Drug Abuse

http://www.theantidrug.com/drug_info/prescription_dangers.asp. There is the address for this piece I chose. The ethos is seen through the fact that teens are starting to turn away from street drugs, but the problem, that the article points out, is that they are strating to abuse a different type of drug. These would be the types of drugs that you and I would be prescriped for a broken bone or chronic back pain and such. The logos comes through when the speaker says, "Every day 2,500 youth age 12 to 17 abuse a pain reliever for the very first time., Also, In 2006, more than 2.1 million teens ages 12 to 17 reported abusing prescription drugs." This is appealing to logic that prescription drug abuse, if untreated, could become an epicidemic. The article its self suggests that this is already becoming a problem. The ethos comes in when the author starts telling the reader of the health risks associated with overdoseing. If I were a parent reading this article I would immediately go and lock my medicine cabinet, but lets be honest, if children and teens are already abusing then they will find a way to get the drug. I am not ignorant to the fact that drug use is a big deal, and to be honest time I've in high schoool and college witnessed alot of drug abuse. I am not one to judge quickly and never will be. The emotional appeal in this article comes from the fact that as a responsible adult you need to eduacte kids on the dangers of overdoseing and we need to keep close tabs on our prescription medicine. As far as me comparing the guest speakers and MLK to this pieace of writing I would have to say that MLK is the most appealing due to his charisma of being a courageous unique person in such a close minded society. He was way outside the box for his time and paid the price for being different in society during his time. His logos, pathos, and ethos are all in a unique allignment and it is seen in his eliquently written letter from a Birmingham jail. But in all honesty, I enjoy reading articles on drug abuse and addiction because it runs in my family and educating myself might help me in the future. Life is short and the most pesuasive line filled with ethos, logos, and pathos is from the Shawshank Redemption where Tim Robins says,"get busy living, or get busy dying." I know this isn't eactly what you had in mind for this assignment, but I went off on a tangent for some reason. I hope I am somewhere in the ball park for what you were looking for.