Conflict in America Legalizing Marijuana Research Paper

Conflict in America Legalizing Marijuana - Research Paper Example During the previous government, this drug was illegal; however, when Obama’s government took power, it legalized marijuana and several states followed suit. This did not amuse the federal government, who were opposed to the move; it criticized the act and even went forth to pronounce legal action on those states and people found trading marijuana. Since this is an issue that may threaten national stability in the United States, it can be resolved by having the two bodies harmonize and come up with the best solution, rather than living with disputes. Keywords: Marijuana, State Laws, Federal Laws Every new government in the US comes with its own laws that favor it; the laws made reflect the promises of the new government and its political party. During the reign of President George W. Bush between the years 2001 to 2009, the government had enforced laws against marijuana. It took actions against those who dealt with the drug. However, when the government of President Obama took office, there was a different approach on marijuana; the government no longer took actions against those who were trading on the drug. According to Morgan (2011), the attorney general announced that the government was no longer going to deal with issues of marijuana peddling anymore. The announcement caused a lot of uproar from those who did not support the idea. The memorandum by the attorney general acknowledged the presence of conflict on marijuana between the federal and the state laws. As at present, the federal laws prohibit all deals on marijuana and according to the US drug enforcement administration, marijuana lacks a safe way of using it and has a high potential of becoming abused (Morgan, 2011). On the other hand, the state laws do not conform to the federal laws. An example of this is California, which became the first state to legalize marijuana, and 15 other states soon followed it. The many conflicts surrounding marijuana are not only found at federal and state domain s. This issue is also present in the medical domain; there are two contrasting arguments of medics concerning marijuana, with one group arguing that the use of marijuana has no effect to the body and the other arguing that it has effects. The American thoracic society reported that most marijuana users had no increased lung infections, while the British lung foundation had filed a report in 2002 citing the adverse effects of marijuana in the human body (Morgan, 2011). Conflict on marijuana is a major issue and of great concern. The greatest effect to Obama’s government is in the political arena. This is because most of those who are opposed to the move could use this chance to ambush an attack to the government, especially given that during the reign of the Republican Party, Marijuana was banned. Democrats’ risk losing their popularity among anti-marijuana citizens and organizations. Most international organizations and nations classify marijuana as a drug and in most countries, its use and trade is prohibited and punished by law. Permission by American government to its citizens to trade and use marijuana offers risks to the country; these include risks of losing reputation amongst international communities among others. In the New York Times, Savage (2012) informs that, â€Å"Several had cautioned that the issue had raised several legal and complex issues†. The complex issues were based on international antidrug

Organisational Context of Management Accounting Essay

Organisational Context of Management Accounting - Essay Example This paper illustrates that the governance framework of Ivy League University is decentralized where the various departments are separately administered and consolidated centrally for the purpose of financial reporting and regulatory requirements. The university receives research grant funds for which it has a fiduciary responsibility. The revenues from grants and contracts constitute 30% of the total operating budget of the University. The consolidated grant activity is reported other university funds because improper management of grant funds increases the risk position of Ivy. The grant activities are strictly assessed by the legal counsel and the internal as well as external auditor. The University’s Central leadership works towards decreasing inconsistencies in grant activities. Ivy has made an effort in business process redesign and system modernization within three functional areas i.e. financial management, administration of grants and contracts, and HR and payroll. Th erefore, in order to create an integrated administrative system, Ivy had introduced ERP that was expected to decrease audit risk and increase fiduciary control. These efforts were driven by the fact that Ivy is a highly leveraged and highest graded financial institution in US and the bond-holders have trusted it with their money. However, the introduction of ERP has also brought along problems of adjustments to a more centralised management accounting system where it was more decentralised previously and followed the legacy commitment accounting. Issues in Management Control & Accountability Major issues that were related to the management control and accountability of Ivy League University are: High Audit Risk: As Ivy was involved with decentralized governance framework in which every department was administered separately in its grant funds and its uses. There was a gap between funds actually used and those reported. The inconsistencies in spending process were quite high. Despite this disadvantage, the commitment accounting was an essential part of the management accounting system at Ivy, removing which from the ERP system presented institutional risk. Management Control: In Ivy, FSS (Faculty and Support Staff) were responsible for the actual expenditure of Principal Investigators (PIs) and the decided budget. The funds that were asked by PIs for project activities are known as commitments (commitment accounting). The negotiation between PIs and administrators to allocate the funds was a result of many subjective factors such as individual temperaments, departmental norms, available time, professional relationships, nature and stage of research. Therefore, the management control over the variations in research expenditure was very low. The ERP financial management was introduced without the feature of commitment accounting which posed problems of faculty’s control over their finances. The problem was that the new management accounting system focussed more on providing information to the Central leadership than the faculty, as expressed by the academic manager. Accountability: The University is responsible for the grants it gets every year for research work. The grant providers have a right to know that their funds are utilized in an efficient manner. The problem of accountability has been associated with the variances in