In my last blog I focused on the issue of gun violence in America and the need to tackle this extreme issue from multiple angles. As gun violence continues to progress across the United States it is clear that we have to act aggressively. I last discussed the importance of approaching the gun violence in our youth and how it would be ideal to start at a young age. That we should begin teaching social and emotional skills and health in school districts in elementary school, as well as moral ethics or philosophy classes in high school. These skills are required to become respectful citizens in a society. Establishing these into an educational curriculum would also allow for monitoring our youth, being able to see any red flags or indicators of any of our youth at risk, especially because public school is a stressful environment. It would also be of help to have additional counselors, youth psychologists or mental health officers on school campuses as an additional tool to developing social and emotional skills necessary to overcome frequent struggles our youth faces. We could accomplish these goals across the United States if we decided to declare gun violence as a Public Health Issue 

Viewing gun violence as a public health issue could be an incredibly beneficial and effective solution. A public health issue can be defined as a complex situation that has a significant impact on community health, loss of life, and on the economy. Approaching gun violence as a public health issue would allow the CDC to get involved and develop constructive framework to further investigate and understand the causes of gun violence, especially in our youth. The first step would  involve collecting information on the severity of the issue and analyze the data. The next step would identify the factors that contribute to gun violence. Finding the underlying factors of violence will allow us to identify those most likely to engage in violence or be targeted by it. Identifying individuals at risk would help determine how to intervene and  provide services to those in need and could prevent many incidents from occurring. 

Many public health officials have agreed that this matter needs to be addressed as a Public Health Crisis and have asked Congress to lift the Dickey Amendment. The Dickey Amendment was put into place in 1996 which restricted funds for firearm control and injury prevention at the CDC for being used to advocate gun control, denying the CDC the option to research gun control for over 20 years.

With over 30,000 deaths a year in the United States due to guns, this amendment needs to be lifted, not necessarily to remove the right to bare arms, but to identify the issues behind gun violence and address the actual cause. 

When reading a recent blog Federally high by Osvaldo Hernandez about the legalization of marijuana and the benefits of it for not only people but the United States, I couldn't help but agree with what Osvaldo had to say.  I believe that this article was written for those people that are completely against medicinal and recreational marijuana and trying to help them understand that there are more benefits than negative ones to making marijuana legal in all 50 states. 
   In the blog Osvaldo tells us that as of now medicinal and recreational marijuana are legal in 29 states and the District of Columbia but is still classified as a "controlled substance" making it a federal crime to possess, buy or sell the substance.  Basically it is the definition of a catch 22.  Osvaldo states many people who are against the idea of legalizing marijuana is that "they stress that it would lead to more accidents on highways as well as more crime in our society."  Then they state that there are more benefits to the legalization of marijuana for both state and federal.  That it would "start by lowering the number of people who are in jail for harmless crimes.  Also, once legalized, marijuana can be taxed potentially producing billions of dollars annually in profit." 
   While  I agree that legalizing would be beneficial for state and federal especially if they taxed and sold it the right way we don't have any evidence that it would be beneficial enough to allow anyone to be able to posses this "controlled substance."  We also from previous experience know that although a substance is illegal doesn't make it impossible to get.  Texas for an example is a state that doesn't allow recreational or medicinal marijuana yet in "2010 over 74,000 people were arrested for possession of medicinal marijuana in a state that doesn't allow  medicinal marijuana.  This doesn't stop people either seeing as Texas is one of the five toughest states in America for possession and the penalty you can face. 
   In my opinion I believe that while it would be smarter to legalize marijuana in all 50 states it would take a lot of work and a new way to survey and monitor a persons "highness" to ensure that they aren't dangerous or reckless under the influence.  This is where I think that people become skeptic over the safety of a person smoking and going behind the wheel.  While one person under the influence is groggy and sleepy another person could be jittery and skittish.  This is why I think testing and trying to figure out the high you are on is difficult because everyone experiences different highs.  It is very difficult to monitor someones "THC blood level" in the same way you can monitor someones blood alcohol level and to figure what level they should be at before they are considered dangerous.  However, if they were able to make a device that could measure their "THC blood level" then like an alcohol blood level device they could just set it at a limit where if you are above it you are unable to do certain things.  Making marijuana would be beneficial to help America come out of debt, but it would take a lot of work and trials and errors.  The first thing that they should do is focus on making marijuana legal as medicinal for those that are suffering from illnesses. 

I would highly recommend you reading Federally High by Osvaldo Hernandez to learn their opinions of why marijuana would be beneficial to our country and how it could help.