NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
An Interest group is an organization that seeks to affect the operation of government by using peaceful means to persuade key persons in government to act in accordance with the groups interests. Basically what this means in layman's terms is they are their to change laws that a particular group feels is unnecessary. Interest groups also try to get legislation to make laws that they feel is necessary. Their are different kinds of benefits involved in interest groups.
This gets people to join the groups. These benefits account for the reasons why interest groups are booming all over the nation. For example their is material benefits, solidary benefits and purposive benefits. Material benefits are goods and services that are given to interest group members. Solidary benefits are provided when it makes a member feel a sense of belonging. It gives people a chance to meet and socialize with people of their beliefs and being a member can sometimes improve social status.
Basically it is to help someones view of oneself. Purposive benefits are basically the personal satisfaction one gets from from working on an issue. It also gives the people satisfaction on working on a value that they believe in. Solidary benefits seem like the most important because most people need to have a sense of belonging.
Everybody wants to be accepted by their peers. This is many peoples ways to get that acceptance from a group of peers. Their are two different methods that interest groups use to influence government policy. The first one is pressure methods. This is when groups use methods to force pressure on government. The method used most often and what is usually associated with interest groups is lobbying.
Their are also different ways to lobby. For instance, offering different things such as personal lunches and dinners are used to persuade legislatures. Also sometimes interest groups will simply try to bribe officials with money and expensive gifts. Basically it can be interpreted as you scratch my back and I will scratch yours. The other tactic interest groups use to influence government policy is pressure points. These are the different levels and branches of government that the interest group decides to try and influence.
Interest groups decide on who to pressure and persuade by deciding on who can make and cause a difference. Because of the separation of the branches of government interest groups have to put their tactics on different people at once so they can get what they want done. The interest group must stay in good standing with the congressman and their aides who make legislation happen The interest group NORML stands for The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. It was founded in 1970 and since then it has been the main national advocate for the legalization of marijuana. During the seventies, NORML succeeded in decriminalizing minor offenses related to marijuana in eleven states and they made lower penalties in the other thirty-nine. Eventually their movement to decriminalize was destroyed by the war on drugs, but NORML has remained at the top for ending the prohibition of marijuana.
In todays world NORML is an informational necessity to the media on marijuana-associated stories. The organization serves as lobbyists to state and federal legislators to let the use of medicinal marijuana to people that it can help. They also try to get legislators to treat minor offenses as minor offenses and not harshly under the penalty of the law. NORML also is an umbrella group to citizens that are dedicated Their is a NORML foundation which is used to inform and educate America about the wasted costs of marijuana prohibition. They give benefits to alternative policies and support and do their own research on the issue. The NORML foundation also provides legal support and assistance to people in trouble with the current laws.
The Foundation was founded in 1997. They are qualified as a 501 (C) (3) tax-exempt foundation. Under their Executive Director of the Foundation, it has proceeded with a number of projects. The Foundation has served as the main benefactor of an educational project called Journey for Justice. This was a wheelchair trek and protest where severally ill patients who use medicinal marijuana wheel themselves across their state to the capital to protest the fact that they cant obtain the drug legally. These projects took place in Ohio and Wisconsin.
The Foundation has hired a staff attorney to help also. What this attorney does is assist people and their legal representation with challenges of marijuana laws. The requests for assistance usually involve people arrested under marijuana laws who want to use the medical defense. This is for people who ingest marijuana for medical purposes. Other cases the staff attorney gives assistance to is search and seizure and drug testing situations. He also helps with the three strikes law and situations of the law that arent resolved yet.
The Foundation has made a funds when requested for cases that are active across the country. These funds are made by the Foundation but raised by others. They basically serve as a money agent to hold the funds and pay the attorneys and expert witnesses. They do this through instructions of the client who has asked for the fund.
The Foundation also set up a special fund called the Medical Marijuana Support Fund (MMSF). What this fund does is cover the travel and associated expenses involved with providing expert witnesses cases that involve medical marijuana around the country. The Foundation has a quarterly newsletter and a weekly fax / e -mail press advisory. that tells of marijuana reform developments. The Foundation also co-sponsors with NORML, a website that has research, studies and other information on policies and options of marijuana prohibition and reform. NORML has a legal committee called the NLC.
It is made up of attorneys committed to the goals of NORML. The NLC helps NORML by sponsoring them with legal seminars. They also inform the organization of current law enforcement and judicial decisions. They provide NORML with documents and briefs and make themselves available to give legal advice and assistance on important cases. These highly qualified lawyers defend people that are charged with marijuana related offenses. Often they dont charge for the important ones and the ones that may set a legal precedent.
The lawyers have secured many victories. Some are the right of some patients using medical marijuana, protecting smokers from double jeopardy, and unreasonable searches and seizures. Others include securing access to parks and other public facilities for rallies, protests and concerts, limiting law enforcement to conduct random and warrantless searches of passenger buses, and limiting helicopter overflights and informed searches. Now over two hundred attorneys belong to the NLC.
By helping and defending marijuana smokers NLC has been a major contribution to the fight against NORML has a policy statement about the recreational use of marijuana. They say it is time to stop arresting people for smoking marijuana responsibly. Millions of people use the drug but only few abuse it. By arresting these people that otherwise obey the law serves no purpose but to make money. This extends the government into areas of a persons private life. It also causes harm to careers and families of a half million marijuana smokers a year that are arrested.
People who use it are no different then people who dont except for the fact that the smoke. These people work hard and raise their families. They contribute to their communities and want a safe and crime-free What NORML wants from the government is the removal of penalties for private possession of marijuana by adults. They want people to be able to cultivate it for personal use and casual transfers of small quantities at no profit. They also support the development of a legally controlled market for marijuana. All types of drugs can be abused.
Even marijuana. NORML discourages irresponsible uses of it and they do not condone the use by minors. The best way that NORML sees fit to prevent the abuse of drugs is with honest education on the subject. Prevention according to them will succeed if it is viewed as a public health perspective NORML has been an effective source of the legalization of marijuana.
Today states are slowly coming to realize that it isnt as bad as marijuana is made out to be. Today it is legal to use medicinal marijuana and grow it in California. As long as you have a license to grow and use it for a qualified medical doctor. Slowly other states are legalizing it. In closing their is a quote by former a former president. on the use of recreational marijuana, Penalties against drug use should not be more damaging to an individual than use of the drug itself.
Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against the possession of marijuana in private for personal use. President Jimmy Carter, August Bibliography:
Free research essays on topics related to: possession of marijuana, legalization of marijuana, sense of belonging, branches of government, medicinal marijuana
Research essay sample on Legalization Of Marijuana Possession Of Marijuana
