Sociological Perspectives

Sociological Perspectives

All throughout society, the opinions of legalizing marijuana conflict with one another, placing people in the position to be on one side of the argument or the other. People either want to see the government legalizing it to the community or are totally against the subject; there is not really any ground in-between the matter. When I think of this topic I see it from two different perspectives, a symbolic interactionists point of view and Functionalism. To the symbolic interactionist’s perspective, people attach meaning to symbols and than they act according to their own interpretations of the meaning. In the case of legalizing marijuana half of people see the image of a cannabis leaf and they automatically jump to the conclusion that the location of this symbol represents something terrible and illegal, avoiding it so that they are not integrated with its stereotypes. On the other hand the other half of people interpret the symbol of a cannabis leaf as a refuge for others in need of medical assistance, providing a helpful treatment the relives multiple symptoms. They see a cure the will prevent pain instead of an illegal drug for teens. Another symbol that is often associated with marijuana is a pipe. There are glass, clay, and even wood pipes all of which are affiliated with the use of the “ganja.” The people who visualize a cannabis leaf as being a symbol of delinquent’s also see pipes as a negative and choose not to be associated with the stereotypical marijuana instrument for fear that others may judge. Others in everyday society don’t think anything of a pipe; they accept that there are many purposes of this instrument and most of the time it is used only for smoking tobacco. This fraction of people acknowledge that there is more that just one function of a pipe and to compare one to a million shows a lack of understanding among society and how one minded many can be. According to conflict perspective, there is a wide