Legalization of Marijuana Essay Example for Free

Legalization of Marijuana Essay The terms ‘weed’ or ‘grass’ strike meaning to many Americans. When thinking of these terms, they are commonly associated with having the ‘munchies’ also known as being extremely hungry due to the side affects of smoking marijuana. What most Americans don’t realize is the benefits that can come from legalizing marijuana because their minds are clouded by the stereotypes associated with the average ‘pot smoker’. Dismiss the corny jokes and stereotypes for a second and consider the truths that are unveiled. In Timothy Egan’s â€Å"Give Pot a Chance,† Egan looks beyond the stigma of smoking weed and points out the benefits that will come from legalization. Although the government is wrongfully hindering us from legalizing marijuana, it should be a national wide policy due to the large benefit of tax regulations that will and has already arise. Egan starts his opinion with three main arguments: marijuana related drug wars, hypocrisy, and the most important argument he points out is the tax revenue that will be generated. Drug related wars are extremely prevalent today. Egan states that there are over 853,000 arrest made for marijuana related offenses. 60,000 people have been killed because of drug wars and violent crimes regarding the distribution of marijuana. Many people are being affected by the violence of the underground markets. He briefly goes over statistical numbers and significant data to further emphasize his argument for legalization. He quickly delves into the hypocrisy of not legalizing marijuana. He explains how our sports industry would completely collapse without all the legal drugs provided by various companies. Popular products include five-hour energy, red bull, and other pills for other uses. He points out how there were thousands of illnesses and fatalities regarding Five Hour Energy. This is an over the shelf product that can be obtained by anyone. In retaliation, Egan brings up how there are little to no people dying from marijuana ingestion. This also brings attention to one of the most common argument as to why people oppose legalization: that it is  unhealthy for the human body when taken in large doses. Although not explained very well, Egan points out the hypocrisy in the rationale of people thinking this way. Any substance taken in large doses is harmful to any human. Even something as healthy as water is bad in large doses. Although this is not a big part of his argument and does not explicitly say why marijuana is good for one or for the nation, it leads up to and adds to his claim of legalizing marijuana. The main argument for legalization and data that Egan gives is the tax revenue that will come from it. Egan arrives at this data by carefully studying the states that already have legalized medical marijuana including the District of Columbia and 18 other states. Washington State officials estimate that licensed marijuana stores will generate 532 million dollars in revenue every year. On top of that, legalization will decrease all the billions of dollars currently wasted on prosecuting and investigating marijuana cases. Money is being wasted on investigating marijuana cases while in reality most do not even get prosecuted or even fined. Since it is legal in some states and not others, enforcement of marijuana laws are clouded making the United States lose more money. If all states had the same rules it would be easier to regulate and gain an abundance of tax revenue from. Legalization of marijuana will benefit the United States as a nation. Egan agrees that a â€Å"whiff of positive and even monumental change is in the air†. He claims that legalization will benefit us tremendously in many ways, but specifically with the generation of revenue from tax. An influx of money from marijuana taxation would greatly help the United States with financial debt. Egan explicitly links his data to his claim by openly asking his audience to consider his data and apply it to the whole nation and then stating that the taxation would help the United States. He explains that the success from the state of Washington proves that other states will strive as well, thus adding to the success of the nation as a whole. Because there are so many issues and contradicting conflicts surrounding the issue of marijuana, Egan has to state his warrant to further emphasize his reasons for legalization and make apparent the change that could happen. The rhetor, Egan, suggests that the change will most likely happen by stating that â€Å"Obama is uniquely suited to make the argument for change. On his issue, he’ll have support from the libertarian right and the humanitarian left.† Egan implies that since 19 states have  already legalized the use of medical marijuana, many states will follow in their footsteps so it is only a matter of time. Unfortunately Egan had a very powerful qualifier that was not adequately explained. Egan implicitly argues that we, as a nation, should not wait for other states to slowly make the change to legalize. Obama and his administration have the power and more importantly the support to change it now. The lack of explaining this weakened a crucial part of his argument for national legalization. Egan believes national legalization should is needed soon rather than legalization by individual states. At the end of his speech he starts delving into his opinion he quickly adds how the law system is not enforced enough. Egan argues that with legalization nation wide, everyone would be on the same page, which is completely true. With nation wide legalization, the issue of use and abuse can be properly discussed and determined. He uses the example of alcohol and how campaigns against drunk driving have saved countless of lives when alcohol is so easy to obtain. This could be the same way as marijuana. With proper laws, marijuana could be regulated efficiently and safely. Unfortunately he only briefly states this and does not fully explain it clearly. He is implying that marijuana is a problem because congress has chosen to make it a problem because they decided not to deal with it. I thought this did not necessarily weaken his argument but left his audience thinking. Egan was successful at proving his point because of his strong claim, data, and warrant. He chose an engaging and interesting claim that is relatable to many Americans. The sets of data he chose to support his argument was tacitful because all Americans can benefit from money therefore everyone is in some way going to benefit from legalization. Egan makes clear the clouded stereotypes and stigma of marijuana and illuminates the truths involved. No matter our opinion or feelings on the issue, the presentation of information for the audience makes a very convincing argument. Work Cited: Egan, Timothy. Give Pot a Chance. Opinionator Give Pot a Chance Comments. New York Times, 22 Nov. 2012. Web. 27 Feb. 2013. .

