1. What Role Should the European Central Bank Play in the Current Essay

1. What Role Should the European Central Bank Play in the Current European Financial or Public Debt Crisis - Essay Example 3 The present European economic crisis has built up as a result of the countries within the continent struggling to pay up the debts they have been building up in the past few decades. Several countries within the union have failed to record an economic growth in turn failing to pay the bondholders their required guarantees. These countries include Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece and Ireland. 4The crisis was exposed by the American recession of the year 2007-2008 that made many countries in Europe experience slow financial growths due to the unsustainable fiscal policies that most European countries were utilizing.5 The countries that had not made financial reforms such as Greece were the first to feel the pain of the crisis when they experienced very high deficits in their budgets which were also unsustainable. 6 Investors who had interests within the countries that were experiencing financial difficulties in turn demanded superior yields on their bonds raising the costs of these coun tries debts.7 The union’s central bank should resist the idea of printing more money so that they can buy out the union’s distressed debts.8 In the month of December 2011, the central bank availed credit facilities to the troubled financial institutions that were within the region. This move that the central bank has been putting much effort in has not helped in solving the continents problems, however, it helped in boosting the confidence of potential investors who now perceive the economies that were largely in debt as experiencing slow growths in their activities. This move has additionally helped in preventing the collapse of the economies of some member countries along with keeping the European currency stable in the global monetary markets.9 The union’s central bank should establish legal instruments such as the European monetary stability facility with the cooperation of the

Look at the Assignment Criteria Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Look at the Assignment Criteria - Essay Example The philosophies and principles that form the basis of Islamic banking have been detailed in the Holy Quran and the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad. Islamic banking is seen as the revival of Islam. This is also taken as an expression of the Muslims to live on the principles of Islam. In Malaysia, there is a separate legislation governing the Islamic banks and these co-exist with the traditional banks. The Islamic Banking Act of 1983 vested the powers in the BNM to ensure that the Islamic banks worked under regulation. Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad (BIMB) was the first Islamic bank to be established in 1983 and they adhere to the principles as stated in the sharia. (PKUKM, n.d.). By 1992 BIMB spread out all over the country. Very soon it developed a network of 80 branches with 1200 people working in them. Bank Muamalat Malaysia Berhad (BMMB), the second Islamic bank, came into existence following the merger of Bank Bumiputra Malaysia Berhad (BBMB) with Bank of Commerce (Malaysia) Berhad (BOCB ). The Islamic banking system can be viable if it fulfills there vital requirements. The number of players in the banking system should be large; they should offer a wide range of financial and banking instruments. Besides, there should be an active Islamic money market (PKUKM, n.d.). In addition, the Islamic banking system should have the characteristics of Islam and work under those principles. BNM played the lead role in disseminating Islamic banking at the national level so that it could reach all Malaysians. The commercial banks too were encouraged to promote Islamic banking products and services from their existing infra structure and branches. This increased the number of institutions that offered Islamic banking products and services within the shortest time and minimum costs. Under the scheme known as "Skim Perbankan Tanpa Faedah" BNM further enhanced the promotion of Islamic banking. The Islamic banks or the

Researched Essay Assignment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Researched Essay Assignment - Research Paper Example Through his wide knowledge and royal connections, he was able to design clothes for popular individuals, which made his designed become increasing famous and create a class in his works (Carroll 150). During this period, the dresses, which were worn by individuals, and the materials utilised in making the accessories which they wore, defined a social class which an individual belonged to. The queen of France developed elaborate gowns that she used to create her persona during the 19th century. The aspects of creating a persona through dressing and accessories resulted in individuals wishing to connect to the queen by adopting similar dressing codes. These gowns became the cultural norm for the women of higher social class in France during the early 19th century. Through the fashion, the queen was able to articulate herself and set precedence for other monarchs, which were relatively common during that period. It became increasingly popular for monarchs to have an official dress code, which mainly resulted from common fashions. Paris has been highly associated with fashion because of the early development in fashion within the city. Fashion magazines from different countries commonly sent editors to fashion shows in Paris and the fashion stores in order to gather materials, for writing about fashion. Many people commonly seem to copy the well, developed designs that have been established and Paris offered exquisite designs of many products ranging from clothing, shoes and even ornaments. The spread of French fashion was enhanced through these magazines, which individuals in other parts of the world relied on to make decisions regarding fashion products. As the popularity of fashion magazines increased, many of them began including photographs which became influential on the future designs adopted in different regions of the world. The magazines were greatly sought after and had a noteworthy consequence on

