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Alcohol Vs Alcohol

Decent Essays

Alcohol or Marijuana: Is One More Dangerous Than The Other?
Tell me, if somebody asked you whether you believed marijuana or alcohol was the more harmful substance, how would you respond? It’s certainly a hot topic that has been debated amongst society for decades, but one has to wonder, why is one of these substances legal, while the other remains an illegal substance? In various cultures around the world, drinking alcohol has become a normalized activity, with many seeing getting intoxicated as a rite of passage into our adolescent years or as a celebration of reaching the legal drinking age. On the other hand, many individuals still view marijuana in a negative light, so what exactly makes the two different? Both substances are associated …show more content…

Using these emotions, the author makes an effective argument that convinces the reader of just how marijuana is less harmful than other legal and socially acceptable behavior altering substances. To do this, the author brings in a factor that every person is affected by or has an opinion on, which is money. The article states that alcohol consumption results in an annual cost of one-hundred and sixty five dollars for the user, as opposed to only twenty dollars per marijuana user (Para 10). Using these statics, the article reaches out to the reader by fixating on their emotions because no individual in their right mind willingly enjoys spending large sums of money. Likewise, the author also plays into the reader’s feelings on another topic: sickness and death of either our own selves or a loved one. The article points out how in recent years, long-term alcohol consumption has been linked to a variety of different cancers, such as cancer of the esophagus, stomach, colon, lungs, and liver just to name a few (Para 12). With cancer diagnoses’ and cancer-related deaths being on the rise in modern times, using statics that link …show more content…

For instance, the author provides data directly from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that estimates that between twenty-five and thirty-percent of violent crimes and around three to four percent of property damage related crimes are linked to the intake of alcohol, with U.S. Department of Justice reporting “nearly 5,000,000 alcohol-related crimes occur each year (Para 14).” On the other hand, the article makes sure to mention that use of marijuana has never been directly linked to violent crimes or behavior, and instead has been linked to more mellow and passive behavior after use. Furthermore, the organization also continues appealing to the readers’ emotions and sense of justice by continuing to show what violent and harmful situations that alcohol has actually been linked to, such as in cases of male-to-female violence, studies have shown the odds of severe abuse taking place were found to be eleven times higher when the abuser had been consuming alcohol (Para

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