Self Analysis

When I first I set out to write on marijuana legalization, I thought I would focus on the economics of legalization and medicinal use. I did not think the topics of social effects and health effects on normal users were strong enough to have arguments made. As I researched more and more, I discovered that marijuana is generally beneficial in all aspects. Before, my argument was somewhat one sided, but it eventually developed into a much more well rounded case.

I’ve learned much about cannabis in the past month which has changed my opinion on it. Once, I believed that marijuana was moderately beneficial, but only in the economic sense. I mean, the government should have the people’s best interest at heart, so marijuana must have more disadvantages to justify the criminalization, right? Apparently it does not, because past mistakes have influenced the continued illegalization of cannabis of all forms, including hemp. But wait, if marijuana is a supposed malevolent drug, then why are there so many studies showing that when used responsibly, marijuana is not harmful (safeness of use, lack of addictiveness, not causing psychological disease), or socially negative (no gateway effect, doesn’t cause traffic fatalities, betters police protection). Furthermore, I was previously unaware of the benefits marijuana consumption has on Alzheimer’s disease, brain and lung cancer, and HIV/AIDS. As more studies and information are discovered on the effects of cannabis use, people’s attitudes and arguments for and against marijuana are destined to change accordingly, but as of now, I am pro legalization of marijuana.

I Used to Love H.E.M.P.

I am ashamed of you, dear readers. All these weeks have gone by and none of you have mentioned the hemp. Tsk tsk, faithful followers. Nevertheless, we’ll undertake the task of learning about hemp right … now. Hemp is scientifically known as Cannabis sativa L. subsp. sativa, which is different from marijuana, also known as Canabis sativa L. subsp. Indica. The difference between the two is that marijuana has a much higher level of THC. While hemp has between 0.05 and 1% THC content, marijuana has 3 to 20%. Despite this, the US government views hemp the same as marijuana. And yet, the United States imports hemp from other countries.

Hemp has many uses, including clothing fibers, construction, paper, and even food. The plant can be harvested and its fibers can be used to make clothing which has been shown to reduce UV exposure in the wearer. As for construction, hemp hurds are mixed with lime, sand, plaster, water, and some concrete to form a strong concrete-like material. Walls made with ‘hempcrete’ are said to be seven times stronger and three times more elastic than those made with concrete. It is also a better insulator and not brittle like cement. Crack resistant pipes can also be made from hempcrete, which are more flexible and elastic than those made from normal materials. The paper and pulping industry of today is the third worst polluting industry. One of the reasons for this is the dumping of dioxin, a waste product of chlorine, which is used in the paper pulping process. Hemp, when pulped, does not need chlorine or bleach to be whitened. It requires hydrogen peroxide, which doesn’t produce dioxin. Hemp paper is also a much better paper in that it can be recycled seven or eight times, as compared to normal paper which can only be recycled three times. Hemp paper also lasts much longer; hundreds of years longer than paper, that is! Furthermore, hemp is a much better environmental alternative. It can produce about four times as much paper per acre as trees. Also, while trees can take years upon years to grow, hemp is a renewable resource known as one of the fastest growing biomasses around. It can also be a substitute for cotton, which uses 50% of the worlds’ pesticides. In addition, hemp seeds are a beneficial and nutritional food. It contains all of the necessary amino acids for human life. Hemp seeds can be eaten raw, ground into a meal, or made into milk made from hemp, akin to soy milk. Next week, we’ll journey into the exciting topic of hemp’s possible economic impact. Hemp, Hemp, Hooray (Boo, bad pun)!!!

And kudos to those who recognize the reference in the title. I wonder how many of you get it.

Cannabis Clips

Cannabis clips are back! The recent drop-off in pot culture days is due to a combination of a little vacation, a little laziness, and writer's block. But, I'm back on the ball, hopefully writing some decent humor for my fair readers. Also new is the poll to the right; be sure to vote!

Let's take a look at a film that is known as the epitome of a cult movie: Reefer Madness (aka Tell Your Children).

