False Depictions on Marijuana
Analyze this story: Coming home from work, I walked into a screaming match. My mother and my sister, Kharysma (Charisma) were arguing. I try my best not to listen to their arguments, but this argument caught my fullest attention. My mother and Kharysma were arguing because my mother found out that Kharysma had been smoking weed in the house. This only because we had just discussed weed in class. My sister said, “Ma, I really don’t understand why you’re wilding right now, like, weed is okay. It doesn’t have any major effects on your body, you know. Nothing detrimental. And … I think I saw a blunt rolled in ya room the other day.” My mother replied, “I dabble sometimes.” So Kharysma told my mother to not be a hypocrite and not to talk to her about what she does. My mother told Kharysma that even though she does smoke sometimes, she doesn’t do it in the house and Kharysma must respect her house. [unique_solution]The argument got more winded and my mother kept telling Kharysma that since she does not do it all the time, it will not affect her brain and her body as much. Since my mother found out Kharysma smokes weed on a regular basis, she wants her to stop doing it so often because of the “negative affects” it has on a person. I later spoke with my mother and asked her about the “negative effects” weed has? I also asked her why she “dabbles” if the effects of smoking weed are so negative? My mom said weed can lowers one’s IQ and their memory will not be the best. I asked if she really believed that since she smokes from time to time and my mother responded that she doesn’t do it all the time, just when she’s really stressed out from work. When my father found out, he was upset that they were both smoking and upset with how he found out. My father genuinely thinks that weed is something that can cause you to be lazy and it is addictive. I tried to explain to my mom and dad that the accusations that they both made were false. I tried to explain to them about the Marihuana Text Act that occurred in 1972 and all the information that I had learned recently. They did not want to listen to me, and I found it to be weird because my mother was indeed being a hypocrite and because my father is of African descent, he would be on my side of the argument. In 1973, the Marihuana Tax Act was put into place and was mainly because of the accusations and the prejudices against black and brown people. Many accusations like the one my parents described were proven to be incorrect. When Fiorello La Guardia, the Mayor of New York at the time, commissioned a study of weed that found no proof of people having dependency on the drug, no resilience or withdrawal from the drug no relationship with forceful or introverted conduct. (Gahlinger, 2001). It is proven though that smoking is the quickest way to enter the body and for you to feel the effects of it. Seven to ten seconds, precisely (Gahlinger, 2001). My parents were very closed minded about it, not so much my mother, but my father. I also found it strange that he was closed minded of the entire situation because he himself is a victim of substance abuse. Later, when I thought on the situation more, I came to realize that my father does not want Kharysma to follow in his footsteps and he did not want my mother allowing it. There are better coping mechanisms that help with depression, stress and anxiety (Young, 2017). I believe that is what my father wanted to explain to not only Kharysma, but my mother as well. Think about both formal and informal methods of control. Informal methods of control are things like shame, ridicule, fear, gossip, joking, making fun of … formal methods of control are things like fines, incarceration, expulsion, censorship… Use the following mnemonic device to help you in your analysis and data gathering: SPEAKING Setting—where does the activity you observe take place Participants—who is in the scene—ages/race/gender Ends—what are people doing? What is their end goal? Act sequence—what happens first, second, third. Is this a common interaction? Key—Are people serious or joking? Instrumentalities—Are people writing or speaking? Genre—Are people telling jokes? Stories? Etc? APA FORMA