The New Jersey Perspective on Cannabis Legalization

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Calvin Chatlos ◽  
Theodore A. Petti

Background: Between 2010 and 2020, New Jersey went from treating cannabis as an illegal substance in all circumstances to allowing medical use and subsequently recreational use. The Medical Marijuana Program (MMP) was originally very strict and was progressively liberalized. After attempts to legalize recreational use failed in the legislature, voters passed a referendum to amend the New Jersey constitution to allow recreational use. Our objectives are to document this process and provide the perspectives of psychiatrists treating adolescents. Method: We describe the legislative process and the multiple pressures for legalization and decriminalization. Discussion : Issues germane to youth as a vulnerable population have been inadequately considered by policy makers, the media, and general population. Greater attention to the process and outcome to mitigate this finding is needed.

2013 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARC LUY ◽  
PRISKA FLANDORFER ◽  
PAOLA DI GIULIO

ABSTRACTPopulation ageing occurs in all industrialised societies and is the demographic phenomenon that currently gets the highest attention from scientists, policy makers and the general public. The main aim of this paper is to broaden our understanding of its societal consequences, such as ageism and intergenerational solidarity. Our study is based on the 2008 investigation of attitudes towards population ageing and older people in seven European countries of Schoenmaeckerset al.We replicate their analysis in a specific human subpopulation in which the process of population ageing started earlier and is much more advanced than in the general societies: the members of Catholic orders. The study compares the attitudes of 148 nuns and monks from three Bavarian monasteries to those of the western German general population using descriptive and multivariate analyses in the context of the debate around population ageing in Germany. We discuss the specific characteristics of order members that might influence their attitudes and also take a brief look at their views on possible political strategies to solve the problems connected with the demographic changes. Our results confirm the findings of Schoenmaeckerset al.and reveal that worldly and monastic populations show an identical basic pattern of a positive attitude towards older people while at the same time considering population ageing a worrisome development. However, order members evaluate older people's abilities and their role in society more positively. This result gives rise to the optimistic perspective that in an aged population the younger and older generations can build a well-functioning society.


2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-53
Author(s):  
Marlou Schrover ◽  
Tycho Walaardt

This article analyses newspaper coverage, government policies and policy practices during the 1956 Hungarian refugee crisis. There were surprisingly few differences between newspapers in the coverage of this refugee migration, and few changes over time. The role of the press was largely supportive of government policies, although the press did criticise the selection of refugees. According to official government guidelines, officials should not have selected, but in practice this is what they attempted to do. The refugees who arrived in the Netherlands did not live up to the image the press, in its supportive role, had created: there were too few freedom fighters, women and children. This article shows that the press had an influence because policy makers did make adjustments. However, in practice selection was not what the media assumed it was, and the corrections were not what the media had aimed for.


Author(s):  
Jessica White

Has suburbia ever truly met the needs of the populations it claims to serve? Since its creation suburbia has been a centre of conflict between the image created by the media and lived realities. The post war images of femininity in the suburbs were ones of domesticity and a heteronormative family. In essence the “sitcom” family was created and reality was made to look like its television counterpart. Yet in real life, did any family look like that of Leave it to Beaver? Have our ideals of the perfect family living in the perfect house truly changed? If they have changed have they had an effect on policy makers and land developers? A brief historical examination of suburbia, its creation, and media images will be contrasted with the developments and policies we find in today’s suburbia. To partially answer my original question the demographic of women in suburbia, more specifically mothers will be discussed. Are today’s media images of suburbia a better depiction of lived realities or are urban political processes still at play to perpetuate an ideal image?


2018 ◽  
pp. 1313-1337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel W. E. Hein ◽  
Jennah L. Jodoin ◽  
Philipp A. Rauschnabel ◽  
Björn S. Ivens

Recent market research forecasts predict that a new form of wearable devices will soon influence the media landscape: Augmented Reality Smart Glasses. While prior research highlights numerous potentials in personal and professional settings of smart glasses, this technology has also triggered several controversies in public discussions, for example, the risk of violating privacy and copyright laws. Yet, little research addresses the questions of whether smart glasses are good or bad for societies, and if yes, why. This study conducts exploratory research to contribute to narrowing this gap. Based on a survey among consumers, the authors identify several societal benefits and risks that determine consumers' evaluation of the anticipated and desired success of smart glasses. These findings lead to numerous important implications for consumers, scholars, managers, and policy makers.


