Tag Archives: Drugs

Should Cannabis be Legal?

--Original published at MentzersBlog

For the last couple years there has been a long debate if marijuana should be legal. For medical use it should definitely be legal because it has proven to have many uses in the field. It helps with glaucoma and to control people who have frequent seizures. The best medical use is that it stops cancer cells from growing which is a break through for this terrible illness. The most controversial part is the recreational side. I think cannabis should be legal because there is a substance legal right now that causes more deaths than marijuana has caused; alcohol. If a more dangerous substance is legal then I think weed should be to because it is a lot safer to consume. On the other side weed can be a gateway drug. This is the biggest reason for it to not be legal today because the government is afraid of other drug overdoes to rise because of cannabis. Overall the pros outweigh the cons of marijuana use and should be legal in the United States.


Week 6 First Impression Prompts – Psychoactive Drugs

Hand writing on a notebook

 

The first impression posts for this prompt will be due by the beginning of class on Wednesday, 10/4. The refinement posts for this prompt will be due Tuesday, 10/10, at noon. Here are the two prompts for this week. Regardless of which prompt you choose, use the tag “Drugs.”

Option 1:

Recently, several states have legalized recreational use of marijuana and even more are considering it. This has lead to both celebration and condemnation depending on who you ask. Medicinal use of marijuana is still controversial as well. In your blog post, take a position on both medical and recreational use of marijuana. Should they be legal or not? Make sure to point out pros and cons to both arguments.

Option 2:

When it comes to treating addiction, two prominent approaches are the abstinence model and the harm reduction model. Most people are more familiar with the abstinence model, which seeks to completely eliminate all use of the problematic substance and prioritizes sobriety (an example would be 12-step programs like AA). The harm reduction model prioritizes things differently, in that the primary concern is preventing negative consequences of substance use (an example would be needle-swapping programs that provide clean needles for drug users to prevent the spread of diseases like HIV and Hepatitis). This is an over-simplification of the models, but you can find a little more background on each approach here. Which approach seems like the better idea to you? Explain which you would recommend if a loved one needed help with an addiction.

I look forward to seeing what you write!

Header image: CC by Flickr user Caitlinator