Rhetoric & Writing

Barcott, Bruce; Scherer, Michael. “The Great Pot Experiment.” www.web.b.ebscohost.com. Time. 25, May. 2015. Web. 19 Jul. 2015.

Barcott is a journalist who has written for the New York Times, National Geographic and many other publications and is the author of “Weed the People, the Future of Legal Marijuana in America.” Scherer is TIME’s Washington bureau chief.  This particular article comes from Barcott’s book where he talks about an experiment done by Yasmin Hurd, the Director of the Center for Addictive Disorders and a professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.  She studies the effect of marijuana on humans and animal models and how it can lead to addiction.

Hurd began an experiment to see how the dosage of marijuana ultimately affected the brain and how it would affect their offspring.  She began with a pair of rats and would present to them daily dosages of marijuana, in time she mated them, which is where she began to answer her question of: “Could parental marijuana exposure pass on changes to the next generation, even to offspring who had never been exposed to the drug?”  She tested the rat with the THC-exposed parents with a one of a clear health history, to see which rat would work harder to get to a dosage of heroin.  Not only did they perform differently, the rat with the THC-exposed parents worked twice as hard as the other rat, “when she analyzed the brains of the rats, she also found differences in the neural circuitry of the ones with drug-using parents. Even the grandkids have begun to show behavioral differences in how they seek out rewards.”  With these results Hurd begins to question if the usage of marijuana affects not only the user however, the offspring and the generations to come.

With that, there have been numerous of studies that have shown that the usage of marijuana has helped many cases as patients with pain, nausea and many other symptoms, however, for those who are wanting to use it for recreational purposes, it has shown that the percentages of addiction are increasing.  Also including the usage of young adults, increases the percentage of becoming addicted and of destroying cells in the brain.  They use this example to visually represent how dangerous it can be for young adults to be exposed to marijuana without the need for it medical.  “If the brain were a house, the childhood years would be spent pouring the foundation and framing up the walls. Adolescence, is when the wiring and plumbing get finished.”  If during the childhood year’s it is being wasted on killing brain cells and the chances of becoming an addict to the substance, the brain will never be given a chance to develop, because of, how they put it “the house would have poor foundation and walls”.

Using marijuana without the need for it medically can cause many permanent damages to the brain.  Although, Hurd would agree, that marijuana has shown to help patients with pain, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, if not used when needed, it can cause many dangerous symptoms to the brain and “also play a role in the regulation of pain, mood, appetite, memory and even the life and death of individual cells.”  It is explained how although the usage of marijuana can have its benefits for patients in need, those who are not can suffer from dangerous consequences especially for young adults.

This article was helpful for me because even though it shows a bit of both the positives and negatives and clearly shows how the use of marijuana recreationally is not healthy.  I believe that this article would help for those who are looking for studies on children and addiction.  It really blends those two aspects really well and it was quite helpful for me.

Adrienne Glenn is not pleased with how marijuana has been portrayed on television or in films. She usually writes about other social topics in The Pitt News. She finds the way that television has portrayed marijuana is unfair and misleading to the truth about marijuana. She also discusses how there are little to no films or shows that display the reality of marijuana use for medical purposes and how it isn’t as harmful as people believe it to be.

Now in recent years there have been many shows that depict the use and selling of marijuana. However, these depictions are flat and end up the same way. The user is someone that appears less intelligent and the sellers end up going to prison for their deeds. This display doesn’t represent how marijuana can be good and have a positive effect on people especially those that need it medicinally. It also fails to represent why some people resort to selling the drug illegally, Glenn mentions. The media has fed these images to the public and have created a notion that marijuana is wrong in every light. Glenn, goes on to discuss the medicinal benefits of marijuana and how it’s main chemicals help against things like pain and inflammation. Although, as Glenn states, marijuana is the most popular drug among adults, these reports have not made it to the media. Glenn argues that the misrepresentation of marijuana is what is perpetuating the fear associated with it.

Glenn then moves to shortly discuss the positive portrayals of marijuana in a recent documentary. The documentary records the long-term effects on someone who smoked daily after a month of cleansing. There appeared to be no effects on the person. Glenn comments, that this is exactly the type of thing the media needs to do when it comes to representing marijuana in order for there to be progress on the subject. Which is true if we are going to want reasonable debates on whether or not marijuana is something that should be legal or banned altogether.

This research is valuable because it addresses how marijuana is portrayed and the way people see it. It is true that it is seen in a more negative light because of such portrayals but in order to truly asses whether or not pot should be legalized we need to be informed on both sides of the subject. This research may be valuable to others because maybe they have only seen the negative side that is portrayed in media and refuse to think twice about having a ration discussion on the subject.

Smith, S. E. “How legalizing pot could save America’s economy.” TheWeek.com. The Week Magazine, 09 Nov. 2014. Web. 16 Jul. 2015.

S.E. Smith is a writer and commentator who focuses on the current issues going on in the world. In “How legalizing pot could save America’s economy,” published by TheWeek.com, Smith highlights the economic growth that could stimulate from the legalization of marijuana in the United States.

