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Sangam Shah Instructor: Malcolm Campbell English 1102 February 11, 2014 Topic Proposal: Was legalizing marijuana in the states a mistake? I will be examining whether if the move to make marijuana legal in the following states: WA, CO is a mistake. Many people in the United States have smoked the tree. According to a National Survey on Drug Use, 14.4 million people of the age of 12 or older have used marijuana at least once before the interview took place. Anyone being a young teenager in a world where people will do anything to get their hands on money is very hard, because anyone can walk up to someone on the corner asking for drugs. A common thing of this is getting offered marijuana. Marijuana has had its fair share of negative publicity. As a result, individuals under the influence of marijuana may experience impairment in motor control and compromised shortterm memory. While being intoxicated, memory is often selectively impaired in a dosedependent fashion similar to alcohol. I found most of my information through the internet such as websites as http://www.nida.nih.gov/infofacts/marijuana.html, and http://www.ctprevention.org/saac/Saac_files/fs_marijuana_brain.pdf. There are so many different views that the world has on marijuana. Throughout the United States, each of the states has their own opinion about the situation except for the ones that have spoken their mind on it and have passed laws for recreational use. The topic can only be solved by a factor and that is the government. Some states have gone through the research and now have come to a conclusion such as Washington, and Colorado. Was it a good idea to legalize it?

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Many people find it hard to believe that we have a couple states in the country that have finally broke down and decided to legalize the usage of marijuana like Colorado and Washington State. Just recently the states just opened up shops for recreational marijuana. It was a success on the first day as many people stood outside in the morning anticipating the opening of the stores. The only downside about this is now the government has their hands in the profits of the marijuana. They set up a 29 percent tax rate on all pot sales. 37 pot shops opened statewide, and reportedly said they had received over a million dollars in sales. This could be a new way for us to climb out of our disastrous debt situation. It is the perfect way to get the economy flowing again. It was wise to legalize, because they can focus more on destructive drugs like cocaine, and heroin. What happened after legalization? The legalization of marijuana in these states are complete, and now both of the states are starting to regulate it. Washington is stated that there will be a limit on number of sellers licenses, and plants will not be allowed for personal use. Colorado is less strict with having no limit on sellers licenses, and stores are already going up. They reported the projected revenue will be close to 300 million by the end of year 2014, and increased to 2 billion at the end of 2017. The taxes received on pot sales will be put towards public school construction, and the smaller sales tax would receive a 15 percent cut. What was the crime rate before legalization? After the legalization of marijuana, they experienced a drop of 20 percent in crime rates. This was a smart decision, because now the police can worry about other things than the usage of

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marijuana. This is will also clear out the cells with all the people who were convicted of marijuana felonies. What does marijuana do with your body after use? Marijuana is known to affect the body after usage, and as THC enters the brain, it causes the user to feel high by acting on the brain's reward system, which is made up of regions that trigger the response to pleasurable things like sex and chocolate, as well as to most drugs of abuse. THC activates the reward system in the same way that nearly all drugs of abuse do: by stimulating brain cells to release the chemical dopamine. It is also known to cause short-term memory loss because it kills all the brain cells. It hurts the brain to form new memories, and also conceptors are being destroyed with enables the body to be balanced and to be coordinated. So if this drug is being used, then activities such as driving and athletics would be hard.