Legalizing Mary Jane !?

        With Texas being in the 47th percentile in the nation's math scores and about the same in other scored areas, I think we ought to legalize marijuana and use the taxes and revenue from the legalization of marijuana to fund our K-12 education. In one of the most liberal cities in Texas, I think that this idea would get a lot of support from our community. There will be probably a lot of outcry as well because we are legalizing a banned substance. People say that marijuana is a gateway drug but I think they say that  because it is against the law. If you were to legalize the herb, we could save money on all the petty drug charges and we can fund the Education Department of Texas and bring them up to date in our test scores with the other states.
       Just think about how much money we spend on every trivial marijuana arrest and all the legal fees that are involved in each case. If we take those petty arrests away and use a portion of the money that would of been used to prosecute these people to be put back into our education system, I think you would see a raise in our scores as a whole. We also need more trained individuals to serve on our education department. They need to have the kids interests in mind and not their own. When Texas finally legalizes this naturally grown herb, it should be dispensed by a dispensary. This shop will have to pay taxes to be able to sell it from this approved location. So we, in turn, will have pay this adjusted price so we can finance our education into improving our test scores state-round. This will be beneficial for everybody because with higher test scores comes getting into better colleges with better degree programs and will in turn make these people higher paid citizens than those who are not educated. Since the Lottery of Texas was approved, it was supposed to be helping fund K-12 Education but the State of Texas needs more help. So this law in legalizing marijuana would also help some of our cancer patients, people who cant sleep, people with an ailment, or those of us that just wanna relax after a long day at work and school.

Comment on Classmates work #1

In the article The Texas Reflection, my classmate  pitches the idea that the ACL event and the TX/OU game should be moved to different weekends to let one of the events be on a certain weekend and the other on another. As I am a born and raised Austinite, I disagree because the ACL event brings in a lot of money for the Austin economy for the entire weekend. The football game is only a 4 hour game and a little bit of driving back and forth to and from Dallas. In recent years I have had tickets to both and have done both. Yes you have to miss ALL the day shows but if you have your heart set on going to ACL, you will be able to attend only the night shows. ACL is such a huge event that it brings in people from all over the United States and other foreign countries. I don't think those people are going to care if a few thousand of people not being able to attend the event on that day. I think the authors intended audience is the University of Texas students who will not be able to attend the saturday performances at ACL and the Red Rivalry game. The author is being very rational and believable but is not looking at the whole picture. In this day the economy still needs a boost and what better way than to have two events on the same weekend. You might have to make a tough decision on what you want to attend.

Legal Drinking Age 21 or 25?

         In my opinion, I think that the legal drinking age of alcohol consumption should be moved to the age of 25 instead of the current age of 21. I know that when I turned 21 and was in the beginning stages of learning much fun alcohol was, I was much too young to understand the consequences of my decisions to drink.

         Take for example of this irresponsibility in the article in The Austin American Statesman, this 19 year old college student who provided alcohol to three other individuals. As the night progressed, these people thought it would be a good idea to get really wasted and then jump off the 1st floor window. One of the individuals was a 24 year college student as well and she later passed away from this incident with a serious head injury. So what I am saying is that these people have to understand the effects of alcohol and how it impairs their judgement and decision making. I think that every high school senior and/or college freshman should be subject to an alcohol awareness classes and learn about the consequences following your decision making.

        So this was just one example that I found in the newspaper. I think that the age of 25 is a good round number to begin the drinking era. One would have to pass these classes on awareness with a standard passing score. I know that a lot of people grow up faster than others but i think 21 is too young to be given that kind of responsibility.  I know, in my case, I had a daughter at the age of 23 so responsibilities quickly shifted from irresponsible to responsible in a matter of months. But not everybody can grow up the same way or experience the same thing that I did.

        So in my view of concern for our young people I think we should go to our legislature and try and get the age of alcohol consumption raised from 21 to 25. I am sure there will be plenty of young people who will not be happy or pleased with this new law if it is passed but it will be for their own good. So once you reach the legal age of drinking, you will most likely be a functioning part of society and be a little more wiser than a 21 year old college student whose goal is to get drunk and then get laid. So now that my daughter is 13 going on 20, I think that my opinion are the laws ought to be re-examined to see if the drinking age should be increased.