1ac - euphoric trips v7 1nc - must fiat immediate action t medicine infrastructure ptx da case 1ar - all 2nr - must fiat immediate action case 2ar - case must fiat immediate action
Greenhill Fall Classic
3
Opponent: Harrison AA | Judge: Varad Agarwala
1ac - euphoric trips v7 1nc - t reduce t medicine environmentalism da infra ptx da case 1ar - all 2nr - environment da case 2ar - infra ptx da enviroment da
Greenhill Fall Classic
6
Opponent: Lexington BF | Judge: Sam Anderson
1ac - euphoric trips v8 1nc - must spec enforcement t t medicine t reduce infrastructure ptx da wto legitimacy da case 1ar - all 2nr - must spec enforcement 2ar - must spec enforcement
Greenhill Fall Classic
Doubles
Opponent: Lexington AK | Judge: Gordon Krauss, Serena Lu, Ishan Rereddy
1ac - jordan 1nc - new affs bad t medicine cant spec states kant case 1ar - new affs bad t medicine cant spec states kant 2nr - t medicine kant 2ar - kant t medicine
1ac - euphoric trips v3 1nc - t medicine cap k opioids adv cp consult who 1ar - all condo 2nr - t 2ar - t
Loyola Invitational
Octas
Opponent: Orange Lutheran AZ | Judge: Nathan Russell, David Dosch, Lena Mizrahi
1ac - euphoric trips v4 1nc - t cant spec medicines t reduce t medicine us pic infrastructure da us bank adv cp monism nc cap k case 1ar - all condo 2nr - infrastructure da adv cp case 2ar - condo all
Loyola Invitational
Quarters
Opponent: San Mateo YR | Judge: Tom, Neville Pittman, Phoenix Dosch, David
1ac - euphoric trips v5 1nc - t reduce t medicine t vagueness innovation da infrastructure da case 1ar - all 2nr - infrastructure da case 2ar - case da
Loyola Invitational
Semis
Opponent: Diamond Bar NC | Judge: David Dosch, Danielle Dosch, Gordon Krauss
1ac - euphoric trips v6 1nc - t reduce t medicines infrastructure case 1ar - all 2nr - t reduce 2ar - t
Loyola Invitational
Octas
Opponent: Orange Lutheran AZ | Judge: Nathan Russell, David Dosch, Lena Mizrahi
1ac - euphoric trips v4 1nc - t cant spec medicines t reduce t medicine us pic infrastructure da us bank adv cp monism nc cap k case 1ar - all condo 2nr - infrastructure da adv cp case 2ar - condo all
Mid America Cup
1
Opponent: Scarsdale DH | Judge: Aryan Jasani
1ac - biopiracy v3 1nc - weheliye k case 1ar - case k 2nr - k case 2ar - case k
Mid America Cup
4
Opponent: Strake Jesuit VC | Judge: Breigh Plat
1ac - biopiracy v4 1nc - t cant spec medicine kant nc case must read cp must read condo must spec advocacy afc 1ar - t kant 2nr - t 2ar - t
Mid America Cup
5
Opponent: Sidwell SW | Judge: Chris Castillo
1ac - jordan 1nc - informatics k case 1ar - all condo 2nr - k case 2ar - condo
1ac - biopiracy v2 1nc - t cant spec medicine science diplomats discussion cp innovation da case 1ar - all condo private actor fiat bad fiating compliance bad 2nr - cp case 2ar - case cp
1ac - biopiracy v2 1nc - enforcement spec innovation da framing case 1ar - all indp voter on t 2nr - innovation da case 2ar - case da
Mid America Cup RR
1
Opponent: Murphy Independent AW | Judge: Jayanne Forrest, Eric He
1ac - jordan 1nc - t medicine t must defend all wto states reps k case 1ar - all condo 2nr - reps k case 2ar - case k
To modify or delete round reports, edit the associated round.
Cites
Entry
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0 - Contact Info
Tournament: x | Round: 1 | Opponent: x | Judge: x Hi! I'm Aly (she/her) -- email me (alyssa@vbm.com) or message me on Facebook (friend request first) for disclosure or if you have any questions about what I will read or have read.
7/9/21
0 - Navigation
Tournament: x | Round: 1 | Opponent: x | Judge: x 0 - Top Level 1 - Theory Generics 2 - K Generics 3 - Misc Generics ie Util FW SO - September/October ND - November/December JF - January/February
7/9/21
0 - Note - Content Warnings
Tournament: x | Round: 1 | Opponent: x | Judge: x I'll try to give content warnings for topics that I think are sensitive, but please let me know if there is anything on my wiki that would trigger you or make you uncomfortable and I'll modify stuff. Please give content warnings before the round if possible.
7/9/21
1 - Disclosure Interps
Tournament: x | Round: 1 | Opponent: x | Judge: x Interp – Debaters must disclose all possible disclosure theory interps on the 2021-22 NDCA LD wiki at least 30 minutes before the round.
Interpretation: Debaters must create a separate citation for each constructive position on their 2021-22 NDCA LD wiki page. To clarify, you can't make cite entries labelled by round like "R1 Yale NC" or put multiple under one heading.
Interp: For each position on their corresponding 2021-22 NDCA LD wiki page, debaters must disclose a summary of each analytic argument in their cases. To clarify – you don’t have to include the full text of each, you just have to substitute them with a few words that summarize the thesis of the argument i.e. ‘actor specificity’ rather than ‘analytic’.
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Interp: Debaters must disclose round reports on the 2021-22 NDCA LD wiki for every round they have debated this season. Round reports disclose which positions (AC, NC, K, T, Theory, etc.) were read/gone for in 2NR.
Interp – debaters must disclose all cards read on case on open source with highlighting on the 2021-22 NDCA LD wiki after the round in which they read them and before the next round they debate.
The continual settler drive to secure its own health has resulted in a system of global biopiracy wherein western transnational corporations have targeted traditional medicine used by tribes in places like Northeast India, establishing patents on biological resources and indigenous medicine for their own profit. Biopiracy renders these indigenous knowledges and communities as only sites for extraction of knowledge, wealth, and resources, which has spread to the global south and is only increasing in speed due to the genomics revolution.
Bhattacharya 14 ~Sayan Battacharya, Department of Environmental Studies at Rabindra Bharati University in Kolkata, India~, "Bioprospecting, biopiracy and food security in India: The emerging sides of neoliberalism", International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, SciPress Ltd, pg. 49-54, 2014 SLC PK 2. BIODIVERSITY, BIOPROSPECTING AND BIOPIRACY Historically there has been prolific scientific interest
AND
rights of the farming community over the genetic wealth used in agriculture.17
Western intellectual property rights protections are structurally opposed to traditional indigenous medicines, causing continual cooption for modern pharmaceuticals while leaving the communities from which they’re derived in the dust.
Eiland 08 ~Dr. Eiland received a doctorate in Oriental Archaeology from Oxford University and an LLM from the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center~, "Patenting Traditional Medicine", Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH and Co. KG, pg. 7-10, 2008 SLC PK Traditional medicines (TM)1 can form the basis of modern pharmaceuticals. Depend
AND
critics, it has devastating effects on the TK of other nations.1
The move to biopiracy adds new energy and technology to the settler project of terra nullius, putting every part of the world into the project of dispossession.
Sharma and Campbell 99 ~Sharma is a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Toronto and an Associate Professor of the Sociology Department at the University of Hawai’I at Manoa. Allison Campbell is an American Chemist known for work on biomineralization, biomimetics, biomaterials, and bioactive coatings for medical implants.~ "Vandana Shiva on Sexual Economics, Biopiracy and Women's Ongoing Resistance to Colonialism", Atlantis, Volume 23.2, Spring/Summer 1999 SLC PK Q. 1 Some feminists talk about globalization as a new phenomenon. You talk
AND
in highly intensive interaction with ourselves and with the rest of the world.
Thus, we affirm – the member nations of the World Trade Organization ought to end the use of intellectual property protections by non-Indigenous groups for medicines derived from indigenous knowledge.
Indigenous peoples have made it clear—IPR is an active threat to traditional medicine which treats natives as an expense rather than a priority. Prefer indigenous scholarship—conversations over IPR on traditional knowledge have actively and historically excluded native voices which ignores the material implications they have on the lives and livelihoods of natives.
IPCB et al. 06 ~The IPCB is organized to assist indigenous peoples in the protection of their genetic resources, indigenous knowledge, cultural and human rights from the negative effects of biotechnology. Llamado de la Tierra is comprised of indigenous peoples throughout the world who are experienced in cultural and intellectual property policies and laws in the context of the indigenous struggle for de-colonisation and self-determination. The International Indian Treaty Council serves as an advocate for the human rights of Indigenous Peoples locally, nationally, and internationally.~ "Joint Statement of the Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism (IPCB), Call of the Earth/Llamado de la Tierra (COE), and International Indian Treaty Council (IITC)", International IP Policy News, 6-12-06, https://www.ip-watch.org/2006/12/06/inside-views-indigenous-groups-tell-wipo-dont-patent-our-traditional-knowledge/SLC PK Mr. Chairman, we have some general comments regarding document 10/5 on
AND
out in the human rights arena. Thank you for your indulgence.
When biopiracy tries to patent indigenous medicine, it also demonstrates a renewed interest in nature and a certain type of knowledge. This interest destabilizes the nature/culture binary as fixed by the enlightenment, showing that nature is of value. This becomes a locus to debunk settler myths and disrupt the equation of modernity. Legal and political moves against biopiracy such as the plan are key to solvency—anything else fails to rupture the western representation of the helpless native which is necessary for real justice.
Curbishley 15 ~Liddy Scarlet Curbishley in a Thesis submitted for the Masters of Humanities in Gender Studies at Utrecht University~, "Destabilizing the Colonization of Indigenous Knowledge In the Case of Biopiracy", August 2015 SLC PK Throughout this exploration of the colonization of indigenous knowledges through acts of biopiracy I have
AND
Gaard, 2010: 13) has on vulnerable individuals and the environment.
Every facet of foreign policy is indebted to settler colonialism—IR’s erasure of indigenous peoples through casting them as domestic, primitive, and landless creates complicity in the destruction of indigenous life and governance.
King 17 (Hayden King, Gchi'mnissing Anishinaabe writer and educator based in the Faculty of Arts at Ryerson University in Toronto., 7-31-17, The erasure of Indigenous thought in foreign policy, https://www.opencanada.org/features/erasure-indigenous-thought-foreign-policy/, JKS) This type of arrangement between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians might be conceptualized as
AND
. And so, foreign policy is itself a manifestation of settler colonialism.
Debate’s fixation on extinction narratives centers a notion of universal humanity that allows for dehumanization and erasure of native relationality to nature. Settlers attach themselves to the thrill of abjection in order to distance themselves from the violence of settler colonialism and the ethical imperative to work against it.
Mitchell 17 ""Decolonizing against extinction part II: Extinction is not a metaphor – it is literally genocide" Audra Mitchell ~settler currently living and working on the Ancestral and Treaty lands of the Attawandaron (Neutral), Haudenosaunee (Six Nations of the Grand River) and Anishinaabe (Mississaugas of the New Credit) peoples. Prof. Mitchell holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Political Ecology at the Balsillie School of International Affairs~, September 27, 2017, https://worldlyir.wordpress.com/2017/09/27/decolonizing-against-extinction-part-ii-extinction-is-not-a-metaphor-it-is-literally-genocide/ SM Extinction is not a metaphor… Extinction has become an emblem of Western,
AND
relations, worlds and peoples that are targeted by these discourses and practices.
In settler research spaces we have a responsibility and role of the ballot to center indigenous knowledge, and to contribute to unsettling the academy—our work connects different discussions of indigeneity and decolonization to the rest of the globe.
Sium et al 12 (Aman Sium, Chandni Desai, Eric Ritskes, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Sium identifies as being Tigrinya, indigenous, African, and Eritrean, Ritskes is Zhaganash, Towards the ‘tangible unknown’: Decolonization and the Indigenous future, Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education and Society ¶ Vol. 1, No. 1, 2012, pp. I-XIII, JKS) Decolonization does not exist without a framework that centers and privileges Indigenous life, community
AND
teach it to behave" (Alfred, 2009a, p. 37).
9/17/21
SO - AC - Biopiracy v2
Tournament: Mid America Cup RR | Round: 2 | Opponent: Strake Jesuit KS | Judge: Deserea Niemann, Holden Bukowsky
1AC
1AC
The continual settler drive to secure its own health has resulted in a system of global biopiracy wherein western transnational corporations have targeted traditional medicine used by tribes in places like Northeast India, establishing patents on biological resources and indigenous medicine for their own profit. Biopiracy renders these indigenous knowledges and communities as only sites for extraction of knowledge, wealth, and resources, which has spread to the global south and is only increasing in speed due to the genomics revolution.
Bhattacharya 14 ~Sayan Battacharya, Department of Environmental Studies at Rabindra Bharati University in Kolkata, India~, "Bioprospecting, biopiracy and food security in India: The emerging sides of neoliberalism", International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, SciPress Ltd, pg. 49-54, 2014 SLC PK 2. BIODIVERSITY, BIOPROSPECTING AND BIOPIRACY Historically there has been prolific scientific interest
AND
rights of the farming community over the genetic wealth used in agriculture.17
Western intellectual property rights protections are structurally opposed to traditional indigenous medicines, causing continual cooption for modern pharmaceuticals while leaving the communities from which they’re derived in the dust.
Eiland 08 ~Dr. Eiland received a doctorate in Oriental Archaeology from Oxford University and an LLM from the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center~, "Patenting Traditional Medicine", Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH and Co. KG, pg. 7-10, 2008 SLC PK Traditional medicines (TM)1 can form the basis of modern pharmaceuticals. Depend
AND
critics, it has devastating effects on the TK of other nations.1
The move to biopiracy adds new energy and technology to the settler project of terra nullius, putting every part of the world into the project of dispossession.
Sharma and Campbell 99 ~Sharma is a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Toronto and an Associate Professor of the Sociology Department at the University of Hawai’I at Manoa. Allison Campbell is an American Chemist known for work on biomineralization, biomimetics, biomaterials, and bioactive coatings for medical implants.~ "Vandana Shiva on Sexual Economics, Biopiracy and Women's Ongoing Resistance to Colonialism", Atlantis, Volume 23.2, Spring/Summer 1999 SLC PK Q. 1 Some feminists talk about globalization as a new phenomenon. You talk
AND
in highly intensive interaction with ourselves and with the rest of the world.
Thus, we affirm – the member nations of the World Trade Organization ought to end the use of intellectual property protections by non-Indigenous groups for medicines derived from indigenous knowledge.
To clarify, these are the 159 countries that are currently member states
Indigenous peoples have made it clear—IPR is an active threat to traditional medicine which treats natives as an expense rather than a priority. Prefer indigenous scholarship—conversations over IPR on traditional knowledge have actively and historically excluded native voices which ignores the material implications they have on the lives and livelihoods of natives.
IPCB et al. 06 ~The IPCB is organized to assist indigenous peoples in the protection of their genetic resources, indigenous knowledge, cultural and human rights from the negative effects of biotechnology. Llamado de la Tierra is comprised of indigenous peoples throughout the world who are experienced in cultural and intellectual property policies and laws in the context of the indigenous struggle for de-colonisation and self-determination. The International Indian Treaty Council serves as an advocate for the human rights of Indigenous Peoples locally, nationally, and internationally.~ "Joint Statement of the Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism (IPCB), Call of the Earth/Llamado de la Tierra (COE), and International Indian Treaty Council (IITC)", International IP Policy News, 6-12-06, https://www.ip-watch.org/2006/12/06/inside-views-indigenous-groups-tell-wipo-dont-patent-our-traditional-knowledge/SLC PK Mr. Chairman, we have some general comments regarding document 10/5 on
AND
out in the human rights arena. Thank you for your indulgence.
When biopiracy tries to patent indigenous medicine, it also demonstrates a renewed interest in nature and a certain type of knowledge. This interest destabilizes the nature/culture binary as fixed by the enlightenment, showing that nature is of value. This becomes a locus to debunk settler myths and disrupt the equation of modernity. Legal and political moves against biopiracy such as the plan are key to solvency—anything else fails to rupture the western representation of the helpless native which is necessary for real justice.
Curbishley 15 ~Liddy Scarlet Curbishley in a Thesis submitted for the Masters of Humanities in Gender Studies at Utrecht University~, "Destabilizing the Colonization of Indigenous Knowledge In the Case of Biopiracy", August 2015 SLC PK Throughout this exploration of the colonization of indigenous knowledges through acts of biopiracy I have
AND
Gaard, 2010: 13) has on vulnerable individuals and the environment.
Debate’s fixation on extinction narratives centers a notion of universal humanity that allows for dehumanization and erasure of native relationality to nature. Settlers attach themselves to the thrill of abjection in order to distance themselves from the violence of settler colonialism and the ethical imperative to work against it.
Mitchell 17 ""Decolonizing against extinction part II: Extinction is not a metaphor – it is literally genocide" Audra Mitchell ~settler currently living and working on the Ancestral and Treaty lands of the Attawandaron (Neutral), Haudenosaunee (Six Nations of the Grand River) and Anishinaabe (Mississaugas of the New Credit) peoples. Prof. Mitchell holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Political Ecology at the Balsillie School of International Affairs~, September 27, 2017, https://worldlyir.wordpress.com/2017/09/27/decolonizing-against-extinction-part-ii-extinction-is-not-a-metaphor-it-is-literally-genocide/ SM Extinction is not a metaphor… Extinction has become an emblem of Western,
AND
relations, worlds and peoples that are targeted by these discourses and practices.
The battle for self-determination does not end with the 1AC, but you should refuse the seductive call to abandon the specific struggles against IP when faced with clear and attainable goals posed by activists
Whyte 16 (Kyle Powys – Potawatomi, Timnick Chair of the Humanities in the Department of Philosophy @ Michigan State University, "Indigenous Peoples, Climate Change Loss and Damage, and the Responsibility of Settler States", "Indigenous Environmental Movements and the Function of Governance Institutions." (2016): 563-580~, JKS) I understand indigenous peoples to encompass the roughly 370 million persons whose communities governed themselves
AND
are designed, articulated, and arranged strategically to carry out the function.
In settler research spaces we have a responsibility and role of the ballot to center indigenous knowledge, and to contribute to unsettling the academy—our work connects different discussions of indigeneity and decolonization to the rest of the globe.
Sium et al 12 (Aman Sium, Chandni Desai, Eric Ritskes, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Sium identifies as being Tigrinya, indigenous, African, and Eritrean, Ritskes is Zhaganash, Towards the ‘tangible unknown’: Decolonization and the Indigenous future, Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education and Society ¶ Vol. 1, No. 1, 2012, pp. I-XIII, JKS) Decolonization does not exist without a framework that centers and privileges Indigenous life, community
AND
teach it to behave" (Alfred, 2009a, p. 37).
Prioritize burden of proof over burden of refutation – starting disad risk close to 0 because of implicit assumptions models predictions more accurately and opens debate to discussions of systemic racialized violence
Cohn 13 – Nate, journalist, covers elections, polling and demographics for The Upshot, a Times politics and policy site. Previously, he was a staff writer for The New Republic. Before entering journalism, he was a research assistant and Scoville Fellow at the Stimson Center. "Improving the Norms and Practices of Policy Debate" November 24, 2013. IB So let me offer another possibility: the problem isn’t the topic, but modern
AND
of evidence, since they can’t really address the probability of nuclear war.
9/24/21
SO - AC - Biopiracy v3
Tournament: Mid America Cup | Round: 1 | Opponent: Scarsdale DH | Judge: Aryan Jasani
1AC
The continual settler drive to secure its own health has resulted in a system of global biopiracy wherein western transnational corporations have targeted traditional medicine for their own profit. Biopiracy renders these indigenous knowledges and communities as only sites for extraction.
Bhattacharya 14 ~Sayan Battacharya, Department of Environmental Studies at Rabindra Bharati University in Kolkata, India~, "Bioprospecting, biopiracy and food security in India: The emerging sides of neoliberalism", International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, SciPress Ltd, pg. 49-54, 2014 SLC PK 2. BIODIVERSITY, BIOPROSPECTING AND BIOPIRACY Historically there has been prolific scientific interest
AND
rights of the farming community over the genetic wealth used in agriculture.17
IP protections are structurally opposed to indigenous medicines, causing continual cooption for modern pharmaceuticals.
Eiland 08 ~Dr. Eiland received a doctorate in Oriental Archaeology from Oxford University and an LLM from the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center~, "Patenting Traditional Medicine", Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH and Co. KG, pg. 7-10, 2008 SLC PK Traditional medicines (TM)1 can form the basis of modern pharmaceuticals. Depend
AND
critics, it has devastating effects on the TK of other nations.1
The move to biopiracy adds new energy and technology to the settler project of terra nullius, putting every part of the world into the project of dispossession.
Sharma and Campbell 99 ~Sharma is a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Toronto and an Associate Professor of the Sociology Department at the University of Hawai’I at Manoa. Allison Campbell is an American Chemist known for work on biomineralization, biomimetics, biomaterials, and bioactive coatings for medical implants.~ "Vandana Shiva on Sexual Economics, Biopiracy and Women's Ongoing Resistance to Colonialism", Atlantis, Volume 23.2, Spring/Summer 1999 SLC PK Q. 1 Some feminists talk about globalization as a new phenomenon. You talk
AND
in highly intensive interaction with ourselves and with the rest of the world.
Thus, we affirm – the member nations of the World Trade Organization ought to end the use of intellectual property protections by non-Indigenous groups for medicines derived from indigenous knowledge.
To clarify, these are the 159 countries that are currently member states
IPR is an active threat to traditional medicine which treats natives as an expense rather than a priority. Prefer indigenous scholarship—conversations over IPR on traditional knowledge have excluded native voices.
