Lexi Lund
Annotated Bibliography Revision
Professor Mary Hays
May 3, 2016
Medical Marijuana: What You Need to Know about the Billion Dollar Industry.
Working Thesis: Medical Marijuana has proven to be an effective treatment in almost 75 different illnesses, and although it is still one of the most controversial issues our country faces today, medical marijuana should be legalized in all 50 states.
Caulkins, Jonathan P., Angela Hawken, Beau Kilmer, and Mark Kleiman. Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
The easiest way to briefly summarize this book would be to read the table of contents and what each chapter includes. For example, the first chapter is titled “What is marijuana and what would it mean to legalize it?” but each chapter contains a subchapter that you can skip to, for example, “How does it feel to get high?” and “Is medical marijuana the same as illegal marijuana?” I haven’t read the entire book, but based on the chapters that I have read, the book does not include any bias and is solely informational. I would suggest this book to anybody who has no idea what medical marijuana is or is looking for information to form an opinion about marijuana. An area where this book will really help me is in the chapter “What are the medical benefits of using marijuana?” because in that chapter it talks about the contradiction between smoking being “bad” for you but, also being a medicine.
Based on the size and vocabulary of the book, it is a scholarly source. It contains graphs and statistical data that are very in depth and most likely confusing for some people to understand. Most of the authors are professors and are involved in research about public policy and/ or drug policy. This source is credible and contains a bibliography and citations of its own if you’re looking for further information not found in the book. Since this book was published in 2012, the data and statistics are relative but may not be as accurate as other recent studies.
DeWitt, Dave. Growing Medical Marijuana: Securely, Legally. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed, 2013. Print.
The main point of this book is solely informational. It goes in depth about the pure nature of growing marijuana legally in the United States and securely. The first few pages summarize the necessities to obtain a license in the United States where medical marijuana is legal. One of the main chapters in the book is about location and making sure your plants are safe. The author suggests growing inside, or camouflaging your plants to reduce the risk of theft. Although I will not be writing about the process of growing marijuana, this book contains information on how to obtain a medical marijuana which is beneficial to my paper.
Even though the main focus of the book is information on how to properly grow legal medical marijuana, it contains information about the benefits of marijuana and how it contributes to our society. The book is biased in the sense that it supports medical marijuana but does not take a stance on the recreational use of marijuana by saying “It doesn’t matter to me whether you’re growing marijuana to get high or get cured, or both. It’s my job to guide you as a gardener and help you produce the best possible legal crop, given the constantly changing policies.” It is a popular source but it is also somewhat scholarly because it contains medical terminology. It also contains its own bibliography and resources page that gives credit to other authors since not all the information is DeWitt’s. The book also contains a bias on the issue of medical marijuana but does not take a side with the issue of recreational use of marijuana.
Hecht, Peter. Weed Land: Inside America’s Marijuana Epicenter and How Pot Went Legit. Berkeley: U of California, 2014. Print.
This book is about the history of marijuana and how things have changed over time. The chapters that I will be using for my research are “Reefer Research” and “The Pot Docs” because they are more statistical and referenced toward medical marijuana. A lot of the chapters in this book contain stories and real life examples of the effects of medical marijuana on patients. While giving us true story examples, the book incorporates the changes in society at the time of when the story was taking place and how those changes affected the lives of many.
The vocabulary and content of this book makes it a popular source. If I want to include examples of the effects medical marijuana has on people’s daily lives, I would reference this book. Based on the information that he has reported, this source is credible and can be referred to when wanting to prove a point because it is about average Americans and how medical marijuana effected their lives. This source contains current examples but also examples dating back to the 70’s. Since it was published 2 years ago, all the information is up to date and should be reliable.
“Is Marijuana Medicine?” DrugFacts:. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.
Since this source is sponsored by the government, it contains information about the FDA’s view on medical marijuana. The reason medical marijuana is not an FDA approved medicine is because the FDA requires studies on thousands of humans to determine the benefits and risks of a possible medication. Published in 2015, this article contains recent studies, including animal studies, which concluded that marijuana has extracts that could help kill certain cancer cells and reduce the size of others.
Because this source is sponsored by the government, it’s a very credible. All the information is up to date and reliable. It contains no bias because the government can’t lean anyway regarding medical marijuana. The FDA lists what conditions medical marijuana can improve and answer any questions a reader may have. At the end of the article, they make sure to point out that the FDA has not approved medical marijuana as a medicine, but since most studies have shown to be successful in treatments, it has led to two FDA approved medications in different forms. This source is popular and is an easy reading material so anyone can read, but it also contains scholarly data and explanations.
