PSYC 3011 Week 5 - Assignment: Prepare a Debate on the Legalization of Controlled Substances

PSYC 3011 Week 5 – Assignment: Prepare a Debate on the Legalization of Controlled Substances

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PSYC 3011 Week 5 – Assignment Prepare a Debate on the Legalization of Controlled Substances

The Debate on Legalizing Marijuana

The legalization of marijuana is one of the oldest debates in the country, attracting complex controversies over its exact benefits and harms. Opponents often clash about whether the substance should be legalized and made available over the counter. Proponents of legalization argue that marijuana has medicinal benefits and also making it legal has tax benefits and less burden on the criminal justice system. On the other hand, opponents stress that marijuana poses the risk of addiction, especially to young people who use it for recreational purposes, as well as negative health and social implications (Zellers et al., 2023). While the debate stands at an impasse, several states and countries around the world have decriminalized marijuana terming its medicinal value. Some health practitioners prescribe marijuana as an alternative and complementary treatment while most patients use it as alternative and complementary medicine without checking with their healthcare providers. Hence, there is a growing interest in the healthcare field on the implications of legalizing marijuana and maintaining its illegal and controlled status. The following debate between Kelly (opposer) and Brixton (proposer), tackles these implications.

A Sample Answer For the Assignment: PSYC 3011 Week 5 – Assignment: Prepare a Debate on the Legalization of Controlled Substances

Title: PSYC 3011 Week 5 – Assignment: Prepare a Debate on the Legalization of Controlled Substances

Opening Statements

Kelly: Ladies and gentlemen, my stance is that marijuana should be legalized because it has medicinal properties. Marijuana has proven effective in treating chronic and intense pain, cancer management, anxiety, and epilepsy. Given that marijuana is natural, allowing access would ensure that patients use safe and natural medicine for treatment. Marijuana is sold in the black-market generating millions for criminal gangs, legalizing would contribute to crime reduction and tax generation for the state. Therefore, I support the legalization of marijuana as a recreational substance that has beneficial medicinal properties.

Brixton: I strongly oppose the legalization of marijuana because of the following. One, marijuana is believed to have medicinal properties, but legalizing it for recreational purposes can lead to several harms because of the unintended side effects, negative effects on mental health, and addiction. Furthermore, if marijuana is legalized, it would compromise the efforts to protect the public against the harmful effects of the drug because it would not be possible to control how people use it, leading to overuse and misuse.

Arguments

Psychopharmacological Properties

Kelly: I support the legalization of marijuana because of its pharmacological benefits. To understand this, let us look at the

PSYC 3011 Week 5 - Assignment Prepare a Debate on the Legalization of Controlled Substances — PSYC 3011 Week 5 – Assignment Prepare a Debate on the Legalization of Controlled Substances

pharmacological properties of marijuana. Marijuana is made up of over 400 components out of which 60 are pharmacologically active cannabinoids such as the delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), which are popularly studied (Oberbarnscheidt & Miller, 2016). These cannabinoids have been shown to modulate receptors, enzymes, and ionotropic channels containing ECS to produce therapeutic effects in individuals (Sampson, 2021). Studies have shown that marijuana has therapeutic potential for the treatment of epilepsy, certain cancer types, and Parkinson’s disease. Additionally, research shows that marijuana stimulates appetite, and acts as a sedative, anxiolytic, and psychedelic (Kumar et al., 2021). In summation, marijuana causes many systemic effects in the body, leading to therapeutic benefits for various illnesses. Furthermore, as a drug, marijuana is extremely safe because of low acute toxicity and absence of death reports directly related to cannabis. Hence, legalizing marijuana is necessary to allow unrestricted access so that the public can enjoy the therapeutic benefits of this substance.

