The deliberation I went to in town was titled Marijuana. The three approaches that were discussed was first the approach of decriminalizing marijuana in the states but not legalizing it. they talked about how this would be more like a traffic ticket if you were stopped with pot and the benefits would be that cops could not spend as much time and the system would spend less money on marijuana incidents for the whole booking, housing and imprisonment process. This however comes with some moral objections for people who see this drug as wrong and in just. I however see nothing wrong with pot and feel as though it should be legal in all regards.

The second approach was legalizing marijuana only for medical purposes also know as medicinal marijuana. This would thus, allow people who are prescribed a card from their doctors saying they need pot for a medical cause to be able to have access to it. This would be great for people who suffer from pain from diseases like cancer and has even been proven to help people with seizures as well. The deliberation talked how this would conflict with the fact that marijuana is a schedule one drug and thus is said to have no medical purposes. However this has been proven wrong and baffles me and many at the deliberation that the government refuses to change marijuana scheduling. This also, holds the chances for people to abuse their card and get the marijuana for people who don’t need it for a medical purpose. However, that is true for any pain prescription and medication. that thus leads me to my final point on this approach and that is the legalizing pot for medical use is threatening the opioid market and manufacturers. Which is ironic because the drug company’s are huge contributors to government personnel and thus gives these people a reason to want to keep pot illegal.

The third approach talked about at the deliberation was that of full legalization of marijuana. This would be the most drastic and has a strong economical positive. That being that if legal nationally we could tax this product federally and use the billions of dollars to help with the debt of the country. This would create million of jobs and opportunities for people and also cut down on prison population and costs. This would eliminate funds going to stop this drug and fighting more serious crimes like murder. The negatives are that this drug could lead others to do worse drugs all though marijuana is not addictive in itself. I however do not agree with this and the gateway method has been disproved. The other negative would be that we would become this one big stoner nation which is definitely not what would happen just like alcohol it would be used as a way to escape our ever day mundane lives. This may not be what everyone in America thinks is right but that does not mean it should not be legal for people to decide for themselves.

In all the deliberation was a great conversation although it was heavily biased toward pot legalization and overall not being a hindrance on society. Even if that is what I believe I wished I heard the other side of the argument.