IPCB et al. 06 ~The IPCB is organized to assist indigenous peoples in the protection of their genetic resources, indigenous knowledge, cultural and human rights from the negative effects of biotechnology. Llamado de la Tierra is comprised of indigenous peoples throughout the world who are experienced in cultural and intellectual property policies and laws in the context of the indigenous struggle for de-colonisation and self-determination. The International Indian Treaty Council serves as an advocate for the human rights of Indigenous Peoples locally, nationally, and internationally.~ "Joint Statement of the Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism (IPCB), Call of the Earth/Llamado de la Tierra (COE), and International Indian Treaty Council (IITC)", International IP Policy News, 6-12-06, https://www.ip-watch.org/2006/12/06/inside-views-indigenous-groups-tell-wipo-dont-patent-our-traditional-knowledge/SLC PK Mr. Chairman, we have some general comments regarding document 10/5 on
AND
out in the human rights arena. Thank you for your indulgence.
The battle for self-determination does not end with the 1AC, but you should refuse the seductive call to abandon the specific struggles against IP when faced with clear and attainable goals posed by activists
Whyte 16 (Kyle Powys – Potawatomi, Timnick Chair of the Humanities in the Department of Philosophy @ Michigan State University, "Indigenous Peoples, Climate Change Loss and Damage, and the Responsibility of Settler States", "Indigenous Environmental Movements and the Function of Governance Institutions." (2016): 563-580~, JKS) I understand indigenous peoples to encompass the roughly 370 million persons whose communities governed themselves
AND
are designed, articulated, and arranged strategically to carry out the function.
Debate’s fixation on extinction narratives centers a notion of universal humanity that allows for dehumanization and erasure of native relationality to nature.
Mitchell 17 ""Decolonizing against extinction part II: Extinction is not a metaphor – it is literally genocide" Audra Mitchell ~settler currently living and working on the Ancestral and Treaty lands of the Attawandaron (Neutral), Haudenosaunee (Six Nations of the Grand River) and Anishinaabe (Mississaugas of the New Credit) peoples. Prof. Mitchell holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Political Ecology at the Balsillie School of International Affairs~, September 27, 2017, https://worldlyir.wordpress.com/2017/09/27/decolonizing-against-extinction-part-ii-extinction-is-not-a-metaphor-it-is-literally-genocide/ SM Extinction is not a metaphor… Extinction has become an emblem of Western,
AND
relations, worlds and peoples that are targeted by these discourses and practices.
Settler colonialism is deeply engrained in Western culture and reflects in the universalist logic of non-naturalistic ethics – their philosophy gets appropriated to justify extermination of Indigenous peoples because of its cultural starting point.
John Hinkinson – Editor at Arena, an Australian maganzine. "Why Settler Colonialism?" Arena. 2012. https://arena.org.au/why-settler-colonialism/ JJN Settler colonialism as a practice is a subset of colonial history, one where the
AND
settler colonialism for granted, practices that arguably define the underside of modernity.
In settler research spaces we have a responsibility and role of the ballot to center indigenous knowledge, and to contribute to unsettling the academy—our work connects different discussions of indigeneity and decolonization to the rest of the globe.
Sium et al 12 (Aman Sium, Chandni Desai, Eric Ritskes, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Sium identifies as being Tigrinya, indigenous, African, and Eritrean, Ritskes is Zhaganash, Towards the ‘tangible unknown’: Decolonization and the Indigenous future, Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education and Society ¶ Vol. 1, No. 1, 2012, pp. I-XIII, JKS) Decolonization does not exist without a framework that centers and privileges Indigenous life, community
AND
teach it to behave" (Alfred, 2009a, p. 37).
Prioritize burden of proof over burden of refutation – starting disad risk close to 0 because of implicit assumptions models predictions more accurately and opens debate to discussions of systemic racialized violence
Cohn 13 – Nate, journalist, covers elections, polling and demographics for The Upshot, a Times politics and policy site. Previously, he was a staff writer for The New Republic. Before entering journalism, he was a research assistant and Scoville Fellow at the Stimson Center. "Improving the Norms and Practices of Policy Debate" November 24, 2013. IB So let me offer another possibility: the problem isn’t the topic, but modern
AND
of evidence, since they can’t really address the probability of nuclear war.
9/25/21
SO - AC - Biopiracy v4
Tournament: Mid America Cup | Round: 4 | Opponent: Strake Jesuit VC | Judge: Breigh Plat
1AC
The continual settler drive to secure its own health has resulted in a system of global biopiracy wherein western transnational corporations have targeted traditional medicine for their own profit. Biopiracy renders these indigenous knowledges and communities as only sites for extraction.
Bhattacharya 14 ~Sayan Battacharya, Department of Environmental Studies at Rabindra Bharati University in Kolkata, India~, "Bioprospecting, biopiracy and food security in India: The emerging sides of neoliberalism", International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, SciPress Ltd, pg. 49-54, 2014 SLC PK 2. BIODIVERSITY, BIOPROSPECTING AND BIOPIRACY Historically there has been prolific scientific interest
AND
rights of the farming community over the genetic wealth used in agriculture.17
IP protections are structurally opposed to indigenous medicines, causing continual cooption for modern pharmaceuticals.
Eiland 08 ~Dr. Eiland received a doctorate in Oriental Archaeology from Oxford University and an LLM from the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center~, "Patenting Traditional Medicine", Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH and Co. KG, pg. 7-10, 2008 SLC PK Traditional medicines (TM)1 can form the basis of modern pharmaceuticals. Depend
AND
critics, it has devastating effects on the TK of other nations.1
The move to biopiracy adds new energy and technology to the settler project of terra nullius, putting every part of the world into the project of dispossession.
Sharma and Campbell 99 ~Sharma is a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Toronto and an Associate Professor of the Sociology Department at the University of Hawai’I at Manoa. Allison Campbell is an American Chemist known for work on biomineralization, biomimetics, biomaterials, and bioactive coatings for medical implants.~ "Vandana Shiva on Sexual Economics, Biopiracy and Women's Ongoing Resistance to Colonialism", Atlantis, Volume 23.2, Spring/Summer 1999 SLC PK Q. 1 Some feminists talk about globalization as a new phenomenon. You talk
AND
in highly intensive interaction with ourselves and with the rest of the world.
Thus, we affirm – the member nations of the World Trade Organization ought to end the use of intellectual property protections by non-Indigenous groups for medicines derived from indigenous knowledge.
To clarify, these are the 159 countries that are currently member states
IPR is an active threat to traditional medicine which treats natives as an expense rather than a priority. Prefer indigenous scholarship—conversations over IPR on traditional knowledge have excluded native voices.
IPCB et al. 06 ~The IPCB is organized to assist indigenous peoples in the protection of their genetic resources, indigenous knowledge, cultural and human rights from the negative effects of biotechnology. Llamado de la Tierra is comprised of indigenous peoples throughout the world who are experienced in cultural and intellectual property policies and laws in the context of the indigenous struggle for de-colonisation and self-determination. The International Indian Treaty Council serves as an advocate for the human rights of Indigenous Peoples locally, nationally, and internationally.~ "Joint Statement of the Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism (IPCB), Call of the Earth/Llamado de la Tierra (COE), and International Indian Treaty Council (IITC)", International IP Policy News, 6-12-06, https://www.ip-watch.org/2006/12/06/inside-views-indigenous-groups-tell-wipo-dont-patent-our-traditional-knowledge/SLC PK Mr. Chairman, we have some general comments regarding document 10/5 on
AND
out in the human rights arena. Thank you for your indulgence.
The battle for self-determination does not end with the 1AC, but you should refuse the seductive call to abandon the specific struggles against IP when faced with clear and attainable goals posed by activists
Whyte 16 (Kyle Powys – Potawatomi, Timnick Chair of the Humanities in the Department of Philosophy @ Michigan State University, "Indigenous Peoples, Climate Change Loss and Damage, and the Responsibility of Settler States", "Indigenous Environmental Movements and the Function of Governance Institutions." (2016): 563-580~, JKS) I understand indigenous peoples to encompass the roughly 370 million persons whose communities governed themselves
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are designed, articulated, and arranged strategically to carry out the function.
Debate’s fixation on extinction narratives centers a notion of universal humanity that allows for dehumanization and erasure of native relationality to nature.
Mitchell 17 ""Decolonizing against extinction part II: Extinction is not a metaphor – it is literally genocide" Audra Mitchell ~settler currently living and working on the Ancestral and Treaty lands of the Attawandaron (Neutral), Haudenosaunee (Six Nations of the Grand River) and Anishinaabe (Mississaugas of the New Credit) peoples. Prof. Mitchell holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Political Ecology at the Balsillie School of International Affairs~, September 27, 2017, https://worldlyir.wordpress.com/2017/09/27/decolonizing-against-extinction-part-ii-extinction-is-not-a-metaphor-it-is-literally-genocide/ SM Extinction is not a metaphor… Extinction has become an emblem of Western,
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relations, worlds and peoples that are targeted by these discourses and practices.
Settler colonialism is deeply engrained in Western culture and reflects in the universalist logic of non-naturalistic ethics – their philosophy gets appropriated to justify extermination of Indigenous peoples because of its cultural starting point.
John Hinkinson – Editor at Arena, an Australian maganzine. "Why Settler Colonialism?" Arena. 2012. https://arena.org.au/why-settler-colonialism/ JJN Settler colonialism as a practice is a subset of colonial history, one where the
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settler colonialism for granted, practices that arguably define the underside of modernity.
In settler research spaces we have a responsibility and role of the ballot to center indigenous knowledge, and to contribute to unsettling the academy—our work connects different discussions of indigeneity and decolonization to the rest of the globe.
Sium et al 12 (Aman Sium, Chandni Desai, Eric Ritskes, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Sium identifies as being Tigrinya, indigenous, African, and Eritrean, Ritskes is Zhaganash, Towards the ‘tangible unknown’: Decolonization and the Indigenous future, Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education and Society ¶ Vol. 1, No. 1, 2012, pp. I-XIII, JKS) Decolonization does not exist without a framework that centers and privileges Indigenous life, community
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teach it to behave" (Alfred, 2009a, p. 37).
Prioritize burden of proof over burden of refutation – starting disad risk close to 0 because of implicit assumptions models predictions more accurately and opens debate to discussions of systemic racialized violence
Cohn 13 – Nate, journalist, covers elections, polling and demographics for The Upshot, a Times politics and policy site. Previously, he was a staff writer for The New Republic. Before entering journalism, he was a research assistant and Scoville Fellow at the Stimson Center. "Improving the Norms and Practices of Policy Debate" November 24, 2013. IB So let me offer another possibility: the problem isn’t the topic, but modern
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of evidence, since they can’t really address the probability of nuclear war.
Ideal theory is a form of abstraction away from the material violence of settler colonialism – their view from nowhere is not only useless but actively props up settlerism.
Nichols 13 Nichols, R. (2013). Indigeneity and the Settler Contract today. Philosophy and Social Criticism, 39(2), 165–186. doi:10.1177/0191453712470359 SM Throughout the 20th century, of course, these ‘high theories’ of human development
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reformulate some modified version of analytic contract theory in relation to indigenous peoples.
The current WTO patent system is locking in global cannabis monopolies.
Kellner 21 "Mitigating the Effects of Intellectual Property Colonialism on Budding Cannabis Markets" Hughie Kellner ~Hughie Kellner came from the small farm town of Uvalde, Texas and received a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin. Upon graduation from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Hughie will deploy his physics degree while prosecuting patents in the Frankfurt am Main, Germany office of Leydig, Voit, and Mayer. After Hughie’s first year at Maurer, he worked for a law firm in Thailand as a Stewart Fellow.~ Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies Vol. 28 ~#1 (Winter 2021) https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls/vol28/iss1/9/ SM B. How the Patent Has Become a Tool for Globalization The trade-
AND
, the inventor could create an economic climate close to a global monopoly.
Thailand proves – the world is trending towards legalization but big pharma patents lock in cannabis monopolies and crowd out local growth.
Kellner 21 "Mitigating the Effects of Intellectual Property Colonialism on Budding Cannabis Markets" Hughie Kellner ~Hughie Kellner came from the small farm town of Uvalde, Texas and received a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin. Upon graduation from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Hughie will deploy his physics degree while prosecuting patents in the Frankfurt am Main, Germany office of Leydig, Voit, and Mayer. After Hughie’s first year at Maurer, he worked for a law firm in Thailand as a Stewart Fellow.~ Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies Vol. 28 ~#1 (Winter 2021) https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls/vol28/iss1/9/ SM The reason the Thai public was so concerned over the cannabis patents filed by Otsuka
AND
, as a resolution to the Canadian recusal from the UN Single Convention.
Big pharma leverages cannabis patents to block out competition and secure monopoly – decks medical marijuana access
Barnett 20 Hailey A. Barnett ~J.D. candidate 2020, Tulane University Law School; B.A. 2017, Communication, cum laude, Texas AandM University.~, "High Risk, High Reward: Patent Law's Effects on the Medical Marijuana Industry," Tulane Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property 22 (2020): 125-164 https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/tuljtip22anddiv=8andid=andpage= SM B. Cannabis Patents and Pharmaceutical Companies Patent protection is a key component of
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of wealthy, powerful entities to ensure smaller entities are not marginalized.219
Monopolies kill cannabis biodiversity which throttles medical marijuana advances and industry innovation.
Barnett 20 Hailey A. Barnett ~J.D. candidate 2020, Tulane University Law School; B.A. 2017, Communication, cum laude, Texas AandM University.~, "High Risk, High Reward: Patent Law's Effects on the Medical Marijuana Industry," Tulane Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property 22 (2020): 125-164 https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/tuljtip22anddiv=8andid=andpage= SM A. Biodiversity Implications for Cannabis Strain Patents Biodiversity, or biological diversity,
AND
effects on that country's biodiversity and its rights to that biodiversity.2 50
Monopolies kill market growth and disincentivize innovation.
over the long-term as well as ongoing innovation and product accessibility.
Medical marijuana is key to resolving opioid pain reliever prescriptions – biggest internal link to addiction and overuse
Blake 20 ~Dwight K Blake, Founder of American Marijuana, 15 years of experience in mental health counseling and addiction treatment.~ "Medical marijuana reduces opioid prescribing rate," American Marijuana, March 24, 2020, https://americanmarijuana.org/medical-marijuana-solution-to-opioid-epidemic/ ~note: charts/images omitted~ TG Medical Marijuana as A Painkiller Marijuana contains many Cannabinoids including CBD or Cannabidiol and
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have shown an average reduction rate of opioid consumption by 5.21.
The opioid crisis risks massively destructive terrorism – synthetic opioids can be weaponized and spread
Morell 17 (Michael Morell, the former Acting Director and Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, is one of our nation's leading national security professionals, with extensive experience in intelligence and foreign policy. During his 33-year career at CIA, Michael served as Deputy Director for over three years, served twice as Acting Director, served for two years as the Director of Intelligence, the Agency's top analyst, and for two years as Executive Director, the CIA's top administrator.)("The Opioid Crisis Becomes a National Security Threat", July 26, 2017, https://www.thecipherbrief.com/column'article/opioid-crisis-becomes-national-security-threat) On October 23, 2002, dozens of armed Chechen terrorists seized a Moscow theater
AND
– particularly when it is so easy to see what might be coming.
Developments and attacks are coming now – spurs inter-state wars AND non-state actors which ensure escalation – taboo eroded, empirics prove, tech and motive are here
Henry de Quetteville et al 18. Special Correspondent @Telegraph, Technology. Former foreign correspondent in France, the Balkans and the Middle East., citing James Giordano, professor of neurology, chief of the Neuroethics Studies Program, and co-director of the O’Neill-Pellegrino Program in Brain Science and Global Health Law and Policy at Georgetown University Medical Center. He is an member of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s panel on neuroethics, legal, and social issues, and serves as a senior science advisory fellow to the Joint Staff at the Pentagon. His latest book is Neurotechnology in National Security and Defense: Practical Considerations, Neuroethical Concerns (CRC Press), citing Gavin Williamson, UK Secretary of Defense, citing Aimen Dean, also known as Ramzi is a Bahrainian man who was a founding member of al-Qaeda. In 1998, he joined the Secret Intelligence Service and became an MI6 spy, citing Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a chemical weapons expert and chief operating officer of SecureBio Limited. He was formerly a British Army officer for 23 years and commanding officer of the UK's CBRN Regiment and NATO's Rapid Reaction CBRN Battalion, August 3, 2018, "The rise of biological and chemical weapons After Salisbury, how ready is the UK?", https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/rise-of-biological-chemical-weapons/. Rez With nerve agents having been deployed in Syria, Malaysia and Salisbury, the 100
AND
total? $26.2 billion per 100,000 persons exposed.
Nuke war causes extinction – Ice Age, famines, and war won’t stay limited
Edwards 17 ~Paul N. Edwards, CISAC’s William J. Perry Fellow in International Security at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. Being interviewed by EarthSky. How nuclear war would affect Earth’s climate. September 8, 2017. earthsky.org/human-world/how-nuclear-war-would-affect-earths-climate~ Note, we are only reading parts of the interview that are directly from Paul Edwards — MMG In the nuclear conversation, what are we not talking about that we should be
AND
two nuclear powers would stay limited to these smaller, less destructive bombs.
Chemical WMDs cause extinction – one incident is enough
Gander 18, Kashmira. Citing the Global Catastrophic Risks Foundation’s Global Challenges Annual Report, edited by Martin Rees, UK Astronomer Royal, and Co-founder, Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, and whose section on chemical warfare was reviewed by Angela Kane, Senior Fellow at the Vienna Centre for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, visiting Professor at Sciences Po Paris, and former High Representative for Disarmament Affairs at the United Nations. 10-31-2018. "Experts reveal the nine most likely ways the world will end." Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/how-will-world-end-experts-reveal-9-most-likely-ways-humans-will-be-wiped-out-1194616. Rez. Humanity being annihilated by chemical weapons or the molten lava of a supervolcano may sound
AND
it could "cause a pandemic of unprecedented proportions," the report stated.
Plan – the member nations of the World Trade Organization ought to delay patent enforcement for cannabis.
Kellner 21 "Mitigating the Effects of Intellectual Property Colonialism on Budding Cannabis Markets" Hughie Kellner ~Hughie Kellner came from the small farm town of Uvalde, Texas and received a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin. Upon graduation from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Hughie will deploy his physics degree while prosecuting patents in the Frankfurt am Main, Germany office of Leydig, Voit, and Mayer. After Hughie’s first year at Maurer, he worked for a law firm in Thailand as a Stewart Fellow.~ Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies Vol. 28 ~#1 (Winter 2021) https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls/vol28/iss1/9/ SM Includes enforcement and duration A simple solution to the problem is this: if
AND
be achieved through controlling varying means and portions of the patent application process.
The plan solves by reigning in monopolies without killing innovation.
Kellner 21 "Mitigating the Effects of Intellectual Property Colonialism on Budding Cannabis Markets" Hughie Kellner ~Hughie Kellner came from the small farm town of Uvalde, Texas and received a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin. Upon graduation from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Hughie will deploy his physics degree while prosecuting patents in the Frankfurt am Main, Germany office of Leydig, Voit, and Mayer. After Hughie’s first year at Maurer, he worked for a law firm in Thailand as a Stewart Fellow.~ Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies Vol. 28 ~#1 (Winter 2021) https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls/vol28/iss1/9/ SM Patents may still be sought and possibly even acquired if the government so chooses.
AND
cannot monopolize their innovations, and are thus placed on an equal footing.
Framing
Synthetic a posteriori moral naturalism is the basis of ethics:
A~ The normative supervenes on the natural – natural facts like whether brains develop to permit rationality or subjectivity determine whether non naturalist moral facts can be premised on things like capacity for reason
Lutz and Lenman 18. Lutz, Matthew and Lenman, James, "Moral Naturalism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2018 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/naturalism-moral/.Massa The first argument against normative non-naturalism concerns normative supervenience. The normative supervenes
AND
, this is a heavy mark against non-naturalism (McPherson 2012).
Next, phenomenal introspection can bridge the gap from experiential natural facts to moral truths and necessitates hedonism. When I observe a lemon’s yellowness shifting my visual fields from darker to lighter shades, I can introspect on that experience and identify brightness as an intrinsic property of seeing a lemon. Similarly, when I feel pleasure, I can introspect on the shift in hedonic tones and identify that goodness is an intrinsic property of the pleasure that was increased.
This connection between pain and pleasure and phenomenal conceptions of intrinsic value and disvalue is irrefutable – everything else regresses – robust neuroscience proves.
Blum et al. 18 Kenneth Blum, 1Department of Psychiatry, Boonshoft School of Medicine, Dayton VA Medical Center, Wright State University, Dayton, OH, USA 2Department of Psychiatry, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL, USA 3Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Keck Medicine University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA 4Division of Applied Clinical Research and Education, Dominion Diagnostics, LLC, North Kingstown, RI, USA 5Department of Precision Medicine, Geneus Health LLC, San Antonio, TX, USA 6Department of Addiction Research and Therapy, Nupathways Inc., Innsbrook, MO, USA 7Department of Clinical Neurology, Path Foundation, New York, NY, USA 8Division of Neuroscience-Based Addiction Therapy, The Shores Treatment and Recovery Center, Port Saint Lucie, FL, USA 9Institute of Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary 10Division of Addiction Research, Dominion Diagnostics, LLC. North Kingston, RI, USA 11Victory Nutrition International, Lederach, PA., USA 12National Human Genome Center at Howard University, Washington, DC., USA, Marjorie Gondré-Lewis, 12National Human Genome Center at Howard University, Washington, DC., USA 13Departments of Anatomy and Psychiatry, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC US, Bruce Steinberg, 4Division of Applied Clinical Research and Education, Dominion Diagnostics, LLC, North Kingstown, RI, USA, Igor Elman, 15Department Psychiatry, Cooper University School of Medicine, Camden, NJ, USA, David Baron, 3Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Keck Medicine University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA, Edward J Modestino, 14Department of Psychology, Curry College, Milton, MA, USA, Rajendra D Badgaiyan, 15Department Psychiatry, Cooper University School of Medicine, Camden, NJ, USA, Mark S Gold 16Department of Psychiatry, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA, "Our evolved unique pleasure circuit makes humans different from apes: Reconsideration of data derived from animal studies", U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 28 February 2018, accessed: 19 August 2020, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6446569/, R.S. Pleasure is not only one of the three primary reward functions but it also defines
AND
these circuits contribute to diverse pathologies, including obesity and addiction or RDS.
