Running Head: DISCUSSION POST 1
Summer 2020
Discussion Post
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Title
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Discussion Post – Marijuana Legalization
There has been a significant shift in cultural attitudes on marijuana use for medicinal and recreational uses in recent years. Its creation, approval, mode of administration, delivery, and negative health affects all pose a risk. Since the discovery of marijuana’s existence, there has been a never-ending battle to legalize it in the United States of America. For a variety of reasons, marijuana has been examined and found to have a highly good impact on society. Some people are opposed to its legalization because they believe or presume that it is harmful without considering both sides of the argument. Because the name “medical marijuana” implies that it serves the same purpose as any other authorized prescription, it should go through the same rigorous regulatory procedure as any other prescription supplied by a physician (Chernew, 2017).
The issue of recreational marijuana can be viewed as a comprehensive social policy topic that includes the effects of legalization on public health, domestic criminal justice policy, federal and tax income, as well as international drug cartels. Nonetheless, physicians are the professionals with a strong interest in such an issue because they are in charge of public health. However, its negative health repercussions are hardly discussed in the debate over marijuana legalization for recreational use (Kamin, 2016). Given its severe health impacts in both adults and adolescents, society should abandon its current path toward recreational marijuana legalization.
Drug misuse affects the world’s social service system, health care, and criminal justice systems due to fear of the unknown, of how the community would change if drugs were decriminalized, and of how the nation would handle it. Although drug prohibitions in the sale, manufacturing, import, and possession should be enforced, drug policies need to be improved. Neither legalization nor discrimination can be the best option. Rather, greater energy and resources should be directed toward treatment, research, and prevention, and every institution, not to mention every citizen, should be held accountable for drug abuse and addiction (Wright & Harker, 2016).
References
Chernew, A. (2017). Why the Future of Marijuana Legalization is Still Uncertain. SPICE: Student Perspectives on Institutions, Choices and Ethics, 12(1), 5.
Kamin, S. (2016). Legal Cannabis in the US: Not whether but how. UCDL Rev., 50, 617.
Wright, E., & Harker, K. (2016). Misusing Drugs and Misapplying Paternalism: Injecting Portuguese Decriminalisation into the UK Justice System. Legal Issues J., 4, 99.