My essay 3 is on the topic of recreational marijuana. This is an issue that I have a lot of passion for and something I see myself being passionate about long into my adult life. Beyond how recreational marijuana impacts college students, the stigma and propaganda surrounding it, I believe, bars a lot of people from using the benefits of marijuana to their advantage. People with chronic pain or illnesses, people with panic disorders, even people who can’t sleep at night. I have what is known as general anxiety disorder. This is something that impacts my life every day and I am on the mild end of the spectrum (of anxiety).

I try to be as neutral as I can when I’m talking about marijuana because of the light it could cast on me. Be too enthusiastic, and people perceive you as a drug peddler. Talk too much about your own experience, and they’ll hear a drug addict. It floors me that weed is still so incredibly taboo in some areas, even after having been such a prevalent piece of mainstream culture in most of American history.

Ohio’s legislature still names marijuana as a schedule one drug, meaning it is just as dangerous as using heroin in the eyes of the law. Changing the stigma around weed is only the first step to correcting all of the legal wrongs that have happened as a result of the stigma. African American people, amongst other people of color to a lesser extent, are disproportionately punished and incarcerated for marijuana charges across the nation.

My essay, however, does not suppose to tackle institutional racism. Instead, I would like to discuss how marijuana impacts college student life as a substance, and how that impact compares with the impact of alcohol. Alcohol, I believe, is the fitting substance to compare to marijuana. They both have similar usage rates in middle school, high school, and college students. In fact, in my essay I hope to persuade that alcohol is the more dangerous (to a college students life) substance.

Unsurprisingly, many of my sources are far from pro-marijuana. They all include the list of potential dangers of marijuana, but may of them are fairly bald in the risks-of-alcohol department. One would think that simply comparing the death counts of the two substances would be enough to persuade people of the parallel. An estimated 62,000 men and 26,000 women die alcohol related deaths every year according to the CDC. An estimated zero people have died as a result of an overdose on marijuana. David Schmader, the author of “Weed: The User’s Guide”, is quoted in Business Insider as saying “Even aspirin can kill you if you take too much, but a fatal dose of marijuana would require ingestion of fifteen hundred pounds in fifteen minutes — a physical impossibility for any human, even Snoop Dogg.”

To be fair, those numbers are a little skewed by context. The number from the CDC is the count of all alcohol related deaths. That means that included in the count are people who may not have been drinking at all, people that were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nobody has ever overdosed on marijuana, but the number of people who have died marijuana related deaths is unknown- albeit I’d wager a guess it is nowhere near the numbers for alcohol.

Before I took these quizzes I was actually curious whether I would be named a libertarian specifically. Turns out my results determined me to be left leaning, social libertarianism, and left libertartian by each political spectrum quiz respectively. I would have to agree with the results. They were what I was expecting, anyway. I was raised by two very vocal, involved libertarians. My Dad’s first legal website was named ‘Frothy Libertarian’. As far as comparing my own ideologies with those of the rest of the population, I have the impression of society right now that most people rally behind ‘their party’ more than they consider individual issues. Now more than ever, we are witnessing more of a war between Republicans and Democrats for power within the government than people concerning themselves with individual issues. I was raised under a libertarian lens, but if that party becomes more or less than what I am currently agreeing with it for, then I will look for a party that aligns more with my ideology at that time. I think because of the polarization of political parties though, many people hesitate to consider their party’s whole political ideology for fear of having to be confronted with an overwhelming number of individual  policies. My perceptions of myself are confirmed by these tests. I was surprised by, however, that I am in the same political sphere as Gandhi. Something I will not hesitate to use in conversation. 

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.