Once a movie made to scare people into fear of marijuana use, Reefer Madness is now a quintessential "stoner flick." My favorite part has to be the man who encourages his lady friend to play the piano faster and faster and faster!

Having seen the whole film, I feel that I am capable of saying that this movie reaches comedy through absurdity. No one in their right mind today would argue that marijuana induces a desire for rape or homicidal tendencies. For those who have an allergic reaction to old time black and white movies, there is also a 2005 musical version that aired on Showtime. If you want to watch the 1936 version, watch it here. If you want to watch the musical version, which I must say is quite funny, you can find it online on places like SurftheChannel.com or you can buy it. Ha ha, yeah, buy it . . . right.

Marijuana as Medicine

Last week, I visited my parents and my father asked what I’ve been doing for my classes. I told my father that I was writing a blog, to which he asked what I was writing about. While he probably hoped it was something discussing important topics that could possibly help a prospective career, I told him I was writing an informative blog on how marijuana legalization is an effective policy. At this point, he must have concluded in his mind that I was a pothead because he effectively became stone-faced. I noticed this and decided to make a last ditch effort to sway his mind before his new perception of me became cemented in his mind. I told him about the study that showed how marijuana consumption can be an effective medicine to treat and prevent Alzheimer’s disease because of its effect to prevent the plaque formation in the brain found in Alzheimer's. As I expected, he perked up and eagerly asked me more questions concerning how this could be true. You see, his mother, my grandmother, passed away a few years ago as a result of a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Despite marijuana’s ability to treat this degenerative and terminal disease, it is obvious that most of marijuana’s medical uses go unnoticed by the public.

While marijuana can be used to treat many diseases, most people have very little knowledge of the other uses. The most well known use of marijuana as medicine is for the treatment of glaucoma. Studies have shown smoking marijuana loosens the intraocular pressure that causes glaucoma. As mentioned before, it can treat Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, the THC found in cannabis has been found to reduce lung cancer tumor growth and its ability to spread. Another cannabinoid found in marijuana, cannabidiol, has been studied to find that it can have the same effects of chemotherapy without the negative side effects. This would mean that consumption of marijuana would stop the spread of breast cancer. Scientists have also discovered that the symptoms of HIV and AIDS can be benefited by marijuana use. HIV patients that smoked marijuana were found to have increased food intake, better moods, and a better quality of life. Furthermore, a study from this year found that THC effectively causes the death of brain cancer cells while leaving healthy cells unharmed and having no toxic effects.

Theory Post

Tomorrow, Californian legislators are meeting to listen to and debate testimony in favor of legalization of marijuana. This is good step forwards in the movement for legalization. The populace and lawmakers must get involved and discover the true effects of marijuana. Once legislators and congressmen also understand this, the legalization of marijuana will once again become a hotly debated topic. And until marijuana is legalized, polarized sides will not concede their positions. In order for cannabis to be legalized, certain restrictions must be placed upon it to ensure that it is responsibly used. This would mean an age restriction only allowing users to be twenty-one years of age or older. Furthermore, this would establish many state and federal taxes for buyers and sellers. Once this occurs, individual state governments can establish their own laws, like no smoking and driving, etc. After this, municipalities will be able to decide if they want to allow marijuana, much like ‘dry’ counties that do not sell alcohol. This is the only effective way to end polarized sides because if it remains to be a criminalized drug, questions will remain for those who believe marijuana is a beneficial good. If marijuana is never legalized, the proponents will still wonder how many people could have had their lives improved or even elongated by marijuana.

Marijuana's Social Effects and Effects on Public Safety

Aside from marijuana’s health concerns, the most feared possible effect is that ‘pot’ legalization will create millions of stoners incapable of daily menial tasks, and then they turn to hard drugs too. And then as they figure it, society collapses. Well, have no fear because I am here to take on these dangerous worries.

