Evaluating Economic Arguments in Forbes' Cannabis Legalization Debate

This essay provides a detailed analysis of an article published in Forbes concerning the economic implications of the ongoing debate surrounding the legalization of cannabis for medicinal purposes. The author, Valdivia (2019), discusses the potential economic benefits, such as increased government revenues and decreased black market activity, associated with legalizing cannabis. The essay examines the author's assumptions, values, and attitude towards the topic, noting a generally positive and development-oriented perspective. While the author highlights the potential benefits for business development, improved healthcare facilities, and pharmacological advancements, the essay also points out a lack of exploration regarding potential negative impacts, such as increased crime rates. Ultimately, the essay concludes that a comprehensive analysis of the topic is essential for informed decision-making, and it emphasizes the importance of considering multiple perspectives and recent evidence when evaluating the potential consequences of cannabis legalization. Desklib provides access to similar essays and study resources for students.

Running head: ALCOHOL AND MENTAL HEALTH
ALCOHOL AND MENTAL HEALTH
Name of the student
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Introduction
In the recent years, governments around the world is feeling the pressure of legalising
marijuana or cannabis for using it in medicinal aspects (Homel & Brown, 2017). Despite the
fact cannabis is among the most used illicit drug around the world, demands of legalising it
for medicinal research and uses has started to raise its voice from around the world (Keene,
2016). One such demand has been discussed in a media reports of Forbes written by Valdivia
(2019), which discusses about the economic implication of the usage of cannabis in medicinal
purposes and then discusses about the legalisation related debates that is increasing pressure
on developed nations such as USA and Canada to think about legalising the drug.
This structured essay would discuss about the assumptions, values, and attitude of the
writer of the article about the topic and then would discuss about the contribution of the
article upon the debate of legalisation of marijuana for medicinal purposes.
The discussion of the article
On March 11, 2019 Ana Garcia Valdivia published one of her articles in Forbes that
discusses about the ongoing debate in the world about the legalisation of marijuana for
medicinal purposes. Further, she also discussed about the economic impact of the legalisation
of marijuana if it could be used as a medicine in critical heath complications. This report
mentioned that due to increased usage and consumption of the cannabis, it is important to
legalise it so that it could be effectively used in pharmaceutical aspects (Leemaqz et al.,
2016). This report further discussed about the consultancy firm ETFGI mentioned that
cannabis trading is becoming one of the most important economic aspect of multiple nations
and in Canada, this exchange of trade is proven to be more successful and profitable than any
other aspects. As per the report of Forbes, Canada has become the second largest country for
exchange trade funds and has achieved more than 50% retunes in the first financial quarter of

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2019. Further, this daring step of legalising the trade of cannabis has been taken by Canada
after Uruguay, which is a G20 country and is using this drug for the medicinal research and
developments. Due to this, the Marijuana Life Sciences Index fund has increased by €1.15
billion (Keene, 2016).
As per Hughes & Stevens (2015), this is the reason of increasing debates around the
world for legalisation of cannabis in majority of the European Union countries including
Spain. The primary reason behind this discussion is the increasing economic implication of
the cannabis and besides medicinal use and research and developmental purposes, application
and legalisation of marijuana would increase the government’s revenues due to the higher
economic implication of the drug in the global market. Besides this, the paper was able to
identify the most crucial aspect of legalisation of cannabis and its relation to the decreased
illegal supply and black marketing. For this purpose, the paper effectively mentioned that
lifting the ban from the processing, and producing marijuana or cannabis would be
completely decrease the black marketing or complications related to illegal marketing of the
cannabis however it would effectively decrease the criminal networks as upon legalisation,
the sellers and buyers would be able to sell or buy the product with government’s permission
and through this, as per the report by Keene (2016), 15% decrease in the black market or
illegal supplies would be achieved. Further, the paper mentioned effectively that 84% of
people in the country are in favour of legalising the drug for their usage in pharmacological
and business purposes and whereas, among them 47% has demanded complete legalisation of
the product so that people can directly produce and sell this product without governmental
possession (Leemaqz et al., 2016).
Values assumptions and attitude of writer
The complete discussion and debate mentioned by Valdivia (2019) in the article of
Forbes discusses about the positive and beneficial aspect of using cannabis for the

