An Examination of the Cultural Divide in The Crying of Lot 49 - Literature Essay Samples

â€Å"There are still the poor, the defeated, the criminal, the desperate, all hanging in there with what must seem a terrible vitality.† Thomas Pynchon, â€Å"A Journey into the Mind of Watts† The challenge posed to any reader of â€Å"serious† literature is ultimately one of observation, understanding, and synthesis. He regards a work as a collection of intricate components, each of which he must examine thoroughly, measuring one against another, alternately holding them up to the focused light of his mind, until finally he is able to say with certainty that he understands the work as a body of unified parts. As a work of near impenetrability, The Crying of Lot 49 is all but immune to this kind of analytical comprehension. It is a work founded entirely on uncertainty, and therefore concerns itself with both everything and nothing; it either sojourns into a deeply rooted conspiracy centuries of years in the making or simply catalogues the mental disarray of a wo man attempting to execute a will. To trace the parabolic arc of its plot is to become fully disoriented by the maniacal whims of Nazi therapists, by names such as Mike Fallopian that resist even the most apt psychoanalysis, and by the ultimate unreliability of a harrowed protagonist. Throughout the novel, reality clashes inexorably with the surreal, providing seemingly infinite points of ingress that by their very abundance contribute to the novel’s hermetic nature. Yet despite these complexities of form and substance, the work has perhaps paradoxically attracted the exact type of literary reading that it appears to resist. Scholarly articles ranging from discussions on the prevalence of metaphorical and literal entropy in The Crying of Lot 49 (Dodge) to detailed cartographies of the labyrinthine progression of the novel (Gleason) continually adorn the firmaments of academia. This is to say, The Crying of Lot 49 has spurred an intellectual devotion to its enigmatic elements, while the tangible and perhaps more immediate issues of the novel remain relatively undisturbed; the plain has become engulfed and diminished by the remarkable. The problem of race and culture within the novel, particularly the subjugation of a loosely defined underclass, is one such element that has been woefully unrealized. The strict racial and cultural divisions, and the tensions arising therein, found in Pynchon’s novel represent a vital yet often overlooked method of unlocking both the author’s social position and the underlying motivations and intentions that shape The Crying of Lot 49. With the exception of Steven Weisenburger’s brief essay â€Å"Reading Race† (which attempts little more than a classroom guide to the text), the treatment of race within the novel, as both a poignant social commentary and a mechanism by which to understand the work, has historically received little attention. Weisenburger suggests that the presence of race within the novel is mostly ignored because â€Å"the story’s all about white folks†¦isn’t it?† (52). While the novel partially desensitizes a rac ial understanding through its nearly exclusive use of white characters, the true desensitization of race occurs by means of its apparently nonexistent remarkability amidst a sea of plot convolutions and eccentric unconventionalities. Readers lowering themselves tentatively into the Pynchonian rabbit-hole of Lot 49 will notice immediately the playful puns that beckon and wink from every page, or perhaps the liberal nomenclature that positively begs for Freudian interpretation; the allure of these literary devices coaxes most readers away from the comparatively dull issue of cultural divide. Yet in the same year that his novel was published, Pynchon was composing â€Å"A Journey Into the Mind of Watts†, a surprisingly visceral essay that grapples with the racial turmoil festering in the Los Angeles neighborhood. While the accompaniment of Lot 49 by a comparatively solemn work of social commentary does not altogether resolve the immortal question of the novel’s true meaning, it does lend a considerable amount of credibility to a racial understanding of the text. Thus, an alternate reading of the novel, one that relies both on textual and contextual interpretations and the cultural forces exerting press ure on Pynchon at the time of his authorship is required. This argument ultimately frames Oedipa as the inheritor of the knowledge that a colonized subclass exists, subjugated and dehumanized by the bourgeoisie society that she has, far so long, willingly placed herself. Oedipa’s journey, and ours, begins with Pierce Inverarity, the perfect manifestation of the white upper class, the spectral figure that Jesà ºs Arrabal describes as â€Å"another world’s intrusion into this one† (97). Inverarity is the unmoved mover, the tipper of the primordial domino that sets Oedipa in motion. Inverarity as the enterprising capitalist and Arrabal as the suppressed radical syndicalist are indeed representatives of mutually excusive â€Å"worlds†, and the collision of these worlds, this â€Å"kiss of cosmic pool balls†, precipitates a real and tangible racial, if not cultural, conflict. These worlds are initially defined and separated by Inverarity’s characterization as a colonizing force. As Metzger and Oedipa fa ll deeper and deeper into a tequila-soaked revelry, she asks the question, â€Å"What the hell didn’t he (Inverarity) own?