Ban the Bag Ban

     In this article author of The Bluebonnet State criticizes the plastic bag ban in places around Texas in which it is implemented, and firmly believes this ban needs to be lifted.  I would agree with the author in saying that it is absurd and a very large annoyance. There are many reasons that the ban is a bad thing, and the article's author listed quite a few of them which I will add onto.

     For starters most people that do own reusable bags, will forget the bags either at home or in the car, leaving the customer to carry everything by hand or pay an additional fee for a paper bag.  This also increases the amount of paper waste.  If the argument can be made that paper is recyclable, the same argument can be made for plastic bags. Another argument the author makes is that there are many purposes for plastic bags, so it's not like they are going straight to waste.

     I believe in theory the bag ban is a nice idea and may seem necessary for the state to implement if they want to be "eco-friendly", but it's ultimately not making that much of a difference in the states plastic bag use, simply because you can go outside the city limits and get as many plastic bags as you want.  The article also points out that though plastic bags may be banned other plastic items (plastic bottle, milk cartons, etc) are not banned. They are just are harmful as a bag. Instead of banning plastic bags, the state should focus on having easy access recyclable centers all over. The plastic factories can work on creating clean and recyclable products to be implemented into stores.

     I do agree that the environment is a very precious resource that we take for granted much of the time and we need to do what we can to protect it.  That being said, I also believe that the bag ban needs to either expand to all cities throughout the state to actually create a difference, or it needs to be done away with completely because all its really doing right now is creating a nuisance.

Should Marijuana Be Legalized?

     Its about time we legalize weed.  Even though I've never smoked, I believe legalizing marijuana will bring revenue to our state and cut down on illegal crime and drug wars. 

     The state could benefit from the sales by taxing the substance. It would boost state tourism again adding to the money that Texas will be earning.  It would also decrease the crime surrounding the illegal drug trade and lower law enforcement cost. There are thousands of deaths every year involving drug cartels. These incidents would decrease significantly with the legalization of marijuana. In Colorado and Washington they have started to pour the money from the taxes into social programs such as after school care for children and shelters for homeless people.   

     The fact that it's not legal yet isn't stopping anyone, it's only making it more dangerous. The people that will smoke it once legal are already smoking pot now.  Some argue that the productivity in the workplace will decrease.  Just because it's legal doesn't mean people will show up to work high. Alcohol is legal and you don't see people showing up to work drunk or even drinking on the job. There are muggings, burglaries, assaults, and other crimes that have decreased since the legalization of weed in Colorado and Washington. Even though I don't smoke I can recognize the value in legalizing marijuana. 

Texas Tolls Controlled by Greedy Trolls

      Adela Moreno, the author of the "Driving is not always Priceless" shows her disgust with unnecessarily expensive roads and the fact that lawmakers are considering changing some of the major freeways and interstate highways into toll roads.  I stand by her in saying that this unsettling. The private owners of the toll roads want money, and the government doesn't want to spend money to build new ones so for the time being we are stuck paying tolls or stuck in traffic for hours.

      With the population of Austin growing at an exponential rate, something needs to be done about the roads because the road system is not working right now. Just ask anyone in Austin, traffic is AWFUL. Cities with larger populations than Austin have less traffic because the cities have met the population's needs with roads to travel freely on.  Charging people to drive on highways that have been free for a while will just cause more congestion and traffic on city streets and other freeways and highways that have enough traffic as is. It will not take care of the problem at hand.

      I do believe that toll roads are a good idea in some instances, because they are very open and you can bypass a lot of traffic, but this openness means the roads aren't being utilized to their full potential. If these roads were free more people could drive on the former toll roads and lessen the traffic on other highways.  Most people avoid toll roads, such as Moreno, and are fed up with having to pay for something that we already pay for in our taxes. Now though I agree with Moreno, she doesn't give much of an alternative to the issue other than "I would much rather pay a little more in taxes". I feel like if taxes went up people would be much more outraged than if they had to pay a few cents to drive on a road. 

     The city of Austin needs to accept that it is indeed growing and start building more roads to keep up with the population. Though it may take a years to accomplish and will require a lot of money it is way past time for Austin to get better roads and shut down toll roads turning them into free highways.