Thoreau and King, Jr. :: American America History

Thoreau and King, Jr. There are times throughout the history of the United States when its citizens have felt the need to revolt against the government. There were such cases during the time of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Henry David Thoreau, when there was unfair discrimination against the Afro-American community and Americans refusing to pay poll taxes to support the Mexican War. They used civil disobedience to eventually get legislation to stop the injustice brought against them and their nation. Civil disobedience is defined as refusal to obey civil laws or decrees, which usually takes the form of passive resistance. People practicing civil disobedience break a law because they consider the law unjust, and want to call attention to its injustice, hoping to bring about its withdrawal. Thoreau wrote "Civil Disobedience" in 1849 after spending a night in the Walden town jail for refusing to pay a poll tax that supported the Mexican War. He recommended passive resistance as a form of tension that could lead to reform of unjust laws practiced by the government. He voiced civil disobedience as "An expression of the individual's liberty to create change" (Thoreau 530). Thoreau felt that the government had established order that resisted reform and change. "Action from principle, the perception and the performance of right, changes things and relations; it is essentially revolutionary" (Thoreau 531). Thoreau refused to pay the poll tax because the money was being used to finance the Mexican War. Not only was Thoreau against the war itself but the war was over Texas which was to be used as a slave state. His friend Staples offered to pay the tax for him, but to Thoreau it wasn't the tax he was objected to, it was how the money would be used. He believed strongly against paying money to a war he did not support, and would rather end up in jail than go against his will. A certain passage shows how strong he felt when he said "Your money is your life, why should I haste to give it my money?" (Thoreau 538). It was important to Thoreau to get the public informed about the War, and make people think why it was wrong to support it. Thoreau didn't rally hundreds and thousands of people together to get reactions. Instead he went to jail to protest and wrote his essay "Civil Disobedience". His statements were to get people to think and take their own approach to the situation.

Foundations of Psychology Paper

Psychology encompasses a vast range of different thoughts, theories, and biological foundations on behavior of why people act the way they do. Once a part of philosophy, psychology has developed into several schools of thought that describe the theories some of these individuals use to approach what they are observing from different people and their actions. Some of these theories do have conflictions from others, but all have a good amount of validity to their theories. Many things contribute to the biological well being of a person and those things can determine what kind of behavior the person will display. The major schools of thought are introspection, structuralism, functionalism, psychodynamic theory, cognitive theory, and behavioral theory. Introspection was a method in which a person would report anything the person had come across their mind when they were given some kind of stimulus or task to do. Structuralism used introspection to uncover parts of consciousness and how they combine into ideas with one another. Functionalism applied the Darwinian Theory where roles or functions would aid in helping an individual adapt to their environment. The psychodynamic theory has three parts that describe it. The first one is thoughts, feelings, or wishes determine the way person will act. The second one is most of the thoughts a person has come outside of the person’s awareness. The third is that the mental processes may conflict with one another leaving to possible compromises within some of the competing motives of a person. The behavioral theory suggests that there are many things that can stimulate a person such as an object or an event within the person’s environment can control the behavior of a person through learning. The cognitive theory suggests that the perception, process, and the way a person retrieves information allows the person to interact in daily activities. Although all these theories have a specific suggestion on the psychological health of a person, they have had some conflicts that within those who created the theories. According to Uljana Feest, â€Å"Moreover, his contention that something like unconscious sensations/experiences can be invoked as explanatory of other experiences is in clear opposition to Brentano’s view that since mental phenomena, by definition, are conscious, there can be no psychological explanations that make recourse to unconscious mental phenomena. † Most psychologists in modern times use a more eclectic outlook where they use a combination of these theories to observe people. The nervous system has an impact on the biological functions of a person, and it can determine how a person will behave in different ways. The nervous system is made up of different types of neurons, and these neurons are what carry messages back and forth through the body to tell the body to do something, when there is an injury, or many other things. This information carried from the neurons is carried through the central nervous system which is made up of the brain, the spinal cord, and the peripheral nervous system which maintains the basic survival of a human being. Neurotransmitters are chemicals within the body that transmit information from one neuron to the next. Each neurotransmitter can have a different effect on the person when the chemical is produced such as when serotonin is produced. Serotonin is the chemical the body produces to help the body sleep, in emotional arousal, pain regulation, and mood. There are also other chemicals in the body that allow the body to do other things, and if any of these chemicals are not produced or they are overproduced, they can have an effect on how the person behaves on a daily basis. Receptors also play a role in the transmission of neurotransmitters. They bond together to allow a chemical and electrical balance occur which is called a graded potential. According to Howard C. Warren, â€Å"Behavior is not merely a branch of physiology; its data, responses, are a class of phenomena indicative of neural activity. Mental states or experiences are not merely subjective occurrences; they are somehow conditioned on the operations of the nervous system. † The reasons behind what makes people behave the way they do will still be a science that will not have an absolute answer to. There are theories that suggest different views to why people act the way they do, but those theories are just what they mean. They do provide some sort of understanding, and when put together, make much more sense to use in understanding human behavior. Biological features also play a major role in human behavior, and they too provide psychologists with ways to help understand humans along with the different theories. Feest Uljana,(2011) pg. 5, Introspection as a Method and Introspection as a Feature of Consciousness, retrieved from Ebscohost: http://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=9694d08f-b9f8-420d-903c-00aadade28ff%40sessionmgr113&vid=12&hid=115 Warren, Howard C., pg. 250; Psychology And The Centralnervous System, retrieved from Ebschost: http://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=9694d08f-b9f8-420d-903c-00aadade28ff%40sessionmgr113&vid=20&hid=115

