Marijuana Is Less Harmful than Alcohol

Health Effects The main problem with my opponent's argument is that he presents no studies backing up his claim (the source he provided in the last round does not deal with the supposed effects marijuana has on motivation). "The evidence for an 'amotivational syndrome' among adults consists largely of case histories and observational reports. The small number of controlled field and laboratory studies have not found compelling evidence for such a syndrome. ""In fact, studies done on test subjects in which they were given a high dose of cannabis regularly over a period of days or weeks found that there was no loss in motivation or ability to perform. " There is no statistical evidence that marijuana causes apathy or a loss in motivation. [1][2] There is actually no difference between heavy marijuana smokers and light marijuana smokers in lung cancer risk as another study reports, "Even very heavy, long-term marijuana users who had smoked more than 22,000 joints over a lifetime seemed to have no greater risk than infrequent marijuana users or nonusers. " Yet another study reported that, "Despite these findings, the small number of observational studies fail to demonstrate a clear association between marijuana smoking and diagnoses of lung cancer. Therefore, we must conclude that no convincing evidence exists for an association between marijuana smoking and lung cancer based on existing data. " We can assume that if there are no increased lung cancer risks in actual smokers, that a second-hand smoke cancer risk does not exist either. [1][3] Finally, as for the asserted psychotic effects of marijuana, "In terms of the model set out in the Introduction, the expected rise in diagnoses of schizophrenia and psychoses did not occur over a 10 year period. This study does not therefore support the specific causal link between cannabis use and the incidence of psychotic disorders based on the 3 assumptions described in the Introduction. "" The results of the current study suggest that having an increased familial morbid risk for schizophrenia may be the underlying basis for schizophrenia in cannabis users and not cannabis use by itself. " There is no supposed link between marijuana and psychosis. [1][4] Social Effects My opponent has forgotten a quote I provided in the first round, "Recent reviews have found the increase in risk to be approximately 1.5-3.0, an increase which is substantially lower, however, than that in alcohol-impaired drivers. " The effects of even a little bit of alcohol are still bad, as evidenced by the chart in source 5. It is clearly much worse to drink and drive than to smoke marijuana and drive. One of the many differences is that marijuana tends to slow drives down, while alcohol tends to speed drivers up, making for a greater chance of accidents. [1][5] As for crime, I again point back to my first round. "Not only does medical marijuana legalization not correlate with an uptick in crime, researchers from the University of Texas at Dallas argue it may actually reduce it [because it causes the number of alcohol-related crimes to decrease]. " This inverse trend has actually been found in Colorado, where it was legalized in 2012. [6] Legal Issues The same issues of crime that marijuana presents are also issues with alcohol. Yes, people do make the conscious decision to take marijuana, regardless of whether or not it is legal, but people also make the conscious decision to drink above the amount that is deemed "moderation". The crimes may have been caused by alcohol, but it was people who drank too much alcohol in the first place. Once again, alcohol lands more people in prison (especially for life sentences) and causes more deaths than marijuana does, defeating your argument on both accounts. Yes, marijuana is illegal in most areas, but the overconsumption of alcohol causes illegal acts (overconsumption is also, in some cases, illegal itself). Both stem from a conscious decision made by the person. Conclusion My opponent has dropped the majority of my arguments (including the medical benefits of marijuana), and has resorted to arguments that are either factually false, or are based on a misunderstanding of harmful. It takes far less alcohol to overdose, it causes more violent crimes, many of which result in death, vastly increases the rate of fatal traffic accidents, costs more on average per user, and is overall more harmful, while marijuana has much fewer health problems, and may even benefit the healthy person, much less the sick person. Overall, marijuana is far less harmful than alcohol, regardless of the legality of the substance. Sources [1]: . http://www.drugwarfacts.org... [2]: . http://listverse.com... [3]: . http://www.webmd.com... [4]: . http://psychcentral.com... [5]: . http://www.cdc.gov... [6]: . http://www.msnbc.com...