Happy Easter! (a couple of days late) This weekend I went to the matinee at the $1.00 movie, so it only cost 50 cents. We saw Dare Devil with Ben Affleck. I'm pissed off that I spent 50 cents to see that movie. It was that bad. My mom gave me a necklace for Easter. It is really pretty. It has a little girl with Sydney's birthstone, and a little boy with Mason's birthstone. I love it.
I went to the casting call for the nationally broadcast reality show. It wasn't what I expected. There weren't any network people there, it was just our local affiliate making audition tapes to send to the network. I could have made my own tape and sent it in myself. If I had known that was what it was going to be I would have made my own tape, because I bombed big-time. The tape could be a maximum of 2 minutes long, and I think my tape was a total of maybe 20 seconds, give or take 10 seconds. Bad.
Well, that's all I have to say today.
Have a nice day.

So, how is everyone doing today? I'm doing good. I'm a little nervous. Tomorrow I am going to an open casting call for a nationally broadcast reality television show. I'm very excited. I think I have the potential to get on this show, but I'm kind of biased. I did shell out a little money to prepare, so I hope I make it. Tonight I am, with the help of a friend, going to highlight my hair. I also got some fake lashes to make my beautiful eyes stand out. Hope you like the new page design, I worked kind of hard on it. Gotta go, see ya!

Drum roll please. Here it is: the A paper I've been telling you about:

Marijuana Use Should Not Be A Crime
By Amanda
Marijuana use in the United States should be legalized because anti-drug laws are based on myths and misinformation. Marijuana has medicinal uses and is not as damaging, physically and psychologically, as previously thougnt. As a cash crop, it has the potential to positively impact our current troubled economy.

One of the biggest myths about marijuana is that it is a gateway drug. There is no scientific basis for this myth. Marijuana users are no more or less likely to branch off into the use of other drugs than people who drink alcohol are to become heroin addicts. In fact, "Escalation from marihuana to heroin is a rare phenomenon that would involve a radical shift in values and life-style." (Rock, 119)

Another misconception is that if marijuana is legalized, everyone will become addicted. As with any group of people, there will be some who are predisposed to addictive behavior, hence drug abusers will exhibit this behavior whether or not it is legal. Legalizing marijuana will not necassarily increase or decrease the number of addicts.

A major point in the fight against legalization of marijuana is that it causes otherwise productive people to become lazy and unmotivated. There is no evidence to prove this. On the contrary, "Large numbers of successful, energetic people indulge with no external negative consequences other than the risk of legal sanctions."(Eldredge, 25) Also, "Marijuana's pharmacological properties are so limited that an experienced user can perform any normal tasks without measurable imparment."(Miller, 18) An example of this is a man who consumes an average of three ounces of marijuana a week, has a stable work history as a collection agent, and has recently been promoted to supervisor with no knowledge of his marijuana use to his employer.

The United States' Drug Enforcement Agency's arguement against medicinal marijuana use is "marijuana is damaging" (www.usdoj.gov) to individuals with AIDS and cancer, and "no medicine prescribed for us today is smoked." (www.usdoj.gov) They argue that in AIDS patients, marijuana is damaging to the immune system, and, in cancer patients, that smoking marijuana in itself is cancer inducing. This may be true, but their arguement does not acknowledge the symptoms marijuana alleviates. For instance, marijuana curbs nausea in cancer patients brought on my rigorous chemotherapy and in AIDS patients who are prescribed AZT. It is also known to increase appetite which is important for these patients who often suffer from malnutrition.

The physical effect of smoking marijuana is lung damage associated with smoking any item, but other than that it is virtually harmless. A lethal dosage has not been calculated, but animal testing shows if a person were to eat twenty-four ounces at one time, they could possibly die. Also, "Deaths from marijuana overdose are no more common than deaths from drinking too many glasses of water at one sitting." (Miller, 19) The foods we eat and the liquids we drink are more harmful to us than marijuana because they are full of harmful chemical wast produced by our own government.

The psychological effects of marijuana are also not as adverse as they were once thought to be. "Users' psychological reactions are created entirely by set and settings rather than by pharmacological action." (Miller, 18) Marijuana is considered to be a universal drug producing the effect that the user desires, so if a user desires to become angry, they will become angry, however if the effect the user seeks is a calm mellow state, they will achieve this effect.

