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Rhetoric
Stay away from Marijuana, Smoking Marijuana is the worst thing you can do: Many
people were taught this at a young age to stay away from marijuana because it's “bad” for you,
but, is it really? Author Renee Jacques begs to differ in the article she wrote titled, “This is why
Marijuana should be legal everywhere,” published in 2013 on Huffpost, she argues that
Marijuana should become legal because it can cause more good than it can bad. Renee starts the
article off with statistics, saying that fifty-eight percent of americans are more in favor of
legalizing marijuana than they are to criminalizing it, she continues with strong statistics along
with credible sources throughout the article, up until the final two paragraphs, where she begins
In the article, Renee starts off by stating that marijuana has never been the direct cause
for someone's death and follows up on that by showing data that more people have died from
prescription drugs than they have from illegal drugs. Renee then follows up with saying that
alcohol has caused more deaths than marijuana ever has, even though its a legal substance you
can aquire almost anywhere. She continues to talking about how marijuana can be used as a
medical substance, due to its relaxing factors, and lastly saying that marijuana isn't a gateway
drug, that people who tend to move onto harder drugs may start with marijuana, also tend to
Renee continues to use evidence from reliable sources that allow her to get her points
across faster and more efficiently as well as appealing to ethos. The sources she uses are “CNN,”
”The Huffpost,” “Vulture,”“Scientific American,”“How Heath Stuff Works,”“SFGATE,”
“National Cancer Institute,”“The Lancet” and many more. Citing these sources make Renees’
article more credible and harder to dispute. It also shows that she had done research by providing
facts, along with having expert opinions to support her claims allowing the audience to find her
more believable and smart when it comes to talking about legalizing marijuana.
As well as appealing to ethos, she has a very strong appeal to logos. Many of the things
she stated are backed up by factual evidence, as well as expert opinions, causing her article to be
full of logical reasons on why marijuana should be legalized and not criminalized. When she's
making the argument that cigarettes and alcohol are more dangerous than marijuana is she
supports her argument with “As you can see from a 2010 study published in the Lancet and
reported on by the Economist, a team of drug experts in the U.K. assessed the combined harms to
others and to the user of marijuana as less than the harms posed by alcohol or tobacco use”
(Paragraph 3, lines 2-4.) She backs up her claims with evidence from a reliable source causing
her article to appear more logical. Renee continues on by quoting a article written by a CNN
“Contrary to popular belief, marijuana is not as addicting as one may think. Dr. Sanjay
Gupta, CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent, recently wrote in his essay, “Why I Changed
reports that marijuana leads to dependence in around 9-10 percent of adult users”
By using someone who is very informed on the topic and had a change of heart, it makes it hard
to logically dispute the claims about why marijuana should be legal that she had made
She writes about successful people, such as Morgan Freeman, Ted Turner, Martha Stewart and
Maya Angelou, being “high-functioning” users of marijuana. By using big names such as those,
she can appeal more toward the audience. She also states that marijuana isn’t a gateway drug.
She states “One of the biggest and most widespread arguments from marijuana detractors is that
smoking marijuana will lead to using other drugs. As Scientific American points out, the studies
that show people who use marijuana first before trying other drugs is correlation and not
causation” (Paragraph 8, lines 1-4.) The reason many people dislike marijuana is because they
fear it might lead them to a life of much harder drugs, like cocaine or meth. By placing this in her
article it can remove many people's fears about the substance as well as disprove a reason on
However many people might see her “So many extremely successful people smoke
marijuana” as a “These guys are doing it so why can't we?” type of point. Due to them seeing it
in this light, they might completely disregard the portion of the paragraph that states “And this
isn’t just an argument about how the “cool kids” do it and therefore so should you.” This could
have been avoided if she had started the paragraph off by saying “it's not about how the cool kids
do it.” As well as her final paragraph, “its not simply a gateway drug,” she loses a lot of
credibility do to her attempt at comedy at the end. Though the paragraph makes good points
about how marijuana isn't a gateway drug, she ruins it by saying “as mentioned above, nearly
half the country has already tried pot which is more than how many Americans know who
Jennifer Lawrence is and much much more than the percentage of Americans who are left-
handed.” She attempts to reframe her topic on how “around 40% of americans have admitted to
using marijuana” in a comedic manner that ended up hurting the article more than it helped.
Renees’ article begins clearly and maintains that throughout the entire article. Getting
directly to her points and using reliable sources to support her claims allows her article to be very
effective and convincing. Though she loses a bit of momentum at the final two paragraphs, she
manages to fix her little misstep by providing many credible sources as well as showing the
audience that she is vastly knowledgeable on the topic. She makes the article simple to read and
entertaining as well as having a firm grasp on ethos, pathos, and logos, allowing the audience to
easily grasp the information and build an opinion on whether or not marijuana should be
legalized.