First off, one of the most well-known but incorrect theories is that of marijuana being a ‘gateway drug.’ For those who do not know, a gateway drug is one that using cannabis leads to the use of and addiction to hard drugs like heroin and cocaine. There have been multiple studies both finding in favor and opposed to the theory. In 2006, a Swedish institute gave rats doses of THC daily and then allowed them to control their own heroin use through pressing a lever. As the rats used THC day after day, they gradually used more and more heroin. Yet their experiment was erroneous because of errors in the rats’ ages. They tested on rats that were 28 days old (about 6 years old for humans). The test group for adult rats showed no relationship between use of THC and addiction to heroin. Furthermore, a study by the American Psychiatric Association conducted a study which observed the lives of children ages 10-12. Their results were that those kids that tried marijuana before any other drugs were no more likely to abuse hard drugs than those who did not use cannabis before drug use. And to cap this refutation of the gateway drug theory, a study in 1999 by US National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine reported that marijuana is not a "gateway drug to the extent that it is a cause or even that it is the most significant predictor of serious drug abuse."

Another major panic is that marijuana use will cause many traffic fatalities because of its consumption. Occasionally you will hear on the local news or even the national news stations that a fatal collision was caused by a driver who had marijuana in their system. This is a common fallacy because what people may not notice is that in most of these accidents, the driver was under the influence of alcohol as well. In fact, a recent study supports the idea that fears of marijuana traffic collision are overblown and that in traffic fatalities, a driver who is high is no more a danger for car wreck casualties than one who is drug-free.

And this last part is likely an unknown possible benefit. Public safety could very possibly become greater as a result of marijuana’s decriminalization. From my street knowledge, often times in iffy situations the police are not called when they should be. People are often afraid that the cops will find marijuana and thus arrest them for possession. Consequently, problems are not resolved and people can suffer because of it. Furthermore, an estimated $300 million is spent on fighting marijuana in each state. If marijuana is legalized than all of this budget money can be used elsewhere. Police can eliminate a former focus of their patrols and instead concentrate on more stopping more dangerous criminals and preventing crimes, such as hard drug use and trafficking. In this way, there is a good possibility that marijuana legalization would create better public safety.

Analysis of the Situation

In the early 1930’s, propaganda, a newspaper king, and a fiber company set off a war against marijuana use, making outrageous claims to scare off prospective users. The federal government continued this and criminalized the drug, penalizing those who possess it, grow it, and sell it. Cannabis was one of the subjects of the war on drugs started in the in the mid twentieth century and more publicized in the 1980s under former President Ronald Reagan. As recent as a few decades ago, about 75 percent of adults favored prohibition, but now only a small majority of adults believe it should be prohibited, as reported by the Gallup Poll. This shows the huge progress the legalization movement is making, including an increase of thirteen percent since the year 2000. Even now, on the home page of Time Magazine’s website, an overwhelming 88 percent of the five thousand visitors to the site are in favor of nationwide legalization. As the United States economy tries to make up ground lost in the past year, California became the largest state to legalize marijuana for medical use only. After the economy fell through, the legalization process gained momentum as Californians rally to get pot legalization measures on the ballot this year. Like those Californians, more people from other states wondered if legalizing marijuana would lead to a better economic forecast.

