Playing sports is something that many of us are brought up participating in or watching. Whether it’s going down to the park to shoot some hoops or play catch or watching Sports Center on the couch, sports are a huge part of our day to day lives. This invariably transfers, for a lot of people, to playing organized sports at our high schools, and a select few even make it on to college teams. Once you are on the collegiate level, there is a realization that you could become a professional athlete, playing the game you love for a living and also making a ton of money. That is a dream shared by all of the 420000 student athletes that the NCAA currently encompasses. Unfortunately, no more than 2% of athletes in any major sport (except baseball as 11.6%) actually make it to the pro level in the United States. (Manfred) So what about the student athletes? Many of whom have taken up studies in degrees some classify as “bird courses” just so they can spend 40 to 50 hours a week on athletics. Or how about those students that suffer severe injuries and have their scholarships stripped away? Not only are they left with debt from going to these universities, whose scholarships don’t cover all of the cost of tuition, who will be paying for the long lasting medical visits they face in the future stemming from injuries suffered from college athletics? These student athletes need a voice, and they need rights. The NCAA has exploited these students long enough, and it’s time for change. It’s time to unionize and collectively bargain for rights from these universities making millions of dollars on laborers they don’t have to pay or compensate in any other way except an scholarship that they can terminate whenever they please.

Many who oppose the idea of compensating college athletes beyond the scholarships they receive will argue that a free education compensates these athletes more than adequately. But once you research the nature of athletic scholarships a bit, you will soon realize that these students aren’t exactly getting a free ride through a university. For starters, only those students in division I or division II universities can receive athletic scholarships, division III schools and lower cannot. There is also absolutely nothing guaranteeing that your scholarship will be honored by your university for longer than one year. (Peterson’s Staff) If the athlete does nothing detrimental to himself, others or the university, he can still have his scholarship terminated to no fault of his own. Say a team changes coaches and the new one doesn’t want you on his team, scholarship terminated. Or your university needs to cut back on scholarships to save costs (even though college athletics are a virtual money tree) there goes your scholarship. And lastly, and the biggest reason there needs to be reform in college athletics, is injury. If you suffer a substantial injury, the college has every right to not only terminate your scholarship, but also is not legally responsible for covering any medical bills in the short or long term. Essentially, college teams are nothing better than an employer who has full time workers with zero rights, zero job security and zero benefits, something that you don’t see in any other field of business in this nation, but college athletes are exploited to this horrible business practice.

You may be thinking at this point how can a college cover medical bills of all there athletes? It’s not like they have millions upon millions of spending money right? Well, not exactly. Taking a look at one of the biggest colleges in the nation will show you a microcosm of the issue in college athletic spending. Everything is bigger in Texas, and college athletics is no exception. The athletic department brought in $163.3 million in revenue in the school year of 2012-2013, and only had expenses totaling in $138.3 million for the athletic department, leaving a “profit” of $25 million. (Gaines) Because the university is a public school, this extra money does go back into the school in one way shape or form, but it’s definitely not going into helping these student athletes. Perhaps the biggest eye opener in the Texas Longhorns athletic budget and expenses is the discrepancy of how money is spent. In particular, one third of all revenue is spent on coaches’ salaries, while only six percent is spent ion student scholarships. Shortening up the huge gap between these two expenses would greatly help the students receive the kind of compensation they deserve for all they give to these universities.

After the all of these unfair scenarios I’ve laid out for you when it comes to the amount universities are making off of these students, you’d expect someone to step up to the plate and ask for changes right? Well that is exactly what has begun to happen in this past year, as Northwestern University’s football players have won a bid to unionize after a court hearing in Chicago where Judge Ohr wrote in his ruling that the players “fall squarely within the National Labor Relations Act’s broad definition of ’employee’ when one considers the common law definition of ’employee.'” (Bennett)  This could be a potentially huge decision when it comes to college sports, because if they are to successfully unionize and collectively bargain with the NCAA, it could open the door for other universities to do the same. With a strong togetherness between the student athletes nationwide, they will finally be able to receive proper compensation for all of their hard work, and hopefully get a bigger piece of the pie when it comes to the millions upon millions that these colleges make off of their student athletes.