Thus, the standard is consistency with hedonic act utilitarianism. Prefer –
1~ Actor specificity –
A~ Aggregation – every policy benefits some and harms others, which also means side constraints freeze action.
B~ No intent-foresight distinction for governments – deliberating over an action requires analysis of foreseen consequences which could be prevented which makes them intrinsic to state action
C~ Governments aren’t singular rational agents which makes theories about individuals irrelevant – only consequentialism solves by analyzing ends divorced from an actor
2~ No act-omission distinction – governments are culpable for omissions cuz their purpose is to protect the constituency – otherwise they would have no obligation to make murder illegal. Actor spec o/w – different agents have different ethical standings that affect their obligations and considerations.
The current WTO patent system is locking in global cannabis monopolies.
Kellner 21 "Mitigating the Effects of Intellectual Property Colonialism on Budding Cannabis Markets" Hughie Kellner ~Hughie Kellner came from the small farm town of Uvalde, Texas and received a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin. Upon graduation from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Hughie will deploy his physics degree while prosecuting patents in the Frankfurt am Main, Germany office of Leydig, Voit, and Mayer. After Hughie’s first year at Maurer, he worked for a law firm in Thailand as a Stewart Fellow.~ Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies Vol. 28 ~#1 (Winter 2021) https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls/vol28/iss1/9/ SM B. How the Patent Has Become a Tool for Globalization The trade-
AND
, the inventor could create an economic climate close to a global monopoly.
Thailand proves – the world is trending towards legalization but big pharma patents lock in cannabis monopolies and crowd out local growth.
Kellner 21 "Mitigating the Effects of Intellectual Property Colonialism on Budding Cannabis Markets" Hughie Kellner ~Hughie Kellner came from the small farm town of Uvalde, Texas and received a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin. Upon graduation from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Hughie will deploy his physics degree while prosecuting patents in the Frankfurt am Main, Germany office of Leydig, Voit, and Mayer. After Hughie’s first year at Maurer, he worked for a law firm in Thailand as a Stewart Fellow.~ Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies Vol. 28 ~#1 (Winter 2021) https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls/vol28/iss1/9/ SM The reason the Thai public was so concerned over the cannabis patents filed by Otsuka
AND
, as a resolution to the Canadian recusal from the UN Single Convention.
Big pharma leverages cannabis patents to block out competition and secure monopoly – decks medical marijuana access
Barnett 20 Hailey A. Barnett ~J.D. candidate 2020, Tulane University Law School; B.A. 2017, Communication, cum laude, Texas AandM University.~, "High Risk, High Reward: Patent Law's Effects on the Medical Marijuana Industry," Tulane Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property 22 (2020): 125-164 https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/tuljtip22anddiv=8andid=andpage= SM B. Cannabis Patents and Pharmaceutical Companies Patent protection is a key component of
AND
of wealthy, powerful entities to ensure smaller entities are not marginalized.219
Monopolies kill cannabis biodiversity which throttles medical marijuana advances and industry innovation.
Barnett 20 Hailey A. Barnett ~J.D. candidate 2020, Tulane University Law School; B.A. 2017, Communication, cum laude, Texas AandM University.~, "High Risk, High Reward: Patent Law's Effects on the Medical Marijuana Industry," Tulane Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property 22 (2020): 125-164 https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/tuljtip22anddiv=8andid=andpage= SM A. Biodiversity Implications for Cannabis Strain Patents Biodiversity, or biological diversity,
AND
effects on that country's biodiversity and its rights to that biodiversity.2 50
Monopolies kill market growth and disincentivize innovation.
over the long-term as well as ongoing innovation and product accessibility.
Medical marijuana is key to resolving opioid pain reliever prescriptions – biggest internal link to addiction and overuse
Blake 20 ~Dwight K Blake, Founder of American Marijuana, 15 years of experience in mental health counseling and addiction treatment.~ "Medical marijuana reduces opioid prescribing rate," American Marijuana, March 24, 2020, https://americanmarijuana.org/medical-marijuana-solution-to-opioid-epidemic/ ~note: charts/images omitted~ TG Medical Marijuana as A Painkiller Marijuana contains many Cannabinoids including CBD or Cannabidiol and
AND
have shown an average reduction rate of opioid consumption by 5.21.
The opioid crisis risks massively destructive terrorism – synthetic opioids can be weaponized and spread
Morell 17 (Michael Morell, the former Acting Director and Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, is one of our nation's leading national security professionals, with extensive experience in intelligence and foreign policy. During his 33-year career at CIA, Michael served as Deputy Director for over three years, served twice as Acting Director, served for two years as the Director of Intelligence, the Agency's top analyst, and for two years as Executive Director, the CIA's top administrator.)("The Opioid Crisis Becomes a National Security Threat", July 26, 2017, https://www.thecipherbrief.com/column'article/opioid-crisis-becomes-national-security-threat) On October 23, 2002, dozens of armed Chechen terrorists seized a Moscow theater
AND
– particularly when it is so easy to see what might be coming.
Developments and attacks are coming now – spurs inter-state wars AND non-state actors which ensure escalation – taboo eroded, empirics prove, tech and motive are here
Henry de Quetteville et al 18. Special Correspondent @Telegraph, Technology. Former foreign correspondent in France, the Balkans and the Middle East., citing James Giordano, professor of neurology, chief of the Neuroethics Studies Program, and co-director of the O’Neill-Pellegrino Program in Brain Science and Global Health Law and Policy at Georgetown University Medical Center. He is an member of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s panel on neuroethics, legal, and social issues, and serves as a senior science advisory fellow to the Joint Staff at the Pentagon. His latest book is Neurotechnology in National Security and Defense: Practical Considerations, Neuroethical Concerns (CRC Press), citing Gavin Williamson, UK Secretary of Defense, citing Aimen Dean, also known as Ramzi is a Bahrainian man who was a founding member of al-Qaeda. In 1998, he joined the Secret Intelligence Service and became an MI6 spy, citing Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a chemical weapons expert and chief operating officer of SecureBio Limited. He was formerly a British Army officer for 23 years and commanding officer of the UK's CBRN Regiment and NATO's Rapid Reaction CBRN Battalion, August 3, 2018, "The rise of biological and chemical weapons After Salisbury, how ready is the UK?", https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/rise-of-biological-chemical-weapons/. Rez With nerve agents having been deployed in Syria, Malaysia and Salisbury, the 100
AND
total? $26.2 billion per 100,000 persons exposed.
Nuke war causes extinction – Ice Age, famines, and war won’t stay limited
Edwards 17 ~Paul N. Edwards, CISAC’s William J. Perry Fellow in International Security at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. Being interviewed by EarthSky. How nuclear war would affect Earth’s climate. September 8, 2017. earthsky.org/human-world/how-nuclear-war-would-affect-earths-climate~ Note, we are only reading parts of the interview that are directly from Paul Edwards — MMG In the nuclear conversation, what are we not talking about that we should be
AND
two nuclear powers would stay limited to these smaller, less destructive bombs.
Chemical WMDs cause extinction – one incident is enough
Gander 18, Kashmira. Citing the Global Catastrophic Risks Foundation’s Global Challenges Annual Report, edited by Martin Rees, UK Astronomer Royal, and Co-founder, Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, and whose section on chemical warfare was reviewed by Angela Kane, Senior Fellow at the Vienna Centre for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, visiting Professor at Sciences Po Paris, and former High Representative for Disarmament Affairs at the United Nations. 10-31-2018. "Experts reveal the nine most likely ways the world will end." Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/how-will-world-end-experts-reveal-9-most-likely-ways-humans-will-be-wiped-out-1194616. Rez. Humanity being annihilated by chemical weapons or the molten lava of a supervolcano may sound
AND
it could "cause a pandemic of unprecedented proportions," the report stated.
Plan – the member nations of the World Trade Organization ought to delay patent enforcement for cannabis.
Kellner 21 "Mitigating the Effects of Intellectual Property Colonialism on Budding Cannabis Markets" Hughie Kellner ~Hughie Kellner came from the small farm town of Uvalde, Texas and received a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin. Upon graduation from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Hughie will deploy his physics degree while prosecuting patents in the Frankfurt am Main, Germany office of Leydig, Voit, and Mayer. After Hughie’s first year at Maurer, he worked for a law firm in Thailand as a Stewart Fellow.~ Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies Vol. 28 ~#1 (Winter 2021) https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls/vol28/iss1/9/ SM Includes enforcement and duration A simple solution to the problem is this: if
AND
be achieved through controlling varying means and portions of the patent application process.
Counter solvency advocate: medical marijuana is dangerous therefore innovation is bad
The plan solves by reigning in monopolies without killing innovation.
Kellner 21 "Mitigating the Effects of Intellectual Property Colonialism on Budding Cannabis Markets" Hughie Kellner ~Hughie Kellner came from the small farm town of Uvalde, Texas and received a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin. Upon graduation from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Hughie will deploy his physics degree while prosecuting patents in the Frankfurt am Main, Germany office of Leydig, Voit, and Mayer. After Hughie’s first year at Maurer, he worked for a law firm in Thailand as a Stewart Fellow.~ Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies Vol. 28 ~#1 (Winter 2021) https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls/vol28/iss1/9/ SM Patents may still be sought and possibly even acquired if the government so chooses.
AND
cannot monopolize their innovations, and are thus placed on an equal footing.
Framing
Synthetic a posteriori moral naturalism is the basis of ethics:
A~ The normative supervenes on the natural – natural facts like whether brains develop to permit rationality or subjectivity determine whether non naturalist moral facts can be premised on things like capacity for reason
Lutz and Lenman 18. Lutz, Matthew and Lenman, James, "Moral Naturalism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2018 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/naturalism-moral/.Massa The first argument against normative non-naturalism concerns normative supervenience. The normative supervenes
AND
, this is a heavy mark against non-naturalism (McPherson 2012).
B~ The problem of disagreement –
resolving a priori conflicts requires indicting the epistemological basis of one’s judgement with a reliable process for deriving moral truths which is impossible given widespread moral disagreement about non verifiable a priori truth – grounding ethics with verifiable natural facts solve
Copp 7, D. Why Naturalism? Morality in a Natural World, 33–54. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511497940.003 Massa Suppose, for example, that I witness a bullfight and observe that many thousands
AND
disagreement would not undermine the credibility of the proposition to an ideal thinker.
Next, phenomenal introspection can bridge the gap from experiential natural facts to moral truths and necessitates hedonism. When I observe a lemon’s yellowness shifting my visual fields from darker to lighter shades, I can introspect on that experience and identify brightness as an intrinsic property of seeing a lemon. Similarly, when I feel pleasure, I can introspect on the shift in hedonic tones and identify that goodness is an intrinsic property of the pleasure that was increased.
This connection between pain and pleasure and phenomenal conceptions of intrinsic value and disvalue is irrefutable – everything else regresses – robust neuroscience proves.
Blum et al. 18 Kenneth Blum, 1Department of Psychiatry, Boonshoft School of Medicine, Dayton VA Medical Center, Wright State University, Dayton, OH, USA 2Department of Psychiatry, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL, USA 3Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Keck Medicine University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA 4Division of Applied Clinical Research and Education, Dominion Diagnostics, LLC, North Kingstown, RI, USA 5Department of Precision Medicine, Geneus Health LLC, San Antonio, TX, USA 6Department of Addiction Research and Therapy, Nupathways Inc., Innsbrook, MO, USA 7Department of Clinical Neurology, Path Foundation, New York, NY, USA 8Division of Neuroscience-Based Addiction Therapy, The Shores Treatment and Recovery Center, Port Saint Lucie, FL, USA 9Institute of Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary 10Division of Addiction Research, Dominion Diagnostics, LLC. North Kingston, RI, USA 11Victory Nutrition International, Lederach, PA., USA 12National Human Genome Center at Howard University, Washington, DC., USA, Marjorie Gondré-Lewis, 12National Human Genome Center at Howard University, Washington, DC., USA 13Departments of Anatomy and Psychiatry, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC US, Bruce Steinberg, 4Division of Applied Clinical Research and Education, Dominion Diagnostics, LLC, North Kingstown, RI, USA, Igor Elman, 15Department Psychiatry, Cooper University School of Medicine, Camden, NJ, USA, David Baron, 3Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Keck Medicine University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA, Edward J Modestino, 14Department of Psychology, Curry College, Milton, MA, USA, Rajendra D Badgaiyan, 15Department Psychiatry, Cooper University School of Medicine, Camden, NJ, USA, Mark S Gold 16Department of Psychiatry, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA, "Our evolved unique pleasure circuit makes humans different from apes: Reconsideration of data derived from animal studies", U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 28 February 2018, accessed: 19 August 2020, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6446569/, R.S. Pleasure is not only one of the three primary reward functions but it also defines
AND
these circuits contribute to diverse pathologies, including obesity and addiction or RDS.
Thus, the standard is consistency with hedonic act utilitarianism. Prefer –
1~ Actor specificity –
A~ Aggregation – every policy benefits some and harms others, which also means side constraints freeze action.
B~ No intent-foresight distinction for governments – deliberating over an action requires analysis of foreseen consequences which could be prevented which makes them intrinsic to state action
C~ Governments aren’t singular rational agents which makes theories about individuals irrelevant – only consequentialism solves by analyzing ends divorced from an actor
ows
2~ No act-omission distinction – governments are culpable for omissions cuz their purpose is to protect the constituency – otherwise they would have no obligation to make murder illegal. Actor spec o/w – different agents have different ethical standings that affect their obligations and considerations.
9/5/21
SO - AC - Euphoric TRIPS v3
Tournament: Loyola Invitational | Round: 6 | Opponent: Immaculate Heart RR | Judge: Ronak Ahuja 1AC Advantage The current WTO patent system is locking in global cannabis monopolies. Kellner 21 "Mitigating the Effects of Intellectual Property Colonialism on Budding Cannabis Markets" Hughie Kellner ~Hughie Kellner came from the small farm town of Uvalde, Texas and received a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin. Upon graduation from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Hughie will deploy his physics degree while prosecuting patents in the Frankfurt am Main, Germany office of Leydig, Voit, and Mayer. After Hughie’s first year at Maurer, he worked for a law firm in Thailand as a Stewart Fellow.~ Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies Vol. 28 ~#1 (Winter 2021) https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls/vol28/iss1/9/ SM B. How the Patent Has Become a Tool for Globalization The trade-offs have been deemed beneficial by most of the international community, judging by the WTO’s TRIPS Agreement, whereby any signatory must institute a patent system to their national order.57 This requirement was seen to advance the benefits that intellectual property brings to markets and provide assurance for companies who depend upon intellectual property (for our purposes, patents) that they will be protected.58 Thus, investment and commercial activity can now more easily flow into countries where before the lack of protection rendered prospective costs of business prohibitive.59 The TRIPS Agreement imposed strong, uniform requirements upon signatory countries that went a long way towards its goal of globalization, and unlike most international treaties, required enforcement mechanisms with teeth.60 The most relevant requirement here is that the member patent office examining the patent may not discriminate "as to the place of invention, the field of technology and whether products are imported or locally produced."61 This requirement allows great freedom to engage in business within member countries, and prevents a patent office from giving any advantage to its own citizens that it would not give to a foreigner, unless allowed under other treaties.62 Further, if a patent is secured in the relevant country, a business does not need to set up a subsidiary within that country to obtain protection.63 To assist actors whose businesses cross international borders, the PCT was enacted by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to reduce barriers when seeking protection for inventions.64 The PCT, while a treaty in name, acts more like an organization; as the WIPO describes the PCT: The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) assists applicants in seeking patent protection internationally for their inventions, helps patent Offices with their patent granting decisions, and facilitates public access to a wealth of technical information relating to those inventions. By filing one international patent application under the PCT, applicants can simultaneously seek protection for an invention in a very large number of countries.65 Importantly, filing an application to the PCT does not grant a patent international reach; the inventor must file a patent application and await approval in each jurisdiction they wish to pursue, and patents are still enforceable only in the countries where they are obtained.66 Rather, filing your invention to the PCT, and denoting the countries where you seek patent protection, means that the PCT will provide information on the timeframe and likelihood of a patent being granted in that jurisdiction, along with certain assistance that varies based on the jurisdiction sought.67 C. How Companies Can Utilize Patents Internationally Both the TRIPS Agreement and the PCT reduce barriers to transferring business across national boundaries by easing the transference of the intellectual property needed. The PCT acts merely as a helping hand and information collection tool, while the TRIPS Agreement acts to ensure that intellectual property will operate largely the same from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and, importantly, will be protected with uniform minimum standards. Without commenting on the desirability of this uniform treatment throughout varying economies, it has never been easier for businesses to use their intellectual property to enter international markets.68 In fact, under the TRIPS Agreement and PCT, companies can file a patent in a country where they have no connections,69 acquire a patent, and simply license the technology to (or bring infringement suits against) companies in the member country without needing to ever establish a presence.70 Notably, the PCT and many countries’ patent systems require you to file your patent application within a restricted timeframe after it is first disclosed.71 Thus, this transportation of patent rights must be loosely simultaneous throughout jurisdictions. However, the fact still remains that sophisticated actors who utilize the protections of the TRIPS Agreement can now acquire a monopoly to practice an invention in any country that is a signatory to the TRIPS Agreement or PCT. This usually reaches far short of global domination since companies generally file only in jurisdictions where they expect the benefit of using the patent to outweigh the cost of applying for one.72 However, if the inventor files a patent in every country that has a viable market for that invention, especially if only a few markets exist, the inventor could create an economic climate close to a global monopoly. Big pharma leverages cannabis patents to block out competition and secure monopoly – decks medical marijuana access Barnett 20 Hailey A. Barnett ~J.D. candidate 2020, Tulane University Law School; B.A. 2017, Communication, cum laude, Texas AandM University.~, "High Risk, High Reward: Patent Law's Effects on the Medical Marijuana Industry," Tulane Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property 22 (2020): 125-164 https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/tuljtip22anddiv=8andid=andpage= SM B. Cannabis Patents and Pharmaceutical Companies Patent protection is a key component of the United States legal system. On principle, we should compensate and reward those who have rightfully invented something, as well as incentivize and stimulate further innovation. The marijuana industry has been historically composed of people who believe in the cause, the plant, and the health benefits it brings. Yet, many of the field's "new players" are getting involved with a specific 89 business purpose in mind. Cannabis patents are one way to normalize and bring the industry to the mainstream, but the winners in the patent system are often those who are first and have the most money.'90 It's no secret why everyone wants a piece of the marijuana industry pie: according to an April 2018 report by Grand View Research, Inc., the global legal marijuana market is projected to be worth $146.4 billion by 025.'9' The report additionally found that in 2016, medical marijuana emerged as the largest segment of the industry and is estimated to be valued at $100.03 billion by 2025.192 One way to obtain a monetary stake in the medical marijuana market is to use the patent process to acquire ownership over a particular strain and its seeds.' 93 This limited monopoly ensures that the patent holder "is the only one who can make or sell the product, or license other people to do so."'94 However, there are so many unanswered questions that surround IP protection of a federally illegal substance, it is unclear if the patents will be upheld.'9 5 If cannabis patents are upheld in federal courts, it is possible that a handful of companies could be in a position to demand licensing fees from the rest of the industry.1 96 This incentive is particularly appealing to major multinational pharmaceutical companies (Big Pharma) and is already being capitalized on today. For example, pharmaceutical firms are already seven of the top ten cannabis patent holders in Canada.' 97 These patents, filed prior to the country's full legalization of marijuana, would have been difficult to enforce prior to legalization.' 9 8 However, after Canada legalized marijuana on October 17, 2018, the patents became fully enforceable and gave the companies a key strategic advantage over non-patent holders in the ever- increasingly competitive market.' 99 The biggest concern is that Big Pharma companies will harness their powerful lobbies and seemingly bottomless payrolls to engage in patent blitzes. In other words, they will try to enlarge their patent portfolios and subsequent ownership of marijuana strains and their ancillary byproducts, such as oils, to marginalize competitors. In the United States, the FDA plays a crucial role in approving and 201 regulating medications for public use. Big Pharma requires the FDA's approval to bring their products to the public market, and it's no secret that Big Pharma's influence on the agency has accrued over many decades and billions of dollars spent.2 0 2 The current FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb recently slammed Big Pharma and accused drugmakers of using "gaming tactics" to stall the introduction of generic versions of biologic drugs, "a move that cost the U.S. healthcare system billions of dollars last year. "203 One of these tactics is to engage in patent blitzes, or evergreening, right before a drug's patent protection (and subsequent market exclusivity 20 4 period) expires. "In the pharmaceutical trade, when brand-name companies patent 'new inventions' that are really just slight modifications of old drugs, it's called 'evergreening. "'205 Evergreening occurs because once a drugmaker's patent on a particular drug expires, the door is open for other producers to bring generic versions of the drug to market.206 Patents in patent blitzes are often granted for even the most trivial improvements and innovations related to existing drugs.207 The purpose of evergreening is two-fold: first, to extend the commercial dominance of brand-name drugs, and second, to tie up producers of the generic drugs in 2 08 costly, time-consuming litigation. Evergreening prevents a generic drug's market entry and further extends Big Pharma's monopolies.2 09 A prime example of recent evergreening is when Mylan hiked the price of its life-saving epinephrine injectable drug, EpiPen, by more than 400.210 After Teva Pharmaceuticals gained approval from the FDA for the first generic version of EpiPen, Mylan sued them for patent infringement, although epinephrine alone was already a generic drug.2 1 Mylan settled and kept "Teva off the EpiPen market until 2015."212 Much like AbbVie's battle with AmGen over a generic version of the former's costly biologic drug Humira, Big Pharma's inclination to place company profits over the needs and desires of patients could continue with cannabis strain patents. 