Evidence Based Practice Essay examples - 4129 Words

A critical appraisal of a published piece of research related to practice. Evidence Based Practice - HEN62029-5 Student number 10039687 Word count 3150 The following ssion of this assignment attempts to critically appraise the venUS III randomised control trial (RTC) published in the British Medical Journal. As a student/healthcare worker who is new to critical appraisal I am aware that I do not fully understand some of the calculations involved in reporting of findings, however Greenhalgh (2006) argued, ‘all you really need to know is what the best test is to apply in given circumstances, what it does and what might affect its validity/appropriateness’. When caring for patients it is essential that Healthcare Professionals†¦show more content†¦The nurses providing treatment where not blind to which treatment had been allocated, this may impact on construct validity as in some cases it is suggested that control subjects are compensated in some way by healthcare staff or family for not receiving research intervention (Barker 2010). Nurses who were blinded were employed to trace the ulcers. Participating patients were not blind to the treatment/s. As one of the measured outcomes was patients perceptions of health, assessed by a questionnaire (SF-12) it is reasonable t o conceive that this assessment may have been influenced by the patients awareness of the treatment type they were receiving thus creating the possibility for assessment bias. Construct validity may also be impacted on peoples behaviours as a response to being observed or to the treatment because they believe it will have a positive effect. (Barker 2010) Healing date was assessed remotely by independent assessors who where blind to the treatment allocation this guards against assessment bias. Overall both treatment groups were equal in size. Both treatment groups had an almost equal average age of study participants, this is important because inequality in age between the groups would represent a heterogeneous population (Barker 2010). Venous leg ulceration is more common in woman than men in those below 85 year of age (Moffat 2004)Show MoreRelatedEvidence Based Practice And Practice1007 Words   |  5 PagesItroduction: Evidence-based practice is an approach to medicine that uses scientific evidence to determine the best practice (Beyea Slattery, 2006). As nurses perform their daily tasks they must continually ask themselves, â€Å"What is the evidence for this intervention?†. Nurses are well positioned to question current nursing practices and use evidence to make care more effective. 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For example, to support the medical management of preterm births within the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community (â€Å"Health of Australia s Aboriginal Peoples†Read MoreEvidence Based Practice For Nursing Practice2100 Words   |  9 PagesEvidence-Base practice (EBP) is defined as: â€Å"based on problem identified from the practitioner’s area of practice; a combining of best evidence and professional expertise and an integration of this into current practice; about ensuring patients receive quality care, being part of quality improvement processes; about collaboration and requiring a team approach† (French, 1999). Scott and Mcsherry (2008) supported the French’s assertion, proposing the key elements of EBP are that it is a theory-drivenRead MoreApplication Of Evidence Based Practice1689 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction Evidence Based Practice (EBP) is the process nurses use to conduct research and find recent and credible evidence to support best practice (McCutcheon, 2009). The process of EBP will be applied to the case study about a nurse who did not use EBP in her nursing process. This is important because providing EBP is a core philosophy in the ANMC competency standards for the registered nurse (The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2016). The report will on build assignment one where