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Marijuana Legalization Critical Elements

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I need help addressing the following critical elements:
I. Historical Analysis: To inform your recommendations for the departmental public policy (Marijuana Legalization), Specifically:
a) Identify key trends, both modern and historical, that have shaped the evolution of the state or federal public policies surrounding the public policy issue, justifying your identifications. How have the policies around this issue evolved, and what trends have influenced this evolution?
b) Identify court cases that have shaped the evolution of the public policies related to the public policy issue,
c) How have the previously identified historical events impacted the public's perception of the relevant state or federal public policies? Provide specific examples. How has public perception evolved in relation to these specified events?
d) Predict the potential future direction of the state or federal public policies based on the previously identified historical and modern trends. How might the state or federal public policy continue to evolve?
II.a) Select a criminological theory that best explains the development of the public policies related to the issue, justifying your selection. Consider how the theory explains the previously identified influence of the trends or court cases on the development of the policies.
b) Draw connections between the criminological theory and the departmental policy. Where are there specific connections between the theory and the departmental policy?
c) Draw connections between the criminological theory and the related state or federal public policies. Where are there specific connections between the theory and the selected state or federal policies?
Provide at least two cited sources

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Marijuana legalization for critical elements are examined.

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http://sociology.about.com/od/Disciplines/a/Sociology-Of-Social-Inequality.htm

http://origins.osu.edu/article/illegalization-marijuana-brief-history/page/0/1

I. Historical Analysis: To inform your recommendations for the departmental public policy (Marijuana Legalization), Specifically:
a) Identify key trends, both modern and historical, that have shaped the evolution of the state or federal public policies surrounding the public policy issue, justifying your identifications. How have the policies around this issue evolved, and what trends have influenced this evolution?

The key trends that have characterized marijuana's history in America are predicated upon the demonization of the drug based upon racism, which is the history of all drug legislation within the United States. The U.S. has practiced racist drug legislation since it began criminalizing drugs, and marijuana is no exception. The first attempt at legalizing marijuana happened during a major immigration boom of Mexican immigrants during the 1930s in California, who came to work in the vegetable and other farming fields of Northern California. Prior to this marijuana had not been a drug issue, but when the authorities were able to falsely claim that marijuana, a drug mostly used by Mexicans, Black Jazz players, and the so-called white wayward society who listened to this music, could be tied to Mexican immigration, the drug was deliberately targeted for criminalization.

Therefore, like opium before it and cocaine after it, marijuana criminalization was contingent upon anti-minority xenophobia wherein the drug became a problem not because of its so-called harmful effects to society but because there was racism against those perceived to be associated with this drug. The very first attempt to legislate the drug happened in 1906 when the government passed the Pure Food and Drug Act, which required manufacturers to label certain substances on their patent medicines such as marijuana among others. This was only the beginning as the drug faced even more racist backlash between 1914 and 1925 when twenty-six states specifically targeted marijuana for criminalization. These laws were passed within any participation from the public and there wasn't even any legislative debate because they were racist laws that exclusively were passed to target Mexican immigrants and Black Americans.

The issue came to a head when Harry J. Anslinger became involved, His tenure as the head of the U.S. Treasury Department's Narcotics Bureau sealed marijuana's fate as a drug that would be viewed as one of the worst possible drugs in America. This was all a result of his racism and pseudo-scientific manipulation, but he was able to convince the Congress and America beginning in the 1930s that marijuana was a national threat. Using his false science and racist collaborators, he was able to capitalize on the fears of Mexican immigrants, Blacks and Jazz music, and general white racism to ensure that a national anti-narcotics legislative act would be ...

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