Reilly, Ryan J. “50 Successful Marijuana Users Who Prove That the Person Matters More Than the Plant.” huffingtonpost.com. The Huffington Post, 18 Apr. 2014. Web. 03 Aug. 2015.
The controversy surrounding the users of marijuana is that they often fall victim to negative stereotypes. This article is related to the first one in that they both attempt to clear the negative stereotypes of those who use the drug. The first article I used from CNN portrays an everyday functional member of society that smokes marijuana. This one follows suit, but focuses on the very successful people we all know that have or currently use the drug. This source teaches me that the speaker is very informative about the marijuana debate in general. They do a great job in informing the public about the role models we have, that also happen to have smoked before. The article has a positive bias stance about the topic and focuses more on the users than the actual plant itself. He wants to make marijuana look more positive by showing us all the successful people and I believe they want to open the mind and change the perspectives of the intended audience, which seems to be those who have a negative or neutral perspective on marijuana users.
I believe the source is credible because there is a slight positive bias towards the subject about marijuana. The speakers is credible and has authority too. Ryan J Reilly has been covering law enforcement and legal news since 2009. He has written articles in the past about cannabis, but they all seem to portray a neutral, yet slightly postive-biased stance which portrays sophisticated journalism. He seems to be a part of a community of journalists who really care for the public’s best goodwill, because when he covered Ferguson, he got arrested there with a bunch of other journalists as well, which shows his passion for what he does. This particular source blows me away because 50 people are named and he cites each individual to when they claimed they smoked. He also does not put any opinion in this article. The publisher, The Huffington Post, has been regarded as a bit of a left/liberal site. However, most of the articles are written by independent journalists, so the articles attempt to remain neutral in stance. They are very respected by most people, with Republicans having a slight nuisance about the site. The citations are also credible because they refer to the person’s interview, speech, blog, etc. to when they let the public know that they’ve used weed. The text doesn’t necessarily argue any point, but rather opens up a different perspective on the stereotypes of marijuana users.
The article starts out by outlining the controversy, that weed causes a “lack of motivation” and opponents of the drug have a bad perspective. Then he informs us of the Marijuana Policy Project, which released a list of the 50 most influential Americans who have used marijuana. Reilly says that the goal of this list was to “dispel the myth that marijuana users are losers” and to highlight that in fact, most are rather “productive and successful”. The rest of the article is the author naming all 50 successful marijuana users, in what seems like, “slightly popular/successful” to “most influential and successful”, with a cited statement of when they said they used the drug. Starting with #50: Snoop Dogg and ending the article with #1: Barack Obama. The author seems to also believe that the typical negative stereotypes regarding marijuana users isn’t true because the first sentence of the article is “these guys just blew pothead stereotypes up in smoke” which seems to be a jab at those who do hold such a negative stereotype.