† To which Metzger cryptically responds, â€Å"You tell me† (25). The breadth of Inverarity’s monetary influence over his surroundings is indicative of a colonial force not only by its formation of a natural socio-economic hierarchy but also by the nature of those under its subjugating power. The Turkish bath, the Yoyodyne employees bound to various extremist political ideals, the Beaconsfield cigarette filters that may or may not have been wrought from the bones of slain soldiers; each of Inverarity’s financial interests seem to maintain some linkage to the foreign, the ostracized, the dispossessed. Shifting from the fictionalized to the actual world of Pynchon, we see in his essay on Watts a similar notion of colonial oppression contingent on white monetary supremacy: â€Å"While the white culture is concerned with various fo rms of systematized follythe economy of the area in fact depending on itthe black culture is stuck pretty much with basic realities like disease, like failure, violence and death, which the whites have mostly chosenand can affordto ignore.† Inverarity as a fictionalized metaphor for this type of colonial oppression corroborates the Pynchonian class distinction and provides further insight into the author’s social observations and obligations. Commenting on the subversive racial alterity, Pynchon observes, â€Å"the two cultures do not understand each other† (Watts). While the cultures Pynchon refers to be those of the white and the black, the sentiment broadened to represent the cultures of privilege and poverty is equally effective (Pynchon refers to this latter culture as â€Å"disinherited† in his novel). In either case, Pynchon posits that this cultural disease is merely a symptom of an inability to communicate, to reach a mutual understanding. Furthermore, Pynchon’s diagnosis appears to fault the upper class citizens for a sort of failed reticence, or a refusal to acknowledge the widening gap between the two cultures: â€Å"Somehow it occurs to very few of them (the elite) to leave at the Imperial Highway exit for a change, go east instead of west only a few blocks, and take a look at Watts. A quick look. The simplest kind of beginning. But Watts is a country which lies, psychologically, uncounted miles further than most whites seem at present willing to travel (Watts)†. The problem outlined here by Pynchon is not one of practical or social inability, but rather one of cultural apathy: the privileged class is simply not interested in recognizing the plight of the disenfranchised. The resultant impossibility of communication is mirrored perfectly in various sequences of the novel. The constant stream of information required to enable Maxwell’s Demon is nonexistent (77); the letter given to Oedipa by the drug-addicted sailor will never reach his distant wife (98); the symbol of the subjugated class’s reclusion itself, the post-horn, is interminably muted. Yet the impossibility of cultural transversal that Pynchon laments in his essay is realized in his literature in the form of Oedipa; her frenzied migration from Tupperware-toting housewife to subculture journeywoman is the author’s fictionalized attempt to diagram the consequences of a cultural overlap. Probably the most pertinent section of The Crying of Lot 49 in regards to Oedipa’s realization of the disinherited class is her foray into the San Francisco slums. Weisenburger is bold enough to read this passage as the novel’s ultimate climax, saying, â€Å"For there is where she witnesses the crime of disinheritance, of alienating oppression† (55). Her devolution into the Californian underworld is especially telling because it reveals Pynchon’s expectations of the results of a privileged class member (drawing once again this passage from his essay) going a few miles outside of her comfort zone to take a quick look at the lot of the disinherited. Oedipa’s â€Å"quick look† at the colonized members of Californian society produces in her a startling realization, the type of â€Å"cataclysmic shock† (97) that Jesà ºs Arrabal describes for her in his Mexican restaurant. Her realization of her favorable position in the newly discovered social hierarchy is inherently racial; she notes her relation to Chinatown, to the â€Å"greasy Mexican spoons†, to the Negro-filled bus rides. All of this coincides with her reluctant discovery that â€Å"the city was hers, as, made up and sleeked so with the customary words and images (cosmopolitan, culture, cable cars) it had not been before† (96). Pealing back the usual dà ©cor of the city’s cosmopolitan glamor to reveal a shriveled underclass, Oedipa realizes her apparent ownership of her