Sadie Rodriguez

April 26, 2018

Gutaj

Pols 1100

Term Essay

The social justice system of the United States of America is corrupt and those

who do not see it are blinded by what really happens in this country. It is terrible to state

that even the slightest of offenses are judged differently according to the ethnicity and

background of a person. It is even fair to say that it is easily judged by a person’s

economic standing. One specific matter that has been a controversial stand of this

country is the legalization of marijuana. This is not to speak on why marijuana should be

legal but rather the way that people of color have been incarcerated by possession of

Marijuana, yet there are people doing research and publicly finding the good for it, but

those (predominantly white) people are not incarcerated.

There are different courses one can actively take in college about marijuana, like

stated on the Forbes article ,American Universities Offering Cannabis Classes This Fall,

“UC Davis undergraduate class on the Physiology of Cannabis, University of Vermont

Larner College of Medicine online classes, and Ohio State University Law School's

Marijuana Law, Policy & Reform Seminar. The University of Washington offers a class

on "Medicinal Cannabis and Chronic Pain" for healthcare professionals...There are also

non-accredited classes for those working in the industry including those at Oaksterdam

University.” People can actively go to school and get a degree in the business of

Marijuana. When someone goes to school to get a degree, they tend to normally have
the intention of pursuing said career. So the question remains in the thought of all of the

people who are still in jail due to possession and distribution of Marijuana. This goes

back to the point being that due to economic and ethnic background people can get

away with certain things. The New York Times article, Marijuana Arrests Outnumber

Those for Violent Crimes, Study Finds, “With marijuana use on the rise, law

enforcement agencies made 574,641 arrests last year for small quantities of the drug

intended for personal use, according to the report, which was released Wednesday by

the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch. The marijuana arrests

were about 13.6 percent more than the 505,681 arrests made for all violent crimes,

including murder, rape and serious assaults.” The majority of those people being

arrested are African American. The solution to this imbalance of justice would be to

legalize Marijuana in all.

People of lower economic status deserve to be treated equally as those with

higher status. The majority of Marijuana dealers, do it out of the sense of need not

through malicia. Some do it to feed their families, pay for their homestead, pay for

college, etc. It is useful to create courses in colleges, and make it widely known that

there are good uses to the use of marijuana, but it is unjust to, as a society, express the

good of it yet still keep those 574,641 people who remain in jail, which not to mention it

will remain on their criminal record for the rest of their lives. Those who aren’t privileged

enough and have the means to go to college to get a degree in the business of

marijuana should have the same rights as those who are. If people from the streets are

successfully selling without education, then they should receive equal opportunities to

those who spend money and go to school for years to do the same thing.
 This topic is something controversial because people fight the cause because of

the people who do go to jail for it. An argument could be, that Marijuana is not legal in

every state therefore, if a person distributes and possesses Marijuana in a state where it

is not legalized then they should receive the consequences. Another argument would be

that it is a general law everywhere that if a person has intent to sale anything, they need

a license for it. That's why someone who sells candy, or random things on the street can

get fined for it. To have a business someone has to go through the schooling, andor the

processes of getting a business license. It would not be just to let people openly sale

marijuana without license, and then restrict the selling of anything else be under license.

Another argument could be, that the people who don't get arrested for possession and

distribution of Cannabis are the people who are using and distributing for medical

purposes. When used, for medical purposes it holds a greater understanding than using

it recreationally. In states where it is legal it is being sold in a controlled environment,

like at a store, not in an underground form so it makes it safer to distribute without the

risk of it being laced with another drug and be used in a dangerous form.

Works Cited

Gray, Kathleen. “Want to Study the Business of Marijuana? There's a Degree Program

for That.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 9 Oct. 2017,
www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/10/09/marijuana-degree-northern-michigan-

university/745964001/.

Weed, Julie. “American Universities Offering Cannabis Classes This Fall.” Forbes,

Forbes Magazine, 9 Sept. 2017, www.forbes.com/sites/julieweed/2017/09/02/physicians-and-

budtenders-taking-cannabis-classes-this-fall/#34da51fb4429.

Williams, Timothy. “Marijuana Arrests Outnumber Those for Violent Crimes, Study

Finds.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 12 Oct. 2016,

www.nytimes.com/2016/10/13/us/marijuana-arrests.html.