2 13 This will ultimately affect cost and access to medical marijuana products. Thanks to shifting public opinion and state legalization, a growing number of cannabis patent applications have been filed with the USPTO and it is very likely they will be granted. Although marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, the premature filings signal hope that sometime in the near future, the federal government will reconsider its stance on cannabis, and make medical and recreational marijuana use legal from sea to shining sea.215 Companies with a large numb1er of cannabis strain patents, such as BioTech, could become an even bigger national player in the field of cannabis strain patents as they acquire more market share. Overall, if Big Pharma obtains exclusive rights to use, produce, and sell particular cannabis strains, together with their large influence over the FDA and other government regulatory bodies, they can control public access and maintain already robust profit margins.217 Not surprisingly, Big Pharma is not the only industry chasing profits from marijuana IP rights. Smaller breeders, including scientists who alter the plant for medicinal purposes, worry that large bioagricultural companies like Monsanto and Syngenta will hoard cannabis-based patents and deploy their massive economic power to position themselves as another dominant force in the market.218 in short, an open and accessible marketplace for cannabis products, especially for medicinal use, depends on tracking the patent activity of wealthy, powerful entities to ensure smaller entities are not marginalized.219 Monopolies kill cannabis biodiversity which throttles medical marijuana advances and industry innovation. Barnett 20 Hailey A. Barnett ~J.D. candidate 2020, Tulane University Law School; B.A. 2017, Communication, cum laude, Texas AandM University.~, "High Risk, High Reward: Patent Law's Effects on the Medical Marijuana Industry," Tulane Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property 22 (2020): 125-164 https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/tuljtip22anddiv=8andid=andpage= SM A. Biodiversity Implications for Cannabis Strain Patents Biodiversity, or biological diversity, is an ongoing controversy in the marijuana patent industry. Like comprehensive research on the benefits and drawbacks of medical marijuana, "empirical analysis on biodiversity in the patent system is limited."2 2 2 Biodiversity is a broad term but is generally defined as "biological diversity in an environment as indicated by numbers of different species of plants and animals." 23 Increasingly, however, countries and companies are asserting IP rights in native flora, 224 impacting global biodiversity. "Historical documents from around the world, some dating as far back as 2900 B.C., tell us that cannabis has lived alongside humans for thousands of years, cultivated for food, fiber, and fodder, as well as for religious and medicinal purposes." 2 5 The fear is that without a wide variety of cannabis strains available for breeding and growing, production and processing of the plant will inevitably consolidate into the hands of large conglomerates.22 6 The United States and Thailand are signatories to the Convention on Biological Diversity (Biodiversity Convention), a multilateral treaty committed to sustainable development. The Biodiversity Convention's goals include "conserving biological diversity, promoting the sustainable use of its components, and the fair use and equitable sharing of benefits from biological resources."228 The Biodiversity Convention requires signatories to enforce regulations on plant patent applications and mandates that new patent applications include the plant's genetic resources and evidence of local use if they seek to patent the plant in a certain country. This is the chief reason behind the Biodiversity Sustainable Agriculture Food Sovereignty Action Thailand's (Biothai) call for careful scrutiny of recently filed foreign cannabis patents in the country, as discussed in greater detail in the next Section. Since medical marijuana is now legal for use and manufacture in Thailand, the mere implication that fabled Thai marijuana strains, such as "Northern Lights," could be available on the global market has generated 23 much buzz. 1 Like Cuban cigars or French champagne, Thai marijuana is known for its potency and quality.232 Thailand's marijuana is apure sativa landrace strain, meaning it is a local strain of cannabis that has adapted to Thailand's native environment and conditions over time. Environment plays a key role in the THC, CBD, and terpene quality and quantity and is part of what makes landrace strains so unique. For example, the marijuana plants and seeds that are indigenous to the tropical jungles of Thailand are bred to preserve their naturally occurring high THC levels.235 As more cannabis strain patents are granted worldwide, it is possible that growers will be increasingly dependent on seed makers that hold patents on certain types of seeds and methods used to produce them. As a result, growers will be subject to agreements and royalties and will be charged licensing fees for use of the seeds. A healthy number and variety 236 of available cultivars are vital for advancing cannabis legalization and the industry’s continued growth. From an agricultural perspective, the patent system encourages a consolidation and reduction of variety in order to enhance and maximize profits. This can be seen in today's staple crops, such as com, soy, and wheat, where fewer cultivars exist than they did decades ago.23 9 Other crops globally consumed today, such as fruits 240 and vegetables, are likely grown from patented varieties or cultivars. As a result, agricultural biodiversity has diminished due to the introduction and consolidation of genetically modified, patented varieties, and it is highly likely the cannabis industry could see a similar fate.24 1 Cannabis biodiversity will be threatened if there are fewer available cultivars and, thus, fewer strain options.2 42 Fewer available strains could also lead to limited consumer experiences and patient treatment options. This notion, coupled with already limited clinical and scientific research, could significantly throttle advances in medical marijuana availability and use.2 43 The corporatization of the industry, thanks to patent law, could see smaller growers and businesses merging into giant conglomerates, with 2 the profits being held in the hands of a very few. 4 In short, the "winners" of the cannabis patent wars will dominate the industry post-prohibition.2 45 Some argue that expanding strain patents could have the opposite effect and allow researchers and physicians to "correctly identifty~, dos~e~, and perhaps even personalize prescriptions for particular strains in the future" to treat specific ailments.24 6 Patents are a hallmark of innovation, and with wide access to more and better cannabis strains, there could be innovation advances in the industry as a whole.2 47 However, the reality is that cannabis patents are likely to be held by large corporations, given what we have seen before with the United States government and the FDA's involvement.24 8 Both medical marijuana patients and recreational marijuana users are strain-driven. While the current cannabis landscape is rich with hundreds of different varieties, strain patents could lead to a "locked genetic landscape where innovation becomes rare and costly."2 4 9 Further, a monopoly on the local strains of one country could have disastrous effects on that country's biodiversity and its rights to that biodiversity.2 50 Monopolies kill market growth and disincentivize innovation. Gunelius 20 "How Big Business, Monopolies and Stacked Licenses Impact the Marijuana Industry," February 7, 2020, Originally published 3/4/17, Susan Gunelius is President and CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc. https://www.cannabiz.media/blog/how-big-business-monopolies-and-stacked-licenses-impact-the-marijuana-industry SM However, the continued growth and development of big businesses with deep pockets in the cannabis industry has many people worried that the result of continued mergers and acquisitions will be monopolies, lower quality products, and a shift of revenues away from mom and pop businesses in local communities to out-of-state (or out of country) corporations. The Start of Monopolies and Oligopolies in the Cannabis Industry Monopolies and oligopolies are already developing in the cannabis industry — not just in terms of big businesses usurping smaller businesses but also in terms of state regulations that allow vertical integration, which leads to markets dominated by one or a few players that control the cultivation, processing, and sale of cannabis products. To clarify, all but two states (Louisiana and Washington) with active medical or recreational cannabis programs allow or require vertical integration of the cannabis supply chain. Cannabiz Media defines the related cannabis license structures as follows: Fully stacked licenses: A single licensed business can or is required to handle all operations from seed to sale in a fully vertically integrated structure. Partially stacked licenses: A single licensed business can or is required to handle more than one operation but not all operations from seed to sale. Unstacked licenses: Different businesses handle different operations across the supply chain from seed to sale. For example, in Minnesota, the state’s medical marijuana program requires full vertical integration with only one type of license – the Medical Cannabis Manufacturer license. Currently, only two of these licenses are allowed in the state to grow, process, and sell (at four dispensaries each) cannabis. Other states, like Colorado and Oregon, have ceased to award additional licenses to some cannabis businesses in the past thereby creating oligopolies. In California, oligopolies are forming in a different way. Regulations passed leading up to opening the state’s adult-use market in 2018 allowed large businesses to exploit a loophole and obtain as many cultivator licenses as they could afford. Across the country, smaller cannabis businesses are struggling to compete with other bigger cannabis companies. In Maryland, large out-of-state companies (including several well-known cannabis companies that are publicly traded on the Canadian Securities Exchange) have been quietly taking control of multiple marijuana dispensaries through management agreements or acquisition plans that circumvent the state’s regulations limiting ownership to one dispensary. The concern about monopolies and oligopolies in the cannabis industry was in the Florida news extensively throughout 2019 when a Florida court ruled that the state’s required vertical integration was unconstitutional. The Future of Marijuana and Big Business Bottom line, whenever every business that wants to be in an industry cannot enter the market, competition will not flourish. The result is the same whether businesses are shut out due to state regulations or because big businesses have deeper pockets and force smaller players to leave. Either way, the result is the same. Fewer players equals less competition which usually leads to higher prices and limited market growth. As Sean Williams of The Motley Fool warned back in 2017, "The culprit for the substantial drop in marijuana prices appears to be big businesses infiltrating the industry and flooding the market with product. As with any industry, if big business can push the little guy out, they’ll have considerably more liberties down the road to raise their prices back up and capture a juicier margin, along with greater market share." Only free competition ensures fair prices and market growth over the long-term as well as ongoing innovation and product accessibility. Medical marijuana is key to resolving opioid pain reliever prescriptions – biggest internal link to addiction and overuse Blake 20 ~Dwight K Blake, Founder of American Marijuana, 15 years of experience in mental health counseling and addiction treatment.~ "Medical marijuana reduces opioid prescribing rate," American Marijuana, March 24, 2020, https://americanmarijuana.org/medical-marijuana-solution-to-opioid-epidemic/ ~note: charts/images omitted~ TG Medical Marijuana as A Painkiller Marijuana contains many Cannabinoids including CBD or Cannabidiol and THC or Tetrahydrocannabinol. But contrary to the latter, topical CBD, particularly CBD oil, manages and reduces pain, inflammation, discomfort, and a variety of other health conditions. As of 2020, medical marijuana is legal in over 20 states in the USA since it was first decriminalized in Nevada in 2001. But in 2017, it was found that chronic pain was the most common qualification condition among patients who are licensed to use marijuana medically, accounting for almost 62 of nearly 1 million medical cannabis patients (representing an average of 33 to 73 each year from 1999 to 2016). Opioid Crisis Opioid is a group of chemically similar drugs containing prescription pain relievers and heroin. A good example of these includes hydrocodone (Vicodin®), oxycodone (OxyContin®), and morphine. This is what makes it one of the main contributing factors to the opioid crisis. According to SAMHSA, approximately over in 2018, 10 million people aged 12 or older in 2018 have misused opioids. About 9.4 million of those have misused pain relievers exclusively while the remaining 506,000 have misused pain relievers and heroin use in the previous year. On a similar note, a little over 300,000 people have also misused heroin exclusively out of the 800,000 people who misused heroin in 2017. From 1999 to 2017, it was found that there were about 400,000 people who died from overdoses of any, prescription, and illicit opioids. Medical Marijuana: A Potential Opioid Crisis Solution So how exactly is medical marijuana a potential solution to the opioid crisis? Here’s where things get really interesting… Our Study We’ve selected 19 states where medical marijuana is legal then compared the opioid prescribing rate 1 year before and after medical marijuana was legalized in the state. Here is what we found: Out of the 19 states, 15 have shown a fall of opioid prescribing rate 1 year after legalization of medical marijuana, and only 4 have increased in usage, namely: New Jersey, New Mexico, Michigan, and Arizona. Interestingly, the state with the highest fall of opioid prescribing rate among the 19 states was Ohio, from an average opioid prescribing rate of 82.7 down to 63.5, totaling 19.2 decreased prescribing rate after marijuana legalization. The state with the second-highest fall of opioid prescribing rate was Pennsylvania, from an average opioid prescribing rate of 75.5 down to 57.7, a total of 17.8 decreased prescribing rate after marijuana legalization. New Mexico and New Jersey had the least number of increase in opioid prescribing rate of the 4 mentioned states, with only 2.4 and 1.6 increase in usage after marijuana legalization, respectively. Here is the full data of our study: Data source: https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/maps/rxrate-maps.html, National Drug Use and Health Subtance Abuse; Mental Health Administration To support our point of view, let’s compare this to similar studies: Other studies In an article published on Harvard Health Publishing, M.D Peter Grinspoon has shown "access to medical marijuana can reduce opioid consumption". A study conducted by Hefei Wen, Ph.D and Jason M. Hockenberry, Ph.D as of May 2018 showed that from 2011 to 2016, adult-use marijuana laws and medical marijuana laws were associated with lower opioid prescribing rates for Medicaid enrollees: 6.38 and 5.88 lower, respectively, compared with states without medical cannabis laws. In October 2014, Marcus A. Bachhuber, Brendan Saloner, Ph.D, Chinazo O. Cunningham, MD, MS, and Colleen L. Barry, Ph.D, MPP also conducted a study to determine the association between the presence of state medical cannabis laws and opioid analgesic overdose mortality. The report concluded: Between 1999 to 2010, states with medical cannabis laws (Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Rhode Island, and Vermont) had a 24.8 lower mean annual opioid overdose mortality rate compared with states without medical cannabis laws. Although they still claim "further investigation is required to determine how medical cannabis laws may interact with policies aimed at preventing opioid analgesic overdose." It has to be noted that fewer annual drug doses were also being prescribed per physician in the U.S from 2010-2013: In the given period, there were 1,826 fewer doses of drugs per year per physician treating pain than in states without medical marijuana laws. Moreover, there were 562 and 541 fewer annual doses of drugs per year per physician to treat anxiety and nausea, respectively. In summary, 78 of the states (where medical marijuana is legal) have shown an average reduction rate of opioid consumption by 5.21. Neg studies are bunk – misclassified the existence of medical marijuana in states Sullum 19 ~Jacob, Cornell University BA in Economics and Psychology, Senior Editor at Reason, writer for WSJ and NYT, spoke on drug policy at International Conference on Drug Policy.~ "Does Medical Marijuana Reduce Opioid-Related Deaths or Not?" Reason, June 11, 2019, https://reason.com/2019/06/11/does-medical-marijuana-reduce-opioid-related-deaths-or-not/ TG When Shover et al. limited their analysis to states that only allow medical use of low-THC cannabis extracts, they found a negative correlation with opioid-related deaths. Looking just at states with "comprehensive medical cannabis law~s~," they found a positive correlation. In states that have legalized cannabis for recreational as well as medical use, there was a negative correlation. Only the second result was statistically significant, and barely so. Nevertheless, this is not the pattern you would expect to see if increased legal access to marijuana had a measurable impact on deaths involving opioids, either negative or positive. Shover et al.'s method differs in a potentially important way from the approach taken in two other studies suggesting that access to medical marijuana reduces opioid-related mortality. While Shover et al., like Bacchuber et al., focus on states with medical marijuana laws, the two other studies asked whether patients actually had ready access to cannabis. A 2018 study, reported in the Journal of Health Economics, found that merely having a medical marijuana law was associated with lower rates of opioid-related death until 2010. After that there was no apparent benefit from medical marijuana laws per se, but states with "legally protected and operational dispensaries" continued to see reductions, suggesting that "broader access to medical marijuana facilitates substitution of marijuana for powerful and addictive opioids." That study was based on data through 2013, so Shover et al.'s analysis includes four more years. A 2019 study, reported in the Economics Bulletin, likewise found that "states with active legal dispensaries see a drop in opioid death rates over time." That study covered 1999 through 2015, ending two years before Shover et al.'s analysis does. In addition to covering more years, Shover et al. define medical marijuana access more broadly than those two earlier studies did. While Shover et al. distinguish between states with "low-THC-only medical cannabis law~s~" (where CBD oil is legal, sometimes only notionally, for a short list of conditions) and states with "comprehensive medical cannabis law~s~" (where a broader range of cannabis products are legal for a broader range of conditions), they implicitly treat passage of such laws as equivalent to legal access, which is often misleading. Shover et al.'s data set, for example, indicates that they counted Arizona, where the first medical marijuana dispensary did not open until December 2012, as a state with a "comprehensive medical cannabis law" from 2011 through 2017. Arkansas, where the first dispensary opened last month, gets credit for such a law in 2017 and part of 2016. Hawaii is listed as a state with a comprehensive law from 2001 on, but legal sales did not begin there until 16 years later. There are similar issues with Shover et al.'s treatment of other states, including Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, and Massachusetts. In short, Shover et al. classify states based on their enactment of medical marijuana laws, even though legal sales may not begin until years later. That makes sense insofar as they are seeking to replicate the results of Bachhuber et al.'s study, which took the same approach. But it could easily muddy the picture of what happens when medical marijuana is legally available. The opioid crisis risks massively destructive terrorism – synthetic opioids can be weaponized and spread Morell 17 (Michael Morell, the former Acting Director and Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, is one of our nation's leading national security professionals, with extensive experience in intelligence and foreign policy. During his 33-year career at CIA, Michael served as Deputy Director for over three years, served twice as Acting Director, served for two years as the Director of Intelligence, the Agency's top analyst, and for two years as Executive Director, the CIA's top administrator.)("The Opioid Crisis Becomes a National Security Threat", July 26, 2017, https://www.thecipherbrief.com/column'article/opioid-crisis-becomes-national-security-threat) On October 23, 2002, dozens of armed Chechen terrorists seized a Moscow theater and took some 850 people hostage. Because of the layout of the theater, the number of extremists, and the large amount of explosives in their possession, a SWAT-type raid was out of the question. When two of the hostages were murdered almost three days into the crisis, the Russian government chose to pump an incapacitating agent into the theater via the air vents. But the agent was too toxic, and while all the extremists were killed, so too were some 130 of the hostages. The Russians have never publicly identified the particular chemical agent used, but it is widely believed to have been carfentanil. Fast forward to June 2016, when authorities in Vancouver, Canada seized one kilogram of carfentanil. The agent was sent via mail from China to an address in Canada, and it was hidden in a package that was declared on a customs form to be printer accessories. It was the largest seizure of carfentanil to date. Carfentanil, a synthetic opioid, is highly toxic. The drug is 10,000 times stronger than morphine and 5,000 times more potent than heroin. Only 20 micrograms, roughly the size of a grain of salt, can be fatal. The seizure in Vancouver was enough to kill 50 million people – every man, women, and child in Canada. Carfentanil was developed in the 1970s as a tranquilizer for large animals – elephants and hippos. Dr. Rob Hilsenroth, the executive director of the American Association of Zoo Veterinarians said last year that carfentanil is so powerful that zoo officials wear protective gear "just a little bit short of a hazmat suit" when sedating animals because even one drop in a person’s eye or nose can be fatal. The extreme lethality of carfentanil has led most countries to classify it as a chemical weapon. It is banned from the battlefield under the Chemical Weapons Convention. Andrew Weber, President Barack Obama’s Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Program, said it plainly and simply last year: "It’s a weapon." So, what is a chemical weapon doing on the streets of Canada – and the U.S.? Over the past year, drug dealers have learned that they can cut carfentanil into the heroin they sell to increase the "high" and to increase profits, as heroin is 15 times more expensive than carfentanil. In a public warning last fall, the Drug Enforcement Administration said "carfentanil is surfacing in more and more communities" and that it "has been linked to a significant number of overdose deaths in various parts of the country." The drug is largely produced in China by thousands of small chemical firms and shipped either through Mexico and Canada to the United States or directly through the mail system, often after an order is placed online. It is also produced by drug cartels in Mexico (with key ingredients imported from China). China, working with the United States, is now regulating carfentanil production and export, but the large number of producers there means the problem has only been reduced, not resolved. There are signs that the production of carfentanil could be moving here as well, particularly after the Chinese government’s crack down. Some of equipment used to make carfentanil in China has been found in the United States. And the key ingredient to fentanyl – a less potent cousin of carfentanil – has also been discovered in the U.S., suggesting that fentanyl is being manufactured here. In May, federal agents in Massachusetts seized 50 kilograms of a key chemical used to make fentanyl. The public discussion about – and the government focus on – carfentanil is all about the dangerous role it plays in the contemporary drug epidemic – with good reason. Drug overdoses, with a growing number caused by carfentanil, are now the leading cause of death from injury in the United States, surpassing motor vehicle accidents, suicides, and homicides. Some police and paramedics have themselves overdosed after coming into contact with carfentanil. But the drug also constitutes a significant threat to national security. It is a weapon of mass destruction. Indeed, carfentanil is the perfect terrorist weapon. It is readily available in large quantities. It comes in several forms – including tablets, powder, and spray. It can be absorbed through the skin or through inhalation. It acts quickly. And, it is deadly. Peter Ostrovsky, a senior official of the Immigration and Customs Service, said last fall, "Could it be weaponized? Yeah, it could be weaponized." In short, a single terrorist attack using carfentanil could kill thousands of Americans. And, there has been little focus on the drug as a terrorist weapon. In the Director of National Intelligence’s 2017 Worldwide Threat hearings, the issue of synthetic opioids was treated as part of the international drug problem, not as a terrorism risk. No one from either the Obama or Trump administrations has spoken publicly about the threat. The same is true for Congress. There has been little to no work by think tanks or the media on the terrorism risks. This needs to change. There needs to be an NSC-directed policy and strategy on getting our arms around the national security risks of carfentanil – including increasing the focus of the Intelligence Community as well as the law enforcement and homeland security communities. There needs to be a focus by Congress, in part, to oversee the work of the Executive Branch. There needs to be work done at the state and local level that is integrated with what is happening at the federal level. There is a great deal to do. Both al Qaeda and ISIS have said they are interested in acquiring weapons of mass destruction and that they would use them if they acquired them. Osama bin Laden called it a religious duty to do so. ISIS has used chemical weapons on the battlefield in Iraq and Syria. And now such a weapon is easily available to them. It would be a terrible tragedy if foreign terrorists were to use the consequences of our own domestic drug problem against us – particularly when it is so easy to see what might be coming. Developments and attacks are coming now – spurs inter-state wars AND non-state actors which ensure escalation – taboo eroded, empirics prove, tech and motive are here Henry de Quetteville et al 18. Special Correspondent @Telegraph, Technology. Former