Alcohol and cannabis

== Resolutional Analysis == The resolution is "alcohol is far worse for the individual and society than cannabis." My opponent says that the resolution is not limited to this society, which means theoretically, I can argue the negative effects of marijuana in any country in the world. The fact that marijuana is legal in the Netherlands does not somehow negate the negative effects from marijuana"s illegality in the United States. Therefore, the drug"s effect on society includes the effects both from the drug itself and from its illegality (in those jurisdictions where it is illegal). My opponent can try to argue that the positive effects in the Netherlands outweigh the negative effects from illegality in the United States. But he cannot deprive me of that argument entirely, based on the resolution. My interpretation of the resolution is more predictable because it argues the present tense. No one knows what the United States will look like in the future or what unintended consequences might stem from legalization in this country, so it is unfair to make me argue a future that does not exist. C1: gateway drug My opponent"s only response is that "correlation is not causation." However, correlation plus a plausible explanation of a mechanism for causation *does* equal causation. I explained multiple mechanisms for causation: peer pressure and yes-ladders ("want a hit of this weed? // okay now, want a hit of Ecstacy?"), the false inference that doing other drugs will be similar to doing marijuana (in terms of addictiveness and self-control), and the illegality problem [that marijuana introduces people to drug dealers]. My opponent only attempts to negate the third explanation " by saying he does not have to defend illegality. But he does (see above) and he drops the first two causal mechanisms. Since marijuana is the gateway for most people into hard drugs, it is responsible for the collateral consequences. Illicit drug use costs the American economy $193 billion a year. [5] In addition, drugs cause 38,000 deaths each year due to overdose. [8] C2: brain damage My opponent claims that my brain damage studies are just correlation, not causation. However, the MRI study I cited last Round does not rely on correlation. The MRI study showed severe damage to the thalamus in regular marijuana smokers and extremely severe damage in schizophrenic marijuana smokers. This study is proof that marijuana causes brain damage. The impact of this brain damage is two-fold. First, it has a negative effect on normal Americans as both workers and students. The damage to the thalamus combines with the long-term damage below to contribute to marijuana smokers because unproductive workers and poor students. The impact of this is quantified below in C3. Second, by triggering schizophrenia, marijuana is very damaging. Schizophrenia costs the US economy $ 63 billion per year. [9] C3: motivation My opponent cannot dismiss my dopamine study by saying that he "knows one guy" who smokes weed and is highly motivated. My opponent cannot answer the fact that this individual may simply have started with abnormally high dopamine levels. In addition, even if marijuana only reduces long-term motivation in 90% of the population (because a rare few people are unaffected), this is still a serious effect. There is other evidence to corroborate the effect on motivation. A student who smokes marijuana is four times more likely to be a straight D-student than a straight A-student. [6] Low-grades contribute to the achievement gap in the United States, which costs us $2.3 trillion per year in lost productivity (because " among other things - we produce too few engineers). [7] In addition, drugs like marijuana decrease people"s productivity and increase absenteeism. Drug-related absenteeism causes $120 billion in lost productivity each year in the United States. [5] C4: obesity Extend this argument. My opponent dismisses it out of turn, but obesity is a serious problem in the United States. I will attempt to quantify how much money the U.S. could save if everyone quit smoking weed. One study (Foltin 1998) found that "[s]moked active marijuana significantly increased total daily caloric intake by 40%." [1] In addition, the study found that "[i]ncreases in body weight during periods of active marijuana smoking were greater than predicted by caloric intake alone." [1] 12% of Americans smoke marijuana regularly. [2] Thus, 12% of Americans would reduce their calorie consumption by 40% if they stopped smoking weed. Obesity costs the United States $160 billion per year in obesity-related health care costs [3] and $73 billion in lost productivity per year. [4] A 12% reduction in obesity would therefore save the United States $ 28 billion per year. Over ten years, the United States would add $280 billion to its economy if people simply stopped smoking weed. C5: addictiveness My opponent concedes addictiveness. 