sur roundings due to her place of upper-middle class prestige in the American class system. If her distress during these few frantic pages is one of conscience, of realizing her role in the subjugation of millions of American misfits, then the emphasis of her discovery is not on the possible existence of an underground postal system, but rather on those marginalized souls whose social position requires them to utilize it. Pynchon’s portrayal of Oedipa is not an apathetic one. In fact, her desire for cultural reconciliation is explicitly detailed, in particular, by her interaction with the elderly sailor: â€Å"What voices overhear, flinders of luminescent gods glimpsed among the wallpaper’s stained foliage, candlestubs lit to rotate in the air over him†¦thus to end among the flaming, secret salts held all those years by the insatiable stuffing of a mattress that could keep vestiges of every nightmare sweat, helpless overflowing bladder, viciously, tearfully consummated wet dream, like the memory bank to a computer of the lost? She was overcome all at once by a need to touch him†¦as if she would not remember him without it† (125). The poeticized form of this passage, overladen with overtly sensitive rather than the usual technical language, conveys the depth of Oedipa’s human connection with the disinherited class. Furthermore, her longing for physical contact demo nstrates her psychological need to remember what she has discovered. The brief connection forged between the opposing classes, between the colonizers and the colonized, is held aloft by Oedipa in this moment. Yet the intense emotional connection felt by Oedipa is ultimately incapable of producing true social progress, as Pynchon renders his heroine helpless to revert the established social structure. The passivity of Oedipa in the scenes following her San Francisco sojourn suggest the impossibility of class reformation in the eyes of Pynchon. In the course of her investigatory duties, she comes in contact with Winthrop Tremaine, a devout racist who profits from the sale of swastika armbands manufactured by underpaid black laborers. Upon learning of the business practices of Tremaine, Oedipa retrospectively decides, â€Å"she should’ve called him something, or tried to hit him with any dozen heavy blunt objects in easy reach†¦You’re a chicken. This is America, you live in it, you let it happen† (149). The resultant tension between the inertia of Oedipa’s empathic desires and the gravity of the established order seems to preclude all forms of social progress and suggests an inherent complicity with the opposed, hierarchal nature of the two classes. Much like Watts, the subjugated lower class that Oedipa is desperate to aid exists both as a neglected physical entity and as a psychological state of permanence, one with which the privileged are unable to connect. Placing matters back into the context of racial forms, Pynchon’s statement about the immobility of Watts is particularly relevant: â€Å"Watts lies impacted in the heart of this white fantasy. It is, by contrast, a pocket of bitter reality. The only illusion Watts ever allowed itself was to believe for a long time in the white version of what a Negro was supposed to be† (Watts). Relating this concept to the text, the â€Å"white fantasy† may be seen as the continued colonization of the disinherited underclass: the drug-addicted sailors, the members of Inamorati Anonymous, the night watchman nibbling at a bar of Ivory Soap. These men and women are eternally connected by their shared inhabitance of the â€Å"pocket of bitter reality† and, of course, by the Tristero. In his essay, Pynchon comments on the total lack of communication between the two socially opposed classes, ascribing the widening gap between them as a symptom of this communicative void. The Crying of Lot 49, by contrast, is permeated by the recurring theme of communication. Among the swirl of radio disc jockeys and entropic mediums, the myth of the Tristero emerges as the most thematically dominant form of communication within the text, as well as the main symbolic emblem of the underclass. A cursory reading of the novel might reveal the Tristero mail system as the last refuge of t he disinherited, their sole source of empowerment against the colonizing force of the upper class. A support of such an argument may be found in Oedipa’s internal observation of the post-horn’s clandestine universality: â€Å"For here were God knew how many citizens, deliberately choosing not to communicate by U.S. Mail†¦it was a calculated withdrawl, from the life of the Republic, from its machinery. Whatever else was being denied them out of hate, indifference to the power of their vote†¦the withdrawal was their own†¦Since they could not have withdrawn into a vacuum (could they?), there had to exist the separate, silent, unsuspected world† (123). This sort of classification appears to lend these forgotten citizens at least a degree of autonomy; that they have consciously withdrawn from the â€Å"Republic† is at the very least commendable as an act