Essay 3

Legalization of Marijuana

A harmless plant that has been consumed for ages but yet it is illegal in most of the United States. Marijuana or its scientific name Cannabis Sativa is seen as a bad and dirty drug by the U.S. government and has been made illegal in this country which is all about giving rights to people. So why not give people the right to smoke a harmless plant in the privacy of their homes? I don’t see why we shouldn’t be allowed this right it’s not affecting anyone but the person who consumes it. I for one am all about legalizing it because it can only help us. Marijuana not only will help from a medial aspect, but also it can lower the crime rates in the U.S. and help out our economy.
Schools today teach the kids that smoking marijuana will make you have hallucinations and is a gateway drug that will lead you to smoking crack and other drugs. But no they were all lies. Marijuana is not a gateway drug we have a choice on what we do. The fact that it’s illegal may be the reason why people turn to doing other more harmful drugs. They get the mindset that if they are already breaking the law, why not do other drugs that are illegal it’s the same thing.
 Marijuana is smoked to relax the body. Back then it was primarily used for medical reasons, still is some places. So why a sudden change if it supposed to help us it shouldn’t be illegal. It helps people deal with glaucoma and patients who have AIDS it makes them feel less pain. (Mack) We are allowed to purchase alcohol and tobacco which is far more harmful to the human body than marijuana is. There still hasn’t been an incident reported in history of death by the ingestion of marijuana but every year there are thousands of deaths due to alcohol. So if alcohol kills more people why is it legal to purchase?
So is marijuana addictive? I personally think yes, but that’s only people who use it too much, and this may cause a problem for them and the people around them. But when it comes to addictive drugs, marijuana is well likely to be on the bottom of the list. Not everyone who smokes marijuana becomes dependent of it. As I already said no one has died from smoking marijuana and overdosing it, but that can be said for other drugs and I’m referring to the prescription drugs you can purchase at a local pharmacy. People who smoke marijuana more on average still smoke less than people who smoke cigarettes. There still hasn’t been a case when someone was diagnosed with lung cancer by smoking marijuana, but with cigarettes it’s a whole another story.
If legalized the drug would affect the crime rate in a positive way. Officers today spend their time arresting people for something that shouldn’t even be deemed a crime. People who smoke it since its illegal are categorized as criminals because the drug is illegal, but everyone should know that they are just your average citizen that may be your neighbor. They have a job, a family, but once they are arrested they are shunned from most of the community because they are now “criminals”. Marijuana isn’t even linked to aggressive and violent behavior, but instead mildly reckless behavior. People just assume that if you smoke marijuana you are a violent person because it a criminal drug, but that doesn’t make you one. According to the UN's estimate, 141 million people around the world use marijuana. This represents about 2.5 percent of the world population. (United)
If you look at the music industry many of today’s artists show and support the consumption of marijuana. Some of the artists are some of the most successful people in the world and marijuana hasn’t affected them in a negative way. There are many who support the legalization but the government will not listen. It doesn’t damage the brain and make you less intelligent like other drugs it just relaxes you like prescription drugs that are pain killers. But you can overdose on pain killers and die, but with marijuana it’s nearly impossible to do so.  
I don’t see why cops even take the time going around arresting people for smoking marijuana when they could be focusing on bigger crimes. The cost for the small crimes is costing the states more than it is helping them. Why should the taxpayers be paying for someone to be sheltered and fed for doing something illegal?  California saved about 1 billion dollars in one year after legalizing marijuana.(Miceli) Federal, state, and local governments spend about 60 million dollars annually on the drug war.(Gerber) Its mostly the drug cartels from Mexico bringing the supply of marijuana and one legalized the crime rates will start to deplete as so will the illegal drug smuggling. If legalized marijuana would stop profits to illegal organizations that are located outside of the United States. Being illegal, the selling of marijuana is an extremely profitable business that is, sending billions of dollars to countries overseas and to the ones south of the United States. But if taxed that money can all go into stimulating the economy. This might even cause a stop to the war on drugs in Mexico. We have been seeing this issue a lot in the news and Mexico is where most of the marijuana in the United States comes from. It is illegally smuggled here to be sold at high prices, which is what is keeping the drug lords in business, but if the government legalizes it they will lose customers and people to sell it to and the war on drugs will eventually come to an end.
So instead of spending money on locking up people who consume marijuana and sell it, why don’t we just legalize it and the tax it so the government can make money off it? Marijuana is California’s biggest cash crop responsible for $14 billion a year in sales. The state's tax collectors estimate the bill would bring in about $1.3 billion a year in revenue. (Miceli) So think of how it would help the U.S. economy, especially the state it is in now. Back in the day marijuana was one of the biggest cash crops until it became illegal in 1970.
History has taught us some things, and one of those is that prohibition never works. “A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded,” Abraham Lincoln. Alcohol was illegal at one point in the United States but now if you’re the right age you can purchase it. Even the great Albert Einstein had something to say about prohibition, “For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.” The man had a great point with that saying that whatever they illegalize they will not be able to enforce which is a true statement. I’m going to go with the genius here and say they should just quit trying to keep it illegal and just legalize it and regulate it. Which brings me to another good point if the government regulates the sales of marijuana like putting an age you can purchase it, it may reduce the number of youth that smoke it. The reason is because drug dealers are willing to sell to anyone as long as they make a profit. That where the regulation come is now that the government can regulate who is able to purchase it, drug dealers will slowly start to go out of business.
 Some people might say, “So if we legalize marijuana why don’t we legalize prostitution?” For one reason I don’t think it’s as easy to regulate as the sales of marijuana. Another reason is it can’t be taxed, but marijuana can. Not only will the legalization of marijuana help our dwindling economy, and lower the crime rate, but think of the people who will actually use it for enriching their health. To sum it all up sooner or later they will have to legalize it because prohibition never has worked.


