Article 15

Marijuana Poll: Federal Government Shouldn't Interfere With State Laws, Americans Say

December 10, 2012. This article comes from The Huffington Post and it is written by Ariel Edwards-Levy.

Summary

:The New Marijuana law of Colorado became official on December 10 and most Americans mention that the states should have rights to decide their own marijuana policy based on polling. The governor of Colorado, John Hickenlooper had opposite opinion about legalizing marijuana in his state. However, he determined to sign it into law officially and he said that Colorado agencies would begin working immediately to implement the changes. According to a Gallup poll, 64 percent agreed that the federal government should not step to marijuana policy. Furthermore, a HuffPost and YouGov Poll showed same results that more than half of Americans advocated the statement that federal government should exempt adults who follow state marijuana laws from enforcement. Also 58 percent say that patients should be exempted in states where medical use is permitted for medical marijuana use.

My Opinion 

:From my point of view, I think that the state need to have their own power to establish laws or policies. The federal government should not enforce not only the state government but also the local government. In this case, even though marijuana is illegal drug, the governor of Colorado had already signed its marijuana policy into a law. It means that the state government can have their own right to decide to establish their own laws or policies. Best of all, more than half of Americans claim that the federal government should not interfere with state laws.

Article 14

Harper and visiting South Korean PM talk free trade

December 4, 2012. This article comes from CBC news and it is written by The Canadian Press.

Summary

:Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper visited South Korea in March in order to attend an international summit on nuclear security. Canada have tried to negotiate a free trade deal with South Korea. And Harper government has good relationship about negotiation with most of big economies in the world such as Europe, Japan, China, and several Asia countries under the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

However, South Korea banned imports of Canadian beef after 2003 because of mad cow disease. This dispute was the important thing that both countries should have to fix. As the prime minister of South Korea, Kim Hwang-sik, visited Ottawa to mark bilateral relationships and to discuss investment and energy issues. After having discussion, Harper's office mentioned that the two leaders underlined the importance of the Canada-Korea relationship. Also bilateral trade between two countries amounted to almost $12 billion in 2011. 

My opinion

:From my point of view, the relationship between South Korea and Canada is greatly increasing. Both of countries can gain all of benefits through the free trade policy. As South Korea has capitalist economy, they tend to free trade with other foreign nations as well as Canada also has same economic system. That's why their bilateral trade has been becoming effective and useful as time goes by. I can see that South Korea and Canada can earn or get many positive consequences by their free trade.