of coordinated and deliberate noncompliance. Yet further inspection negates the apparent sovereignty of such an act. Pynchon, in his essay, clearly states that the causal force of social paralysis is the two classes’ ongoing existence within mutually exclusive spheres of communication; the whites (privileged) communicate with the whites, the blacks (disinherited) with the blacks. How then, if class unity is the ultimate objective, is the Tristero system beneficial to the plight of the dispossessed? Weisenburger’s contention is something similar, stating that, â€Å"the message system works concertedly with oppression, because any minority population’s withdrawal from the life of the Republic would be tailor-made for a segregationist and colonialist regime of power† (57). The Tristero, then, is not a vehicle of empowerment for these citizens, but rather it functions as a vital cog in the colonialist machine. It is a weapon wielded by the colonizing upper class, of which the colonized are well aware; o n the Negro bus, a terrified messenger has scribbled, under the anagram D.E.A.T.H., â€Å"Don’t Ever Antagonize The Horn† (122). The realization that the true benefactors of the Tristero are those who wish to preserve the status quo is crucial to a racial reading of the text, as well as a fuller understanding of Pynchon’s societal discourse. We read fiction, in the narrowest sense, with the hope of comprehending and interpreting it. Yet perhaps our broader hope is that our understanding of a specific text will facilitate, at least in part, our understanding of the society in which we live. A cultural and potentially racial reading of The Crying of Lot 49 accomplishes both of these purported objectives. If Pynchon, like his fictional director Randolph Driblette, is indeed the prism through which a kaleidoscopic world is ultimately projected, then our understanding of both the text and the culture for which it was produced collides with his. Our specialized racial vantage point allows us to view Oedipa as a rope stretched between two culturally polarized classes, a transversal figure that ultimately is incapable of producing real change. Stepping outside the text, we see this incapacity as a metaphor of the psychological permanence of colonization. The reader is united with Oedipa in the grim realization that little could be done for those beneath the cultural divide. Our racial understanding of The Crying of Lot 49 reveals the Tristero organization as a force of subjugation rather than emancipation, yet this understanding carries with it broader implications outside of the novel, as we see the poor and disenfranchised reduced to inferior methods of communication. This reduction is, in Pynchon’s mind (as evidenced by â€Å"Watts†), the primary obstacle in the path of racial and cultural progress. The Crying of Lot 49 is in many ways a tremendous piece of fiction; yet perhaps even more impressive is its ability to convey racial and cultural truths through its metaphoric language.

The Legalization of Marijuana Ending Prohibition - Free Essay Example

Marijuana, one of the most commonly used substances in the world, is a psychoactive drug that comes from the Cannabis plant. There are many different nicknames that marijuana can be referred to as, including pot, weed, Mary Jane, ganja, flower, or bud; all of which describe portions of the Cannabis plant which likely originated in Asia. Marijuana is the psychoactive portion of the plant, and comes from the dried flowering buds, leaves, stems, and seeds of the plant (FNP, 2018). Marijuana can be consumed in numerous ways, such as smoking or eating it, and the main psychoactive ingredient of the plant is called Tetrahydrocannabinol, commonly known as THC. Although marijuana remains an illegal, schedule 1 controlled substance in most states, there are multiple states that have, and are legalizing it due to the prolonged history it acquires, its numerous medicinal benefits that are continuing to be found today, and the many gains legalizing it can bring to the economy. The Cannabis plant has been around for thousands of years, preceding recorded history. It likely originated in Asia, near the Central Asian steppe or the Altai and Tian Shian mountains. From the sites where prehistoric hunters and gatherers lived to ancient China and Viking ships, humans utilized every part and species of the plant. Cannabis Sativa L, commonly known as Hemp, dates all the way back to 8000 B.C. It is believed that China has the longest continuous history of Hemp cultivation, over 6000 years. Hemp fibers were likely the earliest plant cultivated, especially for its fibers, due to the fact that it preceded many other fibers and natural resources including linen and cotton. Hemp cultivation has been used in many different cultures for many different reasons. Hemp fibers were used to make bowstrings for Chinese Archers and were a lot stronger and durable than bowstrings created from bamboo. Hemp ropes were also very important because they helped make ocean voyages succes sful for