Marijuana has more medical benefits than coffee.

My opponent begins, "I must ask, if my opponent smoked a joint, would she be able to sit on her chair and write a response to my argument right now? I think not. Therefore, coffee is more beneficial for debates, and debates can be healthy for the mind." In all perfect honesty, I have been high while writing nearly 90% of all the debates I have ever written on DDO. I've also gone to school and work high, and my performance has not been significantly hindered. Reading high actually helps me concentrate better. In fact, I could PROVE that I can debate perfectly well while high by recording a video of me smoking and then talking or recording me write anything of an intellectual nature. That actually sounds like a good idea and I will probably do that in the very near future for my opponent's viewing pleasure lol (and of course as proof that marijuana does NOT impact people in the way most assume, or at least not everyone). Nevertheless, my opponent moves on to discuss that while coffee was once considered harmful, scientists have withdrawn their preconceived notions to conclude that coffee is in fact beneficial to one's health. While it's true that coffee, like other drugs, indeed have their benefits, they also have their harms. Just like with marijuana, we cannot negate the benefits of coffee simply because of the harms. Indeed this debate isn't about the harms of each drug but their benefits. However, I'd like to point out for clarity that it's simply not true that coffee is not harmful. Coffee dehydrates the body, negatively taxes the adrenal glands, and contains caffeo-tannic acid: a chemical that irritates astringent to the cells lining the stomach and intestines, and also destroys the pepsin in the gastric (stomach) juice needed to digest protein [1]. Caffeine from coffee increases heart rate, elevates blood pressure, contributes to heart disease (and this has not been disproven, by the way, as Con suggests), increases your cholesterol and homocysteine, linked to coronary vasospasms, and increases levels of anxiety, irritability, muscular tension, pain, indigestion, insomnia, ages the skin and kidneys, and leads decreased immunity [2]. I could continue on with the detriments of coffee on the body because there are MANY more, but again, it's not too pertinent to our actual discussion. Let's take a look at the actual benefits of coffee my opponent has described: 1. Anti-bacterial effects Agreed, though this isn't significantly helpful considering yogurt and a bunch of other readily available home remedies produce the same benefits. Moreover, because of the harm it can have on certain parts of the party, coffee can actually make you less immune to certain things. 2. Improving the mind and/or athletic performance I have a huge problem with this contention. In his book Caffeine Blues, author Stephen Cherniske notes that when you consume caffeine, the drug begins its effects by initiating uncontrolled neuron firing in your brain. This excess neuron activity triggers your pituitary gland to secrete a hormone that tells your adrenal glands to produce adrenalin. He writes, "Imagine you lived in a country that was always under threat of attack. No matter where you went, there was a perpetual state of alert. Not only that, but your defenses were constantly being depleted and weakened. Does that sound stressful? Caffeine produces the same effect on your body, like fighting a war on multiple fronts at the same time." Cherniske calls your body's constant state of alert "caffeinism," which is characterized by fatigue, anxiety, mood swings, sleep disturbance, irritability and depression [3]. Here my opponent also writes, "drinking e.g. cup of coffee every two hours until one is done with daily activities will surely help a lot." This is entirely false and in fact why our country's caffeine addiction is so harmful and rampant! Drinking this much coffee will positively have more harmful effects than good! A cup of coffee every few hours is FAR too much caffeine and will almost certainly lead to the detriments mentioned above. I already explained how just *half a cup a DAY* leads to physical dependence on caffeine, ignoring all of the other problems intake can lead to. For now I'll just hope my opponent does some research before posting in the next round about why his suggested intake is far too much, and also note that because caffeine can only stimulate for a very short amount of time, it makes the benefits in this way nearly obsolete. Plus, none of this has much to do with *medical* benefits, and again the difference in athletic performance after drinking caffeine is actually WORSE than if you hadn't had caffeine, making this a pretty moot point. 3. Reduces risk of dementia and Alzheimer's Hmm. Okay, sure, let's go with that. 4. Works as an antioxidant True. 5. Reduces depression I object. The causes of depression are abuse, ingesting certain medications, conflict, genetics, death/loss, major events, serious illnesses, substance abuse and biology. For instance "the hippocampus, a small part of the brain that is vital to the storage of memories, appears to be smaller in people with a history of depression than in those who've never been depressed. A smaller hippocampus has fewer serotonin receptors. Serotonin is a calming brain chemical known as a neurotransmitter that allows communication between nerves in the brain and the body. It's also thought that the neurotransmitter norepinephrine may be involved in depression" [4]. As you can see, drinking coffee can not significantly effect or impact *any* of those contributing factors to depression. Second, Con's source talks about depression only as it's pertinent to suicide, as in those who drink coffee are less likely to want to commit suicide, etc. His own source even notes, "The study stated that it could be that THE COFFEE ITSELF HAD LITTLE TO DO WITH IT, but that people who drink coffee share other characteristics that make them less likely to commit suicide." 6. Reduces risk of Parkinson's In the last round, Con's very own source (#6) says - "Besides keeping you alert and awake, coffee has been linked to an increasing number of potential health benefits, including protection against liver and colon cancer, type 2 diabetes, and Parkinson's disease, according to some recently published studies." Right here we can see that the effect coffee has on Parkinson's is still widely debated and disputed. 7. Reduces risk of diabetes On the contrary, there is a plethora of evidence that suggests caffeine is bad for those with diabetes. Duke University researcher James D. Lane, PhD, and colleagues put continuous blood-sugar monitors on 10 people with type 2 diabetes. All were regular coffee drinkers averaging four cups a day, but they stopped drinking coffee during the experiment. The result: On the days the patients took caffeine, their blood-sugar levels were 8% higher. And after every meal -- including dinner -- their blood sugar spiked higher than it did on the day they had no caffeine. Dr. Lane notes, "These are clinically significant blood-sugar elevations due to caffeine... [It] increases blood glucose by as much as oral diabetes medications decrease it... It seems the detrimental effects of caffeine are as bad as the beneficial effects of oral diabetes drugs are good... For people with diabetes, drinking coffee may make it harder for them to control their glucose" [5]. Out of characters -- In my final round, I will explain why the medical benefits of marijuana are greater in number and value. [1] http://ezinearticles.com... [2] http://ezinearticles.com... [3] http://www.naturalnews.com... [4] http://www.webmd.com... [5] http://diabetes.webmd.com...