blog post 10

For the final project, the rhetorical assemblage, I wanted to focus on an issue that is salient to people that are in my age group. I choose the decriminalization of marijuana for this project because people should not be put in jail for a substance that is legalized in 24 states. In Florida the penalty of possession is if you have less than 20 grams, one can get one year in jail and a $1,000 fine. The criminalization started in the early 20^th century when the Bureau of narcotics was founded. The head of this organization spread rumors that marijuana caused people to go insane and commit murder. These rumors lead to the outlaw of marijuana and hemp. During the jazz age marijuana became more popular and during WW2 farmers were encouraged to grow hemp for the war effort.  In the 1960s, the war against marijuana continued to go on. In this decade, many people used scare tactics to urge people not to use marijuana. But, kids in this generation ignored the scare tactics and saw the actual facts. So marijuana use was popular in the 1960s. The harsh sentences for possession of marijuana is one of the main causes of the explosion in the prison population Back in the 1970s Marijuana was perceived as a very dangerous drug and harsher sentencing was brought to law. Because the perception, the prison population grew exponentially.The point I will try to convey in this project is that marijuana should be decriminalized since it is legal both medically and recreationally.