A whole lot of people are mistaking this move to unionize as players desire to become paid athletes. This could not be farther from the truth. The Northwestern football team’s terms that they plan to collectively bargain on have absolutely nothing to do with monetary gain, instead they have to do with insuring college athletes are safer and taken care of by these universities that they give a great deal of their time to. There are ten points of discussion on their website , and they are as follows :  Minimize college athletes’ brain trauma risks, Raise the scholarship amount, Prevent players from being stuck paying sports-related medical expenses, Increase graduation rates, Increase graduation rates, Prohibit universities from using a permanent injury suffered during athletics as a reason to reduce/eliminate a scholarship, Establish and enforce uniform safety guidelines in all sports to help prevent serious injuries and avoidable deaths, Eliminate restrictions on legitimate employment and players ability to directly benefit from commercial opportunities, Prohibit the punishment of college athletes that have not committed a violation, and lastly Guarantee that college athletes are granted an athletic release from their university if they wish to transfer schools.(Kirk) Now, anyone who is not directly  benefiting from the current system in place and anyone with some common sense can tell from these point that there is no desire to be paid shown by these players. Simply wanting the security that any other employee would have in any workplace is not asking much of these money-making universities. Hopefully, Northwestern University is successful with their push to unionize and collectively bargain, and more schools should follow suit. Colleges have benefited from this free labor for long enough, and it’s time to change the system , and get these kids the representation and compensation that they deserve.

Works Cited

Manfred,Tony.Odds College Athletes Become Pro.businessinsider.com. Web. Feb 10. 2012. May 10. 2014.

Petersin’s Staff.Understand Athletic Scholarships.petersons.com. Web. April 10. 2014. May 5. 2014.

Gaines, Cork. How The richest School In The Country Spends Its Money. businessinsider.com. Web. Sep 17. 2013. May 04. 2014.

Bennett, Brian. Northwestern Wildcats Football Team Wins Bid To Unionize. Web. Mar 27. 2014. May 01. 2014.

Kirk, Jason. Not Wanting Pay-For- Play , Want Rights. Web. Jan 28. 2014. May 07. 2014

For this part of the assignement I asked a few friends different questions based on the subject of college players unionizing, and gave the possible answers of Agree or Disagree.

College athletes are compensated enough through scholarships by their Universities.

Agree – 1

Disagree 4

College athletes should be paid by their universities.

Agree – 1

Disagree – 4

College athletes should be allowed to unionize.

Agree – 5

Disagree – 0

There is nothing more universitites can do to protect their students on the field/court.

Agree – 2

Disagree – 3

Universities will eventually be paying there student athletes.

Agree – 3

DIsagree – 2

Non-representation/compensation for student athletes negatively effects their college experiences

Agree – 4

Disagree – 1

You would vote for the Northwestern bid to unionize

Agree – 5

Disagree – 0

Some of the money generated by the NCAA should go to the students after graduation.

Agree – 2

Disagree – 3

You would be part of the push to unionize if you were a college athlete

Agree – 5

Disagree- 0

Playing sports is something that many of us are brought up participating in or watching. Whether its going down to the park to shoot some hoops or play catch or watching SportsCenter on the couch, sports are a huge part of our day to day lives.This invariably transfers, for a lot of people, to playing organized sports at our high schools,and a select few even make it on to college teams.Once you are on the collegiate level, there is a realization that you could become a professional athlete, playing the game you love for a living and also making a ton of money.That is a dream shared by all of the 420000 student athletes that the NCAA currently encompasses. Unfortunately, no more than 2% of athletes in any major sport(except baseball as 11.6%) actually make it to the pro level in the United States.(Manfred) So what about the student athletes? Many of whom have taken up studies in degrees some classify as “bird courses” just so they can spend 40 to 50 hours a week on athletics.Or how about those students that suffer severe injuries and have their scholarships stripped away? Not only are they left with debt from going to these universities, whose scholarships don’t cover all of the cost of tuition, who will be paying for the long lasting medical visits they face in the future stemming from injuries suffered from college athletics? These student athletes need a voice, and they need rights.The NCAA has exploited these students long enough, and its time for change.Its time to unionize and collectively bargain for rights from these universities making millions of dollars on laborers they don’t have to pay or compensate in any other way except an scholarship that they can terminate whenever they please.

