Hector Moradel
Mr. Barbour
ENG 111 FJT01
8 June 2014
Marijuana, Should We Have It?
As everybody already knows just a few recent months ago the states of Washington and Colorado legalized the use of marijuana for recreational use. What this means for people in these states that are already using it for recreation use, is that they won’t get persecuted for having it. It also means that there will be a great increase in usage of marijuana, because it will become more culturally accepted since no one fears being punished for having it in those states. But even though these states legalized it because of the people’s demands for marijuana and because some of the positive impacts it would have on its states, marijuana can still be dangerous drugs to use if used incorrectly just like any other illegal drug. The topic of marijuana is a controversial topic all around the world, since it’s considered to be something dangers for, but at the same time it can be beneficial to some people. In this essay I will be analyzing three different online articles that I found going through the internet that were made because of the recent legalization of marijuana for recreational use in Colorado and being an important trending topic. I will analyze how these three different sources present the topic to the public, why they present the topic the way they do and their other goals of writing these articles.
Marijuana, ever since I can remember has been something people have told me not to get close to, but as time went on, my views of its changed with what others have said and showed me about it. Within these three articles that I am analyzing, each article presents the topic in a different way to imprint their views in the audience’s heads. Contained within the article, “5 Reason Marijuana Should Remain Illegal” the author John Hawkins present marijuana something only failures would do with his use his language such as “unmotivated, low class, degenerate- and, yes, smelly failures.” With this use of language the author presents to the public and makes them believe that anyone associates with marijuana is a malfunction of sociality (Hawkins). Hawkins continues on not just using degrading language to tarnish marijuana’s image, but also by telling examples like what would happen if some smoke it “birth defects, mental abnormalities and increased risk of leukemia in children”(Hawkins). These side effects examples convince the public the marijuana is a danger to their health.
As the article by John Hawkins continues and as he keeps on changing the image of the public view on marijuana, John Hawkins attacks the issues of physical health which is the main reason marijuana has been illegal for years. John Hawkins presents marijuana as a life risking substance that would harm anyone he uses it even though it is less harmless than other drugs it is still the something harmful to the human body. Hawkins does this by presenting examples of thing that may happen if used like "birth defects, mental abnormalities and increased risk of leukemia in children." These examples show that marijuana should not be played around with and people would not want to get near this drug.
Since the recent legalizing of marijuana for recreation use more and more people are accepting the legalization of marijuana everywhere. The article “This Is Why Marijuana Should Be Legal Everywhere” by Renee Jacques and Todd Van Luling, the authors try and present marijuana as something that has been culturally accepted by the people and a harmless and safe drug. The writers were able to present this image by placing an actual image of people celebrating marijuana (Jacques).

But this image is more than just showing people and their acceptance of marijuana, but showing a cultural reference on how deep the acceptance of how much marijuana is accepted and should be legalized. The image shows an iconic image of a popular TV show that millions of people have watched the Simpsons.