In Shakespeares Macbeth various devices are used to present the weird sisters as integral to the plot Essay Example for Free

In Shakespeares Macbeth various devices are used to present the weird sisters as integral to the plot Essay In Shakespeares Macbeth various devices are used to present the weird sisters as integral to the plot. In a modern context, are they still plausible figures? So witherd and so wild in their attire, that look not like thinhabitants othearth, and yet are ont? This description of the three weird sisters given by Banquo on first setting eyes on them creates an illusion of hell like hags; decayed and disfigured creatures. They are unnatural: they seem to be women but are not. It is Banquo who thinks they are evil: What! Can the devil speak true? Macbeth does not. Macbeth is intrigued by the sisters and later tells Lady Macbeth that he burned in desire to question them further. Macbeth asks the witches to stay showing he is interested in their predictions; Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more. The sisters speak dangerous thoughts, the same perhaps already plaguing his mind. If their predictions were already thoughts in the back of Macbeths mind, then the sisters lack power over him at this point. By examining the first conversation he has with Lady Macbeth on first returning home from battle, And when goes hence, tomorrow as he purposes this could be seen as evidence of couple having discussed the downfall of Duncan on an earlier date. If this is true then the sisters could be seen as mere triggers; they release the fiery evil within Macbeth. The fact that the sisters are in the first scene of the play confirms that they are important characters and from what they say, When the hurlyburlys done, when the battles lost and won gives the impression they know what is going to pass in the rest of the play. They meet in foul weather and talk of thunder, lightening and the fog and filthy air, giving the audience a first impression that Macbeth is a dark, dangerous play in which the theme of evil is central. They embody a malign and demonic intelligence. Their information does tempt Macbeth-but it is crucial to remember: they do not invite him to murder Duncan or even suggest a thing. Information is morally neutral until human beings begin to interpret it. The three hags prophecy that Macbeth will be king, they make no inclination whatsoever how he will come about this regal title. A lingering question still remains; had Macbeth given thought to killing Duncan before, and if the sisters had not made their prophecy, would Macbeth have murdered Duncan that night at the castle? In fact this is an unanswerable question but at the same time also very crucial. For if the answer is yes, the sisters would no longer be integral to the plot but be there just for the means of a supernatural subplot. On the other hand taking it as is given in the play, the implications of this are that Macbeth relies wholly on the sisters to spur him on. Macbeth is not a fool he realises that the prophecies cannot be ill, cannot be good and the forecasts of the future must come at a cost. Later on though, Macbeth no doubt driven by the success of his murdering of Duncan, seems to forget the sisters haunt that none of woman born shall harm Macbeth and the movement of Birnam Wood. Banquos warning to Macbeth concerning the instruments of darkness might also be seen as prophetical; Macbeth is betrayed as a result of believing these truths, and he comes to realise this in his final confrontation with Macduff. As the play goes on Macbeth is mixing his conscious life with his subconscious and the weird sisters become like a drug for him; the more you get, the better you feel, the more you want. The weird sisters prophecies draw out the evil within Macbeth; everyone has the basis to be truly wicked but not all of us have the trigger to pull it off, most of us are too full of the milk of human kindness. Regarding Macbeth, the weird sisters were his trigger. The evil does not come from anywhere else other than human nature. The sisters have not completely managed to corrupt Macbeth though. Both before and after Duncans murder Macbeth shows signs that his own natural feelings are still present in his character and that the witches do not have total power over him. He is foul for the things that he has done but is somewhat fair as he still has a natural human conscience. Before the murder Macbeth thinks that it would be cruel to kill innocent Duncan: Besides, this Duncan hath borne his faculties so meek, Had I but died an hour before this chance I had lived a blessed time. His feelings about Duncans murder are very similar to those about Banquos murder although he only acted out the first himself. He is sick with worry and guilt about Banquos murder, so much so he is turned to near madness by the bloody ghost of Banquo haunting him. On stage, Shakespeare sought to make the Witches actable and recognisable to his audience.In Britain we either rationalise Witchcraft or mock it and we have the added problem of an audience having seen Macbeth a countless number of times, often in very unconvincing renditions of Double, double toil and trouble it has even become some what of a comic joke book. With hooked nosed women dressed in black with pointed hats chanting round a cauldron; not quite a depiction of three terrifying, blood curdling, residents of hell. Shakespeare himself had to make adjustments to keep up with stage fashion. Originally he had three devils in place of the weird sisters, but the theatrical currency of devils was already starting to devalue through overuse, and they were more likely to induce laughter than fear. James I who was on the throne when Macbeth was written, famously believed in witches, he even wrote the novel, Daemonologie on the subject. Yet, during the lifetime of the king, attitudes to stage witches shifted and they started down the same comic route as the devils before them. This might be why no one in the text of Macbeth uses the word witch. When Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, weird characters were deemed capable of prophecy. Macbeth makes the association when he asks why the sisters stop our way, with such prophetic greeting. The modern mind, though, hear the modern denotation of weird, which incidentally, is used to describe those bearded ladies who vanish into the air. Formerly, weird ladies; those who endowed prophetic powers, were presumed to have magical powers as well. Now, ladies who think they have magical powers are presumed to be weird or peculiar Therefore it is becoming increasingly more difficult to make a contemporary western materialistic audience believe in them. Directors struggle to think of new interpretations of how to represent them. Are they young or old, male or female, disfigured or beautiful? Or even to represent them with the appearance of normal human beings, for that in itself is probably the most frightening understanding. Robert Cohen, in his 1982 Colorado Shakespeare Festival production, cast three beautiful women as the witches. Dressed in topless gowns they seduced Macbeth into a life of crime and corruption; here the weird sisters were depicted as real women more psychic than supernatural. Perhaps they too like Macbeth had morality, but had all the goodness sucked away and the evil human nature was dragged out of them and they were left even more corrupt than Macbeth is, at least he has the next life; hell we assume, they have to spend eternity festering in this world. This of course would be going against Shakespeares description of them but in my opinion in order to create three plausible figures in a modern context it is essential to create three characters; if they do even have any character that will make todays critical and realistic mind really believe that they are looking upon true forces of evil, rather than three women in black cloaks chanting round a cauldron. Personally it would not be plausible in my mind that they would be able to take the evil out of a man, who could do such terrible deeds. Perhaps a modern interpretation might be that it is genetics which control the way people make decisions; for if a director were to stage a futuristic Macbeth with the weird sisters as genetic engineers controlling the future, this would gain the desired effect on the audience; pure fear. Also, at the same time keeping up with stage fashions, test tube babies; the idea of creating humans unnaturally. For all our scientific rationality, modern society still acknowledges that there are forces we cannot explain. Some people believe in supernatural phenomenon; ghosts witches, evil forces; others would explain everything as from within the human mind; for example Lady Macbeth who generates the evil is already within Macbeth, therefore are just plot devices, there to release it from him. Even though they cause no first hand evil themselves, they evil that they thus create by delivering their riddle like prophecies is integral to the tragedy of Macbeth and without them fair would not be foul and foul would not be fair.

