Country in Focus the Alternative Issue: What do you think about the recent legal changes towards marijuana laws in the US?
Mary Stevens, 21, from North Carolina studies at City University and speaks about the recently passed changes to marijuana laws.
I personally think that it can be useful for medical reasons and is less dangerous than cigarette smoking; it can be fun as well. I believe that the US have taken a step in the right direction when it comes to legalising this drug, there are bigger issues to tackle like gun laws and harder drugs, it’s good to see that this has been noticed and progress is being made.
With people saying that it might get out of hand, at first it might but I believe people overuse it in general so a change in the law isn’t going to make that much of a difference. I mean children don’t understand that it does get in the way of their school work but will continue to take It as it’s the life habit they know and all of their friends do it.
In North Carolina where I’m from it is kept behind closed doors and not spoken about much, there is obviously the pothead stereotype but not spoken about as freely as in other states. It is highly taken on university campuses but people try to pretend that it doesn’t.
Maybe one day all states will have the drug legalised it but I think with the different belief’s, ideologies and political affiliations that each state has it will be hard to completely legalise the drug all over the US.
It’s not yet legal in North Carolina and I don’t think it will be any time soon, it’s a southern state which means we are more religious and conservative, I don’t think the law will be passed even though it already goes on a lot in some areas. It’s different in places like New York and Chicago where they are cities and there is a bigger crime rate so different aspects of each state has to be taken into consideration in the decision to legalise marijuana.
I read in a survey that 58 percent of Americans think the drug should be legalised which I think is surprising really, but I would be interested to see the alignment of the views state by state. I would like to see this question being put up to a national vote as some people say yes in conversation but when asked about it wouldn’t have the guts to stand up and vote for it in a poll.
Overall I think I depends on the person, some people just do it because they want to try it but some people make it part of their lives both for medical reasons and recreationally. We are taught when we are younger that marijuana is a gateway drug that could lead to taking harder substances but I think it all depends on the person individually. Even Obama has said recently that there are bigger fish to fry when it comes to marijuana so the US is definitely taking positive steps.