"As prevalent as a pack of Marlboro," an article on Marijuana for the Daily Independent.

This article was my first "major" article published, and is the one I consider the most important to me.

I conducted two interviews, one with a police officer, and one with a recovered drug addict to tell a story of drug addiction in my hometown of Ashland Kentucky.

Additionally I conducted a data analysis of the last five years of recorded bookings for marijuana related crimes at the Boyd County Detention Center (which is the county Ashland resides in), which found that between 2016-2018 there was nearly a 200% growth in marijuana bookings, and how there had not been under 100 annual bookings since then until 2021, where 89 bookings had been recorded as of the study.

‘As prevalent as a pack of Marlboro’: About 150% more people jailed for marijuana charges in 2021 than five years ago | News | dailyindependent.com

This was by far the most intensive article I have written as of this point, and was the one I felt was the most serious, and could potentially have some effect on the Ashland community. This was also my first article that was, to my knowledge, published physically.