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pharmaceutical development and growth. Her assumption, in this case, were her ideas that
legalisation of marijuana would effectively decrease the rate of criminal cases or black
market businesses of marijuana (Van Manen, 2016). In this aspect, it should be mentioned
that the author did not explore this area through recent evidences and evidences and her
complete approach towards this aspect was negligible. She should have explored this area by
discussing the recent evidences such as Medical Marijuana, Inc. News (2019), that mentions
that the rate of marijuana related crimes and black marketing in Uruguay has increased after
legalisation of cannabis usage and production. Hence, by ignoring this primary aspect, the
author assumes the positive implication of legalising cannabis. However, her values were
positive and development oriented as she focused on the implications such as business
development, improved healthcare facilities and usage of cannabis in the pharmacological
aspects (Hyland, 2018). Hence, in the process, her values and writing style was progressive
and she was able to provide a detailed description of the debate around the globe regarding
the legalisation of medicinal usage of cannabis. Finally, while discussing her attitude or tone
regarding the topic, it should be mentioned that as per Van Manen (2016), tone or perspective
of the writer helps to determine the right behaviour and nature of the writer towards the topic
and through this, the writers can influence the readers by providing them accurate and
important notifications. Valdivia (2019), mentioned her stand on the topic clearly and
provided multiple examples and reasons using which nations around the world are using
cannabis to boost their economy and develop pharmacological means so that it could be used
in future aspects for the growth and development of medicinal means. Hence, the attitude,
values and assumptions of the writer of this article are observed effectively through the
discussion of this article.

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Conclusion
While analysing the assumptions, values and attitude of writers of any article, the
complete and detailed analysis of the topic becomes important. This paper discusses about
these aspects of Valdivia (2019) written for Forbes about the legalisation of cannabis for its
economic benefit and pharmacological usage. As the paper provided a detailed analysis of the
topic and provides evidences for the aspects, the authenticity of the discussion of the
assumptions, values and attitude of the researcher increases.

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References
Homel, P., & Brown, R. (2017). Marijuana legalisation in the United States: An Australian
perspective. Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, (535), 1.
Hughes, C. E., & Stevens, A. (2015). A resounding success or a disastrous failure: re-
examining the interpretation of evidence on the Portuguese decriminalization of illicit
drugs. In New Approaches to Drug Policies (pp. 137-162). Palgrave Macmillan,
London.
Hyland, K. (2018). Metadiscourse: Exploring interaction in writing. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Retrieved from: https://books.google.co.in/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=N9FoDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR3&dq=tone+attitude+and+assum
ption+of+writers&ots=SQyJIuktlV&sig=PDW-lo3OgcxpssJTBSQ412x5KE0
Keene, S. (2016). Marijuana and the limits of knowledge: Implications for economic
vulnerability and resilience in Northern California. Resilience, 4(1), 44-58.
Leemaqz, S. Y., Dekker, G. A., McCowan, L. M., Kenny, L. C., Myers, J. E., Simpson, N.
A., ... & SCOPE Consortium. (2016). Maternal marijuana use has independent effects
on risk for spontaneous preterm birth but not other common late pregnancy
complications. Reproductive Toxicology, 62, 77-86.
Medical Marijuana, Inc. News. (2019). Crime Rates Have Plunged in Uruguay Since
Marijuana Was Legalized - Medical Marijuana, Inc. News. Retrieved from
https://news.medicalmarijuanainc.com/crime-rates-plunged-uruguay-since-marijuana-
legalized/

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Valdivia, A. (2019). The Economic Implications Behind The Cannabis Legalization Debate.
Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/anagarciavaldivia/2019/03/11/the-
economic-implications-behind-the-cannabis-legalization-debate/#11f2302c5c56
Van Manen, M. (2016). Phenomenology of practice: Meaning-giving methods in
phenomenological research and writing. Routledge.