The Big Debate About Marijuana

Everyone already knows that politics are the biggest debate out there today between the parties fighting about who should be elected for president and why. This is a topic that I would rather not get into mostly because I want to focus my attention on another matter. As most know, another big debate going on in today’s world is whether or not marijuana should be legalized in this country or not, and why. Both sides have good reasoning on why it should be legalized or why it shouldn’t but some don’t know what those reasons are. Personally, I am in favor of legalizing marijuana for various right reasons. The article Marijuana Legalization and Prohibition does a great job in explaining how our country would be affected if marijuana was legalized and how my views compare to the article.

The biggest reason I side for legalization of marijuana is for law enforcement officials to focus on bigger problems. The article states that almost half drug related arrests made each year are for marijuana based offenses. To me this shows that half of these offenses that could have been used to focus on bigger problems like stealing, vandalism, homicide murders, etc., were used for marijuana based problems. Marijuana is not nearly as harmful as other drugs like crack, cocaine, or heroine that have rates going up each year of overdoses and deaths. If you look to see marijuana rates of deaths and overdoses, it would be hard to find information of that because you hardly ever hear of it. My point here is, if marijuana were legalized, law enforcement officials wouldn’t focus on lurking the streets or being undercover to catch people using or distributing marijuana. Instead they would be able to focus on bigger problems such as heroin, cocaine, and other dangerous drugs that actually are known to have death and over dosage rates and are becoming a bigger problem each year.

The second reason is it will save money instead of wasting it. The more people get arrested for marijuana based offenses, the more court sessions there will have to be. This means that people will have to pay to get bailed at the law official’s expense, or to drop the charges. If marijuana were legal, then people wouldn’t get arrested and have to go to court to pay money for these reasons and can instead save it.

The article states different ways that legalization of marijuana will affect our country. The first one says it will create more jobs, which is true. Since marijuana is a crop, it can give job to people for the crop industry and it will also make money for the crop industry. I agree with this because instead of people illegally making money for distribution of marijuana and having to hide about selling it, it could be distributed legally through the crop industry and it can make this country a lot of money. Also, the money made won’t go to waste because the money that people make selling marijuana illegally now a days, are kept for themselves and they decide whatever they want to do with it. Legalizing marijuana will make an income for this country, and that income could be used for the right reasons instead of for the wrong.

The last but big reason the article focuses on is reducing harm for Latinos, Hispanics, and African Americans. The rate of use or distribution of marijuana between Latinos, Hispanics and African Americans are the same or very similar to Whites. There is a problem that needs to be focused about the racism law officials tend to have, although not all of them, on having higher rates of arresting Latinos, Hispanics and African Americans compared to how many white people are arrested. This is harmful to them because they are more vulnerable to be arrested than white people are which is wrong and most don’t even use or sell marijuana but they are still just as vulnerable as those who do. This means that the innocent people who are Latinos, Hispanics and African Americans and don’t use, sell or distribute marijuana are still more suspicious to law enforcement because of their race. It should be frowned upon because law officials should focus on white people selling and/or using marijuana just the same as anyone else of other races. Legalizing marijuana will be less harmful to those of other races because they wouldn’t have to worry about law officials being too hard on them and be able to go about their life feeling less intimidated.

I know there will always still continue to be controversy on the legalization of marijuana in this country, but after reading this article, it made me realize even more reasons why it should be legalized. It has so many positive effects and could bring good outcomes. Law officials would be able to focus more on bigger problems that this country has instead of spending half of their time arresting people for marijuana incidents rather than heroin or other drug related incidents. The bigger problems need to be looked into more instead of being so focused on marijuana all of the time. Marijuana isn’t the problem. But how many other problems are out there that are being avoided because of a marijuana arrest? Now that worries me. Which presidential candidate is in favor of legalizing marijuana and has a good outlook for it? Here is a great article that tells some of the candidates views on the legalization.

 

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College Stress and Psychology

Course objectives addressed: 5, 6, 7, 11

As if college weren’t already stressful enough, studies show that psychology plays a huge role in college stress levels in the article Stress in College Students. The article pointed out many obstacles of what usually all college students go through when they’re at school and how it affects them. I learned a lot more information that I didn’t know before. I agree on many points that were made in this article but I also think that further research and tests should be done about how to reduce or get of rid of the long term emotional stress problems.

College is a huge step that some people take in life, and it isn’t easy for everyone. Some learn to cope well with the big move better than others and some not so much. One of the big stressful parts is leaving your friends and family behind as you make your big move.  It does make it easier to have a friend from home or a family member close to you when you need them the most. From my own personal experience my first couple of weeks at school were the hardest ones yet. I had to get used to my surroundings, make new friends, and the homework load started right off the bat. I always wished to be able to just call one of my best friends to come over and vent to but I couldn’t because I was at school and so were they. This made things a little more difficult because I felt alone at times since I didn’t have someone to turn to while I was in school and still making friends, so it made me feel more homesick.

