Knew Of Marijuana's Healing Properties For 30 Years By Jonathan Benson

“Government Knew of Marijuana’s Healing Properties for 30 Years” is an essay written by Jonathan Benson, detailing the conspiracy that is the federal government keeping marijuana away from the general public despite its numerous proven positive uses. Among the lists of medical uses it contains include assisting those diagnosed with HIV, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease. Cannabis also has been quietly patented by the government twice already for medical purposes, and is a fact Benson finds especially suspicious. If all the research claiming marijuana could be used for good is a lie, then why would the federal government try to have it for themselves? Benson argues that the reason is because THC isn’t in fact bad at all. Two methods of development used by Benson in his essay are compare/contrast and illustration. An example of Benson using compare/contrast can be seen in his fourth paragraph, where he compares and …show more content…
This comparison reveals the contradiction between what the Department of Justice says about marijuana (that it has no medical value), and how they treat the drug in private (hold it for possible medicinal effects and purposes). This can only lead the reader to conclude that the government is lying to the masses about the effects of marijuana and in actuality does see value in it, and is trying to keep it away from the people. This could of course be for various reasons such as to more adequately profit off of cancer treatments, or making sure certain expensive drugs remain on the market, but that is left ambiguous. What is for certain are the interesting contradictions between what the government says and how they act. An example of Benson using illustration in his writing can be seen in paragraph seven, where he claims his idea that the THC found in cannabis has extremely positive health effects, especially for those who are suffering severe