In 1997 marijuana was in the top ten cash crops of forty-seven of the forty-eight states for which information was available and the number one cash crop in ten of those states. Marijuana has been called "one of the most useful plants known to man," (Szasz, 93) which, in the past, has been used to make rope, clothing, paper, oil, and "even the cloth Betsy Ross used to sew the American Flag." (McCarthy, 1) Figures on production costs for marijuana are not available, but if comparable to the cost of other farm crops, "a stand of 300 mature plants can produce marijuana worth $1,000,000 (wholesale) per annual harvest." (Eldredge, 42)

The price of marijuana is in close contention with the price of gold. Americans spend about $57,000,000,000 on drugs each year, from which, if regulated and taxed properly, the government could secure great financial gain. Marijuana retails for between $100 and $300 an ounce; a pack of cigarettes contains an ounce of tobacco and retails between $2 and $4. With virtually no overhead when compared to the tobacco industry, marijuana is a highly profitable business.

The cost of law enforcement would also decrease greatly if marijuana were legalized. Texas alone has fourty-seven Drug Task Forces funded by federal government. State and Federal governments wastefully and disadventageously spend between $7.5 and $10 billion annually on marijuana smokers alone to enforce drug laws with a great rate of failure. These funds could be easily redirected to many underfunded social programs such as health care and education.

If marijuana were legalized in the United States, we would be a calmer, happier nation. Our economy would flourish, terminally ill people could get the relief they deserve, and marijuana smokers who are otherwise law abiding citizens could potentially be crime free.

Works Cited

Eldredge, Dirk Chase. Ending the War on Drugs. Bridgehampton, NY" Bridge Works Publishing, 1998.
Just Say No to Searches!. 23 July 1999. DrugSense. 8 Feb. 2003 .
McCarthy, Moira. "It's Not Pot: Hemp May be the New 90's Cash Crop." Snow Country. Sep. 1996: 32. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCOhost. Rose State Coll. Lib., Midwest City. 9 Feb. 2003 .
Miller, Richard Lawrence. The Case for Legalizing Drugs. New York: Praeger, 1991.
NORML Report on Sixty Years of Marijuana Prohibition in the U.S..12 March 2002. NORML. 9 Feb. 2003 .
Rock, Paul E., ed. Drugs and Politics. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1997.
Say it Straight: The Medical Myths of Marijuana. U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. 9 Feb. 2003 .
Szasz, Thomas.Our Right to Drugs: The Case For a Free Market. New York: Praeger, 1992.
Top Ten Cash Crops. NORML. 9 Feb. 2003 .

This has been my paper. I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

I'm doing pretty good today, but that's not important. Let me tell you about my horrible Saturday.
Okay, here's what happened. My brother and I went to the red & white scrimage. It all started out well and good, until we got close to campus. There were cars everywhere. We drove around for like 20 minutes looking for a parking spot, which ended up being out in BFE where we usually have to park when we go to an actual game that is on TV. We had to walk like a mile to get to the stadium, then when we got to the stadium Sean was like, "Let's go this way, I've never been this way before." So, we walk up the ramps. If you've ever been to Owen field you'll know what I'm talking about. There are these ramps that go back and forth up the back side of the stadium that lead you to the top of the bleachers. There are like 50,000,000 ramps from the bottom to the top. Okay, I'm not a small girl, and I smoke way too many cigarettes, so this was not a pleasant journey. After we got up there we could either go down the stairs into the stands, or we could walk across the back row to an area where there were empty seats. Well, Sean decided to walk across the back row. There were about 3 guys between Sean and I, and I was the only girl in the row. About halfway across, this jackass decided he didn't want us walking in front of him, so, what did he do? He stepped down in front of me and acted like he wasn't going to move. He couldn't decide to step down in front of one of the guys; no, he had to step down in front of the poor defenseless girl. At this point I was hot and out of breath and just wanted to sit down. I didn't want to be f-ed with. He's lucky I didn't push him down the bleachers!! Finally we get to a spot that Sean thinks will be a good seat for us, so we sat down and started watching the game. Did I mention it was 5,000 degrees outside? We sat there and watched the game, and I was just miserable. About 3 minutes into the last quarter I told Sean I was going to the car, so, I walked the mile back to the car. About 2 hours later I realized that I had one of the worst sunburns of my life. Today was the first day I could actually wear pants!
But I'm past it now, and I'm doing much better.
The pot paper is still coming.
Have a nice day!

So, I totally suck at keeping a blog updated. I have finished my classes for this semester! Yeah!
And now, for the first time in my life I have a 4.0!!!!!!
I have a new niece! She was born on March 18th. Her name is Sydney Grace, and she is beautiful. I love her sooo much!
I haven't gotten around to posting my paper yet, and I don't have it with me right now, but I will try to post it later today. I went to the OU red & white scrimage yesterday, and I'm pretty positive that we definitely have national championship potential. Aside from that I had a horrible time.
I'll tell ya about it tomorrow.
Have a nice day!