Week 3 – Article Rebuttal
Christopher Wright
BCOM/275
June 18, 2015
Alex Luna
Week 3 – Article Rebuttal The article “Legalization of Marijuana: Potential Impact on Youth” tries to take current statistical data and raise any concerns on how it will affect the youth of America. Their standpoint is that decriminalization and legalization will have a negative impact. “Alcohol (illegal for those under 21 years of age) and tobacco products (illegal under 18 years of age) are nonetheless the psychoactive substances most widely abused by adolescents” (Joffe, 2004), but this is to assume that legalization is to cater towards the youth. The logical fallacy in that statement is legalization is geared towards adults and not children. Statistics show that minors do get access to these substances, but that is a matter of security and oversight. Just because one person cannot regulate their children does not mean another person can’t. “DiFranza has demonstrated that both the states and the federal government are poorly enforcing the Synar Amendment, which requires states to control the sale of tobacco products to those younger than 18 years. Legalization of marijuana for adults but not adolescents would necessitate additional law enforcement burdens on a system that currently is not meeting its regulatory obligations” (Joffe, 2004) shows a logical fallacy of comparing medical cannabis to tobacco of which is not for medicinal usages in any state. Minimum age requirements of any sorts will always be deterred by those who want to
