To begin, you will use the topic you selected in the Week 1 Standard Form Arguments discussion forum and continued working

Is Marijuana Use Safe?

Modeled example for the Week 3 assignment

John Smith

University of Arizona Global Campus

PHI103 Informal Logic

Dr. Christopher Foster

Due: Day 7 of Week 3

Begin with a title page,

formatted according to

APA standards.

With many states legalizing both medical and recreational marijuana, an important

question for voters, legislators, and potential users is whether marijuana is safe. There have been

many studies done on the topic, with findings on both sides. The focus of this paper will be to

present scholarly research on both sides of the question and to evaluate the quality of each. To

provide the most reliable information possible, I have chosen to present the findings of meta-

studies on each side of the question of the safety of marijuana use. I will present and evaluate the

reasoning used by each and conclude with a discussion of the value of different types of sources

in terms of the degree of support that they provide for their conclusions.

Presentation of an Argument that Marijuana Use is Safe

A large meta-study was performed by a group of researchers at UC San Diego focusing

on the long-term neurocognitive effects of cannabis use (Grant et al., 2003). The study analyzed

other studies that had been done, comparing data for 623 cannabis users against 409 non- or

minimal users. The researchers found that chronic users of marijuana showed minor decreases in

performance in the categories of learning and remembering, but no other significant effects. The

study concludes that cannabis is probably safe for use for medical purposes (2003).

The primary argument given may be represented in standard form as follows:

Premise 1: Combining data from studies that have been done on the effects of marijuana

use on cognitive function allows for a large data pool from which to draw strong

conclusions.

Premise 2: In six out of the eight cognitive areas studied, namely: reaction time, attention,

language, abstraction/executive, perceptual, and motor skills, no significant cognitive

impairment was found among marijuana users.

The paper begins with an introductory paragraph, allowing readers to learn and see the importance of the research topic.

Introductory paragraphs should contain a preview of what will be covered in the rest of the paper.

Clear section headings make certain that the paper is organized and make it easy for instructors to know that all required elements of the assignment have been covered.

This paragraph introduces the reader to the source and overviews its findings.

The clearest way to express an argument is in standard form, with the premises labeled and listed above the conclusion.

The premises of the argument are not usually listed clearly within articles (scholarly or otherwise). It is necessary for you to formulate what you feel is the main argument given in the paper.

Premise 3: In the two areas in which cognitive impairment was found, learning and

memory, the effect was small and could have been affected by sample bias.

Premise 4: Medical use of marijuana tends not to involve long term use, resulting in even

more minor, if any, ill effects.

Premise 5: Medical use of marijuana is likely to have benefits that outweigh minor

amounts of harm.

Conclusion: Medical use of marijuana has “an acceptable margin of safety under the

more limited conditions of exposure that would likely obtain in a medical setting” (Grant

et al., 2003).

Evaluation of the Argument that Marijuana Use is Safe

The reasoning presented appears to be strong since the premises appear adequately to

support the idea that the potential harms are minor and either do not apply to medical use or are

outweighed by the benefits to be gained therefrom. The article also attempts to explain away the

negative effects in learning and memory, suggesting that they could be due to selection bias in

the articles reviewed or due to an insufficient time of non-use of the drug prior to the study

(Grant et al., 2003). If the article is right about that, then perhaps there is no significant

neurological harm even in those two areas. The article supplies substantial support for its

premises, since there is a large data pool, all of it gathered from scientific studies.

However, the article points out that there are limitations of the research, such as different

lengths of time within the studies since the last use of the drug and the question of whether long

term marijuana users may not have the same initial cognitive abilities as those that do not,

making causal inferences more difficult (2003).

The premises and conclusion of your argument should be put in your own words. If some passages are directly from the source, then they should occur within quotation marks, with the source cited.

After the argument is given, there is a paragraph detailing the strength of the reasoning (how certain the premises make the conclusion, assuming that they are true).

This is a comment on the amount of support for the premises.

It is important to point out any weakness in the reasoning as well. Sometimes these weaknesses are pointed out in the article and not necessarily fallacious. Other times, you may notice weaknesses in the reasoning that are not acknowledged within the article itself. Either way, it is important to comment on any such factors affecting the strength of the reasoning.

The instructions do not require that you address ALL of the bullet points listed, but states, “You may address questions such as the following.” I chose the ones that seemed most relevant here.

Presentation of an Argument that Marijuana Use is Unsafe

On the other side of the issue, a study from 2016 seems to demonstrate the exact opposite

conclusion. The authors show that use of marijuana, especially by teens, has many long term

negative effects and is associated with a multitude of, including physical, psychiatric,

neurological, and social impairments (Feeney & Kampman, 2016). The argument presented can

be summarized as follows:

Premise 1: Marijuana is addictive (Volkow et al., 2014).

Premise 2: Marijuana causes breathing problems (Tashkin et al., 2002).

Premise 3: Marijuana may increase the likelihood of developing schizophrenia and other

psychiatric symptoms (Arseneault et al., 2004).

Premise 4: Marijuana causes long terms harms cognitive abilities, including attention,

memory, processing speed, and executive functioning (Thames et al., 2014).

Premise 5: Marijuana use by teens is correlated with lower academic achievement, job

performance, and social functioning in relationships (Palamar et al., 2014).

Premise 6: Marijuana use results in decreased psychomotor function, and reaction time,

causing driving risks (Neavyn et al., 2014).

Conclusion: Marijuana use can cause physical, psychological, neurological, and social

harm, especially when used by adolescents.

Evaluation of the Argument that Marijuana Use is Unsafe

The reasoning in the article seems quite strong. The conclusion seems to follow from the

premises since it mostly summarizes the research findings. Furthermore, the premises are well

supported since they are all based in scientific research studies.