Many who oppose the idea of compensating college atheletes beyond the scholarships they recieve will argue that a free education compensates these athletes more than adequately.But once you research the nature of athletic scholarships a bit, you will soon realize that these students aren’t exactly getting a free ride through a university.For starters, only those students in division I or division II universities can receive athletic scholarships, division III schools and lower cannot.There is also absolutely nothing guranteeing that your scholarship will be honored by your university for longer than one year.(Peterson’s Staff) If the athelete does nothing detrimental to himself,others or the university, he can still have his scholarship terminated to no fault of his own.Say a team changes coaches and the new one doesn’t want you on his team, scholarship terminated.Or your university needs to cut back on scholarships to save costs ( even though college athletics are a virtual money tree) there goes your scholarship.And lastly, and the biggest reason there needs to be reform in college athletics, is injury.If you suffer a substantial injury,the college has every right to not only terminate your scholarship,but also is not legally responsible for covering any medical bills in the short or long term.Essentially,  college teams are nothing better than an employer who has full time workers with zero rights,zero job security and zero benefits,something that you don’t see in any other field of business in this nation,but college athletes are exploited to this horrible business practice.

You may be thinking at this point how can a college cover medical bills of all there athletes? Its not like they have millions upon millions of spending money right? Well, not exactly.Taking a look at one of the biggest colleges in the nation will show you a microcosm of the issue in college athletic spending.Everything is bigger in Texas,and college athletics is no exception.The athletic department brought in $163.3 million in revenue in the school year of 2012-2013, and only had expenses totalling in $138.3 million for the athletic department, leaving a “profit” of $25 million.(Gaines) Because the university is a public school, this extra money does go back into the school in one way shape or form,but its definetly noit going into helping these student athletes.Perhaps the biggest eye opener in the Texas Longhorns athletic budget and expenses is the discrepency of how money is spent.In particular, one third of all revenue is spent on coaches salaries, while only six percent is spent ion studenet scholarships.Shortening up the hugegap between these two expenses would gretly help the students recieve the kind of compensation they deserve for all they give to these universities.

After the all of these unfair senarios I’ve laid out for you when it comes to the amount universities are making off of these students, you’d expect someone to syep up to the plate and ask for changes right? Well that is exactly what has begun to happen in this past year, as Northwestern Universities football players have won a bid to unionize after a court hearing in Chicago where Judge Ohr wrote in his ruling that the players “fall squarely within the National Labor Relations Act’s broad definition of ’employee’ when one considers the common law definition of ’employee.'” (Bennett)  This coult be a potentially huge decision when it comes to college sports, because if they are to succefully unionize and collectively bargain with the NCAA , it could open the door for other universities to do the same.With a strong togetherness between the student athletes nationwide, they will finally be abke to recieve proper compensation for all of their hard work,and hopefully get a bigger piece of the pie when it comes to the millions upon millionsthat these colleges make off of their student athletes.

A whole lot of people are mistaking this move to unionize as players desire to become paid athletes.This coult not be farther from the truth.The Northwestern football team’s terms thtat they plan to collectively bargain on have absolutely nothing to do with monetary gain,instead they have to do with insuring college athletes are safer and taken care of by these universities that they give a great deal of their time to.There are ten points of discussion on their website , and they are as follows :  Minimize college athletes’ brain trauma risks, Raise the scholarship amount, Prevent players from being stuck paying sports-related medical expenses,Increase graduation rates,Increase graduation rates,Prohibit universities from using a permanent injury suffered during athletics as a reason to reduce/eliminate a scholarship,Establish and enforce uniform safety guidelines in all sports to help prevent serious injuries and avoidable deaths,Eliminate restrictions on legitimate employment and players ability to directly benefit from commercial opportunities,Prohibit the punishment of college athletes that have not committed a violation, and lastly Guarantee that college athletes are granted an athletic release from their university if they wish to transfer schools.(Kirk) Now, anyone who is not directly  benefiting from the current system in place and anyone with some common sense can tell from these point that there is no desire to be paid shown by these players.Simply wanting the security that any other employee would have in any workplace is not asking much of these money-making universities.Hopefully, Northwestern University is succesfuk with there push to unionize and collectively bargain,and more schools should follow suit.Colleges have benefited from this free labor for long enough,and its time to change the system , and get these kids the represetation and compensation that they deserve.

Works Cited

Manfred,Tony.Odds College Athletes Become Pro.businessinsider.com. Web. Feb 10. 2012. May 10. 2014.