Operating Theatre Practice Reflective Assessment

Operating Theatre Practice Reflective Assessment Activity 1 Register nurses who work in the operation theatre where they are trained to care patient before, during and after surgery. There they gain both classroom learning and hands on experience. Strengths: â€Å"Strengths-based learning is the process of acquiring knowledge or skills by applying what makes you strong. Put simply, it is new learning that builds on past success.† (Dunedin, 1960) There is strength that is available in my private hospital such as the library, it is to provide better understanding example as Berry and Khons books. The staff or student to get will be able to get information regarding the surgical field. Question and answer are also given by the nurse instructor regarding what procedure is done by the student or staff. Each week every staff has their own date given by the nurse manager to do presentation. Presentation can be done any topic regarding the surgical field. Internet access is also available to acknowledge staff or student to find out information. Staffs are also been sent for fire safety program and advance cardiovascular life support to be able to perform during emergency. Challengers: In every job there are challengers that will give us experience to procedure further. Moreover, in my department as well there is a popular reason of staff shortage. It will be difficult for the any staff to go for training due to no replacement. Too many new learners will also increase the stress level to the mentor because she or he could not handle by observing each student and more mistakes will be done by the student example during the surgical field even though the student or staff are been though to perform swab count but due to lack of supervision mistake may occur. Working long hours in the operation will lead to stress and tiredness to the staff due to dragging of cases. Next day the particular staff couldn’t perform well and more error will occur example medication error during general anaesthesia. There are also some of the surgeon will complain about the staff performance to the nurse manager this will prevent the staff to be assign with the particular surgeon aga in by the nurse manage end up the staff finally couldn’t learn the way of the surgeon operate. During the school holidays there will be increase number of cases in this period most of the staff and student will have though time to perform their theory session only rushing to finish the cases, end up no improvement in knowledge. Opportunities: The main opportunities working in the operation theatre is the willingness for the staff and surgeon to except the particular person with the way she or he perform their duties. There are the learning methods that are available such as the internet and library. Log books are provided for the new staffs to make sure they are able to learnt each skill during the probation period. By practicing they will learn faster other than only memorizing, and observing but this actually also depending individually. Barrier: There are the barrier between the staff and the working environment, depending on the staff. Some person will encounter difficult in communication in understanding their task given due to different language. If proper orientation is not given to the new staff they will be lack of confident in performing their duties. Teamwork can also lead to barrier example how the person getting along with each other to achieve goal to improve the quality of life and the outcome. Mentor is also a very important person in the practice area to organize and coordinate student learning, supervising student and providing feedback if they are lack of knowledge the junior staff will not be guided in a proper way to provide good service to the patient. Activity 2 My main strengths As a professional in practice: I have been working the private hospital since year 2008.I has completed my operation theatre practice and diploma in nursing sponsor by the private hospital. I have also done my fire safety program, advance cardiovascular life support and standard people practice course. I am also trained in the central sterile supply department, catheterization lab, general anaesthesia, circulating and also scrubbing. Area for improvement and action plan: I would like to improve in my scrubbing area to do better in the orthopaedic cases and neurologic cases because usually for this cases special instrument and machine are required. For the orthopaedic case mostly screws, plating and on loan instruments will be use from other company such as Johnson and Johnson or Stryker depending on type of surgery. Moreover, for the neurologic cases different machine are use example selector which is to suck the tumour from intracranial. The instruments that are used are tumour forceps, brain retractor or dora retractor. Action plan: I have to scrub neurologic and orthopaedic cases more often. I also must do note book and prepare presentation to be presented with other staffs to exchange idea and knowledge.I can also ask for the instrument broacher from each company so I will be more familiar with the instrument and able to handle in future. As a learner: As a learner there have been dreams for me to increase my knowledge and experience. I would strictly love to continue my degree in nursing because education is the most useful thing to the people, especially as a result of complex nature of the day. After completing degree I will happily go forward to continue my master in