Should Ptsd War Vets Have the Choice to Replace Prescription Pills with Medical Marijuana?
Kelsey Clifton
English 1164-007
10/10/2016
Should PTSD War Vets Have the Choice to Replace Prescription Pills with Medical Marijuana?
By 2011, the year before the Veterans Affairs opioid prescriptions peaked, the number of veterans who overdosed on opioids had risen 33 percent (Childress 1). Opioid usage tends to have negative effects on someone who truly is suffering from a traumatic event. However, Mark Thompson, a publisher, from the New York Times in his article “Post- Traumatic Marijuana” goes on about another alternative that PTSD war vets can consider. There are many PTSD war veterans who are taking too many prescription pills, becoming numb to themselves and the world around them instead of feeling at ease when the THC from medical marijuana hits their body. Many war vets who are battling a new battle with PTSD opt out of taking prescription pills in order to live and enjoy their life to the fullest. In order to live their lives, they are finding peace within themselves with the help of medical marijuana which relaxes their body and eases their mind. Thompson effectively uses pathos, logos and ethos to argue that war vets should be allowed to replace the harmful, mind-clouding prescription opioids with a more natural option; medical marijuana.
Pathos was the most effective rhetorical tool that Thompson uses to make us connect with the war veteran and feel sorry for Jose Martinez who is a war vet who lost all but one limb while fighting for our country over in Afghanistan. An example of pathos was, “I started taking so many prescription pills… I was numb to the world” (Thompson 1). From this quote the writer is showing the harmful effects that the opioids have on an individual and how he is truly feeling while taking all those pills. The reader gets the sense that Martinez has lived a very difficult life since returning home from war and being forced to deal with the pain of his missing limbs and the PTSD that is taking over his mind. Thompson shows how difficult Jose’s recovery process is by explaining the numbness he feels. It almost makes the reader feel a sense of pity for the war vet because he served our country and fought for our freedom and he’s being repaid by being numb from the world. How can one enjoy time with their friends, their family and the ones they love if they can’t feel for themselves? That is not the way someone who has sacrificed so much should have to go through for the rest of their life. Not only should he not have to live his life clouded but he should be able to still live and enjoy his life day by day. Pathos was effective when showing how prescription opioids fog over Jose’s mind because the reader feels guilty that someone who served for our freedom has to hide from his life with pills that only blur out the noise around him.
Thompson effectively uses pathos to explain how medical marijuana can have a positive effect on those who have suffered a traumatic loss. “Not only does it soothe the phantom pain of his [Jose Martinez] missing limbs, but it also eases a racing and apprehensive mind riven with PTSD” (Thompson 1). Although marijuana, medical or not, is a controversial topic its outcome has seen many benefits. One of the main benefits that marijuana is offering to those whose demons need helped tamed is that the war veterans are able to find peace. The reader is able to see that he’s more peaceful when Jose talks about it “easing his mind” Thompson explains Martinez’s experiences with marijuana and how he is using it positively to help his recovery process. Jose is able to remember and enjoy his life when he replaced the prescription opioids with the safer more effective option of medical marijuana. He effectively uses pathos by talking about the benefits that marijuana has on Martinez and how it eases his mind. It tugs at the reader’s heart for Martinez when the author talks about how apprehensive his mind is since he’s returned home from war with PTSD. No person who’s seen the things our Army men and women see day to day should have to suffer when they can feel at peace when smoking the natural substance.
In addition to the pathos Thompson uses to hurt the usage of prescription pills, he effectively uses logos to explain how these patients are filled with drugs that put a haze over them to help ease their mind. “In group therapy, PTSD patients get together to discuss their fears in hopes of riding them of their power. And there’s a medicine chestful of drugs” (Thompson 3). The way Thompson describes the prescription pills as a chestful of drugs, the reader views the pills in a negative way. Calling them “drugs” first of all and then saying that the PTSD patients are filled with them shows how dependent the war vets are to the pills. These war vets aren’t able to live their lives for a day without their minds being clouded over by all the legal prescription drugs they use in hopes of calming all their nerves. Also, the author talks about therapy in a way that wouldn’t be too helpful for the war veterans to go through by saying that they hope doing group therapy helps their PTSD. They are being forced to talk over the prescription pills and the doctors and therapist seem to think this is the only logical solution to help those who are dealing with the things they’ve been put through. Thompson effectively uses logos to show why it’s not logical to fill these war vets up with prescription opioids to calm their minds. In fact, it can be damaging to not only the war vet, but their family and loved ones around them since their time together will be clouded.