This re-emergence of marijuana legalization in national debate once again brought about the discussion of cannabis’ benefits and detriments. Those in favor of legalization usually cite the studies that indicate a strong possibility of a great amount of profit that can be made from the production of cannabis, as well as medicinal benefits and beneficial health effects for the users. However, some worry that marijuana use is detrimental to society and the user’s health. When it comes to marijuana’s effect on the economy, people have looked to analyze the likely budgetary savings in no longer attempting to fight marijuana sales and use, the profit to be made by private companies, possible revenue to be brought in for the sale of complementary goods, and the amount of money state and federal governments could bring in for excise and revenue taxes. While those who oppose marijuana’s legalization may acknowledge the economic benefits of allowing consumption of cannabis, they are more concerned about the effects marijuana has on the population as a drug. However, because cannabis is a very complex plant composed of thousands of chemicals, the effects of marijuana use are not wholly known. Nevertheless, scientists have studied its effects to ascertain some form of understanding of how marijuana affects humans. They have discovered that cannabis has both negative and beneficial uses. Smoking marijuana has been found to negatively affect health in the damage of lung airways. In spite of this, smoking marijuana is not the only way to achieve the desired effect. Consuming it in food or drinks or using a vaporizer provides alternate healthier methods to take advantage of cannabis’ uses. The opposition of legalization also likes to say that it causes many problems after consumption, including short term memory loss, impairing the user’s coordination, etc. Although, these do occur as a result of consuming marijuana, these effects only last as long as the user is ‘high’ and the symptoms do not linger. Moreover, marijuana is a safe drug in that one cannot possibly overdose on cannabis. Some also fear that cannabis consumption causes psychological disorders. This is not the case as one must have pre-existing psychological tendencies for marijuana to have any effect. Nevertheless, one with psychotic inclinations should not use marijuana.

Marijuana is also effective as medicine, capable of treating the side effects of many diseases. It has been found to decrease the plaque formations in the brain caused by Alzheimer’s Disease, contain THC that can reduce lung cancer tumors (as well as treat more types of cancer^1,2), treat glaucoma, and helping AIDS/HIV patients retain their appetite. Additionally, marijuana legalization could have profound social effects including a safer population as a result of focusing on worse crime and a better outlook on the police. Also, with the legalization of marijuana comes the legalization of hemp. This new industry will invigorate the dying economy once held by the timber industry.

How can marijuana still be criminalized when there is a far more dangerous drug widely available to the public? Alcohol remains one of the highest killers of Americans in both poisoning and from the result of drinking it and driving or not acting responsibly, killing roughly one hundred thousand in the United States each year. And yet how many people are killed each year from using marijuana? It has been proven that no one can overdose and a recent study shows that marijuana users are no more likely to cause fatal accidents than drug-free drivers. That means the total is only around the number of those who choose to smoke marijuana rather than consuming it through a safer method. America should be asking how it can allow a welcome and known drug like alcohol to be legal and yet not legalize a drug that is much safer for the populace.

1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2673842/?tool=pmcentrez

2. http://mct.aacrjournals.org/content/6/11/2921.long

Weed and Wellness, Part 2

Part 2 of the "Weed and Wellness" series

Marijuana generally is a safe drug to use because of its inability to be overdosed on and its relatively minimal effects on the body when used properly. Marijuana is different from most drugs in that it is nearly impossible for one to overdose on. It would take 5,000 times more of the amount of THC required to get high for a person to overdose on THC. Many effects of cannabis use are confused between the long term and short term. Most effects cannabis has on the body are short term and in fact last only as long as the user is high. Do marijuana users get the munchies for the rest of their life? No, it lasts as long as the “high” or until their hunger is satisfied. The short term memory loss effect that many are aware of is true, but disappears after the person is no longer under cannabis’ influence.

Some who are worried about marijuana’s health effects may query, “Isn’t marijuana addictive? Also, what about its long term psychological effects?” The addictiveness of marijuana has been widely exaggerated and even invented. Within the past few months, I saw a report on CNN in which some unfortunate Californian who did not want her identity revealed claimed that marijuana ruined her life because it had caused an addiction. This is erroneous and asinine. Yes, marijuana can be habit forming but it has no chemicals to cause an addiction. When I say habit forming, I mean that people want to use marijuana repeatedly because it has pleasurable effects. As such, any reasonable person would want to get that pleasure gain, but not because they feel dependent on it. Anything pleasurable can be psychologically addictive. In 2004, a study was conducted in both Amsterdam and San Francisco. It asked marijuana users how they would describe their use of marijuana over their life. If marijuana were addictive, most would have selected ‘escalating’ use. However, most selected ‘increase/decrease,’ which means that since starting using cannabis, their consumption rose and then fell as a result of voluntary actions. “This is not the trend of a dangerous drug,” as Pete Geither writes. As for cannabis’ psychological effects, in Leslie Iversen’s report on the long term effects of marijuana, “Some individuals who have psychotic thought tendencies might risk precipitating psychotic illness.” In other words, marijuana cannot simply cause psychotic illness in a normal person, but a person who has psychological tendencies should steer away from the drug.

