Marijuana Coverage Increases in the Media
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
With medical marijuana being discussed across the country, many major media outlets have begun featuring more articles related to the "hippie lettuce".
This month's Fortune features a cover story titled "Is Pot Already Legal?" It features a man who gets his marijuana straight from the government and smokes 10-12 joints a day, legally. It discusses how more states are tolerating the use of pot for medicinal purposes.
Thirteen states have legalized medical marijuana, with 15 more considering it, pending legislation and/or voter initiative in 2009-2010.
The mainstream media picking up the more weed-related stories and discussing legalization more openly have re-opened the long debated topic. With more states accepting the medical benefits of the plant, many are looking at the possibilities of what benefits legalization could have on our struggling economy.
"I think the recession is making people take a second look at our current prohibition - marijuana," Bobby Black, a senior editor at High Times, said. "Weed is recession proof."
California would be considered the most "pot-friendly", based the hundreds of thousands of medical marijuana patients and 700-plus dispensaries. In Los Angeles alone, there are 186 legal marijuana dispensaries.
It's not just the Wall Street Journal, Harpers and Fortune that are featuring stories about pot. Television is now using weed as the subject of shows. Showtime's "Weeds" is a popular show about a mother of two who sells marijuana. KDOC-TV in LA airs a 30-minute show called "Cannabis Planet" weekly. The show "explores the merits of cannabis as a medicine, industrial resource, agricultural crop and more".
Personally, I have seen much more coverage of marijuana, through magazines, documentaries, and news Web sites. If legalization isn't the next step, decriminalization might be. I think we will also continue to see more states considering medical marijuana.
I feel that the more people know about it, the more likely it is to separate from other drugs, like heroin and cocaine. It is completely different from those chemical substances, yet is still classified with them as "Schedule I controlled substances" by the federal government, which describes those drugs as having "no currently accepted medical use".
The article in Fortune is very informative and can shed more light (a lot more, it's fairly long, but in-depth) on the subject than I can. I recommend reading it. The debate over medical use, decriminalization and legalization will not be going away any time soon, it will rage on for years. But based on my own experiences and "research", I don't need any more convincing on the subject.
(Photo Credit: Fortune Magazine)
4 comments:
Personally I feel that if the govn't just legalized marijuana there would be a lot less minors and irrasponsible people doing it. Its like prohibition.
I have also seen a lot more about marijuana in the media, heck, one of my favorite movies is "Pinapple Express". I also agree with Tessa that if they legalized it a lot more minors wouldn't be so tempted to do it.
I agree that the media is covering it more, since it is a big issue that is going on. I think the media is trying to show the government that it is not as bad as everyone thought it was. That is why there is show much coverage going on over the topic. If it does get legalized, there need to be an age limit and how much you can have on you, because you can't just walk around with marijuana falling out of your clothes or having a child smoking a joint. There will most likely be very strict regulations and consequences on the legalizing marijuana.
This is one of those tough subjects that I feel could go either way. I don't feel as if just anyone should be able to use it; I also feel that the government and doctors should put strict regulations on it, or clinics will have crowds of people coming in with "medical emergencies" asking for the drug. I'm torn. I don't like seeing it legalized.
Post a Comment