foreign correspondent in France, the Balkans and the Middle East., citing James Giordano, professor of neurology, chief of the Neuroethics Studies Program, and co-director of the O’Neill-Pellegrino Program in Brain Science and Global Health Law and Policy at Georgetown University Medical Center. He is an member of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s panel on neuroethics, legal, and social issues, and serves as a senior science advisory fellow to the Joint Staff at the Pentagon. His latest book is Neurotechnology in National Security and Defense: Practical Considerations, Neuroethical Concerns (CRC Press), citing Gavin Williamson, UK Secretary of Defense, citing Aimen Dean, also known as Ramzi is a Bahrainian man who was a founding member of al-Qaeda. In 1998, he joined the Secret Intelligence Service and became an MI6 spy, citing Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a chemical weapons expert and chief operating officer of SecureBio Limited. He was formerly a British Army officer for 23 years and commanding officer of the UK's CBRN Regiment and NATO's Rapid Reaction CBRN Battalion, August 3, 2018, "The rise of biological and chemical weapons After Salisbury, how ready is the UK?", https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/rise-of-biological-chemical-weapons/. Rez With nerve agents having been deployed in Syria, Malaysia and Salisbury, the 100 year taboo on the use of chemical weapons is in danger of collapse. The stakes could not be higher as gene-editing technologies put a new generation of bio-weapons within reach of almost anyone. The small town of Melksham, in rural Wiltshire, is an unlikely location for one of the world’s largest producers of gas masks. Yet there, next to Farmers’ Roundabout, is a warehouse containing a production line that can turn out a quarter of a million masks a year. Models include the FM54, a sinister-looking bit of kit used by the SAS. This is Avon Protection, originally founded in the late 19th century as a tyre factory but which, come the First World War, spotted a new market for its rubber presses. Today, business is booming. Orders are flooding in from the US military and the MoD. A contract is up for grabs from Canada’s army. India is keen. ‘All this CW has been good for us,’ says an executive. By CW he means chemical warfare. And it’s true. On Avon’s factory floor, permeated by the distinctive smell of its essential raw material, blue and yellow presses relentlessly inject molten rubber into dense matt-metal moulds. Every four minutes a new mask emerges, ready to be trimmed and equipped with tubes, visors and filters. Amid the beauty of Melksham’s peaceful surroundings, these blank-eyed robo-humanoid visors, worthy of Darth Vader, are the starkest possible reminder that 100 years after we thought we had said goodbye to all that, a new age of poison weapons is upon us. It is an era in which a series of unprecedented plots and attacks – from England to Australia – has projected this darkest of the arts of war far from the traditional battlefield. They have seen an airport departure lounge and a medieval cathedral city in the West Country laced with the deadliest toxic chemicals, upsetting a diplomatic and military status quo established in the wreckage of the First World War, and blowing away one of armed conflict’s weightiest taboos like a breeze dispersing clouds of mustard gas over the trenches of the Western Front. Worse, some fear that with emerging threats from DIY bioweapons, this may just be the beginning. The new age of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) has been decades in the making. As Aimen Dean, MI6’s mole in al-Qaeda, recounts in his new book Nine Lives, Osama bin Laden’s terror group plotted to smear deadly chemicals on the door handles of luxury cars in Britain in the late 1990s. After 9/11, Dean delivered intelligence that Abu Khabab, an al-Qaeda weapons engineer, had managed to develop a viable poison-gas device destined for New York’s subway system. The plot never came to fruition. Terrorists continue to fantasise about striking fear into civilian populations with chemical and biological weapons. Last August, intelligence agencies in Australia intercepted an Isil plot that allegedly would have involved the release of toxic hydrogen sulphide gas. And just last month, German authorities arrested Seif Allah Hammami, a 29-year-old Tunisian who had apparently managed to manufacture significant quantities of ricin, a bioweapon first developed by the US during the First World War. But it is in Syria that the century-old toxic taboo has truly been blown away. Since 2012, chlorine and sarin gas have repeatedly been dropped from the jets and helicopters of the Assad regime, as well as fired in warheads attached to artillery rockets. Isil too has deployed gas in Syria – both in contravention of the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare – known in short as the Geneva Protocol – which was first signed in 1925. The Protocol was an attempt to ensure that the horrors of the Great War were never repeated, yet in Syria today, just as on the Western Front then, chemical munitions have targeted networks of trenches housing enemy fighters. Bashar al-Assad spent four year besieging Aleppo with conventional weapons. When, in December 2016, he started using chemicals instead, the city fell in just over two weeks. Little matter that all too often they hit civilians too, as shown by heartbreaking images of choking, gagging, foaming men, women and children broadcast around the world. Ghouta in 2013 remains the deadliest single attack, almost unimaginable in scale. The final death toll has never been pinned down, but the US administration estimates almost 1,500 were killed. Hundreds more have died in over three dozen subsequent attacks in Syria that the world knows of. Having been unleashed anew in Syria in 2012, it was only five years before these weapons were deployed – in February 2017 – in an exclusively civilian arena. The scene was the budget-airline terminal at Kuala Lumpur airport. Just as sarin is many times more toxic than chlorine, so VX is many times more toxic than sarin. And it was VX that was used to assassinate Kim Jong-nam, exiled half-brother of the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, when two women smeared the agent on his body in what they claim to have thought was a prank. Currently on trial, they could face the death penalty if their story is not believed. But even that brazen attack was as nothing to what unfolded in Salisbury on 4 March this year, when the Russian military officer turned British spy Sergei Skripal and his daugher Yulia were found unconscious on a bench. Skripal was a victim of Novichok, a nerve agent that is perhaps 1,000 times more toxic than sarin. Invisible and deadly, it brought a menace to Britain’s streets that most of us never imagined we would have to consider – let alone experience. And that shock only deepened when, earlier this month, and out of the blue, Charlie Rowley, 45, and Dawn Sturgess (who died last weekend), 44, also fell victim to Novichok in Amesbury, just down the road from Salisbury. On top of the attacks in Syria and the killing of Kim Jong-nam, the targeting of the Skripals and its protracted consequences made a devastating conclusion inescapable: a century after Wilfred Owen wrote of ‘Gas, gas’ and of the victim ‘yelling out and stumbling And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime’, the use of chemical weapons had become normal again. It is easy to see why. Toxic chemicals are the perfect weapon for our fake news world, where everything is disputable, objective truth malleable or elusive, blame and attribution hard to pin down. Take the Skripal attack: afterwards Russia’s propaganda machine went into overdrive, peddling countless claims and counterclaims of its own: that the British state was itself responsible; that Yulia and her father were sedated and poisoned. Spinning this web of ambiguity was all the easier because of the absence of any international body empowered to attribute responsibility for attacks. The independent Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) identified the Novichok in Salisbury, but pointing to its source was not within its remit. Moscow’s media trumpeted its failure to do so as exculpation anyway. For a former superpower like Russia, chemical weapons offer an alluring asymmetry too, helping to level the playing field against the better-financed, better-equipped militaries of NATO. ‘We’re in a position now where we’re going into a new Cold War,’ says Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, former commander of the British Army’s Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment (CBRN), which, ironically, was disbanded in 2011, a year before WMD were first deployed in Syria. ‘While we overmatch Russia in most areas, in chemical weapons their offensive capability more than overmatches us. If Russia did decide broadly to hit us with this stuff, we’d be found wanting.’ Novichok, which de Bretton-Gordon describes as ‘the world’s blue riband nerve agent’, was developed in Shikhany, a town on the Volga that houses a military research establishment. Experts estimate that Russia has perhaps a few tons of it, enough ‘to carry out assassinations but not to wage war’. Still, only tiny doses are needed to block a crucial enzyme – acetylcholinesterase – which breaks down the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. When that happens, large branches of the nervous system become overexcited and ultimately shut down. ‘The first thing that happens is bowel and bladder incontinence,’ says Stefano Costanzi, associate professor in the department of chemistry at American University in Washington, DC, and an expert in the effects of chemical weapons. ‘Eventually that is followed by the collapse of the nervous system, with death typically resulting from respiratory failure and seizures.’ How long that takes depends on exposure and dose. It can be minutes. Dr Stephen Jukes, intensive care consultant at Salisbury District Hospital, where the Skripals were treated (and where Rowley and Sturgess were taken), has described trying ‘all our therapies’ to keep Sergei and Yulia alive. Due to an astonishing coincidence, two doctors on duty had just returned from a course at Porton Down, Britain’s world-leading equivalent to Shikhany, when the pair were brought in. Recognising what looked like symptoms of nerve-agent poisoning, they made sure to include diazepam and atropine in their battery of treatments – the drugs compensate for some of the effects of acetylcholinesterase blockage – and plunged the Skripals into an artificial coma to prevent brain damage. Then it was a question of waiting. ‘It is key to keep the victims alive long enough for their bodies naturally to restore their ability to break down acetylcholine,’ says Costanzi. Dr Jukes says that hospital staff did indeed wait, but more in hope than expectation. ‘When we first realised this was a nerve agent, we were expecting them not to survive,’ he told the BBC. His colleague Dr Duncan Murray attributed the fact that the Skripals did pull through to ‘very good, generic, basic critical care’. But simple good fortune, like the fact that Porton Down is just down the road from Salisbury, played a big part too. ‘There are only 10 or so countries in the world that could have possibly responded to the Skripal attack,’ one British official told me. ‘And even then we were very lucky.’ Soldiers march across Kim Il Sung Square, North Korea. The country is known to hold stocks of VX nerve agent as well as long range nuclear missiles Lucky, and stretched to the absolute limit. Lorna Wilkinson, nursing director at the hospital, has said that when policeman Nick Bailey was also admitted with symptoms of poisoning similar to the Skripals’ ‘there was a real concern as to how big this could get’. She and fellow medical staff worried that it could become ‘all-consuming and involve many casualties’. According to de Bretton-Gordon, even containing the attack as it was required the deployment of ‘every bit of this country’s military establishment’. So could Britain cope with a bigger attack? Responsibility for responding to major disasters in Britain lies with the Civil Contingencies Secretariat (CCS) in the Cabinet Office, which liaises with intelligence agencies and the Office for Security and Counter Terrorism (OSCT) at the Home Office to draw up the National Risk Register Of Civil Emergencies (NRR) – a list of 80 or so critical threats to the country, from flooding to a collapse of the national grid to cyber attacks. The NRR distinguishes between natural hazards or accidents, and malicious attacks, and even produces a table ranking these threats by their impact severity and likelihood, both on a scale of 1 to 5. The table makes it easy to see, for example, that the natural disaster the CCS is most worried about is a pandemic flu outbreak, which is given a 5 impact rating, and a 4 for its relative likelihood of occurring in the next five years. When it comes to malicious acts, chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) attacks are deemed the most severe threat to this country. ‘Larger-scale incidents could include… much greater numbers of casualties and widespread, long-term impacts of a magnitude above all others,’ the cheery document suggests. As one British diplomatic source puts it, ‘We assumed that the use of chemical weapons by states had drawn to an end. But their repeated use in Syria ate away at that. Then the sheer recklessness of the Skripal attack shocked not just us but a lot of our allies around the world.’ And it’s not just states. Aimen Dean has called Salisbury a ‘big neon advertisement’ to jihadists about the potency of chemical attacks. British efforts to reverse this normalisation of WMD have included participating with the US and France in air strikes in Syria in April, aimed at redrawing some Obama-era ‘red lines’ that were blurred by six years of unpunished chemical attacks by the Assad regime. At the same time Gavin Williamson, the Defence Secretary, has pledged £48 million to build a new chemical weapons defence centre at Porton Down, and elements of de Bretton-Gordon’s disbanded CBRN regiment are being reconstituted. Quietly, this summer, the British Government has also pursued a high-stakes diplomatic gambit to ensure chemical attacks are no longer easy to get away with, by granting the OPCW powers to attribute blame for chemical attacks. Russia has repeatedly blocked such moves, but last month a special session of OPCW member states was convened and despite Russian pressure, 106 members turned up and 82 voted in favour of granting the OPCW powers ‘to identify the perpetrators of the use of chemical weapons’ – initially in Syria alone but then, so Britain hopes, around the world. ‘The taboo against the use of these weapons is breaking down and today the OPCW has not just the power to say the chemical weapons have been used, but can also point the finger at whoever did it,’ the then Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said afterwards. If the worst came to the worst, however, and a major attack did unfold, Britain would fall back on the Reserve National Stock, a chain of warehouses filled with antidotes and drugs for use in the event of a catastrophic WMD event. It was established in the 1970s after the eradication of smallpox, when dumps of the smallpox vaccine were maintained just in case the disease re-emerged. In 1995, after sarin terror attacks on the Tokyo subway launched by the Aum Shinrikyo cult, nerve-gas antidotes were added. Following 9/11, countermeasures for anthrax were also included; then, in 2003, the nerve agent response was upgraded with better drugs and personal-protection gear. Critical chemical- and biological- weapon treatments are strategically positioned around the country, with the aim of getting essential supplies to almost any affected location within five hours. The kind of items in the stock is made clear in an NHS England document, identified with the bland ‘Gateway Reference Number 03088’. ‘1. Nerve agent antidote pod to treat 90 people. 2. Obidoxime further treatment for nerve agent poisoning. 3. Dicobalt edetate pod for treatment of cyanide poisoning in 90 people. 4. Botulinum antitoxin... Antibiotic pods (oral ciprofloxacin) to treat 250 adults for 10 days… with post-exposure prophylaxis for anthrax, plague or tularaemia…’ You get the picture. The Reserve National Stock is kept under review, to ensure it contains the right kit and drugs to meet current threats. But that also begs a question: will it be able to respond to threats in the future? For no sooner have WMD resurfaced than the nature of the threat they pose is changing. Today, for example, biological pathogens can be modified to ‘improve’ their lethality using gene-editing techniques such as Crispr-Cas9. Because of their ease of use, these techniques – more usually lauded for their medical applications – have been described by James Clapper, America’s national intelligence director until last year, as weapons of mass destruction, as they do not require a vastly sophisticated lab. ‘It makes it easy for individuals to operate outside a formal institutional setting,’ says James Giordano, professor of neurology and biochemistry at the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics of Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, DC. ‘Crispr lends itself to biohacking.’ Biohacking sounds subversive, but in fact is merely the name given to the growing trend for DIY bioengineering, carried out by amateurs with no malicious intent, usually on entirely benign organisms, such as yeast. Take a turn off the stalls of Shepherds Bush Market in west London, for example, and you will come across 45 purple and pink shipping containers. This is Open Cell, where biotech innovators can rent access to lab equipment like a thermal cycler (to reproduce DNA) for a few hundred pounds a month. Open Cell has the relaxed campus feel common to many collaborative working spaces of which entrepreneurs are fond. Except here, budding young companies are working on encouraging flies to do the pollinating work of bees, say, or exploiting potato waste to make chipboard-like material. It is a sign of London’s thriving biotech start-up scene. But it is also a sign of how biotech is breaking out of the state- or university-run lab. ‘That is exactly our passion,’ says Open Cell’s co-founder, biotechnologist Thomas Meany. He makes plain that security is a top concern, pointing to CCTV on site and constant threat assessments, as well as vetting of potential tenants. ‘We work with organisms you might find in your tummy or on your skin,’ he says. ‘We don’t use anything that could be potentially hazardous.’ Nevertheless, Open Cell is part of what Giordano calls ‘an increasingly global independent DIY movement’ in biotech. ‘It is not a Wild West of biohacking cowboys,’ he says. ‘But the ubiquity of these techniques now means people may drift outside the norm of a community through a "let’s see what happens" spirit. They may not be operating with controls to see something bad coming then mitigate it if it happens. Then of course other groups may simply not care – they want to see if they can do something a bit disruptive. They might say, "Let see if we can build something that will make people sick."’ Such people, Giordano says, could find themselves the tools of states looking to sow chaos but not take any blame. ‘They could create bio-agents that are not even categorised by the biological weapons convention because they are new. You could take something common like E.coli and make it more pathogenic.’ He points to the case last year of two academics at the University of Alberta in Canada who ordered segments of horsepox DNA – related to smallpox – off the internet, and put them together so they became infectious. What particularly shocked peers was that the pair then published their work – effectively unveiling a deadly recipe. ‘You shake your head and wonder how it happened,’ says Giordano. ‘Before gene editing, of course, that’s not such a problem. But now putting out these types of recipes creates real problems because they will be read outside institutions where regulations are very stringent. I am very concerned about the external community. This is new territory. It needs to be surveillable and enforceable.’ Or as Clapper put it in his Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community: ‘Given the broad distribution, low cost, and accelerated pace of development of this ~gene-editing~ technology, its deliberate or unintentional misuse might lead to far-reaching economic and national security implications.’ What people like Clapper fear is a genetically modified pox threat outpacing efforts to contain it, creating a pandemic which could kill not thousands but, in the doomsday scenario, millions. Last year Bill Gates said a bioweapon strike represented a bigger than nuclear attack, and put the potential death toll at 30 million. The economic fallout would also be catastrophic. This is hard to calculate, but in a paper some 20 years ago the Center for Disease Control in America tried to estimate the cost of containing an anthrax-based bioterror attack. The total? $26.2 billion per 100,000 persons exposed. Nuke war causes extinction – Ice Age, famines, and war won’t stay limited Edwards 17 ~Paul N. Edwards, CISAC’s William J. Perry Fellow in International Security at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. Being interviewed by EarthSky. How nuclear war would affect Earth’s climate. September 8, 2017. earthsky.org/human-world/how-nuclear-war-would-affect-earths-climate~ Note, we are only reading parts of the interview that are directly from Paul Edwards — MMG In the nuclear conversation, what are we not talking about that we should be? We are not talking enough about the climatic effects of nuclear war. The "nuclear winter" theory of the mid-1980s played a significant role in the arms reductions of that period. But with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the reduction of U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals, this aspect of nuclear war has faded from view. That’s not good. In the mid-2000s, climate scientists such as Alan Robock (Rutgers) took another look at nuclear winter theory. This time around, they used much-improved and much more detailed climate models than those available 20 years earlier. They also tested the potential effects of smaller nuclear exchanges. The result: an exchange involving just 50 nuclear weapons — the kind of thing we might see in an India-Pakistan war, for example — could loft 5 billion kilograms of smoke, soot and dust high into the stratosphere. That’s enough to cool the entire planet by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.25 degrees Celsius) — about where we were during the Little Ice Age of the 17th century. Growing seasons could be shortened enough to create really significant food shortages. So the climatic effects of even a relatively small nuclear war would be planet-wide. What about a larger-scale conflict? A U.S.-Russia war currently seems unlikely, but if it were to occur, hundreds or even thousands of nuclear weapons might be launched. The climatic consequences would be catastrophic: global average temperatures would drop as much as 12 degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees Celsius) for up to several years — temperatures last seen during the great ice ages. Meanwhile, smoke and dust circulating in the stratosphere would darken the atmosphere enough to inhibit photosynthesis, causing disastrous crop failures, widespread famine and massive ecological disruption. The effect would be similar to that of the giant meteor believed to be responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs. This time, we would be the dinosaurs. Many people are concerned about North Korea’s advancing missile capabilities. Is nuclear war likely in your opinion? At this writing, I think we are closer to a nuclear war than we have been since the early 1960s. In the North Korea case, both Kim Jong-un and President Trump are bullies inclined to escalate confrontations. President Trump lacks impulse control, and there are precious few checks on his ability to initiate a nuclear strike. We have to hope that our generals, both inside and outside the White House, can rein him in. North Korea would most certainly "lose" a nuclear war with the United States. But many millions would die, including hundreds of thousands of Americans currently living in South Korea and Japan (probable North Korean targets). Such vast damage would be wrought in Korea, Japan and Pacific island territories (such as Guam) that any "victory" wouldn’t deserve the name. Not only would that region be left with horrible suffering amongst the survivors; it would also immediately face famine and rampant disease. Radioactive fallout from such a war would spread around the world, including to the U.S. It has been more than 70 years since the last time a nuclear bomb was used in warfare. What would be the effects on the environment and on human health today? To my knowledge, most of the changes in nuclear weapons technology since the 1950s have focused on making them smaller and lighter, and making delivery systems more accurate, rather than on changing their effects on the environment or on human health. So-called "battlefield" weapons with lower explosive yields are part of some arsenals now — but it’s quite unlikely that any exchange between two nuclear powers would stay limited to these smaller, less destructive bombs. Chemical WMDs cause extinction – one incident is enough Gander 18, Kashmira. Citing the Global Catastrophic Risks Foundation’s Global Challenges Annual Report, edited by Martin Rees, UK Astronomer Royal, and Co-founder, Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, and whose section on chemical warfare was reviewed by Angela Kane, Senior Fellow at the Vienna Centre for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, visiting Professor at Sciences Po Paris, and former High Representative for Disarmament Affairs at the United Nations. 10-31-2018. "Experts reveal the nine most likely ways the world will end." Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/how-will-world-end-experts-reveal-9-most-likely-ways-humans-will-be-wiped-out-1194616. Rez. Humanity being annihilated by chemical weapons or the molten lava of a supervolcano may sound like the plots of Hollywood disaster movies, but they are in fact among the very real ways mankind could be wiped out according to research. The Global Challenges Foundation—an organization which aims to reduce the global issues which we all face—highlighted the most probable scenarios to finish off the human race in its annual Global Catastrophic Risks report. To compile the document, researchers assessed scientific papers and consulted academics. Martin Rees, the U.K.’s Astronomer Royal, and co-founder of the Cambridge Center for the Study of Existential Risk, warned in the report that while most of us are worried about familiar risks like air crashes "we’re in denial about some emergent threats—the potential downsides of fast-developing new technologies and the risk of crossing environmental 'tipping points.' "These may seem improbable, but in our interconnected world, their consequences could cascade globally, causing such devastation that even one such incident would be too many," said Rees. The likelihood that nuclear war could break out is higher than it was a decade ago, the experts warned. In the wake of the Hiroshima bombing which killed up to 150,000 people in the immediate aftermath, "the world has lived in the shadow of a war unlike any other in history," they said. Weapons with the highest yield have the power to obliterate 80 to 90 percent of lifeforms, including humans, in a 1-4 kilometer radius. With around 7,000 warheads each, the U.S and Russia have the biggest arsenals, with the U.K., France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel confirmed or believed to possess some form of nuclear device. A nuclear war could not only wipe out lives and cities, and leave behind the threat of radioactive disease, but the resulting fallout could trigger a mini ice-age. Biological and chemical warfare GettyImages-672115 A member of the German Chemical Corps, a part of the German military that specializes in anti-nuclear, chemical and biological weapons operations, holds up a rapid tester whose two red lines indicate a positive result for chemical contamination during a demonstration at battalion headquarters November 19, 2001 in Sonthofen, Germany. The Global Challenges Foundations highlighted chemical warfare as a potential threat to human existence. SEAN GALLUP/GETTY IMAGES Compared with other traditional means of attack, biological and chemical weapons are relatively cheap to make. And technological advances in genetic engineering and synthetic biology make it easier than ever to alter micro-organisms in potentially dangerous ways. If these tiny living things were ever to be released out of a controlled laboratory, by mistake or nefariously, it could "cause a pandemic of unprecedented proportions," the report stated. Plan – the member nations of the World Trade Organization ought to delay patent enforcement for cannabis. Kellner 21 "Mitigating the Effects of Intellectual Property Colonialism on Budding Cannabis Markets" Hughie Kellner ~Hughie Kellner came from the small farm town of Uvalde, Texas and received a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin. Upon graduation from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Hughie will deploy his physics degree while prosecuting patents in the Frankfurt am Main, Germany office of Leydig, Voit, and Mayer. After Hughie’s first year at Maurer, he worked for a law firm in Thailand as a Stewart Fellow.~ Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies Vol. 28 ~#1 (Winter 2021) https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls/vol28/iss1/9/ SM Includes enforcement and duration A simple solution to the problem is this: if a nation, or jurisdiction, provides for some new use of cannabis, be it medicinal, recreational, or scientific, the legislation or decision doing so should be accompanied by a law stating that patents may not be enforced as they relate to the subject matter legalized (cannabis strains, methods for ingesting/using, etc.) for some determinate amount of time, after which, patents may be acquired.105 This, at first glance, may seem to some patent attorneys to be a drastic solution as opposed to, for example, compulsory licensing106 or some other means that does not abscond with the rights demanded by international agreements. In support of my proposal, I will first explain why banning enforcement for a certain period yet keeping patent acquisition is desired, rather than banning patent acquisition altogether, as a means of highlighting the benefits that will accrue from the proposed change. Second, I will argue that imposing patent enforcement during the beginning stages of a jurisdiction’s cannabis market development is difficult to justify, as the incentives that patent enforcement are supposed to bring about already exist in great strength, leaving little for the patent sacrifice to provide. Footnote 105: There are many aspects of this solution that this note will not address. One of those aspects is the exact duration. All that is addressed is that duration should be less than the full term of a patent for reasons advanced herein. Further, it is assumed that the exact suitable duration is better adjusted to the economic capabilities of the relevant jurisdiction than uniformly imposed. Another aspect is how the solution should be implemented. This effect, of a patent being filed but not yet enforceable for a significant portion of its term of protection, is not uncommon in the pharmaceutical world where a drug may take ten to fifteen, even eighteen years to get approved, and is only enforceable for the remainder of the twenty years since it was filed, leaving possibly two years to do. Therefore, the solution proposed may occur on its own in some medicinal cannabis markets that have long drug patent examination periods, such as Thailand, specifically. That is why the solution proposed does not come with a specified form of implementation; the same goal may be achieved through controlling varying means and portions of the patent application process. The plan solves by reigning in monopolies without killing innovation. Kellner 21 "Mitigating the Effects of Intellectual Property Colonialism on Budding Cannabis Markets" Hughie Kellner ~Hughie Kellner came from the small farm town of Uvalde, Texas and received a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin. Upon graduation from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Hughie will deploy his physics degree while prosecuting patents in the Frankfurt am Main, Germany office of Leydig, Voit, and Mayer. After Hughie’s first year at Maurer, he worked for a law firm in Thailand as a Stewart Fellow.~ Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies Vol. 28 ~#1 (Winter 2021) https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls/vol28/iss1/9/ SM Patents may still be sought and possibly even acquired if the government so chooses. In this way, examiners will not introduce a new subject matter eligibility analysis changing the fundamental scheme of patentability. Rather, examiners will process the patent as normal, under conditions that actors within the patent system understand, reducing frustration with changing subject matter eligibility rules that are already ambiguous.107 Further, if the promulgating body determines that the window invalidating patent enforcement should be shorter than the patent term would last, there is a benefit for all actors involved. The reasoning supporting a patent enforcement ban rather than a patent acquisition ban rests on five principles. First, the entity filing the patent will still receive monopoly protection for its invention, albeit with a shorter window than usual. Thus, the incentive to file a patent and disclose the invention to the public still exists, and in a lucrative market such as that for cannabis, a smaller window of monopoly can be compensated by the higher value of that window, which could bring the perceived benefit from a patent back to usual levels.108 Second, if the invention is conceived during the enforcement ban, patent acquisition would allow inventions to be processed just as patents. By allowing patent processing before and after the ban, the legal regime will reduce administrative costs and increase legal certainty.109 By comparison, a system where patent acquisition is prohibited until after the ban would only result in a complex scheme whereby prior use, prior art, and other novelty requirements are handled. Third, if actors are utilizing technology under such currently unenforceable but soon-to-be enforceable patents, they will have clear notice when they must cease such infringing action, and either close their doors or develop a compliant way of doing business. Thus, actors in the market can establish themselves and then innovate their own means of carrying out business or license it from those who do. This is the exact action patents are meant to incentivize, innovating new solutions to problems, even if the problem here is merely a legal one.110 Fourth, after the cannabis market sustains established actors, the cannabis market may find that the benefits of promoting more actors in the market111—the purpose of barring patent enforcement—are once again outweighed by the value of the incentives that the patent system provides.112 Setting a time period for when patent enforcement will return ensures that the market is not devoid of the incentives once the initial "green rush"113 wears off. Fifth, this solution bans foreign monopolies, not foreign participation. This solution does not inhibit foreign companies from moving their business to local markets if the legal regime allows.114 With the ability to move their intellectual property portfolio, foreign companies can still acquire a trademark and operate their business plan, benefitting from the experience acquired in the prior years of operation. Foreign participants, just like domestic participants, cannot monopolize their innovations, and are thus placed on an equal footing. FW Moral realism must start by being mind-independent – realism wouldn’t make sense if there were a plethora of moral truths contingent on the agent’s cognitively predisposed capacity because then moral truths wouldn’t exist outside of the ways we cohere them. Thus, moral naturalism is true. Evolution – only a naturalistic understanding of the world explains it. Lutz and Lenman 18. Lutz, Matthew and Lenman, James, "Moral Naturalism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2018 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/naturalism-moral/.Massa The second argument against moral non-naturalism concerns moral epistemology. According to evolutionary debunking arguments, our moral beliefs are products of evolution, and this evolutionary etiology of our moral beliefs serves to undermine them. Exactly why evolution debunks our moral beliefs is a matter of substantial controversy, and the debunking argument has been interpreted in a number of different ways (Vavova 2015). Sharon Street, whose statement of the evolutionary debunking argument has been highly influential, holds that debunking arguments make a problem for all versions of moral realism—her paper is entitled "A Darwinian Dilemma for Realist Theories of Value." But according to another popular line of argument, these debunking arguments are only problems for moral non-naturalism. The fundamental worry is that our moral beliefs are the product of evolutionary facts rather than moral facts. If this is so, this would serve to debunk our moral beliefs, either because it is a necessary condition on justified belief that you take your beliefs to be explained by the facts in question (Joyce 2006, Ch. 6; Bedke 2009; Lutz forthcoming) or else because the non-naturalist is left with no way to explain the reliability of our moral beliefs (Enoch 2009, Schechter 2017). But if moral naturalism is true, the realist needn’t grant the skeptic’s premise that our moral beliefs are the product of evolutionary facts rather than moral facts. If moral facts are natural, then we needn’t see moral facts as being contrary to natural, evolutionary facts. The moral facts might be among these evolutionary facts that explain our moral beliefs. If, for instance, to be good just is to be conducive to social cooperation, then an evolutionary account that says that we judge things to be good only when they are conducive to social cooperation would not debunk any of our beliefs about goodness. This account would, instead, provide a deep vindication of those beliefs (Copp 2008). Naturalism demands empirical facts that are physically verified from science which only a theory of pain and pleasure can provide – robust neuroscience proves Blum et al. 18 Kenneth Blum, 1Department of Psychiatry, Boonshoft School of Medicine, Dayton VA Medical Center, Wright State University, Dayton, OH, USA 2Department of Psychiatry, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL, USA 3Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Keck Medicine University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA 4Division of Applied Clinical Research and Education, Dominion Diagnostics, LLC, North Kingstown, RI, USA 5Department of Precision Medicine, Geneus Health LLC, San Antonio, TX, USA 6Department of Addiction Research and Therapy, Nupathways Inc., Innsbrook, MO, USA 7Department of Clinical Neurology, Path Foundation, New York, NY, USA 8Division of Neuroscience-Based Addiction Therapy, The Shores Treatment and Recovery Center, Port Saint Lucie, FL, USA 9Institute of Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary 10Division of Addiction Research, Dominion Diagnostics, LLC. North Kingston, RI, USA 11Victory Nutrition International, Lederach, PA., USA 12National Human Genome Center at Howard University, Washington, DC., USA, Marjorie Gondré-Lewis, 12National Human Genome Center at Howard University, Washington, DC., USA 13Departments of Anatomy and Psychiatry, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC US, Bruce Steinberg, 4Division of Applied Clinical Research and Education, Dominion Diagnostics, LLC, North Kingstown, RI, USA, Igor Elman, 15Department Psychiatry, Cooper University School of Medicine, Camden, NJ, USA, David Baron, 3Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Keck Medicine University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA, Edward J Modestino, 14Department of Psychology, Curry College, Milton, MA, USA, Rajendra D Badgaiyan, 15Department Psychiatry, Cooper University School of Medicine, Camden, NJ, USA, Mark S Gold 16Department of Psychiatry, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA, "Our evolved unique pleasure circuit makes humans different from apes: Reconsideration of data derived from animal studies", U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 28 February 2018, accessed: 19 August 2020, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6446569/, R.S. Pleasure is not only one of the three primary reward functions but it also defines reward. As homeostasis explains the functions of only a limited number of rewards, the principal reason why particular stimuli, objects, events, situations, and activities are rewarding may be due to pleasure. This applies first of all to sex and to the primary homeostatic rewards of food and liquid and extends to money, taste, beauty, social encounters and nonmaterial, internally set, and intrinsic rewards. Pleasure, as the primary effect of rewards, drives the prime reward functions of learning, approach behavior, and decision making and provides the basis for hedonic theories of reward function. We are attracted by most rewards and exert intense efforts to obtain them, just because they are enjoyable ~10~. Pleasure is a passive reaction that derives from the experience or prediction of reward and may lead to a long-lasting state of happiness. The word happiness is difficult to define. In fact, just obtaining physical pleasure may not be enough. One key to happiness involves a network of good friends. However, it is not obvious how the higher forms of satisfaction and pleasure are related to an ice cream cone, or to your team winning a sporting event. Recent multidisciplinary research, using both humans and detailed invasive brain analysis of animals has discovered some critical ways that the brain processes pleasure ~14~. Pleasure as a hallmark of reward is sufficient for defining a reward, but it may not be necessary. A reward may generate positive learning and approach behavior simply because it contains substances that are essential for body function. When we are hungry, we may eat bad and unpleasant meals. A monkey who receives hundreds of small drops of water every morning in the laboratory is unlikely to feel a rush of pleasure every time it gets the 0.1 ml. Nevertheless, with these precautions in mind, we may define any stimulus, object, event, activity, or situation that has the potential to produce pleasure as a reward. In the context of reward deficiency or for disorders of addiction, homeostasis pursues pharmacological treatments: drugs to treat drug addiction, obesity, and other compulsive behaviors. The theory of allostasis suggests broader approaches - such as re-expanding the range of possible pleasures and providing opportunities to expend effort in their pursuit. ~15~. It is noteworthy, the first animal studies eliciting approach behavior by electrical brain stimulation interpreted their findings as a discovery of the brain’s pleasure centers ~16~ which were later partly associated with midbrain dopamine neurons ~17–19~ despite the notorious difficulties of identifying emotions in animals. Evolutionary theories of pleasure: The love connection BO Charles Darwin and other biological scientists that have examined the biological evolution and its basic principles found various mechanisms that steer behavior and biological development. Besides their theory on natural selection, it was particularly the sexual selection process that gained significance in the latter context over the last century, especially when it comes to the question of what makes us "what we are," i.e., human. However, the capacity to sexually select and evolve is not at all a human accomplishment alone or a sign of our uniqueness; yet, we humans, as it seems, are ingenious in fooling ourselves and others–when we are in love or desperately search for it. It is well established that modern biological theory conjectures that organisms are the result of evolutionary competition. In fact, Richard Dawkins stresses gene survival and propagation as the basic mechanism of life ~20~. Only genes that lead to the fittest phenotype will make it. It is noteworthy that the phenotype is selected based on behavior that maximizes gene propagation. To do so, the phenotype must survive and generate offspring, and be better at it than its competitors. Thus, the ultimate, distal function of rewards is to increase evolutionary fitness by ensuring the survival of the organism and reproduction. It is agreed that learning, approach, economic decisions, and positive emotions are the proximal functions through which phenotypes obtain other necessary nutrients for survival, mating, and care for offspring. Behavioral reward functions have evolved to help individuals to survive and propagate their genes. Apparently, people need to live well and long enough to reproduce. Most would agree that homo-sapiens do so by ingesting the substances that make their bodies function properly. For this reason, foods and drinks are rewards. Additional rewards, including those used for economic exchanges, ensure sufficient palatable food and drink supply. Mating and gene propagation is supported by powerful sexual attraction. Additional properties, like body form, augment the chance to mate and nourish and defend offspring and are therefore also rewards. Care for offspring until they can reproduce themselves helps gene propagation and is rewarding; otherwise, many believe mating is useless. According to David E Comings, as any small edge will ultimately result in evolutionary advantage ~21~, additional reward mechanisms like novelty seeking and exploration widen the spectrum of available rewards and thus enhance the chance for survival, reproduction, and ultimate gene propagation. These functions may help us to obtain the benefits of distant rewards that are determined by our own interests and not immediately available in the environment. Thus the distal reward function in gene propagation and evolutionary fitness defines the proximal reward functions that we see in everyday behavior. That is why foods, drinks, mates, and offspring are rewarding. There have been theories linking pleasure as a required component of health benefits salutogenesis, (salugenesis). In essence, under these terms, pleasure is described as a state or feeling of happiness and satisfaction resulting from an experience that one enjoys. Regarding pleasure, it is a double-edged sword, on the one hand, it promotes positive feelings (like mindfulness) and even better cognition, possibly through the release of dopamine ~22~. But on the other hand, pleasure simultaneously encourages addiction and other negative behaviors, i.e., motivational toxicity. It is a complex neurobiological phenomenon, relying on reward circuitry or limbic activity. It is important to realize that through the "Brain Reward Cascade" (BRC) endorphin and endogenous morphinergic mechanisms may play a role ~23~. While natural rewards are essential for survival and appetitive motivation leading to beneficial biological behaviors like eating, sex, and reproduction, crucial social interactions seem to further facilitate the positive effects exerted by pleasurable experiences. Indeed, experimentation with addictive drugs is capable of directly acting on reward pathways and causing deterioration of these systems promoting hypodopaminergia ~24~. Most would agree that pleasurable activities can stimulate personal growth and may help to induce healthy behavioral changes, including stress management ~25~. The work of Esch and Stefano ~26~ concerning the link between compassion and love implicate the brain reward system, and pleasure induction suggests that social contact in general, i.e., love, attachment, and compassion, can be highly effective in stress reduction, survival, and overall health. Understanding the role of neurotransmission and pleasurable states both positive and negative have been adequately studied over many decades ~26–37~, but comparative anatomical and neurobiological function between animals and homo sapiens appear to be required and seem to be in an infancy stage. Finding happiness is different between apes and humans As stated earlier in this expert opinion one key to happiness involves a network of good friends ~38~. However, it is not entirely clear exactly how the higher forms of satisfaction and pleasure are related to a sugar rush, winning a sports event or even sky diving, all of which augment dopamine release at the reward brain site. Recent multidisciplinary research, using both humans and detailed invasive brain analysis of animals has discovered some critical ways that the brain processes pleasure. Remarkably, there are pathways for ordinary liking and pleasure, which are limited in scope as described above in this commentary. However, there are many brain regions, often termed hot and cold spots, that significantly modulate (increase or decrease) our pleasure or even produce the opposite of pleasure— that is disgust and fear ~39~. One specific region of the nucleus accumbens is organized like a computer keyboard, with particular stimulus triggers in rows— producing an increase and decrease of pleasure and disgust. Moreover, the cortex has unique roles in the cognitive evaluation of our feelings of pleasure ~40~. Importantly, the interplay of these multiple triggers and the higher brain centers in the prefrontal cortex are very intricate and are just being uncovered. Desire and reward centers It is surprising that many different sources of pleasure activate the same circuits between the mesocorticolimbic regions (Figure 1). Reward and desire are two aspects pleasure induction and have a very widespread, large circuit. Some part of this circuit distinguishes between desire and dread. The so-called pleasure circuitry called "REWARD" involves a well-known dopamine pathway in the mesolimbic system that can influence both pleasure and motivation. In simplest terms, the well-established mesolimbic system is a dopamine circuit for reward. It starts in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the midbrain and travels to the nucleus accumbens (Figure 2). It is the cornerstone target to all addictions. The VTA is encompassed with neurons using glutamate, GABA, and dopamine. The nucleus accumbens (NAc) is located within the ventral striatum and is divided into two sub-regions—the motor and limbic regions associated with its core and shell, respectively. The NAc has spiny neurons that receive dopamine from the VTA and glutamate (a dopamine driver) from the hippocampus, amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex. Subsequently, the NAc projects GABA signals to an area termed the ventral pallidum (VP). The region is a relay station in the limbic loop of the basal ganglia, critical for motivation, behavior, emotions and the "Feel Good" response. This defined system of the brain is involved in all addictions –substance, and non –substance related. In 1995, our laboratory coined the term "Reward Deficiency Syndrome" (RDS) to describe genetic and epigenetic induced hypodopaminergia in the "Brain Reward Cascade" that contribute to addiction and compulsive behaviors ~3,6,41~. Furthermore, ordinary "liking" of something, or pure pleasure, is represented by small regions mainly in the limbic system (old reptilian part of the brain). These may be part of larger neural circuits. In Latin, hedus is the term for "sweet"; and in Greek, hodone is the term for "pleasure." Thus, the word Hedonic is now referring to various subcomponents of pleasure: some associated with purely sensory and others with more complex emotions involving morals, aesthetics, and social interactions. The capacity to have pleasure is part of being healthy and may even extend life, especially if linked to optimism as a dopaminergic response ~42~. Psychiatric illness often includes symptoms of an abnormal inability to experience pleasure, referred to as anhedonia. A negative feeling state is called dysphoria, which can consist of many emotions such as pain, depression, anxiety, fear, and disgust. Previously many scientists used animal research to uncover the complex mechanisms of pleasure, liking, motivation and even emotions like panic and fear, as discussed above ~43~. However, as a significant amount of related research about the specific brain regions of pleasure/reward circuitry has been derived from invasive studies of animals, these cannot be directly compared with subjective states experienced by humans. In an attempt to resolve the controversy regarding the causal contributions of mesolimbic dopamine systems to reward, we have previously evaluated the three-main competing explanatory categories: "liking," "learning," and "wanting" ~3~. That is, dopamine may mediate (a) liking: the hedonic impact of reward, (b) learning: learned predictions about rewarding effects, or (c) wanting: the pursuit of rewards by attributing incentive salience to reward-related stimuli ~44~. We have evaluated these hypotheses, especially as they relate to the RDS, and we find that the incentive salience or "wanting" hypothesis of dopaminergic functioning is supported by a majority of the scientific evidence. Various neuroimaging studies have shown that anticipated behaviors such as sex and gaming, delicious foods and drugs of abuse all affect brain regions associated with reward networks, and may not be unidirectional. Drugs of abuse enhance dopamine signaling which sensitizes mesolimbic brain mechanisms that apparently evolved explicitly to attribute incentive salience to various rewards ~45~. Addictive substances are voluntarily self-administered, and they enhance (directly or indirectly) dopaminergic synaptic function in the NAc. This activation of the brain reward networks (producing the ecstatic "high" that users seek). Although these circuits were initially thought to encode a set point of hedonic tone, it is now being considered to be far more complicated in function, also encoding attention, reward expectancy, disconfirmation of reward expectancy, and incentive motivation ~46~. The argument about addiction as a disease may be confused with a