Getting Schooled

Have you ever heard the phrase, "knowledge is free?" While that statement may be true for some situations, for the majority of people applying for student financial aid would disagree. An article in    The New York Times brings up the issue that people are not given a fair chance to receive money to go to college. In 2000, the government made a law restricting financial loans to people with even minor offenses. According to his article, close to 200,000 have been denied aid.
The law changed in 2005, becoming more specific to who would be eligible.

One of the biggest issues that the authors face in this situation is that this law is counterproductive. Our government and economy are there to support education, and should be driving citizens to go to college. But how can we continue to stand behind a law that prevents us from doing so? Because they do not differentiate between minor and major offenses. We need to understand that the war on drugs has gone too far when we deprive people from learning. It scares me that we can live in a world that is so afraid of "the war on drugs," that they will take away the chance for a student to go to college over a minor offense. Of course, the government needs to have certain restrictions for student loans, they also need to loosen up a little bit. There are many arguments that can be made both for and against giving financial aid to ex-criminals, but in the end, the only way that we can advance is if we give everyone a fair opportunity to.

Pot v. Pills

     We've all experienced pain. After dealing with a headache for a few minutes, we can pop a few advil for relief within the hour. But what if your pain couldn't be controlled in just a few over the counter pills? What if you couldn't control yourself? In "Think Progress," there is a very interesting article about how Senator Elizabeth Warren tries to tackle the death and addiction rate of prescription pain killers by substituting marijuana. Warren, once opposed to the legalization of marijuana, now advocates for testing how pot can be used to help reduce pain killer addiction, which according to the article has a higher rate the higher the prescription rate go. Marijuana has been a controversial topic for quite some time. The drug, once classified class one drug, is now being researched for more and more opportunities to heal a variety of mental and physical issues. 

     The article, "Elizabeth Warren Urges CDC To Look At Pot As Potential Fix To Prescription Painkiller Epidemic," is an important read, because as the subject of marijuana legalization is going to effect all of our lives. When penicillin was first introduced, it had an even WORSE reputation than pot! After lots of testing, we came to understand that this was a life saving drug. What if people used marijuana for their pain instead of constipating, addicting, and harmful pain killers. What if pot could save lives? Why wouldn't we try?