Chris Kregloski
Whitney Sandin
WVU English 101

The Ancient Debate
The legalization of marijuana is one of the most controversial topics in America and its debate has been fought over nonstop since the existence of the drug. This naturally found plant is known and used across the entire world. It is illegal in most places including the majority of the United States yet in reality it is safer than alcohol and tobacco. Today, more and more people are starting to realize this and side with pro legalization in America and are even questioning why it is illegal. There are many reasons why people support its legalization. Many say it would actually prove to be more helpful if it were legalized. Legalization could help America’s economy, health and crime. In one article journalist Ryan Schuette uses logos, ethos and pathos to support this claim and proves how legalizing marijuana as soon as possible could help America thrive in the near future. Schuette starts off his argument with his first supporting statement, that the legalization of the drug would bring our country economic relief. Its legalization would create jobs and help prevent bankruptcy, which America definitely needs at this moment in time. There is no way around this fact for anyone who is against the legalization of the drug. The United States has a total debt of 17 trillion dollars and with 20 billion dollars in debt alone in Detroit, who recently became the largest city in America to declare bankruptcy after years of financial instability. The author takes a look at The Budgetary Impact of Ending Drug Prohibition, written by Jeffery Miron and Katherine Waldock of Cato Institute, which approximates the America could gain $8.7 billion dollars in revenue if we legalize and tax the sale of marijuana. Taxes on marijuana would be very similar to the taxes we see on the sale of tobacco. Schuette then turns to the National Household Survey another credible source on drug abuse which shows that 5.3 Americans admitted to using marijuana at lease once a week and 3.1 million used marijuana daily. The author then slightly shifts to the potential job market sky rocket if marijuana were to be legalized. The job aspect is humongous as well and with an unemployment rate of 6.6%, America could definitely use it. Now obviously someone will need to manage and work at the marijuana dispensaries, but there are more job opportunities available than just that. This time the author turns to NORML for his support. NORML which is a pro legalization organization, that works to reform marijuana laws, conducted a study in 1994 that used job data from Amsterdam (where marijuana is legal) to prove that marijuana legalization could add more than 60,000 retailers and up to 100,000 careers just from business spin-offs. Spin off industries include coffee houses and paraphernalia stores. The city of Amsterdam has 300 coffee houses that sell cannabis, which in America translates to the 60,000 potential coffee houses. These numbers are enormous and they are logically cited by credible organizations. Although these numbers are obviously not enough to recover from America’s national debt, it will not hurt at all. Through these factual statistics the author does a good job in supporting his claim that legalization will offer hope to struggling states and cities and we could easily use the tax revenue to prevent declining cities from ending up bankrupt like Detroit. Schuette moves to his next supporting statement, that by the drugs legalization, we could unplug many of our country’s overpopulated prisons thus we would be saving tax dollars. The author refers to Cato Institute’s data as a source again. According to the institute, our economy looses $17.4 billion in taxpayer funds a year just to non-violent drug crimes such as sale and possession. He then cites the Marijuana Policy Project which counted 872,720 marijuana related arrests in America in 2007 alone. I personally know people who have been arrested and charged with possession and sale of the substance. Had the drug been legal, none of these arrests have been made. If marijuana is legalized, these illegal, tax dollar wasting sale arrests would turn into revenue generating sales for the country. The Pew Research Center reported that in 2010, 47% of inmates were in jail for drug related offenses. However this percentage fails to include the low level offenders that may serve for only a short period of time and are freed with drug charges still on their records. The author makes a good point to not forget that these potential unnecessary misdemeanor arrests create a chain reaction that affects our economy. He makes a good logical connection here. With drug charges still on their profiles, they are unable to find work then eventually fall desperate and resort back to selling the drugs that got them their in the first place. He proposes that lawmakers could help the crisis by making it easier to seal records of those who were convicted of non-violent marijuana crimes. He then shifts to pathos and educates the reader emotionally, while at the same time he keeps the ball rolling with logos and ethos. He brings up the medical opportunity the drug has and proves we could ease the suffering and even cure those who are currently living with a chronic illness. He starts off by making a somewhat persuasive statement. He notes that CNN’s chief medical correspondent, Sanjay Gupta, apologized for his assertion that marijuana is a dangerous gateway drug and that he changed his mind after meeting with a chronically ill patient that has seen major improvements in his health after he used medical marijuana as a treatment. This isn’t necessarily a bandwagon fallacy, but the author is trying to get the reader to think that just because someone with a higher rank of credibility changed his mind, that the reader should change theirs. He then resorts back to NORML’s credible data that notes a number of illnesses that the schedule 1 drug can help. Some of these illnesses we Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, HIV, various forms of cancer and many more. Then the author really hits the reader emotionally and explains one of the major reasons that originally changed his mind about the drug. He explains to the reader how his 60 year old father passed away in 2009 from pancreatic cancer. He later was surprised to learn from a family friend that authorities found prescription marijuana in his father’s car for his extreme pain. Because of this, he mentions that it really offends him when he hears conservatives claim that the drug has no medicinal value, without mentioning the real killers like tobacco. Schuette really touches the reader emotionally here. Schuette does a very good job at supporting his claim. He supports his viewpoint by using factual evidence to really prove to the reader. By using real statistics, it is less of a challenge to persuade the audience to side with him. He also does a very good job by touching the reader. He definitely is not trying any one to feel bad for him by telling the story of his father. He is just trying to put the reader in his shoes and let them know that this controversy is negatively affecting many people emotionally. He does an excellent job using all three of the rhetorical appeals and ultimately does a fantastic job making a powerful argument that marijuana legalization is well overdue.