Hawkins, John. “5 Reasons Marijuana Should Remain Illegal.” Townhall.com. N.p., 21 Jan. 2014. Web. 12 Aug. 2015.
In the article “5 Reasons Marijuana Should Remain Illegal” it argue that marijuana should stay illegal because it is harmful. The article states reason like “It’s extremely addictive for some people, this experiment hasn’t worked out so well for Amsterdam, marijuana is terrible for your mental health, marijuana is terrible for your physical health, and the drug decimates many people’s lives,” to support his claim on marijuana staying illegal. For each reason that he states in his article he uses a authoritative figure or facts. The speaker’s assumption is that by keeping marijuana illegal the problem related to the substance can be kept at the state it is in right now. John Hawkins is mainly appealing to the audience who are aware of what is talk about by the people that are anti-marijuana. He uses appeal like ethos, logos and pathos to support his article on why marijuana should not be legalized. For example she mentioned a ethical, Dr.Drew in the article in order to support his opinionated reasoning. Also he mention statistical data as a logical appeal, and how he see marijuana is causing problem in schools where marijuana is legal in their region as a pathos. Overall the summary of article is using the main 3 appeals to convince and persuade people to believe that marijuana should stay illegal.
The article makes the argument that marijuana is extremely addictive as they use a support from Dr. Drew Pinsky relationship with addicts, but he only focus on the small percent of the people admitting that they have a problem using marijuana to overgeneralized the people who uses the substance and can quit any time they wanted to. Even though the example uses a authoritative figure to make the article more credible, it failed to be credible by not stating where the source is from. In addition to the argument, Hawkins included reason like mental and physical health to support his stance on why marijuana should stay illegal because it apparently slow down the brain and causes damage worse than smoking cigarette, as he forgetting to mention if it is genetically modified for a even better high or not. Which only shows a half fact that would make this source less credible. After the reason about health, Hawkins begin to support his reason on “drug decimates many people’s lives” by portraying a TV comparison to what he see as a person part of this world. This represent a false comparison because it does not mention the celebrities or successor using marijuana and being able to succeed with the substance.
I agree with the topic that you wrote on, I have mostly been researching on the same thing. The more I read about it the more I realize that it is hard to pick a side, on whether marijuana should be legalized or not. There many different things to consider when picking a specific side.
I feel like the whole marijuana legalization debate can go on for decades, and there will never be a conclusion. There are many bias studies on either side of the debate. Although I personally believe marijuana will bring more revenue to the us if they simply legalize it. Maybe it will help slow down the war on drugs.
The debate between the legalization of marijuana is controversial and never ending. There are positive to both sides because there economic advantages. However there are some social disadvantages marijuana can bring because it can impairs one mind. When someone is high they are not able to think properly.
I agree that it is difficult to believe arguments that present a ton of reasons or evidence but very little to no actual credibility. It makes you realize that the individual has opinion, but it also leads you to wonder if they have any knowledge of the other side of the controversy. An uninformed debater is not a debater at all; just an individual airing their opinion.
After reading Kevin’s 5 Reasons Busted on the same article, I am glad to see something different. John Hawkins does overgeneralize based on a few cases in where people admitted a problem. However, those few people don’t provide a reasonable estimate for the rest of the population. This is evident with a t-statistic of… just kidding. John Hawkins does make a few flawed arguments. What a shame.
These same arguments have been used in the past, except regarding alcohol. I see nothing but flawed arguments. Legalization just needs to happen already. This conservative agenda is getting out of hand. Nothing but over stretching the truth with biased sources.