My speech to my whole college about good ol' mary jane - General

Tomorrow I have been tasked with giving a speech that I had recently done in front of my peers, this speech, involved Cannabis and its legalisation. Now, I am supposedly meant to give this speech in front of all four years of my college, the principal, the fucking priest of Westminster or some shit and the parents of most students who go there. Now, I was quite surprised that I had been chosen, as the English department had to decide out of the fifty odd speeches which was the best to present, not because I am bad at English, but because of the topic and the taboo that comes with it around schools/colleges. What I basically did when I originally did it was watch the Union twice over the course of one week, make a few main points, and wing it on the day. I have covered the Myths, the history and the culture. I put this forward to you, DD, are there any underlining things I should point out or anything at all that will make this speech kick ass and show the vicar of Westminster cannabis is awesome.

I don't know what to suggest, but end it with "And this why we should smoke weed. 'Erry day"

Jesus is everywhere when you smoke weed

I was gonna say how its should be used as a medicine but that should be in the culture, as people long long longgg ago were using it as such. Not quite sure what nation/tribe used it first as im sure thats really a unknown but anyhow kick ass with the speech bro and educate them mu fuckers.

You mind posting what you have already?

Respect.

i hate when people call weed mary jane

Above all make sure to add that weed doesn't kill, its the stupid shit that irresponsible kids do while high that kills.

Hey can you post the speech?

[QUOTE=Lipsonfire;26596314]Above all make sure to add that weed doesn't kill, its the stupid shit that irresponsible kids do while high that kills.[/QUOTE] how many stories do you know of someone dying because theyre high?

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbsBj8NRufw[/media]

[QUOTE=Twitch;26597793]how many stories do you know of someone dying because theyre high?[/QUOTE] know someone who jumped of a building.. he was high.. but im not saying weed was the cause. everyone has struggles, so i think that would have been the main cause

[QUOTE=arthuro12;26598211]know someone who jumped of a building.. he was high.. but im not saying weed was the cause. everyone has struggles, so i think that would have been the main cause[/QUOTE] Sounds like PCP to me...aye bro I just did this shit man, Imma go fly around the city for a minute. He actually prolly thought he was flying on the way down until he had a abrupt stop when he bounced off the concrete and everything in his body busted/broke.

Your goal should to be more thought provoking more than anything. I'd suggest avoiding absolute claims that aren't related to fact, as in don't say "weed should be legal because all of these facts so" because then it sounds like you are just putting facts to your opinion. Put more of a rational spin on it, such as "If marijuana has been shown to be less dangerous than alcohol, then in some way it would make sense to legalize it. But if it does not make sense, then it must also not make sense to have alcohol legal, in which case both marijuana and alcohol should be illegal". The argument is completely rational provided you fill in the gaps prior as to how marijuana is safer. The best thing about it is that you create a false sense of choice regarding the audience's opinion. Instead of telling them why they should think this, you are instead giving them a choice what to think, and they'll most likely side with the first one because they likely do not think alcohol should be illegal. Regardless with their opinions on marijuana, they can't reject its legality unless they reject alcohol's legality. Some people may, but the majority won't. Also, when you talk more about making alcohol illegal, it gives people more time to focus on that and to get an opinion on it. It also creates a false sense that you may be suggesting to ban alcohol because people tend to focus more on their own opinion, which will create a bit of a stronger reaction because the people feel like they are disagreeing with you. And just compare it to saying only "If marijuana has been shown to be less dangerous than alcohol, then it would make sense to legalize it". The issue with people talking about marijuana is that to really get people thinking you don't want to tell them what to believe. Present them with rational choices and most will choose the rational decision. I'd say it is best to pretend you're coming at a perspective where you don't know what to believe. I doubt you'll have enough time to make a lot of changes, but what I am trying to say is that your argument will be a lot stronger if you don't come at it from the side of "here is why it should be legal".

May be too late for this but I don' give a FUCK. Try to break into the audiences minds, try to make them question everything they know about drugs and how they convey the situation. Bring forth the fact that their elementary schools would bring in very happy and joyous cops to scare you about the dangers of drugs on their young and impressionable minds. Tell them how they were [b]BRAINWASHED[/b] into fearing weed.

Hey guys, sorry I didn't respond to you all last night, I fell asleep. I would like to thank you guys for the advice, much of which was used in the speech. I got a great reaction from the pupils and a mixed reaction from the teachers/parents. I noticed that all of the science department were nodding and quietly talking throughout my speech, and in the end my Biology teacher came up to me and said "You did a great job and we were all impressed with the research you had done." The vicar however seemed to be pissed off with me as I did my speech right after his about "God", telling me that he would have preferred a more "appropriate topic" to follow him up, I just looked at him and said "Well most people seemed to like it so..." and then I started to a bunch of students who go there that were congratulating me on having the balls to do it. All in all I think it went pretty well, apart from pissing off some of the parents, but that was expected.

Nice one! Did you manage to get in about how much of a massive failure prohibition is?

[QUOTE=BANNED USER;26600336]May be too late for this but I don' give a FUCK. Try to break into the audiences minds, try to make them question everything they know about drugs and how they convey the situation. Bring forth the fact that their elementary schools would bring in very happy and joyous cops to scare you about the dangers of drugs on their young and impressionable minds. Tell them how they were [b]BRAINWASHED[/b] into fearing weed.[/QUOTE] Like I said in the post above, telling people who are against weed that they are brainwashed and don't know the facts isn't at an effective way to convince people. People who believe that 9/11 was a conspiracy say the same exact thing. "The government brainwashed you into believing what they wanted. Do you really think you know what happened? Well [list factual stuff that people didn't know]. There are so many facts to back it up [list them]. We are all brainwashed by fear and need to take a stand against the government." Now just but that argument to the legalization of weed. I just isn't working to work, especially when you start talking just listing a lot of facts that people are not going to be so keen to believe. You don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist because even sounding like one gets rid of your credibility with a lot of people.

OP, is there video anywhere of your speech?

I indeed managed to show the stupidity of prohibition through examples of the alchohol prohibition and the using the gateway theory against its original purpous, stating that if marijuana was legitimately sold at stores/dispensaries the fact that it "could" be used as a gateway drug would be proven wrong. As for a video, I apologize but I didn't think about getting someone to record it when I went in.

[QUOTE=sonicrjk;26596157]i hate when people call weed mary jane[/QUOTE] I hate when people are intolerant of slang that differs from their own, especially when they haven't even got a decent grammar themselves.

I hate when people call it dope. My buddy who does meth, calls meth dope. Cocaine is also known as dope around here...gets confusing.

My dad calls every illegal drug "dope" and drug users "dopers." It is so annoying.

Urban Dictionary: [quote]People who do not do drugs call Marajuanna Dope. People who do Marajuanna call Heroin Dope. Word has also been used to describe how good somthing is.[/quote] Wikipedia: [quote][URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_drug_trade"]Illegal drugs[/URL] ([URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_%28drug%29"]Cannabis[/URL], [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocaine"]cocaine[/URL], [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin"]heroin[/URL], [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium"]opium[/URL], [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methamphetamine"]methamphetamine[/URL] or illegal drugs in general depending on exact region and time-period)[/quote]

-snip-

if you've ever seen intervention plenty of users call their drug of choice dope

It really isn't any kind of big deal to me if some people call it dope. On an internet forum it does gets confusing though. I likely know what a friend means when they use it, but over the internet, with people you don't know, it is a lot different.

Spark a blunt as you walk on to the stage, pass it to the dean or principal right before you start talking.