What technique does the following passage use to make its point? What are the tests one should use to evaluate source material? Use these tests to evaluate the piece of supporting material in the passage

"The Netherlands legalized the possession and use of marijuana in the early 1970s. According to a 2012 report by the Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction and the Ministry of Security and Justice Research and Documentation, the legalization of marijuana in the Netherlands has not led to any increase in the use of harder drugs such as heroin and methamphetamines. If the U.S. were to legalize marijuana, we probably would not experience any increase in the use of hard drugs, either."
What will be an ideal response?

The best answers will:
1. identify the reasoning as a comparison. Outstanding answers will explain that this could be a strong comparison because the Netherlands and the U.S. are both first-world, Western nations, and that it could be a weak comparison because there are many socioeconomic differences between the U.S. and the Netherlands.
2. list the six evaluative standards from Learning Objective 7.3: accuracy, completeness, recency, source reliability, audience appropriateness, and ethical integrity.
3. evaluate the source:
• Accuracy: The statement provides a fact that, if researched, would prove to be upheld by observation.
• Completeness: Great answers will refer back to answer part 1, explaining that the information may be complete, but the comparison may not.
• Recency: While 2012 is relatively recent, students ought to point out that Internet research may have provided the speaker with statistics from a more recent year.
• Source Reliability is very strong, because the speaker chose official government documents as the source of information.
• Audience Appropriateness: Because this comparison is attempting to persuade audiences to support a policy with an unsure outcome, using a statistic is the good choice to strengthen audience faith that, if the comparison is true, we can expect no ill-effects from legalization.
• Ethical Considerations: The speaker has made a good-faith comparison that does not appear to leave out vital facts or warp information. Students would be right, however, to refer back to answer part 1 in emphasizing that there may be some vital differences between the U.S. and the Netherlands that would render this piece of evidence less valid.