Al-Roumi 1 Izze Al-Roumi Kristen Foster CO 150.

403 October 23, 2013 Annotated Bibliography Critical preface The research is on why marijuana should be legalized in the United States. I am researching this issue as there are a lot of people having different opinion on marijuana and its legalization. It is interesting to me because there is a lot of people that miss-understand marijuana and considers marijuana as hardcore drug. The research question is Why should marijuana should be legalized in the US? I have started my research on this topic on the 4th of October 2013 until the 21st of October 2013. It took me about two weeks conducting this Annotated Bibliography. I have included about four sources and they are all from websites. All of these are articles are not the same type, one is peer-reviewed, one is a scholar journal and the other two were published in the last twelve months.

Cox, Lauren. Medical Marijuana: Benefits Vs. Risks. Livescience.com. Live Science. 05 November 2012. Web. 9 October 2013 The first article is Medical Marijuana: Benefits vs. Risks. This is a scientific article. This article talks about the risks of Medical Marijuana and its benefits. Mentions how marijuana overdose is not lethal like other drugs. In addition, Cox mentions how marijuana affects the balance of the person and his judgments talking it. Adding, there is

Al-Roumi 2 no study that proves smoking marijuana causes cancer. Mentioning too, California was the first state to have medical marijuana passed in 1996. The purpose of this article is to prove my idea on making marijuana legal, as it is good for those that are sick. The article is written to the people who have different opinions on marijuana and the people who would like to know the benefits/risks. The article consists of statistics, research and a photograph of marijuana. The source is credible as the writer is well known in the website and not just any writer that does not have any background on writing articles. In addition, the article was not just published in any website, this website, livescince.com, is known for scientific facts. The article needs more statistics, which makes it a little bit limited. The benefits of marijuana in the article support my idea on why marijuana should be legalized. For example, the article mentions how marijuana helps people could use it a relief their pain for example headache and cancer.

Elliot, Steve. Alcohol Is More Than Twice As Harmful As Marijuana: Study. Tokesingnals.com. Toke Singals. 7 September 2013. Web. 20 October 2013. The article talks about how alcohol is much harmful than marijuana and how it could be taken other than smoking it, which makes no harm on the lungs. In addition, he mentioned when someone has taken marijuana, he still could make decisions. Plus, he stated that people die from alcohol each day and still there were no death caused by marijuana. He also stated that marijuana is cheaper than alcohol. The purpose of this article is to prove that marijuana does not need to be taken by smoking it which means that it will not effect the human body. The article is written to those who think that marijuana is more harmful than alcohol. The purpose of this source

Al-Roumi 3 is why legalizing alcohol that is harmful and having marijuana that is not harmful. Including quotations, statistics, research and graphs as the authors evidence on alcohol is much harmful than marijuana. Stating that marijuana is not harmful, like alcohol, supports my idea on why marijuana is should be legalized. Added, the author mentions that marijuana has never killed a human body should make you think, why is it still illegal? This source is credible as Steve Elliot, the author, is a well-known writer. In addition, the article is a few months old, which means it is up to date. Having the article not peerreviewed could limit the article. The article help me answer my question by stating that marijuana is not harmful and does not cause people to make stupid decisions.

Gupta, Sanjay. Why I Changed My Mind on Weed. Cnn.com. CNN. 8 August 2013. Web. 9 October 2013. The article is an op-ed piece article. The article talks about how the author thought that marijuana (weed) is harmful until he made a study on it and met many marijuana users and made him change his mind. He included in his article that marijuana is not addictive as other drugs like heroin, and cocaine and it is not affective as them. In addition, he mentioned the benefits of marijuana. Also, he stated in his article that it was a mistake to illegal marijuana in the year 1970 in the United States of America. The purpose of this article is to prove that marijuana is nor harmful or addictive. It is an article that is written to the people who think that marijuana is harmful to the human body. The evidence that he included in his article was his personal experience, statistics and some research. An example of the of a personal experience is that the author said in

Al-Roumi 4 the article that he thought marijuana was a drug 1 substance until he made his research on marijuana. An example of a statistic he used was, By age 3, she was having 300 a week, despite being on seven different medications. Medical marijuana has calmed her brain, limiting her seizures to 2 or 3 per month. (Gupta). By the author stating that marijuana is not addictive and does not lead to other drugs supports my idea on why should marijuana be legalized. In addition, he stated that smoking marijuana is not harmful as smoking tobacco. Having the article posted on the CNN website makes the article credible as the publisher would not like the people not want to visit their website again. In addition, the writer is a doctor, which makes him more accurate on his research. The writer had trouble from the government to get their approval on him making a research makes his article limited to online research. Having his article, this should help me convince you that marijuana should be legalized.

Lynne-Landsman, Sarah D., Melvin D. Livingston, and Alexander C. Wagenaar. "Effects Of State Medical Marijuana Laws On Adolescent Marijuana Use." American Journal Of Public Health 103.8 (2013): 1500-1506. Academic Search Premier. Web. 21 Oct. 2013. The article Effects of State Medical Marijuana Laws on Adolescent Marijuana Use talks about how marijuana helps the human body medically and how it has been used as a pain killer for the people that are ill. The article also contains a research made on the states that have medical marijuana legal decreases the use of other drugs. The purpose of this article is that since marijuana is not addictive and you could stop at anytime, why shouldnt it be legalized? The article is written for the people that have different opinions on medical marijuana and its benefits. The article has a research as

Al-Roumi 5 evidence that contained statistics and graphs. Here is an example from the text that the writer mentions some statistics, Compared to other substances, marijuana is not very addicting. It is estimated that 32% of tobacco users will become addicted, 23% of heroin users, 17% of cocaine users, and 15% of alcohol (Lynne-Landsman, Melvin, Livingston, Wagenaar) This source is credible as the source is a peer-revived article. In addition, the authors are doctors and all have PHD degree, which makes them credible. Having more than one author is a limitation to the article as the authors could disagree on one thing and not mention it in the article that they have written. The article supports my idea stating how marijuana does not affect the human body and could be used medically. In addition, the authors mentioned how marijuana legalization has been affecting other use of drugs, which leads to less drug dealers and crime. The people that think marijuana is addictive and leads to hardcore drugs could be considered as the stakeholders for this source.