Petersin’s Staff.Understand Athletic Scholarships.petersons.com. Web. April 10. 2014. May 5. 2014.

Gaines, Cork. How The richest School In The Country Spends Its Money. businessinsider.com. Web. Sep 17. 2013. May 04. 2014.

Bennett, Brian. Northwestern Wildcats Football Team Wins Bid To Unionize. Web. Mar 27. 2014. may 01. 2014.

Kirk, Jason. Not Wanting Pay-For- Play , Want Rights. Web. Jan 28. 2014. May 07. 2014

 Sources

• Northwestern Wildcats Football Team Wins Bid To Unionize
• Former College Star, Adrian “A.D” Peterson Take On Players Being Paid
• College Athletes Going To Bed Hungry
• How The richest School In The Country Spends Its Money
• Understand Athletic Scholarships
• Odds College Athletes Become Pro
• Not Wanting Pay-For- Play , Want Rights
• College Football Salaries
• College Basketball Salaries
• ncaa college athletics statistics

The Marijuana Debate

Dillon Pinto

English 101

Weed, Pot, Marijuana, and Bud. All synonyms for the drug that is extracted from the herb hemp. Even though the debate over legalizing medical marijuana or legalizing recreational use have just started to become prevalent in our lives in the past few decades, there have been many diverse uses for this plant and the drug Cannabis over thousands of years in human history. Whether it be the ancient Egyptians doctors subscribing Cannabis to treat eyes (glaucoma), inflammation, cooling the uterus, as well as administering enemas (Lise Manniche) or in the present, when a severe cancer patient is being administered marijuana to treat her terminal pain, or even your local, stereotypical stoner munching on his Fritos in-between joints, weed has a wide variety of uses all around the world and throughout history. People debate on the matter of marijuana being legalized on a federal level, either recreationally or medically. They will even debate if medical marijuana really is a viable source of medicine for patients. There are also individuals who believe marijuana being legalized is no different than tobacco or alcohol legalization, stating that those two legalized drugs and vices have even more profound negative effects on your health than smoking a blunt, as far as recreational use is concerned. But no one can debate on the fact that the legalization of marijuana discussion is very prevalent in our society, and isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, with more and more countries across the world starting to decriminalize marijuana, and have a dramatically different attitude toward marijuana legalization than even just a mere 40 years ago.

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Marijuana being used in the medical field is not a new concept in the history of medicine, it is now just being revisited after years of being outlawed in medicine in the United States. In fact , is was actually added into the US Pharmacopeia(an official public standards-setting authority for all prescription and over-the counter medicines) in the year 1850, listed as being a medicine for numerous afflictions, including: neuralgia, tetanus, typhus, cholera, rabies, dysentery, alcoholism, opiate addiction, anthrax, leprosy, incontinence, gout, convulsive disorders, tonsillitis, insanity, excessive menstrual bleeding, and uterine bleeding, among others.(Boire and Feeney) It wasn’t until 61 years later that any state began to outlaw Cannabis, when Massachusetts added it into legislature in 1911,and then were followed by Maine, Wyoming and Indiana in 1913; New York City in 1914; Utah and Vermont in 1915; and Colorado and Nevada in 1917.This was brought upon by a ”Progressive Era faith in big government, the 1910s marked a high tide of prohibitionist sentiment in America. In 1914 and 1916, alcohol prohibition initiatives would make the state ballots. Meanwhile, the legislature was tackling such morals issues as prostitution, racetrack gambling, prizefighting, and liquor. Amidst this profusion of vices, Indian hemp [aka cannabis] was but a minor afterthought.”(Gieringer).Throughout the next few decades, a number of different factors led to the use of marijuana being minimized, with very high taxes and enforced time behind bars for possession of the drug, all of this culminating in President Nixon’s “War on Drugs” which he stated At a June 17, 1971 press conference. Over 24 years after Nixon’s speech and 84 years after medical marijuana was first outlawed, California became the first state to legalize medical marijuana in 1995.From 1995 on to the present, more and more states have begun to legalize medicinal marijuana, where as of now there are 20 states that have legalized medicinal marijuana, and even two states, Colorado and Washington, which have legalized recreational use of weed.

