Rhetorical Activites 1&4

1) The issue that I chose to talk about was whether cannabis should become illegal in the United States. This issue is quite interesting, because there are many views to recognize. On Wednesday of last week, Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) introduced a bill that would remove federal penalties for personal use of marijuana. Ever since it was outlawed after the Prohibition in 1937, the U.S. federal government has kept a strict mind set on the issue.
The kairos of this issue is like the gun control/violence in the text’s example, because the government’s officials do not state clearly their position on whether cannabis should be illegal or not, they all just say the issue needs time for further discussion. Just like the government officials say they need more time on what to do with the gun-free zones throughout the United States. Now, that Congressman Frank posed this issue it has become urgent news.
The communities and pro-cannabis groups are favoring these times, because the issue is now openly up for discussion in the federal government. People who are for the issue of making cannabis legal have argument upon argument of why it is necessary for cannabis to be legal. Cannabis users argue, marijuana can be used to treat illnesses, including glaucoma, asthma, multiple sclerosis and H.I.V. /A.I.D.S. Talk show host Montel Williams who has multiple sclerosis and has to take over a 100 pills a day uses medical marijuana to help ease his pain agrees that cannabis should be legal in the U.S. for reasons like his own. People like John Walters, director of national drug control policy who is against cannabis being legal said in a press release that "Marijuana is the blindspot of drug policy....Baby Boomers have this perception that marijuana is about fun and freedom. It isn't. It's about dependency, disease, and dysfunction.”
The writers/ speakers defiantly write in their own interest for the issue. You can easily tell if they favor the issue or not, because in the articles there is a lot of “changing of the subject” that initially pulls toward a related issue such as the topic of medical marijuana or how the government spends around $10 billion dollars of taxpayers money to enforce cannabis laws.

4) Does the drinking age in the U.S. still need to be twenty-one? The United States is the only country in the world that has its legal drinking age be 21 years old. The argument that it pro longs the abuse of alcohol in the country is completely blindsided by the fact that if people want to do something they are going to do it even if there are possible repercussions. College students like me are influenced by alcohol everyday, because drinking has now become a social activity.