Argumentative reasoning Psychology Essay Research Paper

Argumentative reasoning
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Several people have given suggestions that Marijuana should be legalized in the United States (1). One reason as to why marijuana should be legalized lies in respect of the autonomy of the rights and freedom of American citizens (2). According to studies, around 55 million American adults use Marijuana for various purposes, which include around 43% of US college students (Bustamante, n.p) (3). They also suggest that prohibition prevents people in need of this drug from accessing therapeutic marijuana treatment, which ends up impacting minority groups and the susceptible population negatively (4). However, the opponents claim that the risks of legalizing marijuana could outweigh the benefits as it could be a risk to public health and civic disorder (5).
Evaluative Critique
Step 1: Summary of the main argument
The writer of this article argues that Marijuana should be legalized in the United States. The main driving reason for this argument is that studies show a majority of the adult population engage in the use of Marijuana for various purposes. The supporters also argue that the decision to use Marijuana is individual, and prohibiting its use becomes an infringement on the individual choices of the American citizen. The supporters also claim that many states have legalized the use of marijuana, which gives leeway to physiotherapists to prescribe Cannabis for medicinal purposes. The intended audience is majorly the adult age persons from the United States.
Step 2: Diagram
Sentence (1) “Several people have given suggestions that Marijuana should be legalized in the United States,” in the article is the main conclusion of the argument. The premises supporting the conclusion on why marijuana should be legalized lies in the sentence (2) which says "marijuana should be legalized due to respect for the autonomy of American citizens on their rights and freedom" and sentence (4) which states that “prohibition prevents people in need of this drug from accessing therapeutic marijuana treatment, leading to the impacting of minority groups and those susceptible,” with above premises emphasizing on sentence (3) which gives us the data supporting the main conclusion, “ around 55 million American adults use Marijuana for various purposes, which include around 43% of US college students”. The macro-structure of the above argument is simplistic in nature and can be depicted with the following diagram.
Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 1: The Macro-structure
In the microstructure, we portray the sub-arguments included in the given article. Two premises support premise (1). Premise (1) indicates that several people have given suggestions that Marijuana should be legalized in the United States. This argument is supported by premise (2) which indicates the use of cannabis as a choice (just like the use of alcohol), claiming that the prohibition of this choice infringes on citizen anatomy. Another reason to back this argument is in the sentence (4) – prohibition may prevent people in need of this drug from accessing therapeutic marijuana treatment, leading to the impacting of minority groups and those susceptible. These premises must work hand in h...