The American Government does not have any ones intrestin their heart but their own.

Thanks for the quick response e2. I didn't know what $100,000 challenge my opponent was talking about, but apparently I can win $100,000 from Jack Herer just by winning this debate and proving that hemp isn't a miracle plant that can solve all the world's problems. So basically if I win this debate, I win $100,000. Awesome. Unfortunately, Jack Herer is dead, so I doubt anyone can collect. 1. Does the US government care? My opponent asked why I brought this up. Obviously because the topic is about whether the government cares only about themselves. This can't possibly be the case since Obamacare did nothing for Obama's political career, so the motivation clearly wasn't self-interest. My opponent says he'll be a criminal under the new law. If he can't afford health insurance, the new law gives him subsidies and helps set up insurance pools so he can afford it. If my opponent doesn't pay for health insurance, he is a criminal - he is stealing for insured people. If he gets sick and visits the ER (since hemp doesn't cure heart attacks), then the hospital can't collect the hundreds of thousands of dollars he owes them for saving his life; so what does the hospital do? They raise the rates they charge the insurance companies, which in turn causes the insurance companies to raise our premiums. That's theft. In a world where if my opponent gets sick, the hospital can just let him die if he has no ability to pay, THEN he can have to the right to stay uninsured. Another proof the government doesn't just care about themselves: during the Cuban Missile crisis, rather than hiding in an underground bunker, JFK stayed in the White House, risking his own life if things went sour, to solve the crisis. Luckily, the topic doesn't say that I have to prove that the hemp ban makes sense, just that I have to prove the government cares or win the $100,000 challenge, which supposedly means just proving any of my opponent's facts about hemp's potential to be wrong. 2. All hemp is banned My opponent asserts once again that hemp oil, hemp plastics, etc are banned in the U. S. This is false. Growing hemp is heavily restricted, but products made from hemp are not banned. Growing hemp is also legal in 8 states, who have claimed to have permission from the DEA for statewide backing of commercial hemp production. . http://www.nytimes.com... 3. EFA My opponent basically concedes that we don't need hemp oil and if we do, we can buy it from Canada or the EU, which massively subsidize their commercial hemp industry. 4. Hemp seeds as a food Many birds may find seeds as a primary source of food, but few humans find seeds to be a palatable main source of their diet. Sure, seeds are nutritious, but they are small, tasteless, and do not provide a significant source of calories. My opponent himself proves that you can buy hemp seeds currently in the U. S. , but few people do. He claims we need omega-3 and omega-6 acid. However, Ori Hofmekler explains in "The Anti-Estrogenic Diet" that omega-3, like soy, causes excessive estrogen production, which leads to breast cancer, muscle destruction, and fat accumulation. Omega-6, in contrast, is anti-estrogenic and is better consumed on its own. 5. Hemp could replace petroleum as a source of power My opponent says he "did not make any claim that we need to use hemp if we stopped using petroleum. " I refer you to his previous round. "If all fossil fuel . . . were banned in order to save the planet . . . then there is only one known annually renewable, natural resource that is capable of . . . meet[ing] all of the world's transportation, industrial and home energy needs. " So he did say it. Well technically he didn't. He plagiarized it from Jack Herer's website . http://www.konformist.com.... In my opponent's defense of hemp paper, he himself says that hemp as THREE TIMES the cellulose content of wood. The problem is, the way to make plants into energy is through cellulosic ethanol, which is not commercially viable because they are try to reproduce expensive enzymes, such as the ones in a termites stomach, that can convert cellulose into a more viable energy product. If hemp has three times more cellulose, that means converting it would be three times as expensive as converting some other plant (such as switchgrass) into energy. In fact, since switchgrass is ALREADY grown on marginal US farmland, to enrich the soil, if we ever do develop commercially viable cellulosic ethanol, we'll use the free switchgrass rather than using hemp. 6. Hemp paper If hemp paper is cheaper and better than wood pulp paper, why aren't EU paper companies using the hemp that their government subsidizes and undercutting the U. S. paper industry? Likely because hemp paper is more expensive that wood pulp. Also, a great deal of current U. S. paper is made from recycled paper, not from a forest, so it's not exactly eco-unfriendly. In fact, 50% of US paper comes from recycled paper. . http://www.tappi.org... Can hemp paper even be recycled easily? Hemp paper, as far as consistency (if you look at or touch the Declaration of Independence, looks more like cloth because it is thick and scratchy. A pro-hemp paper producer even admits, "Tree-free papers by themselves are not appropriate for many applications. " . http://www.conservatree.org... Hemp paper is thicker and would be difficult to use is standard printing presses because it might clog the machines. It would definitely be too expensive to replace current paper mass production for books and newspapers. Again, hemp paper is so great, why aren't European companies selling it now and outcompeting US wood pulp paper firms. 7. Hemp as clothing My opponent goes on another rant about how oil will destroy our planet. Personally, I believe that solar power and electric cars/plug-in hybrids are our nearest term solution to fossil fuel dependency, after researching each alternative in depth. But I've worn and really hate hemp clothing; it's REALLY uncomfortable, and has other downsides as well. "Hemp fibre is characterised by undesirable susceptibility to moisture and rot due to moulds and mildews and the like. It is also characterized by a strong, naturally-occurring odour which makes it unacceptable as a substitute for other odourless fibres. Moreover, hemp fibre in its natural spun state is susceptible to fraying and has a rough hand and feel. A need therefore remains for a hemp product which is suitably strong, soft, flexible, moisture-resistant and rot-resistant and generally suitable for substitution in applications previously focused on the cotton, paper and petroleum-fibre industries. " . http://marijuanacannabis.wordpress.com... So hemp clothes smell bad, attract mold easily, fray easily, and are extremely rough to the touch. It is currently legal in the US to sell hemp clothing; the fact few people, other than hippies, buy said clothing proves how bad, expensive, and uncomfortable it is. Banana Republic is not about to replace their synthetic blends with uncomfortable, smelly, moldy hemp. 8. Hemp is a miracle drug. .. My opponent asks if I'm a doctor. I'm not. But I'm qualified to question which drugs hemp could replace, if it could replace 30% of drugs currently on the market. Which diseases does it cure? If you can't answer this, I win the $100,000 challenge since I've disproved something Jack Herer said. Pay me! Also, hemp and marijuana are not the same. They are from the same plant, but they are two different strains, with marijuana plants having more flowers and larger THC content, and industrial hemp plants having thicker stems and leaves (and REALLY low THC content) - just like Huskies and Chihuahuas are the same species, but very different breeds. I think my opponent's evidence may be referring to reefer, not hemp. The link her provided in the last round certainly is about marijuana, not hemp, and it never proves that marijuana could replace THIRTY PERCENT of all medication in the world. Doubtful. Some of the most commonly prescribed drugs are anti-depressants, anti-ADD medication, and erectile disfunction (ED) medication. Marijuana worsens depression, . http://health.usnews.com..., makes it more difficult to concentrate, and more difficult to attain an erection since it leads to a lessening of sensation in the extremities. So it clearly doesn't replace those 3 drugs. My opponent asks why he'd need penicillin. Well if he doesn't want to die from strep throat, or end up in the ER costing me ridiculous amounts of money because he treated his infection with hemp seeds rather than anti-biotics and ended up with a gangrene infection from a small cut, then he SHOULD take penicillin.