Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Fitzgerald, Keith

Area of Concentration

Political Science

Abstract

Marijuana legalization in the United States has taken many different forms over the last one hundred and six years as different policy makers have crafted different laws. Throughout the time of marijuana prohibition state governments and the federal government have learned from one another how to best craft policy that would meet their perceived needs. Much of the last century has been spent creating punitive drug policy that has led to mass incarceration of mostly people of color in the United States. The effects of the drug policy that has been created here have been felt across the globe. During the last twenty-three years the policy on recreational and medicinal marijuana use has changed to become more open. Now is the time for the United States to end the racist regimes of the past and move forward with comprehensive drug reform, if not all at once, then one state at a time with the next state being Florida. In this thesis, I look at the ways that other states have legalized recreational marijuana use and propose my own policy for the state of Florida.

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