Both Healy’s and Klein’s articles provide interesting and entertaining views on the marijuana legalisation debate. Healy sides with the medical evidence that marijuana is detrimental to health, especially of young people, and that anything that could damage the health of future generations cannot be worth the risk. Klein, on the other hand, argues that there are many positive elements of marijuana use and that research into effects, both good and bad, is only young and incomplete.
Over all, I found Klein’s argument to be more persuasive than Healy’s. Klein’s makes the point that there are far more dangerous elements of society which are currently legal, such as alcohol and, to an extent, gambling. Furthermore, he is correct that the policing and dealing with people convicted of marijuana use is expensive and unmanageable. With this is mind, perhaps it would be better for the government to admit defeat, legalise the drug, and then at least have a way of controlling it.
An additionally persuasive argument for the legalisation of marijuana is the employment that would be created in areas such as production, packaging and marketing, not to mention the huge boost to the economy in terms of tax on the drug. These are huge reasons which cannot be ignored and Klein presents the argument in an appealing and authoritative manner.
While Healy’s article is sensible, well-written, and appeals to the reader’s sense of traditional moral and scientific reason, Klein’s article is far more relevant, up-to-date, and is unafraid of addressing the real facts. While a reader’s cultural upbringing may cause him to oppose the legalisation of marijuana, forward thinking and facing up to the fact that the world is changing, may well cause him to reconsider his position.