Brixton: No doubt, as Kelly argues, marijuana seems to have certain medicinal properties. However, the same mode of action that you have described also causes changes in the brain that are detrimental to a person’s mental health. First, the cannabinoid components from marijuana bind to the CB1 and CB2 receptors, which are G-protein coupled proteins, leading to their activation through the inhibition of adenylate-cyclase (Oberbarnscheidt & Miller, 2016). In return, the receptors inhibit the release of neurotransmitters such as dopamine, glutamate, and acetylcholine, which are crucial in maintaining brain activity. As a result, various activities in the brain become altered including perception, learning, memory, and mood, while causing impaired judgement. Further studies note that marijuana causes psychosis, loss of time perception, and disruption of psychomotor behavior (Sampson, 2021). These are validated by its original classification as a hallucinogen (Bridgeman & Abazia, 2017).

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Secondly, marijuana decreases the brain’s sensitivity to dopamine, which is the brain’s reward and pleasure center. Low levels of dopamine affect mood and are linked to various mental health illnesses including depression, schizophrenia, ADHD, psychosis, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and Parkinson’s disease (Oberbarnscheidt & Miller, 2016). Evidently, the diseases that marijuana supposedly cures are the same that its mode of action in the brain causes. Other side effects of marijuana include permanent IQ loss, negative effects on movement and coordination, impairment in daily performance including in education, work, and personal life, and poor health outcomes for the health and development of a baby. Additionally, marijuana is linked to impairments in the brain that alters psychomotor performance in train and car driving, performance in academics, and airplane piloting (Kumar et al., 2021). With this evidence, it is clear that legalizing marijuana can have catastrophic effects on the health system and population health outcomes.

Widespread Use and Addiction

Kelly: I hear your concerns. But, the widespread use of marijuana shows that there is nothing to worry about since no adverse effects have been reported. As shown in my previous points, it is used to cure a range of diseases, not just one condition. That is why several countries around the world and several states have legalized the drug because they understand the benefits. Already, it is the more commonly used drug in the country and the world. According to national statistics, 187% or 52.2 million Americans use marijuana in comparison to 0.8% or 1.9 million who use cocaine (CDC, 2021).

Furthermore, unlike other illegal drugs, marijuana’s wide use has social, historical, and social significance to many communities. For example, Indians have used it for years as a sacred medicine, and social religious, and ritualistic customs. Historically, it was used in other Asian countries and China for its healing properties (Yu et al., 2020). Marijuana is also widely used because it can be administered in various forms, giving people an opportunity to choose the root they are comfortable with (Yu et al., 2020). Given that marijuana is already popular and widely used, it means that it has potential and there is no point in keeping it illegal yet people are openly using it for various reasons. Hence, it can be potentially beneficial if our state too can legalize marijuana.

Brixton: I agree marijuana is popular and several states including Washington, Colorado, Massachusetts, Oregon, California, and Alaska among others have legalized the recreational use of marijuana. Nevertheless, we cannot ignore the fact that marijuana is highly addictive and part of this wide popularity is attributed to its addictive nature (Sampson, 2021). For example, the more people start to use marijuana earlier in life, the higher the risk of addiction. In individuals who start to use marijuana before the age of 18 years, the risk of addiction, leading to marijuana use disorder is one in every six people. On the other hand, the risk of addiction for older adults is 1 out of 10 (CDC, 2021). Currently, the rate of illegal substance uses and alcohol abuse among youths and adolescents is very high and the trend is worrying. Making the use of marijuana legal will just compound the problem increasing the rates of addiction in young people to substances. Moreover, once they use marijuana, young people are likely to graduate to other dangerous drugs such as heroin (Montgomery et al., 2022). Hence, it is extremely dangerous to argue for the legalization of marijuana regardless of its social or cultural significance.

Kelly: I would like to stress that decriminalizing marijuana would prevent several issues. One, making marijuana legal would contribute to a reduction in crime rates. The black market trade of marijuana is associated with violence, theft, and trafficking crimes, as well as the flourishing of gangs in neighborhoods causing mayhem to the residents (Montgomery et al., 2022). With the legalization of marijuana, crime rates would drop as evident from states that have legalized the substance. For example, the state of Colorado has recorded a significant reduction in property crimes since it decriminalized marijuana in 2012 (Wu et al., 2020).

