Visual arguments legalize weed by shanae

Marijuana is a natural herb that has been around for centuries. It has many positive and non-harmful affects. However, these affects are never discussed. It is always the negative side that people choose to see.
So my visual argument is a remake of an already existing ad from www.abovetheinfluence.com. This website is dedicated towards educating people on the dangers of smoking marijuana, cigarettes and other substances commonly used by teenagers. In the original ad, which reads “Jane I know why you’ve been skipping the gym. We need to talk Luv Sarah”, the girl Jane is obviously a frequent marijuana smoker and her friend Sarah is concerned for her. The ad is clearly trying to say that smoking marijuana has negative affects on your social life and relationships. It is blaming this on one of the side affects of marijuana: short-term memory loss. Above the Influence has many ads such as them that seek to illustrate the negative side affects of smoking marijuana. Other ads show the negative side affects it can have on those who may look up to you such as a younger sibling, while others just try to guilt you out of smoking. All of their ads highlight the negative affects of marijuana.
My visual argument is the same ad, only mine highlights a positive aspect of smoking marijuana. My ad reads “ Ja’nai, great bonding yesterday gotta do it again soon love nae.” The green box says "Live your own life. Do what makes you happy. Stay with who you love. Be your own influence". My argument is that when people smoke together they spend quality time together and strengthen their relationship. I know from the experiences of my friends that some of the most heart felt and personal conversations they have ever had have occurred over a blunt. I chose to use the words in the green box as my logo to go against the "above the influence" logo I believe that people need to be responsible for their own actions and everything that a person does, whether under the influence or not, is at some point exactly what they wanted to do. To make my image I used a picture of my and friend I already had and just followed the layout of the original ad. I basically wanted it to illustrate that friends who smoke together, stay together. Although marijuana may cause some relationships to fall apart, it brings others closer together. But in life relationships come and go anyway. It is just a natural cycle of things.



For my video argument I used a song by Rick James entitled “Mary Jane”. Mary Jane is a colloquial term used for marijuana. I used this song because it is one of the most well known songs about marijuana. The song personifies marijuana as a loose female. It is illustrating other positive affects of marijuana such as its ability to make a person feel good. I chose this song because I feel as though it is a great illustrator of the postive affects and generally feelings of people who smoke marijuana for recreational purposes.



I also used a song by Peter Tosh called “Legalize Marijuana”. In this song he states some colloquial names for marijuana. He also points out how widespread marijuana usage is and how diverse the group of marijuana users is. His line “Doctors smoke it, Nurses smoke it, Judges smoke, even my lawyer too” points out just how un-harmful marijuana is. If people with such high-powered careers can smoke and still be successful, how harmful is it really? This song was made back in the 1970’s. the longevity of it and of marijuana shows how futile the war against it is and how hopeless the efforts of the opponents of marijuana are. It is and always will be a cultural phenomen and all the time and effort used to stifle and destroy it are a waste that could have been used elsewhere.