thousands of years, even ancient rulers in Greece such as Hieron II used hemp for ships. Hemp paper, food and clothing were also discovered around the first century BC. Hemp seeds contain protein and amino acids, which are both essential in human health. Many cultures used hemp in their food. Healthy ancient hemp-seed deserts made by the Romans, or the natives of India who claimed that hemp was the favorite food of the God Shiva are examples (Earleywine, 2005). Humans have fashioned clothing from hemp for a very long time, and in many places including ancient parts of the world. Hemp fibers helped to minimize the need to use animal skin, and may have been a lot more comfortable to wear! Medical use of marijuana began around 2737 BC, long after the plants first use as fiber. Famous for discovering many other medicines, Chinese emperor Shen Neng was prescribing cannabis tea for gout, malaria, beriberi, rheumatism, and even poor memory (Earleywine, 2005). Cannabiss purpose as a medicine helped it expand from ancient Asia to all over the map. The plant appeared steadily in pharmacopoeia as well as folk and traditional medicine. Throughout ancient history, there have been records of using Cannabis medically, and not a single death reported. Although marijuana never hurt anyone, physical and psychoactive effects were eventually reported. The Chinese actually knew there were psychoactive effects. In fact, some physicians advised consumption in small amounts because it could result in seeing devils or communicating with spirits (Earleywine, 2005). Despite the fact that marijuana was primarily used as medicine, and most plants had little THC in them, there is history of recr eational use, specifically in religious ceremonies or healing practices. Cannabis use as medicine finally spread to the US when an Irish physician named William OShaughnessy with the British East India company discovered the medicinal benefits through Indian research (Earleywine, 2005). He discovered that it was used to treat ailments like rheumatism, nausea, and rabies in the 1840s and helped popularize these medicinal uses in the United States as well as Europe. By the 1850s, doctors in the US were using it to treat tons of disorders, including gout, depression, pain, hysteria, and nervous conditions (Wilson, 2014). Cannabis use rose extremely quickly, and fell even quicker. By the end of the 19th century, marijuana was starting to become outlawed. During the Mexican revolution, there was an influx of Mexican immigrants coming in to the US, many of whom brought marijuana with them. The roots of criminalizing marijuana fell back on racism, which unfortunately, is still being carried out today. There were those who wanted control over Mexican immigrants, and used marijuana as an excuse to detain and deport them. Propaganda about how marijuana caused people of color to become violent quickly followed, leading to the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 which banned the use and sales of marijuana (Wilson, 2014). It is ironic how decades ago, drugs have produced unequal outcomes across racial groups, and it is STILL happening today. Racism and lack of information helped make marijuana far more abusive than it actually was, and because of this, states began to make it illegal. As a result of the drug prohibition movement, medicinal as well as recreational use was prohibited in the US for almost half a century. From the 1940s until now, there has been a lobby to legalize it in the US. One aspect was legalizing it as a medicine. Today marijuana is still federally illegal, however, there are many organizations and petitions trying to legalize it, such as the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) that formed in 1970 (Wilson, 2014). In recent years, there have been many efforts to legalize the drug, both medically and recreationally. Today, 20 states plus Washington D.C have passed marijuana-related laws medically, and 9 plus D.C have legalized it recreationally (CBD vs. THC). The marijuana debate has become a key issue in all states, with its medical benefits being a major benefit. Nearly half of US states have legalized marijuana for medical use. As the demand for marijuana and other cannabis product grows, consumers cant help but won der what exactly marijuana is, and what options they have. There are two main components found in the Cannabis plant; Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and Cannabidiol (CBD). Both of these compounds interact with the bodys endocannabinoid system, which impacts the release of neurotransmitters, as well as having the same molecular structure. Although they have the same molecular structure, they have very different effects, due to many different reasons; the main one being its psychoactive components (CBD vs. THC). THC is the main psychoactive ingredient of the cannabis plant, which produces the stoned effect that is associated with smoking pot. This component of the plant can be found in the resin of the plant. THC binds with the cannabinoid 1 receptors