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As far as laws across the world in places other than America, only one country has absolutely no laws regarding marijuana as illegal, and that country is North Korea. There are a number of countries who have decriminalized marijuana so much to the point that there are only laws regulating the amount of marijuana you are allowed to grow and have in your possession. Uruguay, for example, laws state that each household is allowed to grow 6 plants and harvest 480 grams of marijuana per year, must be 18 years of age, and can only purchase marijuana from federally licensed pharmacies. (Castillo) The Netherlands is another country where marijuana is federally illegal, but there is a law called “Gedoogbeleid” which translates to a Policy of Tolerance. The actual wording of the law is difficult, but in street terms you can just explain it as an official ‘closing of the eyes’ by law enforcement.

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Now that we have a layout of the history of medicinal marijuana and laws across this nation and globally, we can look at the actual uses of and whether or not licensed doctors agree or disagree on the actual value of medicinal cannabis. Throughout the 20 states and D.C with legalized medicinal cannabis, the symptoms it is listed as treating vary from very specific ailments, like HIV/AIDS, or very broad “ailments”, some being listed as just “pain” or a migraine headache. Some doctors believe these disparate state lists are evidence that there’s a lack of evidence, when it comes to widely using marijuana for palliative care. (Mogul)“There are some things we know it works well on, like relieving certain kinds of pain or increasing appetite,” Haney said, citing cancer and HIV treatment as areas that clearly benefit from either smoking marijuana or taking a prescription pill called Marinol, that uses a synthetic version of THC, a key compound found in cannabis. “But the data is much weaker for many of the other indications.”(Haney) The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) official stance on marijuana is that of a Schedule 1 controlled substance – in other words, an illegal narcotic. But the FDA and the federal government essentially look the other way at the state programs of Washington and Colorado. (Mogul)

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There are other doctors that believe that a wide spectrum of ailments for medical marijuana use are similar to the gray area that surrounds other off-label use of FDA-approved pharmaceuticals. “Many different drugs are approved for one indication but more often are used for something else. In the hospital here, we have patients that we treat for pain using Gabapentin. It’s really a seizure medicine, but hardly anyone uses it for anti-seizure medicine, even though that’s what the label says.”(Aggarwal) Overall, not only across America about in other countries, most doctors would approve of medical marijuana, according to a CBS News survey. Doctors surveyed were given a hypothetical case about a woman named “Marilyn,” a 68-year-old woman with breast cancer that had metastasized — or spread — to her lungs, chest cavity and spine. They were asked if they would give her medical marijuana to help her with her symptoms. More than three-quarters of the North American physicians approved the use of medical marijuana in this scenario. About 78 percent of doctors outside the U.S. who responded supported the use as well. (Castillo) These results were from a pool of 1,446 doctors from 72 different countries and 56 different states and provinces in North America. The debate is ongoing, but supporters of medicinal marijuana, as far as those people in the medical field, have always leaned toward the side of having at least the option to subscribe medicinal marijuana in their arsenal. Will the rest of the nation, and those in positions of legalization power, particularly the 30 states without legalized medicinal marijuana, begin to lean and agree with these doctors? Time will tell, but the indications is that they will begin to, with decriminalization very prevalent in this nation and across the world.

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Works Cited

Aggarwal, Sunil. Does Medical Marijuana Work? The Experts Are Divided. wnyc.org. Web. May 07. 2013. April 15. 2014.

Castillo, Michelle. Survey: 76 percent of doctors approve of medical marijuana use. cbsnews.com. Web. May 31. 2013. April 15. 2013.

Gieringer, Dale. “The Forgotten Origins of Cannabis Prohibition in California” Contemporary Drug Problems. Summer 1999. Text. 15 April. 2014.

Haney, Margaret. Does Medical Marijuana Work? The Experts Are Divided. wnyc.org. Web. May 07. 2013. April 15. 2014.

Manniche, Lise. An Ancient Egyptian Herbal. 1989. Text. 15 April. 2014.

Mariano, Castillo. Legalizing weed: the Uruguayan model. CNN.com. August 20. 2013. 15 April 2014.

Mogul, Fred. Does Medical Marijuana Work? The Experts Are Divided. wnyc.org. Web. May 07. 2013. April 15. 2014.

Richard Boire and Kevin Feeny. Medical Marijuana Law. 2007. Text. 15 April 2014.