However, there are some limitations in the strength of the reasoning (as noted within the

study). One of those limitations is that we are not sure in all cases if marijuana use is the cause of

It is good to supply section headings that are as clear as possible about what the section covers.

It is important to present both arguments as strongly as possible. One of the points of this assignment is to be able to understand and appreciate the strongest arguments on each side of issues (rather than to take sides).

These sentences evaluate the strength of the reasoning itself.

This sentence comments on the support for the premises (which is a separate question from the strength of the reasoning).

In addition to summarizing the strength of the reasoning and support for the premises, it is important to note any sources of weakness within the argument.

the impairment observed. For example, the article notes that the correlation with schizophrenia

may or may not be causal (Feeney & Kampman, 2016). Furthermore, most of the studies focus

on the use of marijuana by teens; therefore, these results may have limited application to

discussions of marijuana use among adults, especially those using it for medical purposes.

Evaluation of Arguments in Scholarly and Non-Scholarly Sources

Both of these scholarly sources supply quite a bit of evidence for their conclusions by

analyzing the data from multiple scientific studies. Non-scholarly sources, by contrast, frequently

make claims that are not supported at all, or are only supported by other partisan sources. One of

the non-scholarly sources I read does not explicitly cite any research at all, but only implies that

it exists (Foundation, n.d.). This allows non-scholarly sources, such as advocative web pages, to

make it sound as though the case for their position is much stronger than it actually is.

However, as we have seen, even scholarly sources are capable of contradicting each

other. This would not be surprising in non-scholarly sources, especially between sources with

advocative intent. It is more surprising to find contradictory results within scholarly sources.

However, there are possible ways to resolve these contradictions. One possibility comes

from noting that the first meta-study combined the data from its studies. Some of these specific

studies showed greater and lesser scores for various neurocognitive skills among marijuana

users, and the meta-study’s methodology allowed them to cancel each other out. The study on

the contrary side, on the other hand, simply cited one source each for the various harms, which

may have enabled the authors to select studies to cite that showed results more favorable to their

preferred conclusion.

This section contrasts the evidence given by scholarly sources (Week 3) with the amount of evidence given by non- scholarly sources (from Week 2).

Part of the point of the Week 2 and Week 3 assignments is to contrast the type of support that one can find in scholarly versus non-scholarly sources.

Some of the questions in the prompt for this section are intended to be somewhat open- ended … the purpose is to critically discuss the sources of evidence, including the relative strengths and weaknesses of each. This analysis goes beyond just answering those questions and focuses on an interesting related issue about apparent contradictions one can find even in scholarly research.

Thus, while non-scholarly sources can be clearly partisan and non-objective, pulling from

whichever sources, reliable or not, that support their point of view, even scholarly sources are

able to analyze data in ways that are far from neutral.

Conclusion:

Studying the reasoning on each side of the issue has been enlightening. Though there is

still debate, even among scholars, about the safety of marijuana use, studying the reasoning from

high quality sources gives perspective about the type of evidence that is being used on each side,

allowing one to assess which evidence is more reliable and provides more support for its

conclusion. In the future, I am more likely to go to scholarly sources over popular ones and to

analyze a multitude of scholarly results to understand the issue from a more well informed point

of view.

A simple concluding paragraph can contain things such as thoughts on what one has learned about the value of searching out different types of sources.

References

Arseneault, L., Cannon, M., Witton, J., & Murray, R. M. (2004). Causal association between

cannabis and psychosis: Examination of the evidence. British Journal of

Psychiatry, 184(2), 110-117. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.184.2.110

Feeney, K. E., & Kampman, K. M. (2016). Adverse effects of marijuana use. The Linacre

Quarterly, 83(2), 174-178. https://doi.org/10.1080/00243639.2016.1175707

Foundation for a Drug Free World. (n.d.). The truth about marijuana: Behind the smoke screen.

http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/marijuana/behind-the-smoke-screen.html

Grant, I., Gonzales, R., Carey, C., Natarajan, L., & Wolfson, T. (2003). Non-acute (residual)

neurocognitive effects of cannabis use: A meta-analytic study. Journal of the

International Neuropsychological Society, 9(5), 679-689.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355617703950016

Neavyn, M. J., Blohm, E., Babu, K. M., & Bird, S. B. (2014). Medical marijuana and driving: A

review. Journal of Medical Toxicology, 10(3), 269-279. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13181-

014-0393-4

Palamar, J. J., Fenstermaker, M., Kamboukos, D., Ompad, D. C., Cleland, C. M., & Weitzman,

M. (2014). Adverse psychosocial outcomes associated with drug use among US high

school seniors: A comparison of alcohol and marijuana. American Journal of Drug and

Alcohol Abuse, 40(6), 438-446. https://doi.org/10.3109/00952990.2014.943371

Tashkin, D. P., Baldwin, G. C., Sarafian, T., Dubinett, S., & Roth, M. D. (2002). Respiratory and

immunologic consequences of marijuana smoking. Journal of Clinical

Pharmacology, 42(S1), 71S-81S. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1552-4604.2002.tb06006.x

Always have a reference section that contains citations for all of the sources that you use within the article.

Thames, A. D., Arbid, N., & Sayegh, P. (2014). Cannabis use and neurocognitive functioning in

a non-clinical sample of users. Addictive Behaviors, 39(5), 994-999.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2014.01.019

Volkow, N. D., Baler, R. D., Compton, W. M., & Weiss, S. R. B. (2014). Adverse health effects

of marijuana use. New England Journal of Medicine, 370, 2219-2227.

https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMra1402309

You do not have to have this many resources, only the number required in the assignment instructions.