Parkerstinski

Overview

Senior Law, Politics, and Society and Anthropology/Sociology major at Drake University. Currently working on a semester long project in User:Prof.Vandegrift course Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Drake University/Global Youth Studies (Fall 2015), which requires the use of Wikipedia.

Training for Students complete!

Project proposal

For my research Wikipedia project, I would like to create an article about Minors and the legality of cannabis. I found that based on my own interests, I would be extremely passionate about this subject. When I began looking at other Wikipedia pages, I noticed that there were no articles on this topic, which actually surprised me. While doing some investigating, I found that many of the articles related to cannabis were medical articles and had to do with drug dependency. I would like to refrain from editing any medical articles because of my lack of knowledge on the subject, but I think it could be useful further down the road for subsections of my article. I also found other articles that provided a general background for cannabis, such as the history of legality in the United States, which will also be helpful as I continue my project.

In my article, I hope to cover several different topics. These topics will be examining the relationship between minors and the legality of cannabis in three different countries: The United States, Uruguay, and a country in Europe (most likely Netherlands with a central focus on Amsterdam). While there is not much information on this topic, I have found a couple journal articles that cover the relationship I am interested in. I plan on doing a comparing and contrasting the information I find on all three of these countries in an unbiased manner. What I will be comparing and contrasting will be minor’s interactions with cannabis and it’s prevalence in specific countries.

The primary interactions that I will be looking at will be looking at will be how drug legalization or prohibition effects the minor’s familiarity and use of cannabis. I am hoping to find that these legalization or prohibition laws will provide information regarding dependency issues among youth in these three specific countries. Once I have gathered more data about this, I would like to look at the different demographics in these countries and how the use of cannabis compares to other demographics in that same country. So for example, I hope to learn more about urban and rural areas and how the legalization and prohibition effect the youth in these areas and how their social surroundings contribute to the use of cannabis.

As far as a lead paragraph goes, I will start by discussing how the legalization of cannabis is constructed in different countries. I will continue with explaining the different social locations that are present in these countries and how that may affect the way in which people view cannabis. The purpose of this is to have the reader understand that there are different and some similar perspectives around the world. I will then close my leading paragraph with an introduction to my method, which is to compare and contrast these countries while examining the different demographics. Subsections in this article will consist of Youth in the United States and the legality of cannabis, Youth in Uruguay and the legality of cannabis, and Youth in the Netherlands and the legality of cannabis. Within these subsections, I hope to have subsections on the current law, how prevalent the use among youth is, and how it has changed depending the current laws in that are in place.

Wikipedia articles to link to

Cannabis coffee shop

Cannabis in the United States

Cannabis in Uruguay

Cannabis portal

Drug policy of the Netherlands

Sources and placement

Fernanda Boidi, Maria, José Miguel Crus, Rosario Queirolo, Emily Bello-Pardo. "Marijuana Legalization in Uruguay and Beyond" (2014).

I will use this source for my comparisons with the United States and Uruguay and their legalization of cannabis laws and policies. Data collected form this case study suggests that cannabis use among young adults is much higher compared to those in different age groups. A lot of the other information provided in this article suggests there is a profile for those who consume cannabis. This also takes a look at gender disparities among cannabis use in Uruguay. This article will be a good source for a section on demographics within Uruguay.

Goldbaum Elizabeth. "Marijuana Exposure Among Children Under 6 Rises Sharply

I will use this source to discuss how there has been a sharp rise in children accidentally consuming cannabis and how legalization has led to these accidents. I will use this article to compare the accidental incidents within the states that have legalized cannabis and those that have not legalized cannabis. This will be placed in my section on Youth in the United States and the legality of cannabis.

Ingraham, Christopher. "Teen Pot Use Holds Steady in First Year of Legal Weed, new Federal Data Show" (September 2015).

I will use this source in a section about how cannabis use among teens has not been influenced by legalization in Washington and Colorado. This will be the main discussion subject for my section on Youth in the United States and the legality of cannabis. This will serve as a great reference for statistics and research on how use of cannabis rates among youth have not really changed since legalization.

Lopatto, Elizabeth. "Marijauan Legalization: What About The Teens?" (2014).

I will use this source to describe the acquisition of marijuana may have changed, but the numbers of users have not increased or decreased in the United States. Much like the Ingraham article, I will use this one for my main discussion in youth in the United States and the legality of cannabis. I will use the information to show how use of cannabis among youths has not been greatly influenced by legalization.

Maclay, Kathleen. "New research points to lessons from Dutch cannabis system" (2011).

I will use this source to distinguish between the United States and the Netherlands. Within the article, it states the laws that are in place for those that way to purchase cannabis and how the age requirement has changed in the Netherlands, yet it is still lower in the Netherlands. The age in which the youth in the United States and youth in the Netherlands start using cannabis is very similar though, which I find interesting as well. The article also discusses how drug tourism and how they have started to impact the laws.

Room, Robin. "Legalizing a Market for Cannabis for Pleasure: Colorado, Washington, Urgugay and beyond" (2013).

I will use this source to discuss Uruguay's bill and what it permits. I am especially interested in how all advertising and promotion of cannabis items are prohibited. The reason that I find this interesting is because this if like the way cigarettes are not allowed to be publicized. The potential effect on children may be too big if publicity is implemented. I will use this in my section that will be dedicated to the how cannabis is constructed in Uruguay and how their policies are being implemented.

Stolzenberg, Lisa, Steward J. D'Alessio, and Dustin Dariano. "The Effect of Medical Cannabis Laws on Juvenile Cannabis Use" (2015).

I will use this source to discuss how cannabis use among juveniles in the United States was higher in states that had passed or are thing about passing medical cannabis. I also found it quite interesting to read about how the stigma attached to cannabis use is starting to fade away because many individuals use it for medical reasons rather than recreational. I will most likely place this in the social location section of my discussion on Youth in the United States and the legality of cannabis.

Sylbing, G, J. M. G Persoon. "Cannabis use among youth in Netherlands"

I will use this source for my Youth in the Netherlands and the legality of cannabis section. While this case study is relatively old, it will serve as a good source for the history of the cannabis culture in the Netherlands. It will also serve as a good source of the connection between cannabis, tobacco, and alcohol and how youth experiences these relationships.

Borchardt, Debra. "Legalized Medical Marijuana Doesn't Increase Teen Usage, Study Finds"

McKenzie, Alecia. "Netherlands Sees Increase In Youth Smoking Pot; Taking Steps To Revise Cannabis Laws"