Are there any concerns that were left unnoticed? Ask your question in the comments!

Weed and Wellness, Part 1

Note: Today's post is part one of a two part series on the health effects of marijuana.

Today we will be focusing on the effects that marijuana has on each user of marijuana. This will not include its treatment of medical problems. For length’s sake, I will give you a synopsis of what happens when someone uses marijuana. When smoked, the most active chemical, THC, and the other psychoactive chemicals (cannabinoids) travel from the lungs to the blood stream and into the brain and other parts of the body. Cannabis can have effects when eaten as well because the THC can get to blood stream through this process as well. Because marijuana affects the brain, it certainly should have a minimum age restriction since the brain is still being molded during adolescent and childhood years.

Smoking marijuana is known to cause damage in the airways and lungs of users. It has over a thousand chemicals, some of which become carcinogens when smoked. Although these are facts about marijuana use, there are other ways to use cannabis and still derive the chemicals needed to get the benefits of the plant. Marijuana can be prepared and mixed with food and cooking oils to be safely eaten. Because THC is soluble in lipids, it is practical to extract the THC and make food that has the same effect as smoking marijuana but without the negative carcinogens. However, if you cannot make food with marijuana, there are safer ways to smoke marijuana. The general hierarchy of safe smoking paraphernalia from least safe to the most is:

Blunt/rolling papers à Bowl (smoking pipe) à Bong/Water pipe à Vaporizer

As you move from left to right in this flow chart, more and more toxins are filtered out when the marijuana is smoked. In a blunt, there are possible added toxins of the paper, but in a bowl (which is usually made of glass), one smokes only the cannabis. The bong takes it a step further by cooling the smoke and filtering the smoke through water first which traps toxins before the user inhales the cooler smoke. The vaporizer improves upon this further by taking into account the fact that THC is extracted not through combustion of the marijuana, but the heating of it. As such, it heats the cannabis to a certain temperature at which the THC is released without releasing the harmful chemicals. Furthermore, as you go to the right on the hierarchy, each tool successively extracts a higher percentage of cannabinoids from the marijuana. So while one receives a much better effect and "high" from better equipment, they also are not being as detrimental to their health as the preceding paraphernalia.

Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion to:

Weed and Wellness!

Cannabis Clips

First off, the results of the poll are in. Eleven voted yes, and two each voted for 'medicinal use only' and for no. I will launch the same poll at in about two weeks to see how effective my arguments were. Next, a new poll has been created. One of my friends who is currently a student at UNCC is excited to go see Toy Story 1 and 2 in 3D. Yeah, he's eighteen years old; don't judge him. He is so enthusiastic for the new flicks because this will be his first time seeing these childhood classics while he is high. The poll asks whether you have ever seen a movie high and whether you liked the experience. Remember, all polls are anonymous even to me, so do not be afraid to vote. Now on to Cannabis Clips!

I regret that in my earlier posts, I have neglected the front-running reason for marijuana legalization. Of course I am referring to the hybridization of marijuana with Kentucky bluegrass for golf course turf. As, Mr. Carl Spackler states, “you can play 36 holes on it in the afternoon, take it home and just get stoned to the bejeezus-belt that night.” The following is a video of an interview on Mr. Spackler’s life work.

Congressmen, if you’re out there and reading this, how has this not convinced you yet? Do not let Spackler’s work go to waste. An advancement like this in the field of golf course greenskeeping has not been made since the creation of grass! As the Dalai Lama says, "Gunga galunga … gunga, gunga lagunga!"

