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Article Rebuttal

Article Rebuttal

The article is chosen is “Not so Fast! A Case Against Legalizing Marijuana” (Duncan, 2013). Through his article, Mr. Duncan is trying to convince his readers that legalizing marijuana is a detriment to the health of the potential marijuana smoking public and should not become a legalized commodity.
The fallacy that Mr. Duncan falls into is that of the Red Herring/Smoke Screen. Instead of sticking to the potential health effects of marijuana, he dives into the history of cigarettes and the health effects from them. If Mr. Duncan had limited his point here to known facts of marijuana and the similarities to tobacco his point would have been better served.
The second fallacy Mr. Duncan uses are Scare Tactics. Mr. Duncan chooses to state facts about the effects of marijuana on children when the concept of legalizing marijuana is geared toward adults the same as tobacco and alcohol, not children. By introducing the harmful effects of marijuana on children, he is trying to scare his readers into opposing the concept of legalization. The same health concepts apply to tobacco and alcohol, and they are legal for adults not children. Mr. Duncan should have cited the facts on marijuana addition and side affects instead of trying to scare his readers by bringing children into the discussion.
Daniel K. Duncan is director of community services for the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse–St. Louis Area (Duncan, 2013). This position would indicate to me that Mr. Duncan would be a reliable source of information of the effects of drugs. As someone in such a position, I would think Mr. Duncan would choose to cite some sort of facts in his article, but the only thing his article does is mention a website that focuses on mental health and marijuana which does not have any bearing on this article.
I applaud Mr. Duncan for trying to educate the public on the health risks that can come up with smoking marijuana I believe if he had stuck to the facts of marijuana, he would have had a more persuasive article.

Reference
Duncan, D. K. (2013). Not so Fast! A case against legalizing marijuana. Retrieved from http://http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/columns/not-so-fast-a-case-against-legalizing-marijuana/article_4b7ffc76-5cab-5569-a101-fbdba63e2c14.htm

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