Pasadena City College

A Cultures Impact:
Marijuana

Christy Gen
English 1A-50680
Professor Ogden
June 24, 2016
Abstract:

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Marijuana has been a very popular drug for many people in the U.S. recently. There are
more dispensaries opening up, along with more states legalizing recreational marijuana. In
California, medical marijuana is legal, but not for recreational uses. Those who have medical
issues are able to obtain medical cards with the consent and approval of their doctors. With the
cards, people in need of marijuana to assist in relieving their pain or discomfort are able to
legally obtain marijuana. Though, more and more people are lying to get medical cards when
they do not have medical issues so they can buy marijuana and sell it to others. Marijuana is
being sold to minors and more young adults and teenagers are getting involved with this drugs. It
is an issue for teenagers and minors because it will affect their motivation and participation in
their school work. Adolescents are also very easily influenced nowadays due to all the social
media exposure. Celebrities and music artists often normalize marijuana and openly show that
they are involved with the drug. In school, I knew people who were heavy users of marijuana
and it was something they participated with everyday for a majority of their day. I'd see people
use it during lunch and how it made them more careless and less motivated to do things.
Teenagers have easier access to obtain marijuana and it is a growing issue because it will affect
their academics and could be a gateway drug to many more drugs.

Outline:
I.

Children and young adults have easy access to obtaining marijuana.

A. Where this issue is focused on.
B. Background of Venice Beach, a popular location for marijuana

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II.
III.
IV.

V.

My personal stories about friends who were involved with marijuana.

A. How marijuana impacted my friends lives.
Society normalizing marijuana
A. Celebrities who
The solution of teenagers having easy access to marijuana.
A. Regulating medical marijuana cards.
B. Managing advertisements so that they are not directed to
adolescents.
Conclusion
A. Why marijuana is a bad thing for adolescents who do not need it
for medical purposes.

There are many people who abuse policies to get what they want. A recent issue has been
in the area of Los Angeles, California, where people apply for medical cards at marijuana
dispensaries. The easy access cause children and teenagers to be exposed to this drug at a very
young age. Marijuana is legal in California for medical purposes, but recreational use of
marijuana is not.
Medical marijuana provides great relief to many of those with medical issues who need
it. It is able to alleviate pain or muscle spasms, decreases anxiety, treat cancer patients, help
depression, along with many other purposes. There are many good uses that come from
marijuana, though many people abuse and overuse it. Many people lie about their medical

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conditions in order to obtain a medical card. People who have medical cards, buy weed to sell it
to those who do not have cards to obtain it for themselves.
Marijuana is becoming a larger issue in Los Angeles due to more dispensaries opening
and more adolescents getting involved with it since it is becoming easier to gain access to the
drug. The people who get into marijuana at a young age should be focused on their academics
and extracurriculars, not engaging in drug use. These young adults are also very heavily
influenced by the media, where recreational marijuana use is encouraged and widely accepted.
Marijuana can be a gateway drug to more hardcore, life threatening drugs.
Venice, a residential neighborhood in Los Angeles, California is mainly known for Venice
Beach and the boardwalk. It is a big tourist attraction. All along the boardwalk are stores for
people to purchase clothes, sunglasses, and hats that have Venice Beach printed on all of the
items. There is also a wide range of delicious food to choose from, ranging from seafood to
burgers to ice cream. The boardwalk always has street performers, art, and people riding bikes,
skateboards, or rollerblades. Venice is filled with unique people with colorful personalities and
outfits. The people fit right in with the neighborhood because there are vibrant works of arts on
the walls of buildings, along with colorful graffiti that can be found in various parts of the town,
as well as on the boardwalk.
The boardwalk contains multiple dispensaries that are covered with pictures of animated
marijuana leaves and bright, green colored walls that really catches the eyes. There are people
standing outside the door wearing sunglasses and doctors coats persuading people to go in and
apply for a medical card. Those people are not only trying to promote their business, but they are
encouraging others to participate in something they do not need. They coax people of all kinds
including teenagers and adults to go in. There are people all around Venice who openly smoke

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their joints filled with marijuana. Hobos can be seen sitting at a corner with signs saying Need
money for weed. The weed culture is very popular especially on this boardwalk.
People can be seen walking out of dispensaries with joints, marijuana in a small plastic
jar, or edibles. The people in this community do not bother to even try to hide it because it is
such a common practice in that area of town. The town of Venice alone has over fifteen
dispensaries. The children who grow up in Venice will be exposed to marijuana at a very young
age since people openly use it. This will be an issue for kids because they will be heavily
influenced by a culture that is still questionable with the law. The children and teenagers will
think it is a practice that is normal and fine because they see it happening all around them, but it
is not since it can heavily affect their lifestyles and how they act.
Many teenagers are getting involved with marijuana as of late and it is an issue because it
will cause them to slack off in school and not fully enjoy their youth as they should. Marijuana
often makes people feel calm and happy, but if people start using marijuana at a young age, they
might start to heavily rely on marijuana to give them those feelings. It is not an issue for
teenagers and kids to use marijuana medically because they are being supervised by their parents
and doctors will give the amount they see is necessary for the medical condition.
This issue is very important to me because when I was in high school, I knew so many
people, some that were friends of mine, who were involved with marijuana. It made them
happier and laugh at everything and I thought it was good that they felt happy, but I did not think
it was good that they needed a drug to make them feel happy. If I had an issue and wanted to talk
to the friend about it, it was difficult to have a serious conversation with them because their mind
was not in the normal state. It was difficult to see my friends not be their truest self because they
were constantly under the influence.