Taxation of Marijuana

In my post, “Intro-dub-tion,” someone commented, arguing that he/she does not believe marijuana has the ability to be taxed. From afar, the growth / production of marijuana and tobacco are similar industries. Like tobacco, marijuana can be grown by any person who wants to do so because it is just a plant. However, because companies and firms eliminate transaction costs (see “Creation of Jobs”) most would prefer not to incur the costs of producing their own plants. So corporations and companies like R.J. Reynolds produce the majority of tobacco and are heavily taxed. Since tobacco is an industry that is taxed, why couldn’t marijuana be taxed?

There could be many creative ways for the government to tax the consumption of cannabis. State governments: They could implement their own taxes on each gram purchased, similar to a gasoline tax which varies state to state. For those people who prefer to grow their own plants, seeds could be taxed with a similar tax as above. This would have marijuana join alcohol, gasoline, and tobacco to be another “sin tax” or good with an excise tax. Another method would be to have excise taxes on complementary goods of marijuana, ie. smoking paraphernalia. The increased amount of goods sold would increase the revenue brought in by sales tax. Even if the states were only to allow medicinal marijuana use, they could make money through charging people for a license to ensure their possession and use of marijuana is legal for medical conditions. Since California legalized medicinal marijuana, over two million dollars has been collected from medical use license fees alone. Businesses also require licenses to operate, which the state government could charge for.

Federal Government: The largest sources of income possible for the federal government from marijuana production are the corporate taxes. The government could tax the “taxable income,” which is the amount of income left over after most business costs are deducted. The amount of this money decides what percentage is gathered by the government. In addition to that, they can incur their own excise tax on marijuana production.

Below is a spreadsheet with estimated figures of the marijuana industry’s possible tax incomes. All percentages are estimated averages. The numbers, including monetary value of total marijuana consumed by Americans (which is the basis for all of her calculations), are based on this article from over five years ago in 2003. So logically, the numbers would undoubtedly be higher today following the logic that as population increases, the consumption of marijuana would grow proportionally. Also, this does not include the estimated taxes collected from complementary goods or fees gathered from license fees. Furthermore, the state government figures are approximated averages because state tax rates differ from state to state. As such, state government revenues would widely vary.

	State Government		Federal Government
Excise Tax (6%)	$13.2 million	Excise Tax (6%)	$660 million
Sales tax (8%)	$17 million	-------	-------
State Income Tax (5%)	$6.7 million	Corporate Income Tax (20%)	$1.1 billion
------	--------	FICA	$382 million
Cost of War on Drugs (only Marijuana's estimated cost)	$300 million	Cost of War on Drugs (only Marijuana's estimated cost)	$3.84 billion

Cannabis Clips

Last week was marijuana in music, so I thought I'd switch it up for this week and move into cannanis in film. If you liked the music posts, do not fret! I may write more of those the week after.

And please vote in the anonymous poll on the right ------->

- The Big Lebowski

Kiddos, remember to roll down your windows before flicking your uhh ... cigarette butts. Or be a Little Lebowski Urban Achiever and avoid littering.

Note: If you didn't get that reference, watch the movie and enhance your life.

Pot Culture Friday

Well, I realized that since this blog will run for only four weeks, there would only be four pot culture days. I think you, the reader, could not be able to fully grasp the concept of marijuana in pop culture with only four posts, so I am hereby expanding it to two posts per week!

Rollin' down the street, smokin' indo

sippin' on gin and juice, laid back

(With my mind on my money, and my money on my mind)

-Snoop Dogg, "Gin and Juice," Doggystyle

Snoop Dogg: quite possibly the finest multi-tasker of all time.

My artistic interpretation of Mr. Dogg's daily life

Oh, and this is so VERY illegal. I mean, he's not even trying to hide it!

Creation of Jobs

In 2008, about fifteen million people used marijuana as recently as that past month. For an industry to begin with an initial market of that number would be remarkable. To put that number in perspective, Apple only sells more iPods than that in one fiscal quarter of the whole year: the October through December quarter or the holiday season. The idea that fifteen million people use marijuana monthly while it is illegal would indicate a strong likelihood that if it were legal, companies would form to take advantage of possible profits to be made.

