'Yes, I don't know why I didn't think of it, but I think that would help immensely.'

Background:
This title was a statement that was made by presidential candidate Gary Johnson upon his views of marijuana with an interview with Huffington Post. The article that was brought to my attention, was written by Lucia Graves who does most of her articles over political based matters for the Huffington Post. It is clear by this post that Gary Johnson backs up the idea of the legalization of marijuana just about 100%. He discusses many points that are valid for legalizing marijuana such as the amount of people doing time behind bars for it, the percent of people that are for legalizing marijuana, and his own experiences with the substance.

Analysis:
Lucia Graves does a good job covering the details of Johnson’s ideas agreeing for legalization in this article.

Basically... this post follows like this in a premises and conclusion form:
P1: About 50% of the population agrees with the legalization of marijuana.
P2: Legalizing Marijuana would save billions in tax revenue.
P3: Marijuana helped Johnson and should be used in finding relief for many.
C: Marijuana should be legalized.

It is stated that he thinks its only a matter of time until it is legalized:

"Clearly it is when, not if," he said of legalizing cannabis. "When 50 percent of the population says to the other 50 percent, 'You belong behind bars for your actions,' that's not good law, that is just not good law at all."

Lucia covers this with information made from a poll which states:

“The past two decades alone have seen a marked shift in public opinion on the issue, according to the annual poll conducted Oct. 6-9. When respondents were asked in 1970 if the drug should be made legal, only 12 percent agreed. That number rose to 28 percent by the late 1970s, dipped slightly lower in the 1980s, and rose to 36 percent in 2006. Support has spiked in the past five years, with 40 percent of respondents favoring legalization in 2009 before numbers jumped another 10 percent this year.”

It shows here that more and more people as the years went by, basically have grown into the idea of marijuana. But how accurate is this really? Was this nationwide? If i asked my mother and father, will they tell me that they took this poll also? Not only by these statements was numbers and statistics used, but by this comment also:

“Legalizing marijuana would save roughly $8.7 billion per year in government expenditure on enforcement of prohibition, according to research by Harvard economics professor Jeffrey Miron. He also calculated that the legalization of marijuana would generate approximately $8.7 billion in tax revenue.”

This statement right above shows information that can be better used for an argument than the poll given above it. I'm sure it is much more logical and easy to generate an approximate amount of money for tax revenue than it is possible to get a nationwide poll on the percentage of people who thinks marijuana should be legalized. But on another note, there was one thing that fascinated me the most in this article. Johnson used his own story of his time spent after a paragliding accident he was in, in 2005 as stated here:

"I was a pile of bones. I was told to lay on the floor, and to stay laying down on the floor for six weeks, to eat off of the floor. I could get up and go to the bathroom. In that state somebody came by and said, 'Gary? Would marijuana help do you think?' And my response was immediately, 'Yes, I don't know why I didn't think of it, but I think that would help immensely.' And it did."

I must say Gary, this story is quite touching. Its a real attention grabber for an audience to see that this presidential candidate of ours, had an encounter with marijuana. But its not like he had any other choice, it worked out for him as sure as he is that it could help others also:

"Whatever ails a person, that they should find relief in marijuana and not Percocet, I would think should be a situation of rejoice," Johnson said, referring to the Centers for Disease Control study.


With Johnson’s story here, we can say that his story itself is a fallacy which appeals to pity. Johnson gets us locked into his story, gets us emotional and teary-eyed by evoking this pity. Although he brings about this fallacy, another one was also brought about in this article. It would have to be the area where Lucia and Johnson cover that half of the population agrees with the legalization. It shows a case of fallacy that appeals to the people (Ad Populum). They show that people have favorable emotions towards the legalization towards marijuana, in place of actual evidence. Even though there was a poll here with all the data and statistics give, it would still not be ration to accept the claim just because most people approve of it. Though there was one good evidence which applied towards the tax revenue collecting about 9 billion dollars, these two fallacies shadowed that statement. I am diagnosing this argument as Dead on Arrival.