Marijuana Policy Persuasive Speech

Ryan Kruse
Hello Congressman, before you head into your all important work I would like to speak with you for a moment about medical marijuana policy. I represent the Marijuana Policy Project, a group dedicated to not only “chang[ing] state laws to reduce or eliminate penalties for the medical use of marijuana” but also, “gain[ing] influence in Congress” (Marijuana Policy Project, n.d.). The second part of our mission is the main reason I stand before you today and why it is so imperative that members of my organization continue to spend these precious minutes with their Congressmen to address the future of marijuana policy. Firstly, many who oppose marijuana reform will argue that marijuana is harms male fertility. In the textbook Drugs,…show more content…
The British Medical Journal published an article in 2003 which stated that “no acute lethal overdoses of cannabis are known, in contrast to several of its illegal and legal counterparts” (Sidney, 2003). Also, we want you to understand that regular smoking does not cause any permanent injury to the lungs. In the article “Puffing is the Best Medicine” Lester Grinspoon states that there “have been no reported cases of lung cancer or emphysema attributed to marijuana” (Grinspoon, 2006). As you can see, marijuana is much less harmful than many people think at first…show more content…
(2006). Puffing is the best medicine. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http:// articles.latimes.com/2006/may/05/opinion/oe-grinspoon5
2.Grinspoon, L. (2001). On the pharmaceuticalization of marijuana. International Journal of Drug Policy, 12(5-6), 377-383. Doi: http://www.ijdp.org/article/S0955-3959%2801%2900110-4/abstract.
3.Ksir, C. & Ray, O. (2004). Drugs, society and human behavior.
4.Marijuana Policy Project. (n.d.). Our Mission and Vision. Retrieved from http://www.mpp.org/ about /mission-statement.html
5.Sidney, S. (2003). Comparing cannabis with tobacco—again. British Medical Journal, 327, 635-636. Retrieved from