2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 224-237
Author(s):  
Benjamin Biard

Debates over the stripping of citizenship have been rekindled in many countries in recent years. Radical right populist parties (RRPPs) are often perceived to have played a significant role in these resurging debates, even when they do not possess executive power and are often marginalised by mainstream parties. Thus, RRPPs’ real influence on policy-making remains unclear and the way RRPPs intervene in the policy-making process to influence it has not yet been satisfactorily determined. By focusing on policy-making, this study asks the question: how do RRPPs influence resurging debates over the stripping of citizenship? Using process-tracing and evidence from archives, memoirs and 67 interviews with policy-makers and party leaders, this research aims to determine if and how RRPPs intervene in the process in France and Belgium. The results indicate that RRPPs matter but that their influence is strongly curtailed. Their influence is not exercised directly and through institutional arenas, but indirectly: based on a provocative style, in a specific context, and through public opinion and the media.


2020 ◽  
pp. 144078332092514
Author(s):  
Kevin Dew ◽  
Lucas Armstrong

In this article the concepts of statist medicine and subaltern therapeutics are used to provide insight into the debates over the therapeutic use of marijuana in cases of serious or terminal illness. In 2015 medical marijuana gained public attention in Aotearoa New Zealand as cases of people facing life-threatening conditions who wished to use marijuana for therapeutic purposes were given voice in the popular media. In Aotearoa New Zealand marijuana use is illegal for recreational purposes, but theoretically patients with particular conditions could gain access to medicinal forms of marijuana if health professionals, the Ministry of Health and the relevant government minister approved. This approval process is embedded within statist medicine’s regulatory regimes, where access can be provided on condition that the medication meets standards of safety and efficacy. Patients faced with the difficulty of negotiating the processes of statist medicine to access medical marijuana often reverted to illegal means of accessing the plant. Access to illegal forms of marijuana for medical purposes could be through ‘green fairies’, people who provided the plant for therapeutic purposes in a way that was distant from the criminalised recreational use of the drug obtained through ‘dealers’. The process of the state, patients and marijuana providers negotiating the regulation of therapeutic uses of marijuana provides insights into the role of statist medicine and subaltern therapeutics. The case of medical marijuana alerts us to the possibilities of other subaltern therapeutic practices that operate beyond the gaze of the state.


Disasters ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 658-685 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Burger ◽  
Michael Gochfeld ◽  
Clifton Lacy

2020 ◽  
pp. 145507252093680
Author(s):  
Piotr Kępski

Aim: This study analyses discourses on marijuana in the Polish daily press and explores ways of defining “the marijuana problem” during a debate about legalisation of medical marijuana. Methods: 384 press articles published in three national newspapers in 2015–2016 were analysed. The method used was discourse analysis. The theoretical background was social constructionism, including Spector and Kitsuse’s four-stage constructionist model of defining social problems. Results: The study shows that marijuana problems were mainly constructed through criminal and politically medical discourses. In addition to celebrity and pop culture discourses, recreational marijuana use discourses and social problems discourses were identified. Discussion: The marijuana problem can be defined differently through various discourses. Definitions pertain to diverse marijuana meanings ranging from a negative marijuana-as-drug, through an ambivalent recreational marijuana up to a positively valued medical marijuana. The research pointed out that, from a discursive standpoint, the marijuana problem may be viewed as a complex network of relations between particular discourses, marijuana meanings, claim-makers and the media. Conclusion: Different definitions of the marijuana problem are constructed through a dynamic discursive and social process. Various claim-makers try to impose their meanings on marijuana. Mass media are not neutral. They also participate in defining the marijuana problem.


1981 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Zimmerman ◽  
Robert Axelrod

This study systematically identifies the Soviet lessons of Vietnam as presented in eleven Soviet newspapers (specialized and regional as well as the central papers) and eight journals. Altogether, 1,585 citations were coded, representing more than 70 different lessons. A predominant finding is that the most common lessons the Soviet Union learned from Vietnam differed from their American counterparts: the Soviet lessons would not have warned the leadership about the dangers of military intervention in Afghanistan. A left/right scale was constructed, based on such issue clusters as why the communists won in Vietnam, the nature of imperialism, and the implications of Soviet policy in the Third World. Substantial variation was found among the media examined, many of which are linked to specific Soviet institutions. The implication is that Soviet foreign policy is contingent upon individual choices, institutional interplay, and changing contexts. This, in turn, suggests that Western policy makers should not lose sight of their capacity to influence the Soviet policy dialogue, and hence Soviet policy choices.


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