*Marijuana*

I wanted to write my additional journal article about legalizing marijuana; it is a highly controversial topic that is being talked about in every establishment across the country.  I recently watched an AWESOME documentary about legalizing marijuana called "The Union: Business Behind Getting High" which talked about the actual process of legalizing marijuana and covered a ton of statistics that compare it to tobacco and alcohol, both of which are much worse than marijuana.  This is what I don't understand--lets be honest, a TON of people smoke marijuana, people from ALL walks of life.  We aren't talking about trashy drug addicts here, we are talking about business people, "normal" blue-collar working class people, students, teachers, politicians, celebrities, you name it--it is across the board.  So if everyone is doing it, and we have the research and statistics to prove that it isn't harmful, why won't the government just legalize it and regulate it?  Just yesterday I read an article in Time magazine about legalizing medicinal marijuana, and how this is going to push us in the direction of legalizing it for everyone, not just those who have a prescription.  If the government can regulate it, they can tax it to make money off of it; on top of this, think about how many less stupid marijuana arrests and convictions there would be.  Really? You're going to lock up some guy for having an ounce of weed in his car? Shouldn't you be out catching the killers and rapists? It makes no sense to me that so many arrests and convictions and tons of people that are in jail are because of possession of marijuana!  Where are our priorities??  Maybe this is all just ranting and raving but I can see the facts as plain as day, just as anyone else could see, and keeping marijuana illegal just makes absolutely no sense to me.  Thousands of people die every year because of drunk driving or from lung cancer related to tobacco addiction; people die from liver disease related to alcoholism.  And yet these substances are perfectly legal and we have the right, at a certain age, to indulge pretty much as much as we want, and the government profits.  Such a double standard.....

The Nature of the Everglades

This article was really only interesting because of its descriptive nature; the information itself, while well written, was so heavy with information that it was hard to stay interested in it; on top of this the article was some 24 pages long--all about the Everglades. Thats passion.  The parts that interested me most was the very beginning when she discussed how the Everglades got its name and the actual discovery of the Everglades.  Its not something I've ever thought about before, so it did catch my attention for a few minutes.  After this introduction, Marjory goes into EXTREMELY descriptive sections of each important part of the Everglades--the grass, the water, the rock, the river of time, and life on the rock.  She describes every detail of the Everglades so concisely that I felt that I could actually be standing there, envisioning what she was writing.  It is evident from the beauty in her descriptions that she loves the Everglades.  Among all of this description was a lesson on how it all started, and where it has come today--from the grass to the water, she talks about its journey.  She talks about the rains, and winds, and how the affect the flow of the water throughout the Everglades;  she critically analyzes breezes and currents as though it all tells some sort of story.   You can learn a ton about the Everglades from this single, 24 page, article.

The People of the Glades

This article captivated me right off the bat because of its descriptive story about the continents shifting back and forth, and the development of prehistoric man and mammal.  I find archeology and anthropology very interesting, so this article kept my attention by bringing in little details such as the first man standing up called "Pithecanthropus erectus".  The details about how man became three races when the land started separating and how these men went about establishing each other's race was insightful;  I've always wondered about these times and what it was like, and its almost as though Marjory Douglas is giving us a little window into those times.  Then she starts talking about the progression of mammals in prehistoric times and the different species that came about and what they are known as today--this is even more interesting than talking about man!  She talks about the movement of mammals into Florida and into the Everglades region--and how this area was overflowing with such a variety of wildlife and how it was a gathering place because of the location...and then of course she starts to talk about how the number and variety of species of wildlife have been continuously declining and what this could be attributed to (man, of course).  This article caught my attention because I really have never been interested in the Everglades whatsoever, and because I wasn't born in Florida (and hated it most of my life for some reason) I have had no desire to learn the history of Florida.  As I grow older however I feel myself becoming attached to this place I call home, and am more interested in learning about it.