The main argument of this article is that the economic benefits of legalizing marijuana in the U.S. far outweigh the economic windfalls. The article is drafted around two main keywords that I found: benefits, and decriminalization. These words support the author's argument by showing the reader how the legalization of marijuana will benefit the U.S., and how decriminalizing it would improve the lives of families who use the drug, and/or have been affected by the harsh laws surrounding it.
The author respects the current cultural norm of disapproval of the drug due to it being illegal in this country, but he works around those norms and beliefs by providing arguments and examples of why marijuana might not be so bad, without being persuasive and making readers feel that they must accept the drug.
A large focus of the article is aimed at the U.S. national identity of being too harsh with laws regarding the drug, and how the country treats occasional users as dangerous criminals who must be locked up with severe punishment. It aims to stray from this reputation and connect with the reader by giving examples of family members locked away for harmless "crimes" that were "committed" by users of the drug. I put those words in parentheses because the author is trying to show how they are not actual crimes, and no one is doing anything bad to the public by lighting up a joint in their own home or leisure time.
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| Wikipedia. Schein's model of organizational culture, July 7, 2009, Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 Unported |
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