Loria, Jennifer Welsh and Kevin. “23 Health Benefits Of Marijuana.” Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 20 Apr. 2014. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.
This source is very informational and is a good read for someone who is curious as to what medical marijuana helps prevent or treat. Some uses or treatments that they include are glaucoma treatment, the spreading of cancer, decreasing anxiety, arthritis discomfort, veterans suffering from PTSD and much more. Although this article includes the benefits of medical marijuana, in the introduction it states the negative effects of smoking too much marijuana or using it for non-medical purposes. The general explanation of chemicals in marijuana that benefit you the most, cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), are included in the article what role they play in the medical treatment.
The Business Insider is a credible source and is also popular. They include pictures and easy to understand vocabulary so anyone can read the article. Published in 2014, the article is current and up to date. It includes the opposition by saying that too much pot smoking can be negative, but it is definitely leaning toward the benefits of medical marijuana based on the amount of information that is provided supporting the use of medical marijuana.
Mack, Alison, and Janet E. Joy. Marijuana as Medicine?: The Science beyond the Controversy. Washington, D.C.: National Academy, 2001. Print.
This source includes 6 chapters solely based on each major disease that medical marijuana is prescribed for which includes pain, AIDS, cancer, muscle spasticity, neurological disorders, and glaucoma. Each chapter goes in depth about how the chemicals in marijuana help treat that disease and the pros and cons to smoking marijuana with that disease. Another part of the book that is beneficial to me is the chapter about the future of medical marijuana. Since this book was published in 2001, there has been much more research done and data proving that medical marijuana works. It’s interesting to see how the author predicted the future of medical marijuana based on his knowledge at the time, and to see how everything actually turned out 15 years later.
Based on the language used in this book, this source is popular but contains medical terminology. Since this book is 15 years old, I will have to compare the statistics in this book to recent studies to make sure my data is correct and accurate. I chose this source based on the chapter pertaining to the harmful effects of smoking marijuana because that does not support my thesis. The book doesn’t contain any pictures or charts, but it does include a variety of statistics and legal statements that are still used today.
“Medical Marijuana Inc. (OTC: MJNA).” Medical Marijuana Inc OTC MJNA. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.
Medical Marijuana Inc. is a company owned by the general public of people who have bought stock shares, but the neat thing about Medical Marijuana Inc. is that they are the first company to publicly invest in legal cannabis and hemp. Their goal is “to be a company that sets and exceeds standards, and helps people think about cannabis in a new way: as a staple of healthy diets and healthy lives.” Medical Marijuana Inc. is heavily invested in companies that are focused on marijuana and hemp research, agriculture, development and distribution supporting the growth of the industry. Their source is useful to my research because it contains information about each illness that medical marijuana effects but they also strongly value the benefits from cannabis which is the sole purpose of my research paper.
Even though this is a commercial website, it is very credible and contains a lot of useful information. Their company is dedicated to the research of medical marijuana and the benefits it could bring to people’s lives. The website is very up to date with research articles posted just a weeks ago. Medical Marijuana Inc. is very bias when it comes supporting medical marijuana and doesn’t contain any information on how marijuana could affect you in the long run; this is because they support the expansion of medical marijuana and invest a great deal of money into that. Any information that they have obtained not from their research, they have credited sources for.
“Ten Reasons Why Marijuana Should Not Be Legalized!” NR Focus. New Rochelle Focus, 8 Aug. 2014. Web. 08 Mar. 2016.
Since I fully support the legalization of medical marijuana in all 50 states, this article clearly states that they do not support the legalization of medical marijuana. Some of the statements that they make are predictions on what will happen to our society if medical marijuana is legalized. Since this website cites the sources where they found their information, I will use these statements to show the opposing side of my argument. I haven’t heard some of the statements this website has made, so I will have to gather more information. Since some of the statements are predictions, I will incorporate my own predictions based on the research I find.
Popular and bias is how I would describe this source. It is also credible because it’s funded by an organization and includes sources of where they got their information. New Rochelle Focus is definitely bias toward medical marijuana and does not support it. The title of the article reads “Ten reasons why medical marijuana should not be legalized!” and the opening sentence states “Disregarding the science, the New York Times recently came out in support of marijuana legalization.” This is a strong statement because the New York Times is such a widely known publisher, and New Rochelle Focus is publicly going against them.