Stop Treating Marijuana as A Potential Serial Killer

    I agree with my classmate, Jocelyn Hernandez, on the post she wrote. Whether we legalize marijuana or not, people are still going to use it. Marijuana is widely used, especially in adolescents and young adults. In the US, there are about 20 million users, about 7.5% of people aged 12 or older. According to a Gallup poll, 64% of Americans support legalizing marijuana for recreational use. Marijuana is a mind-altering drug, which is why its medical use is somewhat controversial. Although marijuana can help relieve some symptoms of certain medical conditions, its use is indeed illegal on a federal level because the FDA still has concerns about potential risks versus benefits. Some states have passed laws to allow the use of marijuana for medical conditions, and some are also making the move to decriminalize marijuana use by adults.

   Legislatures in several states recently passed legalization measures, and they are debating the regulations that would have to be set in motion with the legalized sale and use of marijuana. Massachusetts lawmakers were weighing bills earlier this year that would lower the amount residents can legally possess and place restrictions on stores. 

    Aside from the visibly decreasing crime rate, states where the use of marijuana is legal also observe lower unemployment rate. In the states where it has been legalized, the new industry is contributing to the various states' economies. According to Marijuana Business Daily, the number of jobs created by cannabis-related companies ranges between 100,000 and 150,000. New Frontier Data estimated employment within the industry may reach 300,000 by 2020. In all likelihood, the share will only continue to grow within the upcoming years.

Trump's Reversal of the Nation's Course

It is true, though, that Trump has undone many things that were put into place by the previous presidents of the United States. Since the beginning of his administration, he has taken various steps to turn over what his predecessors had set into motion. The most obvious one being the executive orders he has signed so far. Executive orders are assigned numbers and published in the federal register, similar to laws passed by Congress, and typically direct members of the executive branch to follow a new policy or directive. Comparing him and the previous presidents, he has signed alarmingly numerous executive orders. According to the American Presidency Project, George Washington issued eight while FDR more than 3,700 their entire time in office. On par with the modern presidents, President Obama signed 277 executive orders in his two terms. And now, Trump has signed 32 executive orders only in 100 days.

       The reality is that the U.S. stand in government has seldom been in such disarray. Neither America's friends nor foes know where they are to stand, just as U.S. citizens ourselves do not comprehend who takes decisions in Washington. Many people suspected that President Trump and the top officials of his administration came to office knowing next to nothing about the U.S. policies. According to Eliot Cohen, a former U.S. senior diplomat, this new U.S. administration is not divided into people who are loyal to Trump and those who are not. Rather, it is divided between those who know how to manipulate his vanity, his hatreds, his sensitivities, and those who do not. There are warnings that the Trump administration is doing many of the things to distract people from the real deal that the President is planning. For example, there are rumors circulating that the Las Vegas shooting was an incident that was purposely planned to distract attention from an upgraded nuke bomb testing which exploded in the desert north of Las Vegas. Also, church shooting in San Antonio is most likely a cruel attempt at distracting the U.S. public from the rapidly approaching indictment of two individuals extremely close to the heart of the Trump administration—Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn—who had been identified as utterly corrupt foreign assets.

       President Trump’s impact on American policy has been just a little short of catastrophic. With his almost uncanny ability for timing, he undermined every single one of our country's major policy initiatives, by simply tweeting, even at the most critical moment. He had evidently said that the world is the survival of the fittest, and all countries have to try to swallow each other.