Speechcraft Help: Should Marijuana Be Legal

[Derek Gatz]

Background: Hey, I'm a 2nd year pharmacy student and one of the course requirments is completing a public speaking program. My second speech is suppose to be about a serious subject that we can speak earnestly about in order to persuade others. I was having a hell of a time thinking of a subject, then decided that an argument for the legalization of marijuana (in Canada) fit the bill.

I've looked into this subject briefly, but not to the point where I can write a 7-8 minute speech about it. I will be doing my own research mainly through Google and MTRG as I have to give this speech on Monday. However I also thought that this might be a place where I could get some strong supporting arguments, so I would appreciate any advice/opinions.

I'm currently considering my areas of discussion to be political (not health) illegalization, the economic benefits to governments/decreased crime, and how marijuana's negative effects are dismal compared to tobacco and alcohol. Thanks for any info.

[Jason Hyatt]

Background: Hey, I'm a 2nd year pharmacy student and one of the course requirments is completing a public speaking program. My second speech is suppose to be about a serious subject that we can speak earnestly about in order to persuade others. I was having a hell of a time thinking of a subject, then decided that an argument for the legalization of marijuana (in Canada) fit the bill.

I've looked into this subject briefly, but not to the point where I can write a 7-8 minute speech about it. I will be doing my own research mainly through Google and MTRG as I have to give this speech on Monday. However I also thought that this might be a place where I could get some strong supporting arguments, so I would appreciate any advice/opinions.

I'm currently considering my areas of discussion to be political (not health) illegalization, the economic benefits to governments/decreased crime, and how marijuana's negative effects are dismal compared to tobacco and alcohol. Thanks for any info.

My personal favorite arguments have always been as such (though they are not economic or particularly political in nature):

We as a culture have already recognized that it is OK to ingest a substance for no purpose other than to change your mental state. We've accepted as a society that it is OK to drink alcohol for no purpose other than to change your mental state. Alcohol is the great "social lubricant." There are also, of course, prescription medications we've developed to treat thousands of medical problems. We have a vast array of prescription medications designed specifically to alter our brain chemistry so we feel better (be it temporarily or for life). Some of those medications have very narrow safety windows. Some of them are also subject to abuse -- even when properly prescribed by a physician.

Which brings us to marijuana. Here is a substance with an LD50 so high it is effectively impossible to overdose. You can kill yourself the first time you drink. If we've accepted that it is OK to ingest a substance that is potentially fatal for no purpose other than to feel good, why is a substance with an impeccable safety profile illegal?

There is the anti-smoking argument; however, as long as tobacco remains legal that is really a moot point. We start to see smoking-related illness at around 20 pack-years. That's a pack a day for 20 years, or a half pack for 40 years. To smoke enough weed to achieve a 20 pack-year history, you would be baked out of your gord 24/7. You would simply be non-functional for the majority of your days for 20 or more years to develop the kind of lung disease we see in tobacco smokers (Seriously. Picture an entire pack of 20 cigarettes full of medical-grade weed. Imagine smoking that whole thing every single day. That is more than one big-ass joint per hour per day. I don't care how much you like weed that is a LOT of marijuana). Beyond that, there are other means to ingest marijuana that do not require you to smoke.

There is simply no argument that applies to marijuana that does not also apply to alcohol, tobacco, or both. Alcohol can kill you. Weed won't. Tobacco will kill you, weed won't. If alcohol is legal, if tobacco is legal, if Prozac is legal, if Viagra is legal (and covered by medical insurance!), then there is no coherent argument for keeping marijuana illegal.

[Joe Durham]

You might also check out NORML.org and MPP.org

[Derek Gatz]

Thanks guys, managed to put together a pretty decent speech
Now just to pull it off...