Now that marijuana is legal in Los Angeles, anyone is able to open up their own weed shops whenever, and wherever they want to. Los Angeles is now an expansive market for marijuana with hundreds of weed shops being opened up in any location that is unoccupied. Los Angeles is expected to make millions of dollars from marijuana tax sales next year. However, there are now marijuana shops being opened up in close proximity to Animo Pat Brown. This raises the question, are marijuana shops a safety concern for students who go to Animo Pat Brown?
When asked whether the marijuana shops affect students at all, eleventh grader Leyhvy Tavizon said, “Not really, they only let certain people in the shop and there is always a security guard outside monitoring and protecting the area”. But Leyhvy also added, “The weed shops being near APB might give students the idea to want try marijuana”.
Senior Bryan Aguilar responded with, “I don’t believe the location of the marijuana shops has much of an impact on the school”.
It can be concluded that marijuana shops being so close to APB can raise the curiosity of many students. It might start to peak many students interest and encourage them to get involved with the use of marijuana. The weed shops being close to APB seems to raises the interest of students, but does it cause any problems?
English teacher Ms.Siemientkowski believed that the marijuana shops are not an eminent threat to APB and she hasn’t seen an uprise of marijuana in APB. However, she did have something to say about the affect it might have on the image of the school. Ms.Siemientkowski said, “The presence of weed shops near APB doesn’t help the student’s public image at all”. Ms.Siemientkowski makes a great point, the marijuana shops doesn’t exactly have any positive effects by being close to APB.
The marijuana shops doesn’t cause any impactful safety problems, but it can cause curiosity in many APB students and it might encourage them to try marijuana. The shops can have an influence on students, possibly sway them away from their studies. It might affect the image of the area around the school negatively, change the way others look at APB. What do you believe you can take away from this story? Should something be done? Can anything actually be done?