According to Smith, the black market sell of marijuana accumulates an average revenue of $113 billion dollars annually. Smith argues that marijuana would bring in billions of tax dollars to the government and also save the government money since many people incarcerated are on drug related charges, the most common being marijuana. Smith points out that the legalization of marijuana would allow the government to save money by not wasting it on trying to prevent drug wars. Therefore, the government could use the surplus of money to focus on other issues facing the country. To depict the positive effect legalization of marijuana would have on the economy, Smith discusses it’s “ripple effect” on the economy. The cultivation of marijuana provides jobs to Americans in various different fields and reduces the number of men being incarcerated, allowing them to provide for their family without aid from the government, therefore indirectly improving the economy. Smith in other words, is stating that marijuana is something the government could capitalize on and in return help communities who heavily depend on the government financially.

Smith briefly discusses how the legalization of marijuana in the United States could benefit tourism in the country by allowing people to go in to shops and sample marijuana products. The well-known areas will generate a lot of tourist who will buy marijuana and in return will be benefiting the economy.

This is a valuable resource because you are given insight on how the legalization of marijuana can help the economy and communities most affected by the illegal distribution of it. This article gives facts as to how marijuana can benefit everyone and is not simply against marijuana because it is “bad.” It provides you with what people who are for legalization of marijuana thinks, their perspective, and opinion on the subject. This would be useful for others who are pro legalizing marijuana because of the facts and good logical reasoning behind legalizing marijuana, or it could be used to counter the arguments made in the article.

Stimson, Charles. “Why Legalizing Pot Is a Bad Idea.” dailysignal.com. Daily Signal, 30 November 2014. Web. 16 July 2015.

As criminal law expert Charles Stimson wrote in this article, people should think twice before they decide legalizing pot is a good idea. It has already had a major effect on Colorado in which it has been legalized for both medical and recreational uses.

Stimson introduces his article by arguing that legalization is not inevitable, contrary to what “pot pushers want you to believe.” Legalization activists use the states that have already legalized marijuana as success examples to try and convince us that legalizing marijuana isn’t a terrible idea, however, if you really look at the statistics and actual facts, Stimson states, we are able to see the negative factors behind weed’s legalization.

According to Stimson, Dr. Kevin Sabet (who is the former senior advisor to President Obama’s drug policy office) claims that “the average strength of today’s marijuana is five to six times what is was in the 1960s and 1970s.” Knowing this fact in itself, according to Stimson, should be a huge red flag that we should pause before determining whether we do or do not agree with the legalization of marijuana.

There are specific negative side effects that have been caused by the legalization of pot in Colorado, states Stimson, and a report by a federal grant-funded agency found the following changes have occurred since it became legal: an increase in youth consumption, almost 50 percent of Denver arrestees tested positive for marijuana, marijuana-related emergency-room visits increased 57 percent from 2011-2013, and marijuana-related hospitalizations have increased 82 percent since 2008. As if these were not eye-opening enough, Stimson goes on to say that “adolescent marijuana users have lower educational attainment than non-using peers.” Taking these effects into consideration, Stimson points out, we can better understand the reasons behind certain employers and parents who are against marijuana legalization.

I found this article to be useful because most of what I have read and researched about marijuana legalization usually leaned toward it being a positive thing or simply inevitable. In this article, though, we are given a the opposite perspective of pot legalization based on negative effects marijuana has had. I think others will find this useful because it sheds light on the cons that would come along with legalization of marijuana based on actual data that has been taken in places where it is already legal.

Bertsche, Rachel.”Teens and Marijuana: The Surprising Truth.” yahoo.com. Yahoo!, 15 July. 2015. Web. 15 July. 2015.

Rachel Bertsche is a writer for yahoo and the author of Teens and Marijuana: The Surprising Truth. In the researched article  published by yahoo.com recently, Bertsche inform us about how the legalization of marijuana has not affected the consumption of marijuana within the different age group by much. Pointedly, she mention the percentage of the consumption of marijuana from 2002 to 2013 and it was surprisingly consistent as the percentage hasn’t change much. She included the age of middle school kids and older  teen to back up her statement of how legalization of marijuana doesn’t mean that there will be a increase of younger adolescents.

According to Bertsche, over the last decade, marijuana has even lost its popularity among ages 12-14 and older teen.  In recent statistic posted about marijuana, the use of marijuana has drop from 6 percent in 2002 to 4.5 percent in 2013. For older teen it has decreases from 26 percent in 2002 to 22 percent in 2013. This study has proven that even with legalization of marijuana overdose is not a problem. In addition, marijuana is very accepted by medical group who support the legalization.

Bertsche article show support by mentioning the lead author Christopher Salas-Wright, assistant professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin, telling Yahoo Parents about the research they did that prove how there is no “dramatic spike national level” in the use of marijuana within the youth. She also mention laws changing across country have to deal with the decrease of use in marijuana. Bertsche mention Salas-Wright on how the following information is not enough to state what is going on in state like Colorado and Washington to keep a mutual opinion on the topic of marijuana. Then she also state other study to prove the no increase in marijuana use.

I found this article useful because I used to question the topic of marijuana and how come people think it might  become a problem. I  am personally very interested in reading and doing some more research on the impact of the drug as year pass in order to gain a better understanding of the subject. Other people in the class might find this essay useful as well, if they ever question the logic behind people thinking if it is good or bad.When thinking about how the policies that people make in the United States affect the consumption of marijuana within all age, I hope this could give you something to think about .