predisposition to substance and nonsubstance rewards relative to the extreme effect of drugs of abuse on brain neurochemistry. The former sets up an individual to be at high risk through both genetic polymorphisms in reward genes as well as harmful epigenetic insult. Some Psychologists, even with all the data, still infer that addiction is not a disease ~47~. Elevated stress levels, together with polymorphisms (genetic variations) of various dopaminergic genes and the genes related to other neurotransmitters (and their genetic variants), and may have an additive effect on vulnerability to various addictions ~48~. In this regard, Vanyukov, et al. ~48~ suggested based on review that whereas the gateway hypothesis does not specify mechanistic connections between "stages," and does not extend to the risks for addictions the concept of common liability to addictions may be more parsimonious. The latter theory is grounded in genetic theory and supported by data identifying common sources of variation in the risk for specific addictions (e.g., RDS). This commonality has identifiable neurobiological substrate and plausible evolutionary explanations. Over many years the controversy of dopamine involvement in especially "pleasure" has led to confusion concerning separating motivation from actual pleasure (wanting versus liking) ~49~. We take the position that animal studies cannot provide real clinical information as described by self-reports in humans. As mentioned earlier and in the abstract, on November 23rd, 2017, evidence for our concerns was discovered ~50~ In essence, although nonhuman primate brains are similar to our own, the disparity between other primates and those of human cognitive abilities tells us that surface similarity is not the whole story. Sousa et al. ~50~ small case found various differentially expressed genes, to associate with pleasure related systems. Furthermore, the dopaminergic interneurons located in the human neocortex were absent from the neocortex of nonhuman African apes. Such differences in neuronal transcriptional programs may underlie a variety of neurodevelopmental disorders. In simpler terms, the system controls the production of dopamine, a chemical messenger that plays a significant role in pleasure and rewards. The senior author, Dr. Nenad Sestan from Yale, stated: "Humans have evolved a dopamine system that is different than the one in chimpanzees." This may explain why the behavior of humans is so unique from that of non-human primates, even though our brains are so surprisingly similar, Sestan said: "It might also shed light on why people are vulnerable to mental disorders such as autism (possibly even addiction)." Remarkably, this research finding emerged from an extensive, multicenter collaboration to compare the brains across several species. These researchers examined 247 specimens of neural tissue from six humans, five chimpanzees, and five macaque monkeys. Moreover, these investigators analyzed which genes were turned on or off in 16 regions of the brain. While the differences among species were subtle, there was a remarkable contrast in the neocortices, specifically in an area of the brain that is much more developed in humans than in chimpanzees. In fact, these researchers found that a gene called tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) for the enzyme, responsible for the production of dopamine, was expressed in the neocortex of humans, but not chimpanzees. As discussed earlier, dopamine is best known for its essential role within the brain’s reward system; the very system that responds to everything from sex, to gambling, to food, and to addictive drugs. However, dopamine also assists in regulating emotional responses, memory, and movement. Notably, abnormal dopamine levels have been linked to disorders including Parkinson’s, schizophrenia and spectrum disorders such as autism and addiction or RDS. Nora Volkow, the director of NIDA, pointed out that one alluring possibility is that the neurotransmitter dopamine plays a substantial role in humans’ ability to pursue various rewards that are perhaps months or even years away in the future. This same idea has been suggested by Dr. Robert Sapolsky, a professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University. Dr. Sapolsky cited evidence that dopamine levels rise dramatically in humans when we anticipate potential rewards that are uncertain and even far off in our futures, such as retirement or even the possible alterlife. This may explain what often motivates people to work for things that have no apparent short-term benefit ~51~. In similar work, Volkow and Bale ~52~ proposed a model in which dopamine can favor NOW processes through phasic signaling in reward circuits or LATER processes through tonic signaling in control circuits. Specifically, they suggest that through its modulation of the orbitofrontal cortex, which processes salience attribution, dopamine also enables shilting from NOW to LATER, while its modulation of the insula, which processes interoceptive information, influences the probability of selecting NOW versus LATER actions based on an individual’s physiological state. This hypothesis further supports the concept that disruptions along these circuits contribute to diverse pathologies, including obesity and addiction or RDS. Thus, the standard is consistency with hedonic act utilitarianism. Prefer – 1~ Actor specificity – A~ Aggregation – every policy benefits some and harms others, which also means side constraints freeze action. B~ No intent-foresight distinction – If we foresee a consequence, then it becomes part of our deliberation which makes it intrinsic to our action since we intend it to happen. 2~ No act-omission distinction – A~ Psychology – choosing to omit is an act itself – governments decide not to act which means being presented with the aff creates a choice between two actions, neither of which is an omission. B~ Actor specificity – governments are culpable for omissions cuz their purpose is to protect the constituency – otherwise they would have no obligation to make murder illegal. Only util can escape culpability in the instance of tradeoffs – i.e. it resolves the trolley problem cuz a deontological theory would hold you responsible for killing regardless. Actor spec o/w – different agents have different ethical standings that affect their obligations and considerations. Method We should use debate to hash out what alternative foreign policies look like. Scenario planning is more effective than pure resistance AND there is a unique opening for ideas to take hold—-our method provides necessary preparation. Loren Dejonge Schulman 18, Deputy Director of Studies and Leon E. Panetta Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security., 12-4-2018, "Policy Roundtable: The Future of Progressive Foreign Policy – Texas National Security Review," Texas National Security Review, https://tnsr.org/roundtable/policy-roundtable-the-future-of-progressive-foreign-policy/~~#'ftn75 In his essay on what a progressive national security agenda should look like, Van Jackson proposes to stretch the common progressive position of anti-militarism to a more realist platform of military "sufficiency." In doing so, he brings attention to a serious gap in current defense politics. The stilted and superficial dialogue that passes for national security debate in American politics includes an active constituency for a "military first" (or military friendly) foreign policy, reflexively applying military tools to problems abroad and inflating defense spending. There is also a weaker constituency, most present outside government, for a "military last" or "anti-militarist" policy, which would cut defense spending and end wars with similar reflexivity. Outside the apolitical "blob" of Washington, there is little interest in publicly debating the prudence or effectiveness of these agendas. The left, regardless of its broader "theory of security," could fill some of this vacuum — and it is better situated to do so than conventional wisdom might suggest.70 Democrats Drowning at the Water’s Edge For the last two decades, there has been little political opportunity to question America’s role in the world. With some exception, relevant defense and security policies have been open to even less scrutiny. Questions about the ethical or effective application of force, the size of the defense budget, the success of a given military strategy, the utility of specific weapons platforms, and the return on investment from security cooperation are, at best, diversions. Anyone who attempts to challenge the status quo risks being greeted with political attacks about lacking patriotism or not supporting American troops.71 But at a time of frequent missteps abroad on the part of the Trump administration, the space to question America’s foreign policy traditions may be widening. The inability to pose legitimate questions about security policy is a particular flavor of political correctness, and because of it, the Democratic Party has all but disappeared in defense policy and politics.72 The last two years have seen more than a dozen pieces on the left’s lack of branded national security ideas.73 Michael Walzer has attributed this gap to an intentional abstention: The default position of the left is that "the best foreign policy is a good domestic policy."74 Jackson highlights modest resourcing and under-representation as justifications for the left’s notable lack of a "theory of security" and the general subsuming of the debate under a big-tent "third way" liberalism. Traditional Democrats in the national security community (including me) have bristled at these criticisms, but would be hard-pressed to offer a distinctive and coherent political viewpoint. Some see the Democratic Party’s lack of a defined national security policy as something to celebrate. Declaring that politics "stops at the water’s edge" of national security is a winning Bingo option at any think tank event. But this dictum stifles debate about the national interest and the proper application of national resources. Consequently, there are moral and political questions on defense and interventions abroad that have no meaningful forum. This gap is particularly felt on Capitol Hill, where in the past security-minded Democrats have found political safe-harbor in a Republican-lite national security agenda — essentially blank-check support for Republicans on defense with, at most, a raised eyebrow from time to time. These policy positions require little analytical effort or political capital, and let Democrats occasionally posture as morally superior by emphasizing "non-military tools" of foreign policy. The opposite alternative of a more rigid pacifism and anti-militarism, though common in the grassroots progressive community, has no consistently organized political presence on the Hill and thus also escapes thorough interrogation.75 For those outside the Beltway, opposition to all things military offers the refuge of principle without critical justification or analysis. For many Democrats, the Obama model was a strangely tolerable middle ground: a bipartisan budget mess made while a "responsible" president ramped up security interventions in enough secrecy to avoid nagging scrutiny or self-examination. Re-Politicizing Defense Despite the valiant efforts of some individuals, there is no political home for responsible defense debate, oversight, and accountability.76 Yet, with determination, the left might find a real foothold in defense policy — without compromising progressive values. To be clear: There is substantial work to be done on figuring out what cohesive view of America’s role in the world the left can tolerate and advance. There is even greater work to be done on determining how to renew, reuse, and reform international institutions.77 But any such agendas would be well served by embracing a set of principles that make clear-eyed debate and evaluation of defense policy and execution an asset, not an unforgiveable sin. Critical analysis of defense affairs is too often left to the technocratic and comparatively powerless "blob," which can write a mean op-ed or tweet, but has limited ability to engage the American people on its will and interests. And although Congress has willfully declawed itself so that it cannot maintain meaningful oversight of national security,78 its ability to stage and amplify policy debate for the American people is without parallel, and it has tremendous latent potential to restore greater balance in civil-military relations. Congress’s absence and the associated de-politicization of national security affairs is costly. For instance, the American public is deeply ambivalent about the 17-year conflict in Afghanistan and generally ignorant of the widespread activities of the war on terror.79 This is unsurprising: Congress, too, is disaffected, often ignorant of where the U.S. military is even engaged,80 and has made little headway into questioning or shaping this intervention. The most substantive and serious debate about executive war authorities and the effectiveness of U.S. counterterrorism strategy has resulted in little more than a reauthorization proposal that still failed to move forward.81 Too many examples of political leaders’ stand-off or superficial approach to defense policy and execution abound. Military superiority is generally viewed as sacrosanct, placed on "so high a pedestal as to render real debate meaningless."82 That reverence infantilizes defense budget debates. Thanking troops for their service is a politicized ritual that divorces politicians and their constituents from the intent and costs of that service. With decisions on the needs of the U.S. military and sustaining legacy systems openly linked to the economies of congressional districts, it’s understandable that skeptics of utilizing military tools have been unwilling to evaluate their merits. These must all change. While, at its worst, the political right treats the use of force abroad as a metric of patriotism and the size of the force as the measure of one’s love of America, the political left ought to draw from its skepticism toward intervention and its faith in institutions to advance a more rational and accountable approach to national security. For years, Robert Farley has highlighted that "progressives consistently underestimate the importance of discussions about military doctrine and technology,"83 taking what Michael Walzer calls "shortcuts"84 in their critiques of defense policy that relieve them from contributing to key debates. Instead of excusing themselves, the left should instead propose legitimate questions about major shifts in force employment and development: Will it work? What are its goals? What is the U.S. national security apparatus learning? Why didn’t it work? Were U.S. objectives wrong? What did America change when it didn’t work? Will America do it again? What could be improved? What should America do now? Joining the Conversation Jackson’s notion of what a progressive "wager" on national security might look like in practice is useful, filling the gap between the "Republican-lite" default and the stubbornness of anti-militarism. But the left’s diversity of thought can accommodate a wider playing field of potential alternative approaches to security than even he proposes. A true pacifist movement on the Hill and on the campaign trail, dedicated to the advancement of non-military approaches but premised on analysis and logical arguments, would be a serious advancement in national security and should be welcomed by the most ardent military advocates. Likewise, a more prudent middle ground approach — one that is skeptical of, but open to, military might and intervention and demands a better return on investment of national security tools — should play a more prominent political role. The full range of the left’s national security spectrum should forcefully engage in oversight of the rationale for and quality of American forces and interventions abroad. The left should therefore consider adopting a series of principles on defense matters — including criteria for the use of force — that apply to the military-friendly and anti-militarist left alike. In practice, this means acknowledging that there are valid political positions on matters of defense that lie somewhere in between "yes, and" and "no never" and that trivializing them is harmful to America’s national security. There are alternatives to today’s counterterror strategy and it would not be an insult to the military to debate them. It’s entirely legitimate to study whether the military is equipped to face today’s threats without being accused of retreating from the world or starting with an artificial budget cut. It’s sensible to consider whether the planned growth of ground forces, a 350-ship Navy, or a 386-squadron Air Force are the right investments or political benchmarks.85 These questions involve choices and values and should not be avoided under the umbrella of a supposed technocratic bipartisan agreement. Just as important, it’s essential that the left avoid becoming a caricature of itself that promotes simplistic and superficial positions that set rigid, unserious standards. The left may not agree on the size or purpose of the military, but it can agree America should strive for informed oversight and accountability. The bumper sticker of such principles is simple: Ask informed questions,86 illuminate and demand accountability for failures, encourage fresh thinking, and bring the American people into the discussion without fear. That this is so simple is an embarrassment to the present state of the "debate." In detail, these principles should include: Building the right force driven by security interests, not an inherently smaller force driven by an allergy to size. Arguing that the U.S. military is too large without clarifying what it should be expected to do and how is, at best, a lazy and an ill-informed reaction to sticker shock. There are valid questions — and a range of plausible answers — about the appropriate mission and scope of America’s forces, and a worthwhile dialogue to be had on where risks in force structure should reside. Exploring fully how threat assessments impact military roles, missions, and investments. A rigid antipathy to conflict and intervention, or to the military itself, leaves the left out of conversations that determine how and where America spends its blood and treasure, and precludes the defense establishment from tackling questions important to the left (e.g., what does a world of accelerating climate change require of the U.S. military?). The left’s absence from attempts to set the analytic agenda for defense policy is dangerous. Engaging in more practical conversations about how military capabilities might be used, where, and why. Military platforms carry within them assumptions about the nature of U.S. strategy and interests that are poorly articulated in today’s defense authorizing environment. Most detailed political debate today emphasizes the cost of military platforms, or their associated acquisition processes, or, for legacy systems, the industrial base. As Robert Farley noted in 2011, "Analysts, institutions, and politicians tend to respond to the arguments they see, rather than those that they don’t."87 Recruiting, retaining, and promoting the military and civilian skill sets and imagination necessary for today’s and tomorrow’s security challenges. The mish-mash of human capital and talent management processes of today’s Department of Defense, paired with a legacy focus on capacity, the booming costs of military personnel, a growing civil-military divide, and a growing gap in the military’s high-technical skills, spell a looming disaster for future military manpower. The left must treat this as a strategic priority rather than a mere bureaucratic matter. Increasing transparency to the public on the manner, costs, risks, intent, and success or failure of military interventions. As I wrote with Alice Friend, the current approach of military secrecy and unwillingness to pursue an "airing of grievances" about past strategic and operational failure "assumes that domestic support for U.S. military engagements can be sustained in an information vacuum. It draws on a reservoir of public faith in the military while also limiting the public’s ability to make an informed decision. This is a losing gamble."88 The left should reset this dynamic. Deliberately connecting debates on America’s capabilities and political investments in preventing and resolving conflicts to the more mature debates on how to prepare to fight the nation’s wars. Diplomacy, development, economics, and intelligence demand modernization just as military forces do, and they need to be far better at measuring and communicating their value. The left should push the political dialogue on these matters beyond mere talking-points. Ensuring that any military action America does engage in has clear goals, is limited in scope, is sustainable for the duration, and is assessed in terms of fully-burdened costs to the military, the broader national security community (intelligence analysts, diplomats, aid workers, contractors, and more), U.S. allies, and local populations. Exploring these matters is not pedantic or risky in the face of threats. It is the only responsible option, and the left should force these discussions. Sustaining engaged and thoughtful interest, oversight, and civil skepticism of all military and non-military intervention activities abroad. The beginning of an intervention should not be the high point of political energy. It is shameful that the progress of the war in Afghanistan, the viability of the U.S. counterterrorism strategy, the occasional airstrikes in Syria, and much more escape serious oversight. Advancing civil-military relations with respectful skepticism of military employment; unconditional support for service members, families, and veterans; and resolve to right wrongs of past failures. The left — in all its forms — should embrace the necessity of active participation and serious debate beyond the water’s edge. That’s how to make national security more democratic, transparent, and therefore accountable. What could be more progressive than that?
9/6/21
SO - AC - Euphoric TRIPS v4
Tournament: Loyola Invitational | Round: Octas | Opponent: Orange Lutheran AZ | Judge: Nathan Russell, David Dosch, Lena Mizrahi
1AC
Advantage – Cannabis
The current WTO patent system is locking in global cannabis monopolies.
Kellner 21 "Mitigating the Effects of Intellectual Property Colonialism on Budding Cannabis Markets" Hughie Kellner ~Hughie Kellner came from the small farm town of Uvalde, Texas and received a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin. Upon graduation from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Hughie will deploy his physics degree while prosecuting patents in the Frankfurt am Main, Germany office of Leydig, Voit, and Mayer. After Hughie’s first year at Maurer, he worked for a law firm in Thailand as a Stewart Fellow.~ Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies Vol. 28 ~#1 (Winter 2021) https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls/vol28/iss1/9/ SM B. How the Patent Has Become a Tool for Globalization The trade-
AND
, the inventor could create an economic climate close to a global monopoly.
Thailand proves – the world is trending towards legalization but big pharma patents lock in cannabis monopolies and crowd out local growth.
Kellner 21 "Mitigating the Effects of Intellectual Property Colonialism on Budding Cannabis Markets" Hughie Kellner ~Hughie Kellner came from the small farm town of Uvalde, Texas and received a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin. Upon graduation from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Hughie will deploy his physics degree while prosecuting patents in the Frankfurt am Main, Germany office of Leydig, Voit, and Mayer. After Hughie’s first year at Maurer, he worked for a law firm in Thailand as a Stewart Fellow.~ Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies Vol. 28 ~#1 (Winter 2021) https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls/vol28/iss1/9/ SM The reason the Thai public was so concerned over the cannabis patents filed by Otsuka
AND
, as a resolution to the Canadian recusal from the UN Single Convention.
Big pharma leverages cannabis patents to block out competition and secure monopoly – decks medical marijuana access
Barnett 20 Hailey A. Barnett ~J.D. candidate 2020, Tulane University Law School; B.A. 2017, Communication, cum laude, Texas AandM University.~, "High Risk, High Reward: Patent Law's Effects on the Medical Marijuana Industry," Tulane Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property 22 (2020): 125-164 https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/tuljtip22anddiv=8andid=andpage= SM B. Cannabis Patents and Pharmaceutical Companies Patent protection is a key component of
AND
of wealthy, powerful entities to ensure smaller entities are not marginalized.219
Monopolies kill cannabis biodiversity which throttles medical marijuana advances and industry innovation.
Barnett 20 Hailey A. Barnett ~J.D. candidate 2020, Tulane University Law School; B.A. 2017, Communication, cum laude, Texas AandM University.~, "High Risk, High Reward: Patent Law's Effects on the Medical Marijuana Industry," Tulane Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property 22 (2020): 125-164 https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/tuljtip22anddiv=8andid=andpage= SM A. Biodiversity Implications for Cannabis Strain Patents Biodiversity, or biological diversity,
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effects on that country's biodiversity and its rights to that biodiversity.2 50
Monopolies kill market growth and disincentivize innovation.
over the long-term as well as ongoing innovation and product accessibility.
Medical marijuana is key to resolving opioid pain reliever prescriptions – biggest internal link to addiction and overuse
Blake 20 ~Dwight K Blake, Founder of American Marijuana, 15 years of experience in mental health counseling and addiction treatment.~ "Medical marijuana reduces opioid prescribing rate," American Marijuana, March 24, 2020, https://americanmarijuana.org/medical-marijuana-solution-to-opioid-epidemic/ ~note: charts/images omitted~ TG Medical Marijuana as A Painkiller Marijuana contains many Cannabinoids including CBD or Cannabidiol and
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have shown an average reduction rate of opioid consumption by 5.21.
The opioid crisis risks massively destructive terrorism – synthetic opioids can be weaponized and spread
Morell 17 (Michael Morell, the former Acting Director and Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, is one of our nation's leading national security professionals, with extensive experience in intelligence and foreign policy. During his 33-year career at CIA, Michael served as Deputy Director for over three years, served twice as Acting Director, served for two years as the Director of Intelligence, the Agency's top analyst, and for two years as Executive Director, the CIA's top administrator.)("The Opioid Crisis Becomes a National Security Threat", July 26, 2017, https://www.thecipherbrief.com/column'article/opioid-crisis-becomes-national-security-threat) On October 23, 2002, dozens of armed Chechen terrorists seized a Moscow theater
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– particularly when it is so easy to see what might be coming.
