Shaniece Denson<\/p>\n
Gogek, Edward. \u201cCrunching the Numbers; why I say almost all medical marijuana patients are faking it.\u201d Reasons to Oppose \u201cMedical Marijuana\u201d in Arizona. <\/em>N.p., 15 Nov. 2012 Web. 11 Aug. 2015<\/p>\n In this article, physician Edward Gogek contends that \u201calmost all medical marijuana patients are faking\u201d their illnesses in order to receive medical marijuana. He supports his argument with statistics from Arizona Department of Health Services, personal experiences that he has had in the state of Arizona, and the demographics that smoke marijuana within that state. Gogek provides information from Arizona because it has been a few years since the state has legalized medical marijuana and the evidence provided is more perpetual than the questionable evidence that is presented from states that have just legalized the drug. Gogek\u2019s primary argument is directed toward the demographics and sex of medical marijuana users in Arizona. He asserts that majority of the patients seeking marijuana prescriptions are young adults and females. He also uses a comparison of tossing a coin to compare the results from the coin with the percentage of male and female citizens requesting medical marijuana in Arizona.<\/p>\n I agree that not all medical marijuana patients attempt to receive the drug because they suffer from serious illnesses or unbearable symptoms. However to make this argument comparing it to the tossing of a coin 1000 times is not reasonable. Gogek argues that the chances of a coin landing on tails is equivalent to a female seeking to buy medical marijuana in the state of Arizona. I cannot perceive physician Gogek or anyone else flipping a coin 1000 times and to actually comparing their results with charts containing the marijuana statistics that show the percentage of males and females buying medical marijuana. For this reason I consider this example a faulty comparison and one of which that isn\u2019t significant to the controversy of whether or not marijuana cardholders are substance abusers. I also believe that it can be identified as a false analogy because tossing a coin to determine how many males or females will be found to smoke weed on a study does not resemble each other at all. In addition, I find it hard to believe Gogek\u2019s argument because as mentioned earlier he states that the marijuana patients in Arizona are \u201cmostly female\u201d, but later in his article he argues that the \u201cadult pot-smokers are 74 percent male\u2026 and are faking pain to get weed\u201d. His second argument contradicts his first, therefore the audience should question his claims before deciding to believe them. The audience should also take into consideration the lack of reasonable evidence that Gogek provides. He implies that he takes the results from flipping a coin 1000 times and says that it \u201cis almost exactly our situation.\u201d Would you flip a coin 1000 times, and would you trust an argument that was formed around words such as \u201cmostly\u201d and \u201calmost\u201d?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Shaniece Denson Gogek, Edward. \u201cCrunching the Numbers; why I say almost all medical marijuana patients are faking it.\u201d Reasons to Oppose \u201cMedical Marijuana\u201d in Arizona. N.p., 15 Nov. 2012 Web. 11 Aug. 2015 In this article, physician Edward Gogek contends … Continue reading