in the brain which gives off that high effect (CBD vs. THC). The other component of the plant, CBD, is a non-psychoactive compound and primarily comes from the hemp part of the plant. Although both compounds are similar in many ways and have many medical benefits, they do have differences, psychologi cally and physically. THC and CBD both have many similarities and differences in how they affect the body. Both compounds can be consumed in many of the same ways which include being smoked or eaten. THC binds with CB1 receptors in the brain, reaching the pleasure centers in the brain, and can produce feelings of euphoria by letting a chemical loose called Dopamine. This is known as being high or body-high. The effects that THC can give off vary from person to person. Some psychological effects include heightened sensations and creativity, pleasant alterations of perceptions of time, and heightened sociability. These are just a few of the psychological benefits of marijuana. Legalizing it recreationally can help people in many ways. There are artists who smoke pot to help them paint and draw, or maybe some use cannabis to reduce many types of anxiety. Although CBD is non-psychoactive and cannot make someone high, it does have therapeutic effects such as being used as an anti-anxiety supplement, as well a s many of the same physical effects as THC. THC and CBD both alleviate pain, reduce nausea, anxiety, insomnia, and can also stimulate appetite with none of the side effects that come with traditional medicine (Wilson, 2014). CBD is well tolerable, even if in high doses so it doesnt cause increased heart rate, dry mouth, or red eyes. Many of the symptoms that marijuana helps treat, can actually be side effects from disease and illnesses. Many people today turn to marijuana to treat a variety of medical issues, including cancer, depression/anxiety disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, and STDs. There have been many studies that show THC may actually work to kill cancer cells. Scientists have been starting to discover Cannabinoids such as CBD and THC may slow the growth and possibly kill certain cancer cells. Smoking marijuana has also been shown to help cancer patients who are going through chemotherapy, which can cause nausea and vomiting. Marijuana has been known to cause the munchies, and smoking it can help by giving the patient an appetite. Not only can legalizing marijuana ease the horrible side effects that come with cancer, it can also give scientists more access to run tests and possibly find permanent cures for life-threatening diseases like cancer. There are also animal studies suggesting that CBD can reduce behavioral and physiological measures of stress and anxiety. There have actually been studies done in Israel and Europe that have investigated the utility of THC to treat PTSD (Wilson, 2014). Researchers are also testing marijuana in other areas as a treatment for diseases like epilepsy, Parkinsons, and Chrons. In June 2018, the US Food and Drug Administration actually approved a cannabidiol based drug called Epidiolex, which is a drug taken orally to treat seizures associated with certain types of epilepsy syndromes (CITE). Marijuana has also been shown to help symptoms of Parkinsons Disease such as tremor, stiffness, insomnia, weight loss and pain (APDAPARKINSONS). There have even been videos posted on social media that show what happens when someone with severe Parkinsons Disease as well as HIV/Aids tries marijuana for the first time. The dyskinesia immediately stopped after a man used marijuana for the first time as well as an AIDS patient who moved to a different states so he could use cannabis legally for his symptoms. The fact that there is physical evidence that marijuana can stop symptoms like these automatically be a reason for cannabis to be legal. Nobody shoul d have to move to a different state so that they can live more comfortably. Not only that, marijuana should also be federally legal so doctors and scientists all over the united states can utilize the benefits that medical marijuana brings to people suffering from these types of illnesses. This will help the public health overall while creating many economic benefits. The marijuana debate has become a key issue in all areas ranging from medicine to politics. Legalizing marijuana for economic reasons is one of the hottest topics debated today. There are many reasons why legalizing marijuana can help the economy, including the amount of money that can be generated through taxing it, the amount of jobs and investment opportunities it can create, and the corrupt implications of the legal system that can benefit from legal pot. Imagine if marijuana was legalized and taxed like alcohol and tobacco are. In 2015, state and local governments were able to collect 18 billion dollars from tobacco taxes as well as a whopping 16 billion in alcohol (urban.org). Keep in mind that alcohol and tobacco both kill millions of people every year. Now imagine if marijuana was legalized and taxed the same way are