In the passage “Legal Drugs Unlikely to Foster Nation of Zombies” (Chapman, 2012), author Stephen Chapman argues his conclusion that drugs should be legalized. Furthermore, Chapman argues that the legalization of drugs would do more good for society than the present war on drugs, which does considerable harm. This conclusion is based upon a converging argument of three main premises:

1. Drugs aren’t an issue for most people
2. The war on drugs causes more harm to society than it does good
3. Countries that have legalized drugs, specifically marijuana, have seen a reduction in that drugs popularity

In this critical essay I’ll illustrate how Chapman’s inductive reasoning could result in a false conclusion by focusing on his use of statistics within the passage; and his claim that the war on drugs is harming society as a whole.
Applied in a diagram, Chapman’s argument can be visualized as: The argument presented by Chapman is a compelling one because the premises given are believable and presented with supporting statistics, witness statements and passionate exclamations by Chapman himself. Upon closer inspection curious readers may begin to wonder what Chapman didn’t include in his argument.

P9-Drugs aren’t for most people

Chapman provides a series of claims to support P9. One such claim which was generated by a poll sponsored by the Drug Policy Foundation resulted P5. What this statement is really saying is that of those who claimed to never have used cocaine before, 1 percent admitted to wanting to try it if it were legalized.
Several issues exist with accepting this claim as is. Firstly, we don’t know if the poll is a representative sample of Americans. Chapman doesn’t inform the reader of this particular background information from the poll and the reader is left to wonder who was included in the poll, the size, location, and