If marijuana were legalized, new businesses would be formed and with them, thousands of new jobs. As noted above, marijuana already has a proven market of at least fifteen million Americans to sell to. Of course this would increase to even more because there no longer is the fear of legal issues associated with smoking marijuana. As a result, companies and businesses would spring up to make money off of the demand for marijuana. These companies could be producing marijuana, selling marijuana to the public, or even selling marijuana accessories for consumption (e.g. bongs, rolling papers, etc.), just to name a few. Larger corporations would form to become the manufacturers of marijuana, employing thousands upon thousands of people to work. This could be compared to being what R.J. Reynolds is to tobacco for marijuana. On another note, the timber industry is not doing so well today, but with the legalization of marijuana comes the ability to produce hemp. This industry will also create more jobs while replacing an industry that is on the decline.

Some may argue that some people have been growing at their own houses for years and thus question the coming of huge corporations into existence. The production costs for underground marijuana growth, including expensive lamps and sometimes generators, are high but are easily overcome in a market of prohibition because people are willing to pay high prices for something that is illegal and not ostentatiously marketed. Were marijuana to be legalized, the created corporations would cause transaction costs to crumble and as a result, people would not require the services of those who grow and sell their own cannabis. In turn, they would not be able to cover their overhead, or production costs, and as such their business would fail.

Transaction costs: the costs of collecting information about products and transporting goods and people geographically or between markets.

source: http://www.unc.edu/depts/econ/byrns_web/EC434/EC434ClassNotes/Lecture_01_HET.htm

Pot Culture Wednesday

Pot Culture Wednesday is idea for a weekly post on marijuana in pop culture. Strictly for entertainment/humor value only.

I still express, yo, I don't smoke weed or sess.

-Dr. Dre from N.W.A, "Express Yourself," Straight Outta Compton

Uh, Dr. Dre? Yeah, what was the name of your debut solo album?

Yeah, not the top words, smarty-pants.

Oh, right, The Chronic. And you hang out with this guy:

Never mind.

Intro-dub-tion to AQotWB

The issue of the legalization of marijuana in the United States is stagnant at this point in time. Healthcare reform, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the struggling economy have bull-rushed their way to the forefront of every American’s mind. Now, legalization is a topic left untouched, a seemingly futile political effort. But today, in an anemic economy trying to rebuild, legalization could be the answer to some of our problems.

Beginning in the early twentieth century, cannabis was slandered and frowned upon due to fear of its unknown effects on the timber business and the human mind. Even as marijuana became better understood, the government and those opposing cannabis produced propaganda against marijuana use. Regardless, consumption of marijuana increased year after year despite criminal charges for possession and sale of the drug. As the public’s views on marijuana changed, some states changed their laws on the criminalization of cannabis, including decriminalization the possession of marijuana and legalization of medicinal use.

Until now, there was not much incentive to legalize marijuana; the economy was already booming and marijuana was feared to be a gateway drug leading to “hard drug” use. As both this trend and the belief have been reversed, the value of legalization has never been higher. The introduction of the new highly profitable industries of marijuana consumption and hemp production would cause a creation of new jobs and consumer spending. It would also be beneficial to the health and well-being of the population because of its positive medical effects. This blog aims to follow the continuing debate on legalization of marijuana and to help persuade people to understand why such a policy would be economically and medicinally effective.

Other Titles that I Almost Named the Blog

I had created about seven serious alternative names for AQotWB before deciding on "All Quiet on the Western Blunt." I decided on naming it this because of how the argument is relatively quiet (as compared to major topics, like health care and war) and our status as a major part of the Western world. These names are all based on pop culture names or works; see which ones you can identify!

• Trees Grow in Brooklyn
• Eternal Sunshine of a Potless Mind
• Some Like it Pot
• Rear Indo (I guess I kind of gave it away with the picture, sorry)
  
• Through the Looking Grass
• Bud's Wiser (which ultimately would be my pseudonym)

Original picture (pre-photoshopping) from Rear Window