1 in 12 light marijuana users were physically addicted, and heavy smokers were so physically and psychologically addicted that it was impossible to study the effects on them of cessation of smoking because they were unwilling to quit. Combining lighter and heavier users, It is therefore likely that at least 20 percent of marijuana users are addicted (if not more). My opponent says that about 20% of alcohol users are addicted, so at best this argument is a wash [which I am fine with]. C6: lower sperm count My opponent claims this is weak because we have an overpopulation problem. However, this isn"t true. In fact, as people become wealthier, they decide to have fewer children, and many rich nations are facing a "demographic time bomb" because their birth rates are in free fall. It takes 2.1 births per female for a population to stay steady (meaning that the birth rate matches the death rate). Most European countries are at a 1.4. [10] The United States is around a 2.0, but only because we allow so much immigration. The reason a low birth rate is bad is because the basic premise of Social Security is that younger workers will support older workers. If the ratio of young workers to old workers declines too low, the retirement system collapses. In addition, low sperm counts have another social cost. The need for assisted reproductive technologies costs the United States around $20 billion a year. [11] C7: cancer My opponent makes a blind assertion that marijuana has caused 0 deaths and alcohol 80,000. Give these numbers no weight. I provided a study which says that the carcinogens in cigarettes come from smoke itself, not the nicotine, and marijuana smoke is chemically identical to cigarette smoke other than the nicotine (sharing 6000 chemicals). If you think about it, you know this to be true. Food barbequed on a charcoal grill is also very high in carcinogens. It is the process of burning that causes cancer. Otherwise, electronic cigarettes (which are only water vapor and nicotine) would not hold any health benefits above cigarettes). Given that the smoke is chemically identical, marijuana will cause the same amount of cancer as cigarettes. 50% of smokers will get cancer, according to my previously cited (and dropped) source. If 12% of Americans smoke marijuana regularly, that means marijuana will be responsible for killing 6% of Americans, which is 19 million people. Sources even indicate that marijuana smoke is worse because the carcinogenic compounds are found in most concentrated doses. "Marijuana smoke contains 50 percent to 70 percent more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than does tobacco smoke." [6] C8: social-ness I"ll admit this is a weak point, since my opponent is right that weed smokers are social in their own way. As my opponent points out, weed smokers have fun sitting around playing video games and watching TV. However, alcohol is more socially acceptable to do in public, which has a key impact: Alcohol is essential to many business deals, according to a Silicon Valley strategy consultant. [12] If alcohol played a role in just 50% of foreign business deals, that means it is responsible for bringing $62 billion a year in foreign capital to the United States. [13] C9: funding of cartels My opponent claims he doesn"t need to argue this because illegality is not encompassed by the resolution, but I show above why it is. Both countries where it is illegal and countries where it is illegal are encompassed by the resolution, according to my opponent"s own words. Thus, my opponent drops 60,000 lives lost in Mexico"s drug wars due to marijuana. That"s a pretty big impact. == Rebuttal to harms of alcohol == My opponent says alcohol is implicated in 37% of sexual assaults. However, in most of those cases, the victim was heavily intoxicated and the attacker was not. [14] There is no reason to believe that attackers would sexually offend any less often if alcohol ceased to exist. Attackers would simply target people who were heavily sedated on drugs instead. In addition, turn: According to RAINN, marijuana is in fact the "most commonly used chemical in crimes of sexual assault." [14] My opponent claims that 40% of violent crime is caused by alcohol. However, this is just co-correlation. "[A]buse of alcohol and a propensity to violence . . . stem from a common cause." [16] People who are violent simply have a higher tendency to drink because they are more "troubled" individuals with difficult pasts. They would likely engage in violent crime (like robbery) anyway, even if they didn"t drink. Correlation can be used with marijuana too. Men who smoke marijuana are eight times more likely to beat their wives. [14] My opponent also drops my study that marijuana is implicated in one-ninth of fatal car crashes [4,000 deaths per year]. Since next round is the last round (for summaries only), it"s too late to answer now. One-fifth of marijuana smokers admit to driving high, which the above evidence proves is extremely dangerous. [6] At least people are more aware that drunk driving is dangerous. Lastly, my opponent claims that alcoholics (a small subset of alcohol users) are more prone to infection. However, this is co-correlation. Alcoholics tend to be people that are less health conscious and don"t take care of themselves. This isn"t caused by alcohol. Even if it were, the cancers from marijuana smoking outweigh. == Sources == [1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... [2] http://www.pewresearch.org... [3] http://www.hsph.harvard.edu... [4] http://www.livescience.com... [5] http://www.whitehouse.gov... [6] http://www.cadca.org... [7] http://silvergiving.org... [8] http://www.cdc.gov... [9] http://www.schizophrenia.com... [10] http://www.forbes.com... [11] http://uk.finance.yahoo.com... [12] http://www.foxbusiness.com... [13] http://www.nber.org... [14] http://archive.sph.harvard.edu... [15] http://www.mmyvofficial.org... [16] http://alcoholism.about.com...