nursing. I also would like to go for the AO trauma course to be more familiar with the types of fracture. Areas for development and action plan: I would like to increase my education level because education is important to national development in that it allows to further progress in the nation. Education promotes better ideas for management and experience. I would also like to more into the management site. The AO trauma is important to make sure I am able to manage fracture and also will be trained in the techniques for management of common fracture .In my action plan I must first apply degree in a university which the program has been approved by the Ministry of Health and Malaysia Nursing Board and also an affordable price. Which currently I am studying and happy with it, I would also like to continue my master here. For the trauma course that I wanted to attend I must apply though internet and inform my nurse manager about it once the application is open I can go it is only for 3 days course. As a mentor or educator in practice: As a mentor having a interpersonal and professional working relationship to support the learning environment. Organizing and coordinating the learning activities by supervising the student or new comers. Assessing the student’s skill, attitudes and behaviour enable me to provide the evidence of achievement. Areas of development and action plan: Coaching involves regular discussion between the mentor and mentee to improve their performance example develop a plan to improve the employee skill and knowledge. Counselling is a discussion to help the mentee to sort out problems. Teaching with revolves soft skills which can be build such as focus on communication skills, interpersonal skills ,problem solving and professionalism. Show them why they should develop a career plan and help them see their future role in the organization Activity 3 I am working in one of the private hospital more than 2 years, I am trained in the operation theatre and also completed my certificate as a trained theatre technician. My hospital is a place to learn and practice all the facilities of learning are available and practical there is superb but there are also areas of improvement .When I was a junior I had an experience that I learn from it. It was a spine endoscopic surgery which was done by a new surgeon, assisted by a junior staff nurse, this surgery was a new procedure in our place using scope for disectomy. The junior staff did very well , the surgery went smooth and at the end when the skin already stitch then the scrub nurse noticed that one of the patties is missing when the patient was already on the trolley extubated, on the way to recovery. The junior nurse got scared and immediately she informed the surgeon. Once again the patient was push back in to the operation room, incubated the patient and he reopen the surgery site, th ere was patties retain in the patient. This was a major mistake because final count was not done before closing and this is considered as a medical error. From the experience above, I would like to reflect upon three areas for improvement using the Gibbs Model of Reflection. At that time, I felt that the induction program was not done properly because the scrub nurse didn’t count the patties. It was a bad experience for the staff because it was her first time doing Endoscopic Disectomy. On the other hand, this experience also though her about the important of proper patties count. At the situation the scrub nurse was so nervous and anxious because was her first time scrubbing with a new surgeon. In my view, I decently think that the induction program that usually done only for 2 months should be increase to at less 4 months to make sure the new comers absorb the input and also know the important of counting the swab or patties before, during and before closing the skin to prevent retain of foreign body. The scrub nurse was also new staffs who were left all alone with no supervision. It was very unfair for the nurse manager to do such an assignment with no any senior staff. From the positive site, the staff is trained to be alone to build her confident level and the negative site without supervision error happens which is also unfair to the patient. To prevent any error in future the nurse manager must assign senior staffs who are able to bring a new staffs and guide in a proper manner. Furthermore, I also suggested the nurse manager to prepare a competency checklist because the staff was not given any chance but immediately inform to scrub for the case. She was also new staff afraid the nurse manager would get angry if she refused it. From this experience, everyone and even I realized that if the staff was done a competency checklist by her mentor or senior staff, we can identify which area she is weak and does she knows the important of patties count. In future I hope this incident will never occur again, during the investigation was done towards the junior nurse no senior or even the nurse manager stood by her. Everyone was just blaming the junior staff from that situation I did the analysis where the mistake happened. I even suggested to the nurse manager for improvement of these three areas before we could blame the junior staff but finally she was sent to the recovery area and no more scrubbing again. am I.I also felt that the nurse manager was so unfair to us for not giving us any senior staff. I also felt miserable because i didn’t remind her about the count and even didn’t perform the patties checklist.There was also no

