#6 Understanding: Legalizing Marijuana Debate

This weeks political topic is more current: legalizing marijuana. I was particularly excited for this weeks contentious topic. Every since this news story was reported, I was eager to start writing about it. Recently a young girl scout, Danielle Lei, has been banned from selling cookies outside of medical pot shops in San Francisco. As many know, after using the substance of cannabis, one can get the sensation of feeling hungry. Lei, reasoned that she would gain a lot of profit by setting up her stand outside of medical marijuana shops. However, supervisors thought this action was "inappropriate" and not safe for young girls to be selling their cookies outside of adult-oriented businesses. Similar actions of Lei had been taken in such places as Denver, Colorado. As we know, Colorado has legalized the use of cannabis. Many are irritated that such a use of profit is banned in places where marijuana or medical marijuana is used. Their rational is that hey if it's legal then why not be able to economically benefit? Others don't like this because they feel as though it could lead down to an unsafe road for the girl scouts selling the cookies, such that it could influence them to take part in the use of marijuana.

Lets look at this sociologically; if a state decides to legalize the use of marijuana, then all persons should be able to benefit from that law. If a state determines that they don't want people, such as girl scouts, to economically gain from the legalization of pot, then they are showing hypocritical actions. While I don't believe that cannabis should be legalized in any state, I do feel that if it is, people should be able to gain what they want from it, especially since the substance has only been shown to be a stimulus and not as a benefit to society in any other form. A state or authority can't shut down someone who is profiting from the legalization of either medical or non medical marijuana because it can be potentially "dangerous". It was state's initial decision to legalize it in the first place, so it sends off a contradictory message: why shouldn't a person be able to use it to their advantage if it's legal? If an authority figure is worried about a young girl getting into the use of legalized cannabis, then why is it legalized? Many can't see how marijuana can benefit a person, especially because of how abused it is in our society, but Lei ingeniously showed how it could be used to her advantage. Through Lei's entrepreneurial skills she demonstrated economic perspective by showing a rational way to benefit from marijuana other than just consuming it to make a point. The background of the legalizing marijuana debate is that many argue that marijuana should be legalized because cigarettes are legal. In that case, those people think that cigarettes are the same in proportion to marijuana, however, it can also be seen that cigarettes are not mind altering substances in the sense that it does not create a high, unlike marijuana, which makes one high after the consumption of it. In cigarettes, the nicotine is addictive, but one can still be able to fully engage in conversation after smoking it. Along the lines of that opinion, many also say that cigarettes are deadly so why are they still legal, and pot can't be? The counter argument could be that such places like CVS, which I have mentioned in a previous post, are starting to cease the distributing of cigarettes, which is a promising beginning to decimating the product in other drug stores. A worry that many people have is that if all states legalized the use of marijuana then any political figure can basically walk into a meeting or court smoking a joint. How would anything be done in America with intuitive skill and cautious decision making when we are already having troubling coming to an agreement sober? Lei's creative actions helped point out how controversial this topic still is and how it can help target the politics in this debate.