Sample Essay: Argumentative
Marijuana: Help or Hazard?
If you are a young person in your twenties, chances are you have either smoked
marijuana, or you know someone who has. Marijuana is a plant that grows in warm climates,
and people have dried it and smoked it for decades. There are many names for marijuana:
dope, weed, reefer, pot, Mary Jane and others. Some people see pot as harmful and
dangerous, while others don’t view it as a problem. In fact, some people think there is a good
reason to smoke it. In my view, the use of marijuana can be a good thing, for these two
reasons: smoking pot helps people who have chronic illnesses, and it is also helpful in
decreasing anxiety and depression.
There are many health benefits of smoking marijuana. For example, it is proven to
decrease nausea. People with advanced cancer often experience upset stomachs and severe
nausea that comes with chemotherapy and other treatments. Using pot helps with that terrible
feeling. Moreover, it stimulates the appetite, which is a good thing for people who lose weight
from illness. A very good friend of mine has stage 4 cancer, and she uses pot almost every day.
She tells me that it helps with her pain and nausea. People who are suffering from terminal
illnesses should have every opportunity to feel better.
Another reason that weed is helpful is anxiety and depression. There are many people
in the world who are anxious and depressed, and pot may help with those feelings. Some
people take drugs or use alcohol for those conditions. Those are not good ways to deal with
anxiety. For instance, I know someone who drank every night because he thought it was
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helping with his anxiety, but he developed liver problems. Marijuana is not as harmful as
alcohol.
Some people might say that marijuana is illegal, and therefore people should not be
using illegal substances. That is true, but maybe the law is wrong and needs to be changed.
Forty or fifty years ago, doctors did not understand how pot can help sick people, but the
evidence is now very clear. People with chronic pain and terminal illnesses are helped by the
use of marijuana, and they should have the chance to feel better.
In conclusion, there are many medical conditions that are improved by using marijuana.
People who have severe pain report that their pain is decreased. Others say that it helps them
feel better and eat more. For these reasons, I think that marijuana should be legalized for
people who have medical conditions. This is a law that needs to be changed.
WORD COUNT: 441
Essay Analysis
1. What is the
hook?_________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
2. Why is it a good hook?
3. Background information in
introduction:___________________________________________________________________
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______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
4. What view does this author represent, pro-pot or anti-pot?___________________________
5. What are the two reasons for this view:
a)____________________________________________________________________________
b)____________________________________________________________________________
6. Body paragraph #1. Topic
sentence:______________________________________________________________________
Support for the TS:______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Personal example:_______________________________________________________________
7. Body paragraph #2. Topic
sentence:______________________________________________________________________
Support for
TS:___________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Personal example:_______________________________________________________________
8. Concluding paragraph. Restate? Opinion? Summarize? Call to action? Prediction? Advice?
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