What Is An American? :: essays research papers

What was an American?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Western Europeans came to America to start new lives, with new laws, a new social system but all in all to become new men. In contrast African emigrants were brought to America to tend to the needs of the settlers from Europe. They were brought over to be slaves. Each of these views are views of St Jean de Crevecoeur and Fredrick Douglass.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  St Jean de Crevecoeur, was an emigrant of Europe. Crevecoeur, had no desire to go back to the land in which his forefathers had lived. He was going to a more diverse way of living â€Å"where all races melted into new race of man.† (pg 308) He believed America was a place to go to be a free man, â€Å"who leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, that he receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he hold.†(pg 308) Crevecoeur knew that his life as a new man would entail new ideas and new opinions. Hoping that the new laws protect him, â€Å"from involuntary idleness, servile dependence, penury and useless labor, he has passed to tolls of very different nature, rewarded by ample subsistence.† (pg 308) Crevecoeur lived the life of a free man in which he was paid for his labors, he owned land and was a farmer. His view of an American, â€Å"is a new man, who acts upo n new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and form new opinions.† (pg 308)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fredrick Douglass, was an African American and owned by an American. He was taken care of in his early years by his grandmother and grandfather. Slave children were children they could play and do what most children would do. The only fear as a child was being seperated from his grandmother. Throughout, Douglass’s life he taught himself to read and to write. He became a knowledgeable man, which help him to succeed in being a free. However, Douglass did go through the trials and tribulations of being a slave. He went through the sleepless and hungry nights, and lashings. â€Å"Make a man a slave, and you rob him of moral responsibility.† (pg 191) When Douglass describes America he describes the beauties of nature and then the horrors of being a slave. â€Å"When I remembeer that all is cursed with the infernal spirit of slaveholding, robbery and wrong.

