“The Great Debate”: The Legalization of Recreational Marijuana vs. The Legalization of Only Medical Marijuana

Marijuana is a drug that can be used medicinally or recreationally. As the legalization of marijuana is becoming more prevalent in the United States, people across the nation are debating its uses. This year the econ department held a debate discussing this topic.

The debate began with each side having five minutes to give their main arguments and then the other side got two minutes for a rebuttal. The recreational side’s main claim was that marijuana can be a huge source of economic growth, while the medical side felt strongly that the power should be given to the doctors, not the politicians.

The first argument the recreational side was that marijuana being classified as a class one drug was that the crime associated with it is a waste of taxpayer money, inherently racist, and leads to unnecessary gang violence. However, the medical side came back with a quick rebuttal claiming that once recreational marijuana was legalized in DC that they actually had to employ a larger police force. Furthermore the pro medicinal side showed that Colorado didn’t make nearly as much money as they were expecting because as soon as the drug was legalized recreationally, the prices dropped and little profit could be made.

The next main point that the recreational side made was that the growing of hemp on American soil would also help the United States financially and it would be good for the environment. They mentioned that the only part of the hemp plant that was used to get high was the flowering part and the rest of the plant is useful for making other things like shirts, rope, parachutes, and paper. They claimed that it would save a lot of trees if hemp were to be used for paper, mentioning that our Declaration of Independence was made out of hemp. However, the medicinal side had a good rebuttal for this too, they reminded us that the hemp plant was totally out of context for the debate because only some varieties of hemp plants had psychoactive properties and that the plants used for this purpose and the ones used to make paper and stuff would likely not be the same.

The final argument that the pro medical use only side made was that it would be safer for everyone if marijuana only medicinal marijuana was legalized because not only would the people who could benefit from it get access to it, but the doctors will also gain the ability to study its effects on a small, controlled population before the entire population is given access. I don’t think that the recreational side had a real rebuttal to this other than the fact that they thought that limiting legalization was limiting American’s freedoms.

In the end, the recreational side won by a large margin. As far as rhetorical strategies go, the medical side pulled out all of the stops using logos and pathos (I am not sure if they used ethos). Unfortunately their efforts to convey their ideas were in vain because (due to the crowd being made up completely of college students) there was a bias present that they could not overcome.