Secondly, the decriminalization of marijuana would ease the pressure on the criminal justice system by reducing the rates of arrests and court causes associated with illegal substance use. Three, the legalization of marijuana would necessitate the introduction of guidelines for its use to prevent overuse and harm associated with the substance. On the other hand, the effects of criminalizing marijuana loss of civil liberties, increased implicit bias by the low enforcement leading to discrimination against the Black community, and the high burden of drug treatment.

Brixton: The cost of the problems caused by decriminalizing marijuana is greater than what the healthcare system would save from drug treatment. Apart from the mental health effects, marijuana is linked to a high risk of inflammatory lung disease, traffic deaths, functional impairment, and social issues that not only increases the healthcare burden but also negatively affect productivity and the economy (Evans, 2019). Moreover, studies show that decriminalizing marijuana would result in more crimes and violence associated with other illegal substances; hence, it may not be accurate to say that legalizing it reduces crime (Montgomery et al., 2022). Furthermore, the problem with the justice system including overcrowding in courts and police discrimination is a massive issue that requires effective reforms, decriminalizing marijuana would not have a significant improvement in the system.

Kelly: I want to add that when marijuana purchase becomes legal, people can benefit from easy access to use it for various ailments including pain management, appetite stimulation, and improved sleep (Montgomery et al., 2022). When it becomes available, people will use it responsibly as humans tend to abuse something that they perceive is illegal more than when it is legal.

Brixton: I disagree, legalizing marijuana and making it available over the counter without a prescription is highly dangerous. Youths who are experimenting with drugs can easily access them and become addicted (Zellers et al., 2023). Moreover, using marijuana for medicinal purposes requires close monitoring by a practitioner to identify and address side effects.

Kelly: Most importantly, decriminalization of marijuana would have positive social implications by eliminating the element of stigma and discrimination against people who use marijuana even for medicinal purposes alone.

Brixton: Because the legalization of marijuana is likely to increase crime and violence, it has negative implications on family life and functioning. For example, increased family violence and abuselead to dysfunctional families, separations, and divorce.

Closing Statements

Kelly: To recap my arguments, I would like to stress the benefits of legalizing marijuana including numerous medicinal benefits, crime reduction, improved access, decongestion of the court and less work for the criminal justice system, and elimination of stigma. As my opponent has noted, there are certain concerns over control. However, making it legal will also create an opportunity to develop policies, measures, and guidelines to ensure safe and responsible use.

Brixton: I have listened to my opponent’s arguments and agree that marijuana could be having potential benefits. However, legalizing poses the risk of adverse side effects, increased crime, high healthcare burden associated with its effects, easy access and misuse by young people, and increased rates of addiction. Therefore, the dangers of legalizing marijuana outweigh the benefits; hence it should not be legalized.

Conclusion

Marijuana use has gained widespread use both for recreational and medicinal use. Being the most popularly used illegal substance, marijuana has drawn debate for years on whether it should be legalized and people allowed to access it without prescriptions. As the debate shows, decriminalizing marijuana has several benefits including access to safe medication, therapeutic benefits, reduction in crime and violence, lower pressure on the criminal justice system, and less stigma against people who use drugs. On the other hand, the negative factors associated with legalizing marijuana include its adverse side effects on mental and physical health, impaired driving, increased violence and crime, addition, increased use of other illegal drugs, and access by young people. Evidently, marijuana is beneficial but poses great negative effects, creating a challenge to the decision to legalize the substance.

PSYC 3011 Week 5 – Assignment: Prepare a Debate on the Legalization of Controlled Substances References

Bridgeman, M., & Abazia, D. (2017). Medicinal Cannabis: History, Pharmacology, And Implications for the Acute Care Setting. Pharmacy and Therapeutics, 42(3):180-188.

CDC. (2021, June 8). Data and Statistics. Retrieved from Venters for Disease Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/marijuana/data-statistics.htm

Evans, D. (2019 ). Marijuana Legalization Will Cause Many Problems for Missouri Law Enforcement and Schools. Mo Med, 16(3):164-167.