Why the Illegalization of Marijuana Was a Corrupt Decision

Why the Illegalization of Marijuana was Corrupt For most of human history marijuana has been legal and has actually only been illegal for 1% of the period of time of which it has been in use. Many people assume that marijuana was made illegal through some kind of process involving scientific, medical, and government hearings, and that it was to protect the citizens from what was determined to be a dangerous drug. However, some of the actual reasons that marijuana was wrongly banned include racism, protection of corporate profits, and corrupt legislators along with illegitimate widespread fear among citizens of the United States.Throughout the 20th century racism towards Hispanics, Negroes, and even Mormons greatly influenced the negative outlook on the use of marijuana. In the early 1900’s, western states developed high tensions towards the increase of Mexican-Americans that took business from small American farmers because they worked for cheaper wages. One â€Å"differenceà ¢â‚¬  that many Americans highlighted during this time was the fact that many Mexicans smoked marijuana and brought the plant with them. However, one of the first state laws outlawing marijuana may have been influenced, not just by Mexicans using the drug, but because of Mormons using it.Mormons who traveled to Mexico in 1910 came back to Salt Lake City with marijuana. The church’s reaction to this may have contributed to the state’s marijuana law. In Texas, a senator said on the floor of the Senate: â€Å"All Mexicans are crazy, and this stuff (marijuana) is what makes them crazy. † In the eastern states racism was again one of the charges connected to marijuana. Some newspaper editorials in 1934 stated that: â€Å"Marijuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men’s shoes and look at a white woman twice. During heavy tensions between whites and all minorities, racism made people fear anything that affected the social or der, and as a result many people started to blindly connect marijuana to increases of inappropriate conduct between whites and minorities. Along with rising fears of social disorder, the protection of profits for some major corporations also contributed to the increasing belief that marijuana should be illegalized. Many people across the nation were already losing profits because of Prohibition and didn’t need something else to affect their businesses as well.William Randolf Hearst, the owner of a major newspaper company had many reasons to want marijuana to be banned. First, he had invested heavily in the timber industry to support his newspaper chain and didn’t want to see the development of hemp paper in competition. He also was extremely prejudiced towards Mexicans because he lost nearly 80,000 acres of timberland to Pancho Villa. As a result of this, he told lies about Mexicans and marijuana and how they were causing an increase in violence across the country.This yellow journalism enabled him to sell an extremely high amount of newspapers which made him very wealthy. In one column sold nationwide, Hearst stated: â€Å"Users of marijuana become stimulated as they inhale the drug and are likely to do anything. Most crimes of violence in this section, especially in country districts are laid to users of that drug. † Another corporation, Dupont chemical company, wanted to help Hearst outlaw marijuana for two main reasons. For one, Dupont had patented nylon and wanted hemp removed as competition.Also, people could grow hemp themselves and would therefore not have to buy medication from Dupont and other pharmaceutical companies. These companies fearing marijuana competition led to many results, one being the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. A man named Harry J. Anslinger was an extremely ambitious man and saw the Bureau of Narcotics (a new government agency) as an excellent career opportunity. His main goal was to bring the illegalization of mar ijuana to the federal level. After two years of planning, Anslinger brought his plan before Congress where the only opposition was from Dr.William C. Woodward who argued that Harry Anslinger and the Bureau of Narcotics were distorting earlier AMA statements that had nothing to do with marijuana and making them appear to be AMA endorsement for Anslinger’s view. Committee members then proceeded to attack Dr. Woodward, questioning his motives in opposing the legislation. After this yellow journalism won over medical science and the bill was passed on where on the floor of the House an American Medical Association committee member stated that the association supported the bill 100 percent.Thereafter, on the basis of that lie, on August 2, 1937, marijuana became illegal at the federal level. Roger Roffman, a professor of social work at the University of Washington, asserted in July 2009 that â€Å"approximately 3. 6 million Americans are daily or near daily users. † Peter R euter, a professor at the School of Public Policy and the Department of Criminology at the University of Maryland, College Park, said that â€Å"experimenting with marijuana has long been a normal part of growing up in the U. S. ; about half of the population born since 1960 has tried the drug by age 21. A World Health Organization survey found that the United States is the world’s leading per capita marijuana consumer. The 2007 National Survey on Drug Use & Health prepared by the U. S. Department of Human Health and Services indicates that over 100 million U. S. citizens over the age of 12 have used marijuana. The 2008 survey found that 35 million Americans were willing to tell government representatives that they had used marijuana in the past year. In 2009, according to a Zogby poll and an ABC News/Washington Post poll, between 46% and 56% of US voters would support legalization.While many people support the fact that marijuana is illegal, they are uneducated in the histo ry of the process to ban the drug. Even though it is proven to have negative effects, if taken in moderation, marijuana has been proven to be less harmful than alcohol. This shows that the large majority of the population does not realize that in the end, a narcotic was banned for reasons that only appealed to certain people, and that because of ignorant members of legislation, the bill was passed without truly being studied in depth.This was a stupid mistake by our federal government which was backed by people with personal issues without any direct relation to the drug marijuana. Works Cited * Guither, Pete. â€Å"Why is Marijuana Illegal? â€Å". drugwarrant. com. Retrieved 17 January 2011. * â€Å"Senate†. New York Times (New York City). February 15, 1860. * Gieringer, Dale H. (2006-06-17). â€Å"The Origins of Cannabis Prohibition in California†