I was able to overcome missing my friends and family by communicating with them every once in a while and going home every couple of weeks to see them. It made me feel better and made the move into college easier because I knew they would still be there once I got back. This made me feel emotionally better and it compares to what the article says about how more stressful it is on a college student to be away from home because once I felt less stressed about it, I realized how stressed I was in the first place. This helped me cope with a lot of other stressful obstacles I faced as the semester went on, and overcome them.

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I agree on all of the points the article made about what stresses out a college students because I experienced every single one of those. It also talks about how in certain scenarios, the stress that students feel differ based on their race, surroundings, the season and whether their gay, bisexual, transgender or straight. This is a big point made in the article because it shows how some people get stressed out in a certain scenarios compared to others. My thoughts on this changed  lot because it showed me how some students really do struggle with something that I never imagined was stressful to someone. For some there is a way for them to overcome this emotional stress over time but for others, it is a long term feeling and causes problems for them down the road.

Most likely all universities have some form of therapy offices opened to student to use if they are in need of it. This helps with them over coming their stress because they get to talk about their problems with someone and can get help on it. Another way for students to seek help are counseling sessions within their community or school. A big way for students to get support from others is reaching out to their friends and family, which is someone they already trust and confide in. As stated in the article, these resources are known to make the emotional stress of the students slowly go away and become stress free which has been proven to be true. However, some still encounter problems down the road from stress and it is hard for them to overcome that, even with the help of these resources. I think that more research should be done to help the students who can’t overcome their stress for their own sanity because there has to be a way to help them. If more time was put into it, more tests and research were done, then it can be a possibility to find a way to treat long term stress for the students that need it. This way, it will be a positive outlook on life for the individual who is cured and no longer has to live a life with severe emotional problems.

 

My First College Experience

Learning outcomes: By doing this assignment I hope to catch any grammar mistakes and fix them on my own. Course objectives covered: 1, 2, 7

No one ever knows exactly how college is going to hit them. Sure, we all hear the rumors about how it’s different from high school, how it’s all on you, but that still doesn’t tell you how you’re going to feel once you’re there. Reading the article The First Year College Experience  made me relate to it as how my first year of being here at college is going. The article made some great points, expectations and told the truth about what most, if not all, people go through their first year as freshman in college.

College is definitely a big move for everyone. It’s a new place, new environment, and it’s almost like you have to start completely fresh again. You have to go out and make new friends, classes become a lot harder, and you have much more responsibilities. When people say “in college you’re on your own”, that couldn’t be more true. No one is here to hold your hand anymore. Everything you have to do is completely up to no one else but you.

The first point this article made was the amount of workload difference you have in college than in high school. The short deadlines that you have to meet for that eight page paper due in two weeks. The sleepless nights spent studying and cramming for that huge exam the next morning. The amount of times you have a mental breakdown and want to give up because you just can’t do it anymore. All of these I can say I have been guilty of. High school was a lot easier to get away with stuff. You could easily forget to do your homework for a night and not be too far behind in class, but if you miss one assignment in college you can fall very far behind.

Making friends is definitely the next big obstacle to overcome. Most people go to college not knowing a single person, and I happened to be one of those people. I thought to myself “Oh no I actually have to make friends? Again?” I had to start somewhere and luckily I’m not that shy of a person so making friends isn’t that hard for me. The article stated that acting like yourself is always the best way to make friends because they’ll accept you for who you are, and it turned out to be very true. It did take me some time to make friends here, but when I did, they were all so welcoming to me and so accepting of me. They turned out to have a lot of similarities as me and it made me feel so much better to be here at college and have been able to make a lot of friends.

Being responsible is a big trait that I have. I’ve always been the type of person to do my homework on time, even though I procrastinate sometimes, but hey who doesn’t? I still manage to work my hardest and meet every deadline. Being my “own boss” as the article puts it, wasn’t a challenge for me at all while being in college. I became very independent at home while I was in high school because I knew how to manage my own time. All of my responsibilities for school, and household chores as well, wasn’t a challenge for me like it is for others.

This article was great because it related most of my emotions I felt as I started my first semester here at Plymouth. Now that I realize all of the common struggles a first year college student faces, I’ve noticed that I easily overcame them within time. It was very hard at first because you are just let free into a new place that you’ve never been to before. But as my first semester came to an end, I looked back on it and told myself “Wow that wasn’t too bad” because all of the obstacles I thought I couldn’t overcome at the beginning of the semester, I did overcome all of them by the end of the semester. I felt really accomplished and ready to take on my second semester of college with positive eyes. As I continue to take it on I’m prepared for the long nights of studying, stressful weeks of homework loads, meeting more people and making new memories. That is what my first college experience will be told as one day.

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