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My friends who were marijuana users would also ditch school and not do their school
work because all they wanted to do was get high. If they used marijuana because they needed it
for a medical condition they had, it would be fine, but they were only using this drug to get high.
The drug impacted my friends lives negatively because it took their youth away from them.
Some people I knew got too involved with the drug and started selling it to other peers at school.
They were still young and maturing and trying to figure out who they were and their purpose in
life and using a drug was just sidetracking them away from that. It put their lives on hold because
they were not being productive, they were just smoking weed.
This issue will impact society greatly because this drug can affect the futures of
adolescents. Adolescents are still growing and maturing. If they begin participating with
marijuana at a young age, it will be harder for them to stop in the future. Teenagers will begin to
think that marijuana is something they need in their life and that they need it to help them feel
happy. With celebrities openly showing that they engage in marijuana related activities through
social media, young adults are easily influenced and may think that they need to follow a
trend. If recreational use of marijuana was legal, it would be hard to control advertisements
because they could be aimed towards adolescents to be consumers of it (Joffe). It is up to society
to not encourage and normalize drugs since teenagers are easily influenced and follow what they
see others do.
Though marijuana has many positive effects, the distribution of medical marijuana needs
to be heavily regulated and controlled so that people do not fake their conditions to get medical
cards. There are more states legalizing medical marijuana, as well as some states that are
legalizing recreational marijuana. The states that are legalizing recreational marijuana need to
restrict the way they are advertised, similar to how alcohol and tobacco advertisements are

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(DAmico). This is to prevent teenagers to be encouraged in doing the drug and abusing it.
Society also needs to play its part and find ways to help adolescents who are abusing this drug,
as well as preventing others from experimenting with the drug.
Adolescents have been more accessible to marijuana because of medical marijuana
dispensaries. It is easier for people to apply for a medical marijuana license, therefore making it
easier for people to be getting large amounts of marijuana. The marijuana purchased from
medical dispensaries are often resold to others. People as young as the age of eighteen are able to
apply and obtain a medical marijuana license. These teenagerss will most likely resell the
marijuana they purchased to their friends in school.
Teenagers are more likely to participate in marijuana because society is slowly being
more accepting with the use of marijuana since it is legal for medical purposes. Teenagers will
believe that it is not as bad as a drug because of the fact that it is partially legal in many states of
the U.S., and fully legal in a few states.
This has negatively affected adolescents because they gain this urgency and need for the
use of the drug. Since it is so popular in society and in media, teenagers will want to use it more
so they can follow up with the norms of society. Teenagers often drive when they are under the
influence of marijuana and it can alter their perception and alertness. Marijuana and alcohol use
is very popular together. Because driving under the influence of alcohol, marijuana, or a
combination of alcohol and marijuana has been shown to impair some driving abilities,
additional prevention efforts are needed to further reduce driving under the influence of both
substances, (Azofeifa). This would cause people to be less aware of their surroundings and
endanger others who are also on the road. It could cause life threatening results for the drug user
and people around them.

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Teens having access to marijuana can have an impact on their academics. Marijuana use
can affect a teenagers academic life because their test scores will slowly decrease because they
will be unable to keep up with their school work and studies. Findings show that the cooccurrence of high levels of marijuana use and depressive mood from adolescence into young
adulthood is predicted by low levels of self-control in adolescence, (Pahl). Because the
teenagers have low self control, they will be unable to separate themselves from the drug, which
will cause an addiction to develop.
These effects from marijuana will possibly be a downfall or setback in a teengers life
when they are still growing and achieving things in life. The accessibility to marijuana and social
acceptability of the drug is what is causing teenagers to experiment and use the drug at such a
young age. Young adults need to be more educated about the effects of marijuana and what
happens if the drug is abused. There should also be information about how to be safe with the
drug and not drive under the influence.

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Works Cited
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Alcohol, Marijuana, And Alcohol And Marijuana Combined Among Persons Aged 16-25
Years - United States, 2002-2014." MMWR: Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report 64.48
(2015): 1325-1329. Consumer Health Complete - EBSCOhost. Web. 14 June 2016.
DAmico, Elizabeth J., Jeremy N. V. Miles, and Joan S. Tucker. "Gateway To Curiosity: Medical
Marijuana Ads And Intention And Use During Middle School."Psychology Of Addictive
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Pahl, Kerstin, Judith Brook, and Jung Lee. "Adolescent Self-Control Predicts Joint Trajectories
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Academic Search Premier. Web. 14 June 2016.
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