Kumar, P., Mahato, D., Kamle, M., Borah, R., Sharma, B., & Pandhi, S. (2021). Pharmacological properties, therapeutic potential, and legal status of Cannabis sativa L.: An overview. Phytotherapy Research, 35(11), 6010-6029. https://doi.org/10.1002/ptr.7213.

Montgomery, B., Roberts, M., Margerison, C., & Anthony, J. (2022). Estimating the effects of legalizing recreational cannabis on newly incident cannabis use. PLoS One, 17(7):e0271720. https://doi.10.1371/journal.pone.0271720.

Oberbarnscheidt, T., & Miller, N. (2016). Pharmacology of Marijuana. Journal of Addiction Research and Therapy , S11:012. doi:10.4172/2155-6105.1000S11-012.

Sampson, P. (2021). Phytocannabinoid Pharmacology: Medicinal Properties of Cannabis sativa Constituents Aside from the “Big Two”. J. Nat. Prod, 84, 1, 142–160. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jnatprod.0c00965.

Wu, G., Boateng, F. D., & Xiaodong, L. (2020). The spillover effect of recreational marijuana legalization on crime: Evidence from neighboring states of Colorado and Washington state. Journal of Drug Issues, 50(4), 392-409.

Yu, B., Chen, X., & Chen, X. (2020). Marijuana legalization and historical trends in marijuana use among US residents aged 12–25: results from the 1979–2016 National Survey on drug use and health. BMC Public Health, 20, 156. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-8253-4.

Zellers, S., Ross, J., Saunders, G., Ellingson, J., Anderson, J., Corley, R., . . . McGue, M. (2023). Impacts of recreational cannabis legalization on cannabis use: a longitudinal discordant twin study. Addiction, 118(1):110-118. https://doi.10.1111/add.16016.

As we begin this session, I would like to take this opportunity to clarify my expectations for this course:

Please note that GCU Online weeks run from Thursday (Day 1) through Wednesday (Day 7).

Course Room Etiquette:

It is my expectation that all learners will respect the thoughts and ideas presented in the discussions.
All postings should be presented in a respectful, professional manner. Remember – different points of view add richness and depth to the course!

Office Hours:

My office hours vary so feel free to shoot me an email at [email protected] or my office phone is 602.639.6517 and I will get back to you within one business day or as soon as possible.
Phone appointments can be scheduled as well. Send me an email and the best time to call you, along with your phone number to make an appointment.
I welcome all inquiries and questions as we spend this term together. My preference is that everyone utilizes the Questions to Instructor forum. In the event your question is of a personal nature, please feel free to post in the Individual Questions for Instructor forumI will respond to all posts or emails within 24 or sooner.

Late Policy and Grading Policy

Discussion questions:

I do not mark off for late DQ’s.
I would rather you take the time to read the materials and respond to the DQ’s in a scholarly way, demonstrating your understanding of the materials.
I will not accept any DQ submissions after day 7, 11:59 PM (AZ Time) of the week.
Individual written assignments – due by 11:59 PM AZ Time Zone on the due dates indicated for each class deliverable.

Assignments:

Assignments turned in after their specified due dates are subject to a late penalty of -10%, each day late, of the available credit. Please refer to the student academic handbook and GCU policy.
Any activity or assignment submitted after the due date will be subject to GCU’s late policy
Extenuating circumstances may justify exceptions, which are at my sole discretion. If an extenuating circumstance should arise, please contact me privately as soon as possible.
No assignments can be accepted for grading after midnight on the final day of class.
All assignments will be graded in accordance with the Assignment Grading Rubrics