Works Cited
Miceli, Margaret. "Legalizing Marijuana Can Help Economy - The Daily Collegian Online."The Daily Collegian Online. 16 Mar. 2009. Web. 03 Nov. 2011. <http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2009/03/16/legalizing_marijuana_can_help.aspx>.


Mack, Alison, and Janet E. Joy. Marijuana as Medicine?: the Science beyond the Controversy. Washington, D.C.: National Academy, 2001. Print.


Novak, William. High Culture: Marijuana in the Lives of Americans. New York: Knopf, 1980. Print.


Goode, Erich. The Marijuana Smokers. New York: Basic, 1970. Print.


Gerber, Rudolph J. Legalizing Marijuana: Drug Policy Reform and Prohibition Politics. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004. Print.


United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, Global Illicit Drug Trends 1999 (New York, NY: UNODCCP, 1999), p. 91.

Essay 2

Peace March

                With tears rolling down her wrinkled cheeks, 52 year old Amira Hodzic can feel a little in peace. Looking at a picture frame with two sepia toned photographs of a young man who no one will know of. “I can sleep better now, knowing they found him”, she says holding the frame. “I have nothing left thanks to them” referring to the men who killed her 14 year old son. “I want people to be happy at my funeral because I will be back with them.” Having lost her beloved husband and son during the Balkan war Hodzic tries to live a normal life.

            A quarrel within former Yugoslavia in 1992 led to the breaking up of four countries that once were united as one. Once the area was split ,the 3 three different ethnicities of  people living in Yugoslavia which were Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian split up and the Serbs waged war against the others. What the world thought was just a war for controlling land ended up being more than just that. This wasn’t just a regular war this was an attempt to wipe out a certain group of people that dwelled in the Bosnian region of what was former Yugoslavia. “1992 was the last time I saw him before he went off to fight the war”, says Hodzic

            The war lasted 3 years and seeing the end coming near the Serb forces in a last attempt to cleanse the region of Bosnian Muslims attacked an area that was “a safe area” in Srebrenica that was filled with refugees. UN peacekeepers controlled the area but quickly gave it away once Serbs forces came in. “Two soldiers came up to me and ripped my son away and told me he is safe with them and that was the last time I seen him”, sobbed Hodzic. Thousands of men and boys as young as 13 were separated from the women and killed. “We found a trail and started walking away from that dreadful place alongside thousands of others”. Many died during the walk to a Bosnian army base where they would reach safety. While it was mostly women and children, a few men who managed to escape led the way and cared for the elderly and sick. “There were mothers crying but it was mostly a silent march” said Hodzic

            This year Amira returned to the same place after hearing great news. “I got a call telling me they have found my sons body”. She left the U.S to go and give her son a proper burial alongside hundreds of other bodies that were found recently. A march from Srebrenica to a burial site takes places every year in on the 11^th of July thousands of people from across the world take part in the event which is declared “The march for peace”. A long journey is re lived by those who walked on the trail back during the war. “I still have pictures in my head and walking on the trail made me have memories of the day I walked on this trail during the war”, says Osman Hasanovic who has been to the march several times. “Each year there’s more and more people and I’m glad that this time is for remembrance and not the real thing”, he added.

            “Much has changed now, what used to be just a trail is now a paved road with memorials”, says Hasanovic. Hasanovic said that last time going was different, “I took my kids there to show them the horrors of war and so they never forget what happened. The trail is about 70 miles long but many dedicate themselves for the journey by bringing camping equipment and food. When the real march took place none of these were available at the time. “My feet hurt for days but giving my son a proper burial was a reward for that”, said Hodzic.

