Running head: RHETORICAL ANALYSIS ON #STOPTHESEIZURES

Rhetorical Analysis on #stoptheseizures from the Parents Coalition for Rescheduling Medical
Cannabis
Jorge E. Gijosa Prez
University of Texas at El Paso

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RHETORICAL ANALYSIS ON #STOPTHESEIZURES

Medical cannabis has been an issue causing a lot of noise in the media following the
legalization of Cannabis for medical use in some states in the United States of America. Much of
the claims and protests that we have heard of delve on the scheduling of cannabis as type 1 drug,
which prohibits its use for medical purposes. Such is the case of #stoptheseizures a video created
by Beth and Patrick Collins who are members of Parents Coalition for Rescheduling Medical
Cannabis. This document will analyze the earlier mentioned video breaking it down into different
rhetorical approaches (Ethos, Pathos, and Logos) and identifying its intended audience and
purpose.

Audience and Purpose

This video appeals to a broad audience, specially the parents of children who suffer from
intractable epilepsy (or any other chronic disease). It also appeals to people researching the
medical uses of cannabis and people who want to be informed about its general usage (besides
recreational usage). The fact that parents are talking from their own accord would make it easy
for parents whose children suffer from epilepsy (or any other chronic disease) to relate to it, and
the information it self which support the legalization of medical cannabis would make it
appealing to those interested in such matter. The audience will spend 7 minutes 24 seconds
watching the video and might spend about 5 minutes digesting their arguments. The general
purpose of the information in the video would be to make people conscious about how cannabis
can actually be beneficial to society if used as a medical treatment for certain health issues and
recruit people to exert pressure on the government so that the restriction on the us on medical
cannabis are eliminated. The video starts with the use of formal language as the information
being provided is mostly conformed by facts and data. However, when the focus changes from

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RHETORICAL ANALYSIS ON #STOPTHESEIZURES

providing facts to providing personal success stories, the language becomes less formal even if it
doesnt become completely informal. There is a lot of specialized vocabulary on this video, for
starters some people might not know that the word Cannabis is the term of a plant genus. Other
specialized vocabulary used in the video vary from medical terms like muscular atrophy and
intractable epilepsy, to THC and CBD which are chemical components of Cannabis. The
use of this kind of vocabulary seems appropriate because the audience does not need to do so for
the purpose to be achieved.

Ethos
The video tries to establish its credibility by providing the testimony from the mouths of
parents whose children suffer from intractable epilepsy. However, the fact that not only are they
not professionals on the matter but they also dont provide the sources where they got
information from strips most of the credibility they could have obtained. For example, while
referring to the side effects caused by antiepileptic drugs, Dean Bortell expresses These include
death, violent rages, liver damage, reduced cognition, blindness, loss of speech, suicide and
broken bones. (Collins, 2015). While it can be inferred that dean is a parent of a child with
intractable epilepsy from what is told in the video, there is no way to support or prove Deans
knowledge on the subject. The public might come up through the whole video with questions
about where the information was retrieved from and who exactly is the narrator to provide it.
Even though they are, or claim to be, members of an organization (Parents Coalition for
Rescheduling Medical Cannabis), the viewer still cant know if such organization is trustworthy
or credible. The video does not establish sufficient credibility.

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RHETORICAL ANALYSIS ON #STOPTHESEIZURES

Pathos
The emotional approach of the creators of this video is pretty strong from the very
beginning. The first scenes we can see show us sequences of kids suffering from seizures
accompanied by a piece of music whose tonality resides between melancholy and relaxation; this
can easily evoke sadness from the audience especially those sensible to anothers suffering.
While providing the facts to support their arguments and sharing their success stories these
parents are accompanied by their children, some who clearly suffer from various types of
syndromes or disorders, whose mere presence can provoke in the viewer sadness and empathy.
The tone used by the parents is also worth of noticing. While sharing the facts their voices seem
serious and in some of them even sad. Yet, while they share their success stories they are
significantly more cheerful and bright. This is specially persuasive because changing the mood
from being sad by explaining how the situation actually is to being cheerful about how the
situation could be, could probably make the viewer considerably more positive about the latter.

Logos
As mentioned earlier, the creators of these video fail to give evidence the stated facts are
correct. Nonetheless, if we assume that these facts are indeed real and that the success stories
they share are indeed true, their argument is completely well formulated. It is claimed on the
video that the United States Federal Government schedules Cannabis as a type 1 drug;
classification that designates cannabis as a substance with no medical value (Collins, 2015). This
is countered by their success stories and some of the facts shared like Hundreds of children have
been using medical cannabis for epilepsy for the past two years, with thousands more on waiting
list. Their before and after clinical tests show significant reduction in the number and duration of

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RHETORICAL ANALYSIS ON #STOPTHESEIZURES

their seizures. (Collins, 2015). These type of facts, along with other claims like the contradictory
cannabis based treatment for epilepsy owned by the U.S. government who states that cannabis
has no medical value, provide support for the main statement of the video: Cannabis should
available to be used as and only as a medicine. Logically speaking, even if it cannot be known for
certain if what they are trying to communicate is right, because we dont know whether their facts
are true or not; their argument is still completely logical because it doesnt contradict itself or
falls into any logical fallacy.
While the video lacks credibility, its logical and emotional appeals are pretty strong.
When taking about the possibility of using cannabis as a medicine the claims they make will
probably be positively considered by the audience after watching the video. Even so, it is
uncertain that people will be convinced to support the rescheduling of marihuana by seeing this
video because the information it provides is not supported by anything, thus it cannot be used as
an argument. The video would have served its purpose in a much better way if it had credible,
sustainable sources.

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RHETORICAL ANALYSIS ON #STOPTHESEIZURES

Reference List
Collins, Beth [Beth Collins]. (2015, January 4). #stoptheseizures [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l55kd5PyEuk