Marijuana is harmless and is safer to use long-term than alcohol or tobacco.

Round 4 is for rebuttals and concluding statements only. With that, my rebuttals. Rebuttals "Arguing that marijuana is harmful because people use it improperly in the form of smoking/overinhaling it would be akin to arguing that chairs are inherently harmful because someone ripped off a chair leg and stabbed themself in the stomach with it. "This is false, due to the fact that the vast majority of marijuana users smoke the substance rather than eat it. The reality is you will not find a marijuana user that does not at least sometimes smoke it, because most do not want a high that takes an hour to kick in and can last up to twelve hours (as in edible marijuana) but prefer the shorter instant high of smoking. Arguing that marijuana is not harmful because it doesn't have to be smoked is like arguing that tobacco is not harmful because if you ate it, it wouldn't affect the lungs. The reality is that both the substances are smoked way more than they are consumed in some other manner. "If marijuana is administered properly in it's medical form, it is not harmful in almost all cases - it's actually beneficial and curing! This proves marijuana is not harmful, and only can have negative side effects if used recreationally without the proper method of taking it. " Unfortunately, there is no proper form of administering marijuana in its "medical form". There is no actual medically advised form of consumption. Medical marijuana dispensaries sell the marijuana in all forms, but mostly in the smoking form. Doctors that are prescribing medical marijuana are telling their patients they can and often should smoke it. "If marijuana is used regularly and to the medically reccomended standard, then it has no proven correlation to death. The same cannot be said for the liver problems caused by the regular consumption of alchohol and the imminent poisoning resulting in the consumption of nicotine. " Once again, unfortunately there is no medically recommended standard. Also, we are arguing that marijuana causes more damage than tobacco, not than nicotine in its pure form. "Concerning the portion of the debate regarding the effects of tobacco vs the effects of marijuana on the lungs, it is untrue that tobacco causes less damage. " This is a very debated point and many studies have shown otherwise, even going so far as to say that one marijuana joint causes the same damage as up to 5 cigarettes [1]. While this is a debatable point, the fact that marijuana also negatively affects the brain while tobacco doesn't is not. "The study in question does not outline the effects of marijuana in a neutral scenario, and even admits that most of it's results are using animal test subjects, and that most of it's results are not directly correlated to the far less susceptible human brain. " Not sure where it says most of its test subjects were animals, doing a word check of "animals" on the whole study only brings up one instance, where it states that the same changes in the brain were found in animals, not that most of the test subjects were animals (they used 40 young adult humans). Furthermore, the human brain is no less susceptible to harm compared to the brain of an animal. We do, afterall, share 98% of our DNA with chimpanzees. "Adolescent exposure to almost all drugs and medications can have an adverse effect on the growth of their brain [3]. Marijuana is not harmful in this regard; all that this study would go to prove is that overconsumption of foreign or medical substances during puberty or time of growth is harmful. " Not sure how closely you looked at the study, because the average age of the university students in the study was 21. And because the human brain stops developing at 21, this study is not correlated to the effects of marijuana on the developing brain [2]. "Additionally, the study only proves that marijuana has "adverse" cognitive effects on the amygdala. "The study showed adverse effects in two areas of the brain, the amygdala and the nucleus accumbens. The nucleus accumbens is the part of the brain that controls many emotions as well as the reward circuit. Perhaps the changes in this area of the brain are why long term marijuana use is associated with various mental illnesses. This concludes my rebuttals, I will now present my final arguments. ArgumentsMarijiuana's negative effects last much longer than those of alcohol. Because the psychoactive ingredients in marijuana are fat soluble, they can stay in the system of the user for up to one month after last the usage [3]. The brain is mainly comprised of fat, making it one of the primary places for marijuana to stay. This is why the adverse effects of marijuana (laziness, lack of motivation, fogginess and difficulty learning) can last weeks after the last usage of marijuana while alcohol and all of its negative effects will be out of the system within 24 hours. Marijuana's effects on the brain are far worse than those of alcohol or tobacco. The study that I showed in my previous argument that shows marijuana use and changes in the brain is not the only study to find results like this. Australian studies done in 2008 linked long term marijuana use to brain abnormalities. Earlier studies still have shown that the changes in the brain caused by marijuana are similar to those caused by long term abuse of major drugs [4]. Marijuana produces brain patterns very similar to those of a schizophrenic The effect of marijuana on the brain as a whole is significant. It completely disrupts brain wave activity across the prefrontal cortex and hippocampal regions. These are some of the most important regions in regards to memory and making decisions. Coincidentally, both of these regions are implicated in schizophrenia. When THC is given to healthy volunteer test subjects, it has been shown to induce psychotic symptoms, similar to those who have schizophrenia [5]. I believe my evidence above has shown that even if marijuana is not smoked, the effects it has on the brain will long term be detrimental to any human being. I look forward to my opponent's rebuttals and final arguments. Sources:[1] . http://www.theguardian.com...[2] . http://www2.potsdam.edu...[3] . http://addiction.lovetoknow.com...[4] . http://www.drugfreeworld.org...[5] . http://mentalhealthdaily.com...