

Blog Assignment 4-Bad Endings Ruin Everything

There hasn’t been too much mention on the new “ag gag” law going down in Minnesota, so I was pleased to see that there was an article in the opinions tab talking about the ridiculous law helping the farmers get away with abusing the animals we eat. I’m by no means an extremist, but I care about animals and how they are treated. Kicking a dog is about as right as kicking a newborn baby in my eyes. 

Mark Bittman is on the right track in his article “Who Protects the Animals?”, talking about the case that started this whole movement and how it will only do more harm then good to activate this law, but like a great movie with a bad ending I feel the article goes down the drain with his quote, “What if my every meal has been an act of cruelty”. I feel he belittles his own article by turning it into a “let’s hold hands and be vegan” festival. I like my steak so this ending made me roll my eyes. This is a serious issue, but he limited his audience to the smaller group of people by mentioning the issue of eating meat, which is not the main issue! His group went from a huge audience of animal loving people to the tinier group of vegans and vegetarians. He could have very well included the meat loving people with information like adrenaline in animals will actually make the meat putrid, but no he decided to take the path of butterflies and pretty things. I agree that this “ag gag” law needs to be abolished and slung into a black hole, but I can see his background of food columnist in the New York times peeking through and that was overall disappointing. Heed this article and, if you can, skip the ending.