Hawkins, John. ” 5 Reasons Marijuana Should Remain Illegal” Town Hall. Town Hall, Jan 21, 2014. Web Aug 11, 2015
John Hawkins is a journalist for the website Town Hall, which has been around for 20 years. In this article Hawkins tries to argue that marijuana should remain illegal. He believes that marijuana is extremely addictive and that the legalization of marijuana in Amsterdam didn’t work out so well. He also argues that marijuana is terrible for your mental and physical health and that the drug decimates many peoples lives. Hawkins then even goes on to throw a jab at Obama by saying “Even the ones that get somewhere in life, like Barack Obama, usually turn out to be mediocrities.” Although John is trying to make an argument it all collapses on it self when he tries to explain it.
I do not agree with Hawkins first reason that marijuana is extremely addictive because the use of marijuana is not addictive. Many people believe it is enjoyable because of the euphoria it gives you and when something is enjoyable you want to do it as much as you can within reason of course. Its like sex, sex is enjoyable and people try to get it when they can but that doesn’t make sex addictive. Hawkins has to understand that the people who say that marijuana is addictive have no self control what so ever which will allow them to get addicted to anything.
As the article goes on the author states another reason why it should be illegal by saying that marijuana didn’t work out so well in Amsterdam. I disagree with the author because what happened in Amsterdam is not what is happening in Colorado and Washington state. He argues that the first school is banning the use of marijuana in school. Kids should not even be smoking pot unless it is for a medical condition. The U.S made laws saying that you can not buy marijuana unless you are of 18 years of age. This mean that it will now be harder for underage kids to get marijuana if it is legalized since it will end the black market sell of it and have an age requirement to buy it.
I disagree with Hawkins next claim that marijuana is bad for both our mental health and our physical health. Although marijuana can be seen to cause problems we have other legal substances that cause worse problems to the user health. In example alcohol, can be the main cause of deaths from alcohol poisoning to drunk driving to depressing people enough to commit suicide. To have this substance legal is the real problem to today’s society. We tried to stop it before with the prohibition act but yet we still have it till this day.
Hawkins last claim that marijuana decimates peoples lives is just an opinion. That is why I disagree with that claim because he believes that marijuana can stop you from getting into college and finishing high school. Right away I can say that that’s not true because of the many friends I had are going to college. One of my friends being the Valedictorian that is being accepted to the University of Texas, also other friends who got into Texas A&M. Which means marijuana has no effect on a persons attempt to make it anywhere in life.
Overall, Hawkins ends up making an argument that would be ineffective to his intended audience. He is just a journalist with an opinion that I’m sure many before me have shot down time and time again.