Hines,1

Garrison Hines
Ms. Hamby
ENGL 1101-019
17 November 2014
Catchy Title Here
Never do drugs is a phrase that I hear very often from my mother, Deborah Hines, but
drugs is a vague term that has a very large umbrella. Tylenol, aspirin, and ibuprofen are drugs
that I, and many other people in the world, use regularly. These are examples of drugs that are
good for you, and brings a positive to the world. Those are not the kind of drugs my mother
thought of when she constantly barks at me, Dont do drugs. She is worried that I would start
using street drugs such as, cocaine, marijuana, heroin, meth etc. These street drugs often alters
the waves of the brain, and leads to a high. This high can bring negative effects to the body
and lead to chronic health issues and addiction. Out of all of the illegal street drugs, the most
commonly used is marijuana1. The use of marijuana has a very long and rich history, dating as
far back as 1000 B.C where people in India started to use it recreationally2. Though it was legal
to use, the American government saw the negative effects of the drug, and successfully outlawed
the use and sales of the drug in 19373. Though it was outlawed in 1937, the increased popularity
of marijuana usage has picked up in recent years. Today, more than 14 million Americans
regularly use marijuana despite the harsh laws against the drug.4 My group and I, decided that we
would help educate the people with the facts about the usage of marijuana. We chose to reach out
to high school students, college students, and the young adults of the 1960s. We choose high
1

Drugabuse.gov
http://www.newlinetheatre.com/potchapter.html
3
http://www.drugpolicy.org/blog/how-did-marijuana-become-illegal-first-place
4
http://norml.org/aboutmarijuana
2

Hines,2

school students because that is where many smokers first start. According to a study by the
National Institute on Drug Abuse, 36.4% of high school seniors have smoke marijuana, and
though that is a staggering number as many of them transition to college the number rises. 71%
of college students have admitted to trying marijuana and 18% of those people has classified
themselves as frequent users5. With an increasing amount of people using marijuana at an early
age, we felt that it was necessary to properly educate them. Finally we felt to go after the people
of the 1960s because they are the people who started the rise of marijuana usage. The New York
Times estimated that 99 percent of the crowd at Woodstock were smoking marijuana.6 These
people are the frontrunners of the marijuana usage, they are also the ones now advocating for the
legalization of the marijuana.

5
6

https://chuckdaly.wordpress.com/2013/07/24/up-in-smoke-71-of-college-students-smoke-weed/
http://www.lehigh.edu/~ineng/jac/jac-liz4.htm