alcohol and tobacco. In Colorado, estimates that taxes on legal marijuana can range anywhere from 5 to 60 million a year. If marijuana was taxed, local and state governments could make millions of dollars from it! This money could benefit the US in so many different ways, such as schools and programs like Medicare. There are also so many homeless people in the world, so this money could even help get people off the streets. Not only will taxing cannabis provide tons of profit, there will also be more jobs and investment opportunities which will only make even more money. Once marijuana is legalized, there will be tons of marijuana dispensaries that need to be set up in order to keep the supply coming. This will create many jobs such as growing, trimming, and packaging it, as well as opportunities for second industries. Just because some industries are not directly related to cannabis, they can be involved with the production and distribution. Software developers, financing services and construction companies can all easily benefit from the legalization of marijuana. A study in Nevada says that legalizing recreational marijuana in the states could support over 41,000 jobs, also generating money in labor income (Krishna, The Economic Benefits). Marijuana is already showing many economic benefits through the states that have legalized it, so prohibiting it is just stopping all of the other states from also benefiting. When considering the economic benefits, it is also important to think of the time, money, and space that could be saved if marijuana was legal. Officers wouldnt have to worry about searching for, arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating a couple of stoners, they could instead focus more on other crimes such as murders and rape cases. There would be an overall lower cost of enforcement because there would be fewer court cases, and fewer incarcerations. This alone saves tons of time, money and jail space. Criminalization of minor drug offenses, such as marijuana, can actually increase crime. Because marijuana is the most popular recreational drug in the United States, legalizing it can decrease deadly trafficking activities, as well as help government corruption (Wilson, 2014). There will be less contributions to the black market because people will no longer need to break the law and go to that extent to get it. Doing so would help shift the focus from incarceration to rehabilitation, helping implications of the legal system. As stated earlier, the root of marijuana prohibition was racism, another hot topic of today. Marijuana is still being used today to detain, deport and incarcerate people just because of their skin color. Legalizing it is vital to ending the racist war on drugs. For example, if a white male and an African American male were both accused of having marijuana, the African American would automatically be accused first simply because of the color of his skin. There are many studies that state all races use marijuana at roughly the same rates. How is it that there are more people of color in jail for marijuana? Although there are those who have their reasons for prohibition; whether it be for concerns about youth drug use to confusion among law enforcement to even those who just dont want change. More and more states are decriminalizing it and proving the many compelling reasons to consider nationwide legalization. There so many different reasons why prohibition needs to end. The Cannabis plant has done nothing but benefit the human population since the beginning of time. Drugs like alcohol and tobacco kill millions of people every year and can be bought everywhere. There has never been one case where marijuana alone has taken someones life. It simply makes no sense for marijuana to be classified as a schedule 1 druga drug with no medical benefits and a high probability of abuse/addictionsuch as heroin. It is ironic that marijuana is safer than many drugs you can buy over the counter such as tobacco and alcohol, yet it still remains federally illegal. Although marijuana still remains federa lly illegal, it is important for people to understand how wonderful and beneficial the Cannabis plant can be. As more and more states continue to legalize and discover its history, medical, and economic benefits, it is only a matter of time until marijuana will be legalized across the nation. References CBD vs. THC: Properties, Benefits, and Side Effects. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health/cbd-vs-thc Earleywine, M., Marlatt, G. A. (2005). Understanding marijuana: A new look at the scientific evidence. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Grinspoon, L. (1994). Marihuana reconsidered: The most thorough evaluation of the benefits and dangers of cannabis. San Francisco, CA: Quick American Archives. Iversen, L. (2001). Science of Marijuana. Krishna, M. (2018, October 22). The Economic Benefits of Legalizing Weed. Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/articles/insights/110916/economic-benefits-legalizing-weed.asp