Gustavo Limon
Dr. Belu
Philosophy 120
November 12, 2012

Should Marijuana be Considered a Schedule I Drug?

I believe marijuana should be classified as a Schedule I drug. Marijuana is very popular and many say that it is harmless, but I believe it is very dangerous. The way I see it, nothing good can come out of a marijuana user. At first, sure, a person wont be as dependent on it but once the user is heavily into the drug, he or she will need it to even function properly. Not to say that it is addicting, but your body will need it to even feel “normal”. Marijuana does something to your body and brain that is not safe while you are out in public. For example, if you are high on marijuana and driving a car, chances are you will crash the car because you aren’t 100% in the right state of mind to drive, this can potentially lead to hurting yourself or even worse, yourself and an innocent bystander. Marijuana can’t kill a person, but it’s repercussions can certainly lead up to a person’s death. One can go into cardiac arrest, have an accident, or lung cancer is a big possibility too because marijuana has tar and that affects your lungs in a negative way. Again, I believe marijuana should be classified as a Schedule I drug because it meets all the criteria to be considered a Schedule I drug. One of the fallacies I will be using is “false dilemma”. False dilemma occurs when you give the opposition only two choices of what they can do, when in fact, there other alternatives available. If marijuana isn’t considered a Schedule I drug, I believe many more people will be using and in public places. We need to think of what kind of environment this will make for our friends and family. Someone that is under the influence of drugs is not their normal selves and doesn’t react to things as if they were sober. A sober person could think a certain idea is a bad idea but a person that is high is literally “out of their mind” and might think an idea is a fun or good idea regardless if it is dangerous or not. Imagine, how could we be able to let these people roam our neighborhoods and public places when they aren’t in their right state of mind. They can potentially hurt our family members and I don’t believe that is a risk many people are willing to take. We can either classify marijuana as a Schedule I drug or live in a world where drug addicts are out on the street making bad decisions. I think that the false dilemma fallacy could be very useful in this situation because one side can turn out very ugly if we allow marijuana to be legal.
The next fallacy I will be using is the “circumstantial ad hominem”. Circumstantial ad hominem is used to point out someone’s circumstances, making them take a certain action or side on things. I believe that many of the people that would like for marijuana to be not classified as a Schedule I drug are probably doing the drug now, which is illegal, that would make them criminals. I think that taking political advice from a criminal isn’t such a wise thing to do because their source is not credible. You cannot trust a criminal because they are not law abiding citizens. This is not to say that they aren’t good people, because some are unjustly accused and prosecuted, but they have broken or are continuing to break the law. I would assume that the people who want to be able to smoke marijuana are either pot smokers now, or have smoked pot before in the past, this would make them criminals because it is illegal. The false dilemma fallacy could be used to support my position on the issue because if people were reminded that criminals use marijuana and the fact that criminals were to be brought out into the light, people would think about it again before they take the opposing position.
The last fallacy I will be using is the “slippery slope” fallacy. The slippery slope fallacy implies that if an option is given the “okay” to happen, then something else will result from it. If we allow marijuana to be more recreational and less “illegal” by not considering it as a Schedule I drug, we will bring to light other harder, more dangerous drugs. Marijuana is known to be the gateway drug because it is the least harmless drug as far as symptoms and high. If marijuana is legal, it will become easier to use, making more people use it. If more people are using marijuana then more people will be trying other drugs and getting deeper into drugs. I believe this fallacy is an important one because the reasoning behind this is very logical. It is very easy to see that a person can only go deeper into drugs. There is a reason why marijuana is named the gateway drug.
I am using the fallacies to try and persuade the reader that my position is best. I tried to make it seem that letting marijuana users roam the streets would be dangerous. Not only did I try to make it seem that way, I truly believe it would be dangerous, which is why I chose this prompt because I have a deep connection to it. At the end of the day, as much fun as it seems to all marijuana users to legalize marijuana, it is a drug, and it does take you out of your element, stripping you of your ability to make good decisions and let alone talk or walk correctly. I think the fallacy that would best persuade my opposition would be slippery slope. It is completely logical to think that the use marijuana would introduce more drugs into our society.