            I myself have had the chance to march the trail, well twice actually. The first time my mom carried me, as she was one of the many who went on it in 1995 during the war. I was too young to remember anything at that time. But the last time I went which was two years ago I remember it pretty clearly. It was a strange feeling and I kept on thinking about death which gave me chills while I was there. I’ve seen enough documentaries on this war so that’s all I could picture the whole time I was there. But it wasn’t all that sad I had some great memories there too. Especially meeting people from other countries that were there which was weird I kept thinking “Why are they here?”

            To me it was a long trek, but learning more about the history was priceless. When I got there the bus dropped me and my dad off. I got out and felt like I didn’t belong there. Then out of nowhere a man walks over to my dad and they start a conversation. My dad introduces me to him and says “this man is the reason you’re still alive”. I found out while we were hiding in an abandoned house with several other families and mortar hit the side of the house. He told me that the window broke and I had shards of glass in my arm. So what did he do he risked his life and ran me to a make shift hospital for the doctor to care for it. He then brought me back safely to my mother. I thanked the man feeling awkward because I didn’t know him.

            We started walking early in the morning, and there were thousands of people alongside us. After about an hour walking I was exhausted.  There were many rest stops so we would stop ever so often. We bought souvenirs and ate on the way there. After what seemed to have taken forever we finally got to the memorial dedicated to those who lost their lives at that tragic event. There were old women crying and some lost conciseness. I was amazed by all the names on the memorial. After viewing the memorial came the sad part which was the funeral of the bodies recently found that year. I was shocked to see that after about a decade there were bodies still being found and there’s still more bodies that haven’t been recovered.

There is one person who I thought would never go to it. Mirko Jovovic a former Serb solider also had the chance the march on the trail. “War is war but what happened on that day was wrong”, he says. “I did get evil looks from some when I told them I am Serbian, but they had a right to give me those looks after what my people had done.”

Works Cited

Hodzic, Amira. Personal Interview. 1 October 2011

Hasanovic, Osman. Personal Interview. 1 October 2011

Jovovic, Mirko. Personal Interview. 4 October 2011

Essay 1

No Speak English

Do you remember when you were in first grade? I do, pretty well actually. I didn’t start school in The United States. I started school overseas actually. Before I came to the United States I lived in Bosnia. I lived in a small town and the school was small too. You would think that the school system over there is the same, well you are way off. Instead of practicing coloring, we practiced writing in cursive. I knew my multiplication table by the end of the first grade. In a school where you were graded for handwriting and grammar in the first grade, I did really well. I was the best in class, I only received one B and that was in arts and crafts, I was never good with modeling clay.

My parents always pushed me to do my best in school. They, but mostly my dad, knew I had the potential to be an excellent student and I was. He always made sure I had everything I needed for school. He always helped me do my homework and made sure I did it. If I had a dollar for every time he asked me, “Have you done your homework?” I would have enough to pay the next couple of years in college. Don’t try to get the idea that all my dad did was make me study, he would take time off work and play video games with me and take me to soccer games. He wanted me to live a normal life but he didn’t want me to waste my time doing nothing, so he always made sure I had something to do.  I was also enrolled in a Sunday school but for Muslims. Being able to read and write in Arabic in my religion is considered a great accomplishment, and thanks to my dad pushing me to learn it, I accomplished this.

            I stayed in the Bosnian school system for another year, this time it was harder; more books to read and they didn’t have pictures, which a kid over here in the second grade would probably freak out about. I was still the best student in the class and every quarter we had parent teacher conference. I loved going to them with my dad because I knew that he would be proud of me. After completing the second, grade my family decided to move to the U.S. I knew some English when I came here because over there, I had English as a foreign language class, which may sound weird over here. I wasn’t fluent in English when I started school I just knew basic things like “May I use the bathroom?” and my all-time favorite “No speak English!” which helped me the most. I was only good at math over here when I started because numbers are universal. I was put into the ESL program at our school to help me learn English. My dad also enrolled me in an afterschool program which I think helped me understand this foreign language the most.  

            By the third month of school, I was able to communicate with the other students and answer questions when the teacher asked. My dad still expected me to have good grades and a “smiley” face was good enough for him. I enjoyed reading books mostly because they were picture books, back in Bosnia the books I read had no pictures so I had to picture what was going on in the story myself.

I remember our third grade classroom was split in half, one part of the room was third grade and the other was the second grade. Each week we had an hour in which we split up into groups and read and corrected paragraphs for punctuation and spelling errors. Those days were the worst for me not the fact we had to do the corrections, it was more because I had been put in with the second graders. I knew what was going on and me being used to being the smartest kid in school at one time made me feel like segregation was back.  The fact that I wanted to be with the rest of my actual class made me study more and read more often.  I’m pretty sure I had read every Clifford and Dr.Seuss book our school library had. Eventually I had to step my game up and moved on to the Boxcar Children and the Goosebumps series books. My dad was really proud of me, by the end of the third grade, I was fluent in English and I had developed a love for reading books.