Free Mary

The legalization of Marijuana is inevitable, as public opinion nationwide shifts into the “for” category politicians are being forced to address the issue. With so many economic and social benefits to gain from legalization, and not very many factual cons to go against it, it is only a matter of time. But why wait? If taxed and properly regulated, legalization could create jobs, save the nation money, and bring in tax revenue. According to a group of 300 economists our nation can save $7.7. Billion dollars by freeing up law enforcement efforts policing the drug, also adding another $6 billion if it is taxed like tobacco or alcohol.  Bring in $13.7 billion dollars annually. Along with financial gains, legalization would free up jails, having 663,032 people being arrested for marijuana related charges in 2011. It would free law enforcement up to focus on the policing the harder drugs. Lastly it takes money out of the drug cartels hands. The biggest concern for legalization of Marijuana is over sustained use and abuse. That’s more than likely correct, but no more than sustained use and abuse of alcohol. Yet the abuse of Marijuana unlike alcohol is not harmful to the body, but might lead to weight gain. With the people in office as of now it doesn’t seem if any sort of convincing or protest will get politicians to act on the issue any quicker than they want to. Time may be the only thing holding back legalization.

Debt Ceiling

Peter Morici a writer for Fox news suggests in his article "House Republicans may be the country’s last hope to avoid financialruin" that if congress grants permission to lift the debt ceiling then our country would just pile up an even more unbearable debt eventually bankrupting the country. He feels that that by the house Republicans refusing to raise the debt ceiling is the only thing saving our country from financial ruin.
            Morici argues that by raising the debt ceiling it only allows Congress to "run up new bills". Morici refers to a study done by Congressional Budget Office and Medicare and Medicaid stating that if the government continues to tax, spend, and borrow money, then Americans will end up paying much higher income taxes and for health insurance. Eventually over the next several decades the country would end up being broke. I agree with Morici's argument here, there are no signs which would say that if congress were to lift the  debt ceiling, that Washington would spend any less. 

Morici then changes the focus of his argument to the price of health care. Morici believes that any solution dealing with the debt ceiling would require in a raise of the retirement age from 66 to 70 to accommodate for Americans living longer and lowering the prices of health care services and drugs. He suggests that by taking the money away from the politicians will make them realize that it’s the price of health care not the access to it that is the problem. Morici provided some financial stats of health care costs in the U.S and Holland, and how much higher the U.S costs were was ridiculous. The big problem is the price of health care, rather than the access to it. It doesn’t matter if you can get access to health care if you just end up getting stopped at the door because you can’t afford it.

Guantanamo Hunger Strike comes to an end

The story I chose was from the New York Times and was declaring an end to the 6 month long hunger strike at Guantánamo bay. The hunger strike was allegedly started by just 6 inmates who were complaining over constant cell searches where guards would search through the inmates Korans. In which the inmates consider sacrilegious. The military said that the followed all the correct procedures in which they had Muslim linguists search the Korans. The hunger strike quickly spread to which were last reported 106 out of the 166 inmates. The military is reporting that the hunger strike has reached the end in which only 16 of the inmates are still participating. The military feels like the real underlined cause of the hunger strike was the inmates being unsure if they were ever going to go home alive. The connection I found between this story and our class is that our government is directly in charge of the daily operations at Guantánamo bay which is run by our military. It is important for citizens of the US to stay informed on all issues pertaining to Guantánamo bay, as mistreatment of the prisons inmates could start some major disputes with other countries

 

 

Guantánamo Hunger Strike Largely Over, U.S. Says (The New York Times)