Nearly 5000 years ago, cannabis was documented as a popular medicine amongst early Chinese civilization. Marijuana continued to be used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years, even by the first President of the United States. Marijuana continued to be seen as a medicinal plant until the 1930s as its use in creating hemp paper began to threaten the paper industry. Because of this threat, many politicians were pressured into denouncing the plant and making it appear to be a threat to the public. In 1937, the marijuana prohibition began across every state in the country. This country-wide ban ended in 1996 when California became the first state to legalize medical marijuana. Many states in the region followed with similar legislation,
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The SCT claims that policies create groups out of the population and distribute benefits or burdens to members of those groups. The targeted groups then develop what are known as social constructions, which are images or stereotypes of a group that can make society view them positively or negatively. Social constructions helps us understand why some people are benefitted or punished by policies more than others, even though citizens are meant to be equal under the law. Benefits and punishments are distributed based on how deserving a group is and how much political power that group has. The more deserving you are, the more positive rhetoric you receive from policies, and more political power leads to more benefits. When looking at marijuana legislation, there is a clear target group that the policies are benefitting, which are the patients who need cannabis to overcome diseases and illnesses. These people are categorized as dependents – those who are respected and receive benefits, though there’s more positive rhetoric about the group than there are actual benefits given to members of the group. This happens because the members are viewed positively by society, but they do not have a lot of political …show more content…
It helps us understand why society votes in favor of using marijuana as a medicine. It predicts what will happen to the participation of ill people who use medicinal marijuana, and it helps us understand how our stereotypes towards the ill are being strengthened through this policy. The Social Construction Theory does fail in that it predicts dependents to receive positive rhetoric without real benefits, while in reality, these dependents are seeing a lot of benefits, even though they have little political power. This may be explained by the fact that half of the states that legalized marijuana did so through initiatives. When citizens are voting instead of the government, political power may not matter nearly as much because the people aren’t being influenced by corporation threats and bribes. So, voting is more likely to be influenced purely by the social construction and the idea of
The SCT claims that policies create groups out of the population and distribute benefits or burdens to members of those groups. The targeted groups then develop what are known as social constructions, which are images or stereotypes of a group that can make society view them positively or negatively. Social constructions helps us understand why some people are benefitted or punished by policies more than others, even though citizens are meant to be equal under the law. Benefits and punishments are distributed based on how deserving a group is and how much political power that group has. The more deserving you are, the more positive rhetoric you receive from policies, and more political power leads to more benefits. When looking at marijuana legislation, there is a clear target group that the policies are benefitting, which are the patients who need cannabis to overcome diseases and illnesses. These people are categorized as dependents – those who are respected and receive benefits, though there’s more positive rhetoric about the group than there are actual benefits given to members of the group. This happens because the members are viewed positively by society, but they do not have a lot of political …show more content…
It helps us understand why society votes in favor of using marijuana as a medicine. It predicts what will happen to the participation of ill people who use medicinal marijuana, and it helps us understand how our stereotypes towards the ill are being strengthened through this policy. The Social Construction Theory does fail in that it predicts dependents to receive positive rhetoric without real benefits, while in reality, these dependents are seeing a lot of benefits, even though they have little political power. This may be explained by the fact that half of the states that legalized marijuana did so through initiatives. When citizens are voting instead of the government, political power may not matter nearly as much because the people aren’t being influenced by corporation threats and bribes. So, voting is more likely to be influenced purely by the social construction and the idea of