Participation

Participation in each week’s Discussion Board forum accounts for a large percentage of your final grade in this course.
Please review the Course Syllabus for a comprehensive overview of course deliverables and the value associated with each.
It is my expectation that each of you will substantially contribute to the course discussion forums and respond to the posts of at least three other learners.
A substantive post should be at least 200 words. Responses such as “great posts” or “I agree” do notmeet the active engagement expectation.
Please feel free to draw on personal examples as you develop your responses to the Discussion Questions but you do need to demonstrate your understanding of the materials.
I do expect outside sources as well as class materials to formulate your post.
APA format is not necessary for DQ responses, but I do expect a proper citation for references.
Please use peer-related journals found through the GCU library and/or class materials to formulate your answers. Do not try to “Google” DQ’s as I am looking for class materials and examples from the weekly materials.
I will not accept responses that are from Wikipedia, Business com, or other popular business websites. You will not receive credit for generic web searches – this does not demonstrate graduate-level research.
Stay away from the use of personal pronouns when writing.As a graduate student, you are expected to write based on research and gathering of facts. Demonstrating your understanding of the materials is what you will be graded on. You will be marked down for lack of evidence to support your ideas.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the act of claiming credit for another’s work, accomplishments, or ideas without appropriate acknowledgment of the source of the information by including in-text citations and references.
This course requires the utilization of APA format for all course deliverables as noted in the course syllabus.
Whether this happens deliberately or inadvertently, whenever plagiarism has occurred, you have committed a Code of Conduct violation.
Please review your LopesWrite report prior to final submission.
Every act of plagiarism, no matter the severity, must be reported to the GCU administration (this includes your DQ’s, posts to your peers, and your papers).

Plagiarism includes:

Representing the ideas, expressions, or materials of another without due credit.
Paraphrasing or condensing ideas from another person’s work without proper citation and referencing.
Failing to document direct quotations without proper citation and referencing.
Depending upon the amount, severity, and frequency of the plagiarism that is committed, students may receive in-class penalties that range from coaching (for a minor omission), -20% grade penalties for resubmission, or zero credit for a specific assignment. University-level penalties may also occur, including suspension or even expulsion from the University.
If you are at all uncertain about what constitutes plagiarism, you should review the resources available in the Student Success Center. Also, please review the University’s policies about plagiarism which are covered in more detail in the GCU Catalog and the Student Handbook.
We will be utilizing the GCU APA Style Guide 7th edition located in the Student Success Center > The Writing Center for all course deliverables.

LopesWrite

All course assignments must be uploaded to the specific Module Assignment Drop Box, and also submitted to LopesWrite every week.
Please ensure that your assignment is uploaded to both locations under the Assignments DropBox. Detailed instructions for using LopesWrite are located in the Student Success Center.

Assignment Submissions

Please note that Microsoft Office is the software requirement at GCU.
I can open Word files or any file that is saved with a .rtf (Rich Text Format) extension. I am unable to open .wps files.
If you are using a “.wps” word processor, please save your files using the .rtf extension that is available from the drop-down box before uploading your files to the Assignment Drop Box.

Grade of Incomplete

The final grade of Incomplete is granted at the discretion of the instructor; however, students must meet certain specific criteria before this grade accommodation is even possible to consider.
The grade of Incomplete is reserved for times when students experience a serious extenuating circumstance or a crisis during the last week of class which prevents the completion of course requirements before the close of the grading period. Students also must pass the course at the time the request is made.
Please contact me personally if you are having difficulties in meeting course requirements or class deadlines during our time together. In addition, if you are experiencing personal challenges or difficulties, it is best to contact the Academic Counselor so that you can discuss the options that might be available to you, as well as each option’s academic and financial repercussions.

Grade Disputes

If you have any questions about a grade you have earned on an individual assignment or activity, please get in touch with mepersonally for further clarification.
While I have made every attempt to grade you fairly, on occasion a misunderstanding may occur, so please allow me the opportunity to learn your perspective if you believe this has occurred. Together, we should be able to resolve grading issues on individual assignments.
However, after we have discussed individual assignments’ point scores, if you still believe that the final grade you have earned at the end of the course is not commensurate with the quality of work you produced for this class, there is a formal Grade Grievance procedurewhich is outlined in the GCU Catalog and Student Handbook.