APPROACHES TO STUDY WITH ENGLISH LANGUAGE SUPPORT (INTENSIVE) Assignment 1: Critical analysis of a published article (1000 words) Saturday 10th October 2009 By Joana Wong This critical analysis is about an article that argues whether drugs should be legalized or not. It was published in The Observer, on Sunday the 6th of September 2009 and it is entitled "Latin America's backlash against US war on drugs" by Ed Vulliamy in Tijuana, Rory Carroll in Caracas, Annie Kelly in Buenos Aires and Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro. It is a lengthy article, written in a Sunday newspaper for a well-educated and informed audience. It is evident that the reporter has researched the subject well, for example he starts the article with and …show more content…

The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (SFOPH) comissioned three international experts to provide a critical assessment of the experience gained in other countries with decriminalisation of cannabis use. The reports include a European comparative study, an overview of research conducted in the US and Australia, and an historical evaluation of drug policy in Italy. The three expert reports suggest that no systematic relationship between drug policies and prevalence rates of cannabis use or illicit drug use in general can be detected. However, the social costs of drug enforcement and the negative consequences for criminalised use can be reduced by decriminalisation measures. Also through having read Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former president of Brasil's commentary I felt even more strongly in favor of the decriminalisation of cannabis as an effective way of dealing with the global drug problem. Furthermore, I was led to consider related issues such as poverty, corruption, extortion, exploitation, trafficking, prostitution, all of which should be taken into consideration when discussing the drug dilemma. This article features in a left-leaning broadsheet whose readers are generally interested in social and political issues. He uses different examples of opinions from a broad range of people, for instance, it quotes Kristin Daley, projects director for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, “Today, drugs are illegal, they are