Tow #23: Article: "Legalizing Medical Marijuana May Actually Reduce Crime" by Matt Ferner

Goals: When reading I would like to take better notes and spend more time with the text to fully understand it. When writing the TOW, I would like to avoid repetition in my analysis.

The debate over whether marijuana, medical or recreational, should be legalized has been an issue in the United States for decades. Matt Ferner, an author of many political opinion articles for the Huffington Post, added to this age-old debate by arguing that the legalization of medical marijuana does not create more crime but actually could reduce crime. In order to support this claim, Ferner uses facts from colleges who conducted an extensive amount of research on the topic, as well as statistics provided by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. In order to show that marijuana does not increase crime, Ferner uses data from Robert Morris, a professor of criminology at the University of Texas and conductor of the study of the effect of medical marijuana on crime rates from 1990 to 2006. Morris told the Huffington Post the he "found no evidence of increases in [...] crimes for states after legalizing marijuana for medical use" and in fact found that for crimes such as homicide and assault, there was "partial support for declines" in crime rates. Ferner uses Morris to appeal to ethos because he demonstrates that the source he used is credible. In addition to an appeal to ethos, Ferner's inclusion of Morris's facts show the audience that medical marijuana could be a benefit to society because there is no evidence to support that it increases crime rates. Along with data from the University of Texas, Ferner uses statistics from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to prove that medical marijuana does not increase crime. This source is used mainly to show that marijuana is not the main cause of violent acts of crimes, but alcohol is. According to a study conducted by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, "25 percent to 30 percent of violent crimes are linked to alcohol use." This is where Ferner's argument becomes ineffective. Rather than proving that medical marijuana reduces crime rates, he shows that alcohol increases crime rates. This a tangent that weakens his argument because while alcohol increases crime, medical marijuana may also increase crime. Although he does appeal to ethos, Ferner does not fully achieve his purpose due to the tangent of talking about alcohol rather than sticking to his original idea to proving that medical marijuana decreases crime.