DL#9 HW#6

Claim: Alcohol has many dangers, both mental and physical.

Reason #1: Alcoholics may have mental issues.

• Evidence #1: Drinking excessively turns into dependence. The more a person drinks, the more they will need each time they drink to feel drunk.
• Backing: One source shows that light drinkers are more prone to health conditions than heavy and moderate drinkers, but heavy and moderate drinkers have more of the conditions all together.
• Evidence #2: Parents and spouses who drink at home cause family abuse.
• Backing: According to the NIAA (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism) at least half of all Americans have one close relative with a drinking problem.
• Backing: Spouses and children of alcoholics have more chance of suffering physical and sexual abuse, family violence, and psychological problems.
• Backing: Relatives and friends of alcohol abusers are more likely to be killed or injured in alcohol-related accidents or assaults.
• Evidence #3: Depression, memory loss, and anxiety can all develop in alcohol abusers and alcoholics.
• Backing: Research shows that 70% of alcoholics have had depression sometime while they have been a drinker. Even when people stopped drinking, they got depression.
• Backing: 20-25% of all drinkers developed anxiety at some point.
• Objection: If I drink alcohol occasionally only at social gatherings will I ever get mental issues?
• Rebuttal: It depends on the person and how much you drink each time. A moderate amount is five servings or less a week.

Reason #2: Alcoholics and alcohol abusers may have physical problems.

• Warrant: Thousands of alcohol drinkers die each year from physical problems.
• Evidence #1: Driving while drunk kills many each day.
• Backing: Over the last 3 decades, an average of 40% of fatal car crashes have been alcohol related.
• Evidence #2: Mothers who drink alcohol while pregnant risk having a baby born with birth defects.
• Backing: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is a disorder that babies are born with that is caused by alcohol in their system before they were born.
• Evidence #3: Excessive drinking causes Hepititis-C, which can then lead to cirrhosis of the liver.
• Backing: Alcohol eats at the liver over time because it is a drug. Hepititis-C is an inflammation of the liver and if it cannot restore it's tissue, it starts to deteriorate which is cirrhosis.
• Opposition: Can other people develop these problems even if they don't drink?
• Rebuttal: Yes. Anyone can be in a car crash, birth defects, and deterioration of the liver. Alcohol use just makes these problems more likely to occur.