Developments and attacks are coming now – spurs inter-state wars AND non-state actors which ensure escalation – taboo eroded, empirics prove, tech and motive are here
Henry de Quetteville et al 18. Special Correspondent @Telegraph, Technology. Former foreign correspondent in France, the Balkans and the Middle East., citing James Giordano, professor of neurology, chief of the Neuroethics Studies Program, and co-director of the O’Neill-Pellegrino Program in Brain Science and Global Health Law and Policy at Georgetown University Medical Center. He is an member of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s panel on neuroethics, legal, and social issues, and serves as a senior science advisory fellow to the Joint Staff at the Pentagon. His latest book is Neurotechnology in National Security and Defense: Practical Considerations, Neuroethical Concerns (CRC Press), citing Gavin Williamson, UK Secretary of Defense, citing Aimen Dean, also known as Ramzi is a Bahrainian man who was a founding member of al-Qaeda. In 1998, he joined the Secret Intelligence Service and became an MI6 spy, citing Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a chemical weapons expert and chief operating officer of SecureBio Limited. He was formerly a British Army officer for 23 years and commanding officer of the UK's CBRN Regiment and NATO's Rapid Reaction CBRN Battalion, August 3, 2018, "The rise of biological and chemical weapons After Salisbury, how ready is the UK?", https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/rise-of-biological-chemical-weapons/. Rez With nerve agents having been deployed in Syria, Malaysia and Salisbury, the 100
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total? $26.2 billion per 100,000 persons exposed.
Nuke war causes extinction – Ice Age, famines, and war won’t stay limited
Edwards 17 ~Paul N. Edwards, CISAC’s William J. Perry Fellow in International Security at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. Being interviewed by EarthSky. How nuclear war would affect Earth’s climate. September 8, 2017. earthsky.org/human-world/how-nuclear-war-would-affect-earths-climate~ Note, we are only reading parts of the interview that are directly from Paul Edwards — MMG In the nuclear conversation, what are we not talking about that we should be
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two nuclear powers would stay limited to these smaller, less destructive bombs.
Chemical WMDs cause extinction – one incident is enough
Gander 18, Kashmira. Citing the Global Catastrophic Risks Foundation’s Global Challenges Annual Report, edited by Martin Rees, UK Astronomer Royal, and Co-founder, Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, and whose section on chemical warfare was reviewed by Angela Kane, Senior Fellow at the Vienna Centre for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, visiting Professor at Sciences Po Paris, and former High Representative for Disarmament Affairs at the United Nations. 10-31-2018. "Experts reveal the nine most likely ways the world will end." Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/how-will-world-end-experts-reveal-9-most-likely-ways-humans-will-be-wiped-out-1194616. Rez. Humanity being annihilated by chemical weapons or the molten lava of a supervolcano may sound
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it could "cause a pandemic of unprecedented proportions," the report stated.
Plan – the member nations of the World Trade Organization ought to delay patent enforcement for cannabis.
Kellner 21 "Mitigating the Effects of Intellectual Property Colonialism on Budding Cannabis Markets" Hughie Kellner ~Hughie Kellner came from the small farm town of Uvalde, Texas and received a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin. Upon graduation from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Hughie will deploy his physics degree while prosecuting patents in the Frankfurt am Main, Germany office of Leydig, Voit, and Mayer. After Hughie’s first year at Maurer, he worked for a law firm in Thailand as a Stewart Fellow.~ Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies Vol. 28 ~#1 (Winter 2021) https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls/vol28/iss1/9/ SM Includes enforcement and duration A simple solution to the problem is this: if
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be achieved through controlling varying means and portions of the patent application process.
Counter solvency advocate: medical marijuana is dangerous therefore innovation is bad
The plan solves by reigning in monopolies without killing innovation.
Kellner 21 "Mitigating the Effects of Intellectual Property Colonialism on Budding Cannabis Markets" Hughie Kellner ~Hughie Kellner came from the small farm town of Uvalde, Texas and received a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin. Upon graduation from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Hughie will deploy his physics degree while prosecuting patents in the Frankfurt am Main, Germany office of Leydig, Voit, and Mayer. After Hughie’s first year at Maurer, he worked for a law firm in Thailand as a Stewart Fellow.~ Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies Vol. 28 ~#1 (Winter 2021) https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls/vol28/iss1/9/ SM Patents may still be sought and possibly even acquired if the government so chooses.
AND
cannot monopolize their innovations, and are thus placed on an equal footing.
Framing
Synthetic a posteriori moral naturalism is the basis of ethics:
A~ The normative supervenes on the natural – natural facts like whether brains develop to permit rationality or subjectivity determine whether non naturalist moral facts can be premised on things like capacity for reason
Lutz and Lenman 18. Lutz, Matthew and Lenman, James, "Moral Naturalism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2018 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/naturalism-moral/.Massa The first argument against normative non-naturalism concerns normative supervenience. The normative supervenes
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, this is a heavy mark against non-naturalism (McPherson 2012).
B~ The problem of disagreement –
resolving a priori conflicts requires indicting the epistemological basis of one’s judgement with a reliable process for deriving moral truths which is impossible given widespread moral disagreement about non verifiable a priori truth – grounding ethics with verifiable natural facts solve
Copp 7, D. Why Naturalism? Morality in a Natural World, 33–54. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511497940.003 Massa Suppose, for example, that I witness a bullfight and observe that many thousands
AND
disagreement would not undermine the credibility of the proposition to an ideal thinker.
Next, phenomenal introspection can bridge the gap from experiential natural facts to moral truths and necessitates hedonism. When I observe a lemon’s yellowness shifting my visual fields from darker to lighter shades, I can introspect on that experience and identify brightness as an intrinsic property of seeing a lemon. Similarly, when I feel pleasure, I can introspect on the shift in hedonic tones and identify that goodness is an intrinsic property of the pleasure that was increased.
This connection between pain and pleasure and phenomenal conceptions of intrinsic value and disvalue is irrefutable – everything else regresses – robust neuroscience proves.
Blum et al. 18 Kenneth Blum, 1Department of Psychiatry, Boonshoft School of Medicine, Dayton VA Medical Center, Wright State University, Dayton, OH, USA 2Department of Psychiatry, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL, USA 3Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Keck Medicine University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA 4Division of Applied Clinical Research and Education, Dominion Diagnostics, LLC, North Kingstown, RI, USA 5Department of Precision Medicine, Geneus Health LLC, San Antonio, TX, USA 6Department of Addiction Research and Therapy, Nupathways Inc., Innsbrook, MO, USA 7Department of Clinical Neurology, Path Foundation, New York, NY, USA 8Division of Neuroscience-Based Addiction Therapy, The Shores Treatment and Recovery Center, Port Saint Lucie, FL, USA 9Institute of Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary 10Division of Addiction Research, Dominion Diagnostics, LLC. North Kingston, RI, USA 11Victory Nutrition International, Lederach, PA., USA 12National Human Genome Center at Howard University, Washington, DC., USA, Marjorie Gondré-Lewis, 12National Human Genome Center at Howard University, Washington, DC., USA 13Departments of Anatomy and Psychiatry, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC US, Bruce Steinberg, 4Division of Applied Clinical Research and Education, Dominion Diagnostics, LLC, North Kingstown, RI, USA, Igor Elman, 15Department Psychiatry, Cooper University School of Medicine, Camden, NJ, USA, David Baron, 3Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Keck Medicine University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA, Edward J Modestino, 14Department of Psychology, Curry College, Milton, MA, USA, Rajendra D Badgaiyan, 15Department Psychiatry, Cooper University School of Medicine, Camden, NJ, USA, Mark S Gold 16Department of Psychiatry, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA, "Our evolved unique pleasure circuit makes humans different from apes: Reconsideration of data derived from animal studies", U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 28 February 2018, accessed: 19 August 2020, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6446569/, R.S. Pleasure is not only one of the three primary reward functions but it also defines
AND
these circuits contribute to diverse pathologies, including obesity and addiction or RDS.
Thus, the standard is consistency with hedonic act utilitarianism. Prefer –
1~ Actor specificity –
A~ Aggregation – every policy benefits some and harms others, which also means side constraints freeze action.
B~ No intent-foresight distinction for governments – deliberating over an action requires analysis of foreseen consequences which could be prevented which makes them intrinsic to state action
C~ Governments aren’t singular rational agents which makes theories about individuals irrelevant – only consequentialism solves by analyzing ends divorced from an actor
ows
2~ No act-omission distinction – governments are culpable for omissions cuz their purpose is to protect the constituency – otherwise they would have no obligation to make murder illegal. Actor spec o/w – different agents have different ethical standings that affect their obligations and considerations.
9/6/21
SO - AC - Euphoric TRIPS v5
Tournament: Loyola Invitational | Round: Quarters | Opponent: San Mateo YR | Judge: Tom, Neville Pittman, Phoenix Dosch, David cites not working but its osourced / very similar to v4
9/6/21
SO - AC - Euphoric TRIPS v6
Tournament: Loyola Invitational | Round: Semis | Opponent: Diamond Bar NC | Judge: David Dosch, Danielle Dosch, Gordon Krauss sorry cites arent working for this, ill try to fix
9/16/21
SO - AC - Euphoric TRIPS v7
Tournament: Greenhill Fall Classic RR | Round: 4 | Opponent: Westwood PM | Judge: Austin Broussard, Gerard Grigsby cites also not working for this one but it's osourced
9/17/21
SO - AC - Euphoric TRIPS v8
Tournament: Greenhill Fall Classic | Round: 6 | Opponent: Lexington BF | Judge: Sam Anderson
1AC
Advantage
The current WTO patent system is locking in global cannabis monopolies.
Kellner 21 "Mitigating the Effects of Intellectual Property Colonialism on Budding Cannabis Markets" Hughie Kellner ~Hughie Kellner came from the small farm town of Uvalde, Texas and received a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin. Upon graduation from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Hughie will deploy his physics degree while prosecuting patents in the Frankfurt am Main, Germany office of Leydig, Voit, and Mayer. After Hughie’s first year at Maurer, he worked for a law firm in Thailand as a Stewart Fellow.~ Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies Vol. 28 ~#1 (Winter 2021) https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls/vol28/iss1/9/ SM B. How the Patent Has Become a Tool for Globalization The trade-
AND
, the inventor could create an economic climate close to a global monopoly.
Thailand proves – the world is trending towards legalization but big pharma patents lock in cannabis monopolies and crowd out local growth.
Kellner 21 "Mitigating the Effects of Intellectual Property Colonialism on Budding Cannabis Markets" Hughie Kellner ~Hughie Kellner came from the small farm town of Uvalde, Texas and received a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin. Upon graduation from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Hughie will deploy his physics degree while prosecuting patents in the Frankfurt am Main, Germany office of Leydig, Voit, and Mayer. After Hughie’s first year at Maurer, he worked for a law firm in Thailand as a Stewart Fellow.~ Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies Vol. 28 ~#1 (Winter 2021) https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls/vol28/iss1/9/ SM The reason the Thai public was so concerned over the cannabis patents filed by Otsuka
AND
, as a resolution to the Canadian recusal from the UN Single Convention.
Big pharma leverages cannabis patents to block out competition and secure monopoly – decks medical marijuana access
Barnett 20 Hailey A. Barnett ~J.D. candidate 2020, Tulane University Law School; B.A. 2017, Communication, cum laude, Texas AandM University.~, "High Risk, High Reward: Patent Law's Effects on the Medical Marijuana Industry," Tulane Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property 22 (2020): 125-164 https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/tuljtip22anddiv=8andid=andpage= SM B. Cannabis Patents and Pharmaceutical Companies Patent protection is a key component of
AND
of wealthy, powerful entities to ensure smaller entities are not marginalized.219
Monopolies kill cannabis biodiversity which throttles medical marijuana advances and industry innovation.
Barnett 20 Hailey A. Barnett ~J.D. candidate 2020, Tulane University Law School; B.A. 2017, Communication, cum laude, Texas AandM University.~, "High Risk, High Reward: Patent Law's Effects on the Medical Marijuana Industry," Tulane Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property 22 (2020): 125-164 https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/tuljtip22anddiv=8andid=andpage= SM A. Biodiversity Implications for Cannabis Strain Patents Biodiversity, or biological diversity,
AND
effects on that country's biodiversity and its rights to that biodiversity.2 50
Monopolies kill market growth and disincentivize innovation.
over the long-term as well as ongoing innovation and product accessibility.
Cannabis industry drives African econ recovery.
Kafeero 7/2 "Business is starting to trump morality in Africa’s cannabis industry" Stephen Kafeero is a Ugandan investigative journalist, He has practiced since 2010 contributing to different publications. He is an Open Society Foundation fellow for Investigative Journalism at University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and is a candidate for an MA in Journalism and Media Studies. July 2, 2021 https://qz.com/africa/2028012/africas-cannabis-industry-is-set-to-boom-due-to-legalization/ SM The prospect of legalized cannabis in Africa, unimaginable less than a decade ago,
AND
, Nigeria, Morocco, Malawi, Ghana, eSwatini, and Zambia.
Ensuring a localized industry rather than foreign exploitation is key.
Fried 19 "The African Cannabis Economy" Carey Fried ~Marketing VP at iCAN~, October 10, 2019 https://www.canna-tech.co/cannatech/african-cannabis-economy/ SM Africa’s cannabis industry and the circular economy Cannabis legalization trends are sparking hope.
AND
need to have a long-term focus on value addition and research."
That’s key to preventing terror.
Ray 1/11 "Does Africa Matter to the United States?" Charles A. Ray ~a member of the Board of Trustees and Chair of the Africa Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, served as U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Republic of Zimbabwe~ January 11, 2021 https://www.fpri.org/article/2021/01/does-africa-matter-to-the-united-states/ SM The population of African countries is also overwhelmingly young. Approximately 40 of Africans
AND
political climate of Libya also pose a threat to sub-Saharan Africa.
Causes terrorist CBW usage.
Fyanka 20 Bernard B. Fyanka (epartment of History and International Studies, Redeemer’s University) (2020): Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) terrorism: Rethinking Nigeria’s counterterrorism strategy, African Security Review, DOI: 10.1080/10246029.2019.1698441 (SGK) The most commonly used non-conventional weapons are chemical or biological in nature.
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where the use of biochemical weapons is the norm rather than the exception.
, vital soil that can better address our current environmental and agricultural crises.
Warming causes extinction
Pester 21 (Patrick, staff writer for Live Science. His background is in wildlife conservation and he has worked with endangered species around the world. Patrick holds a master's degree in international journalism from Cardiff University in the U.K. and is currently finishing a second master's degree in biodiversity, evolution and conservation in action at Middlesex University London. Citing Luke Kemp, a research associate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom AND Michael Mann, PhD, distinguished professor of atmospheric science at Penn State. "Could climate change make humans go extinct?" https://www.livescience.com/climate-change-humans-extinct.html August 30, 2021)DR 21 According to Mann, a global temperature increase of 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit (
AND
. If we act boldly now, we can avoid the worst impacts."
Plan – the member nations of the World Trade Organization ought to delay patent enforcement for cannabis.
Kellner 21 "Mitigating the Effects of Intellectual Property Colonialism on Budding Cannabis Markets" Hughie Kellner ~Hughie Kellner came from the small farm town of Uvalde, Texas and received a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin. Upon graduation from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Hughie will deploy his physics degree while prosecuting patents in the Frankfurt am Main, Germany office of Leydig, Voit, and Mayer. After Hughie’s first year at Maurer, he worked for a law firm in Thailand as a Stewart Fellow.~ Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies Vol. 28 ~#1 (Winter 2021) https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls/vol28/iss1/9/ SM Includes enforcement and duration A simple solution to the problem is this: if
AND
be achieved through controlling varying means and portions of the patent application process.
The plan solves by reigning in monopolies without killing innovation.
Kellner 21 "Mitigating the Effects of Intellectual Property Colonialism on Budding Cannabis Markets" Hughie Kellner ~Hughie Kellner came from the small farm town of Uvalde, Texas and received a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin. Upon graduation from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Hughie will deploy his physics degree while prosecuting patents in the Frankfurt am Main, Germany office of Leydig, Voit, and Mayer. After Hughie’s first year at Maurer, he worked for a law firm in Thailand as a Stewart Fellow.~ Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies Vol. 28 ~#1 (Winter 2021) https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls/vol28/iss1/9/ SM Patents may still be sought and possibly even acquired if the government so chooses.
AND
cannot monopolize their innovations, and are thus placed on an equal footing.
FW
Pleasure and pain are intrinsically valuable.
Blum et al. 18 Kenneth Blum, 1Department of Psychiatry, Boonshoft School of Medicine, Dayton VA Medical Center, Wright State University, Dayton, OH, USA 2Department of Psychiatry, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL, USA 3Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Keck Medicine University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA 4Division of Applied Clinical Research and Education, Dominion Diagnostics, LLC, North Kingstown, RI, USA 5Department of Precision Medicine, Geneus Health LLC, San Antonio, TX, USA 6Department of Addiction Research and Therapy, Nupathways Inc., Innsbrook, MO, USA 7Department of Clinical Neurology, Path Foundation, New York, NY, USA 8Division of Neuroscience-Based Addiction Therapy, The Shores Treatment and Recovery Center, Port Saint Lucie, FL, USA 9Institute of Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary 10Division of Addiction Research, Dominion Diagnostics, LLC. North Kingston, RI, USA 11Victory Nutrition International, Lederach, PA., USA 12National Human Genome Center at Howard University, Washington, DC., USA, Marjorie Gondré-Lewis, 12National Human Genome Center at Howard University, Washington, DC., USA 13Departments of Anatomy and Psychiatry, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC US, Bruce Steinberg, 4Division of Applied Clinical Research and Education, Dominion Diagnostics, LLC, North Kingstown, RI, USA, Igor Elman, 15Department Psychiatry, Cooper University School of Medicine, Camden, NJ, USA, David Baron, 3Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Keck Medicine University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA, Edward J Modestino, 14Department of Psychology, Curry College, Milton, MA, USA, Rajendra D Badgaiyan, 15Department Psychiatry, Cooper University School of Medicine, Camden, NJ, USA, Mark S Gold 16Department of Psychiatry, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA, "Our evolved unique pleasure circuit makes humans different from apes: Reconsideration of data derived from animal studies", U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 28 February 2018, accessed: 19 August 2020, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6446569/, R.S. Pleasure is not only one of the three primary reward functions but it also defines
AND
these circuits contribute to diverse pathologies, including obesity and addiction or RDS.
Thus, the standard is consistency with hedonic act utilitarianism.
Prefer additionally:
1~ Actor specificity –
A~ Aggregation – every policy benefits some and harms others, which also means side constraints freeze action.
B~ No intent-foresight distinction – If we foresee a consequence, then it becomes part of our deliberation which makes it intrinsic to our action since we intend it to happen.
2~ No act-omission distinction –
3~ Evolution – only a naturalistic understanding of the world explains it.
Lutz and Lenman 18. Lutz, Matthew and Lenman, James, "Moral Naturalism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2018 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/naturalism-moral/.Massa The second argument against moral non-naturalism concerns moral epistemology. According to evolutionary
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, instead, provide a deep vindication of those beliefs (Copp 2008).
9/19/21
SO - AC - Jordan
Tournament: Greenhill Fall Classic | Round: Doubles | Opponent: Lexington AK | Judge: Gordon Krauss, Serena Lu, Ishan Rereddy
1AC
1AC - Advantage
Current TRIP-plus data exclusivity standards in Jordan devastate healthcare accessibility and the economy.
Barqawi 19 "The access to medicine puzzle: scaling back the negative effects of the Jordan–US Free Trade Agreement" Laila Barqawi ~Lecturer of University of Central Lancashire, Preston (UCLAN)~. Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice, Volume 14, Issue 9, September 2019, Pages 678–686, https://doi.org/10.1093/jiplp/jpz080 SM Jordanian officials have started to recognize the negative impact of data exclusivity as can be
AND
cost consumers in Jordan’s retail market US$ 18 million in 2004.11
Data exclusivity is the key internal link to blocking generic competition, economic growth, and affordable healthcare – case study proves.
Malpani 09 "All costs, no benefi ts: How the US – Jordan free trade agreement affects access to medicines" Rohit Malpani ~a senior campaigns advisor at Oxfam America. He currently manages Oxfam International’s access-to-medicines campaign~. 2009 Palgrave Macmillan 1741-1343 Journal of Generic Medicines Vol. 6, 3, 206–217 https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.851.5138andrep=rep1andtype=pdf SM HOW TRIPS-PLUS RULES HAVE RESTRICTED GENERIC COMPETITION IN JORDAN SINCE 2001 Since
AND
have received an additional 3 years of monopoly protection for new indications. 4
Data exclusivity creates monopolies that guts access to affordable medicine – data proves.
Armouti and Nsour 16 "Data Exclusivity for Pharmaceuticals: Was It the Best Choice for Jordan Under the U.S.- Jordan Free Trade Agreement?" WAEL ARMOUTI ~LL.M in intellectual property law, Faculty of Law, the University of Jordan (Amman, Jordan), Legal Affairs Director at Jordan Food and Drug Administration (JFDA).~ AND MOHAMMAD F.A. NSOUR ~Lawyer and associate law professor at the University of Jordan.~ OREGON REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL LAW ~Vol. 17, 259 2016~ https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/20019/Nsour.pdf?sequence=1andisAllowed=y SM In order to control diseases, people must be able to access affordable medicines.
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with a 2 million JD saving.258 Chart 2 represents this saving.
Data exclusivity stymies the generic market which is key to the Jordanian pharmaceutical industry. That spills over to neighboring countries and the Jordanian economy writ large.
Armouti and Nsour 16 "Data Exclusivity for Pharmaceuticals: Was It the Best Choice for Jordan Under the U.S.- Jordan Free Trade Agreement?" WAEL ARMOUTI ~LL.M in intellectual property law, Faculty of Law, the University of Jordan (Amman, Jordan), Legal Affairs Director at Jordan Food and Drug Administration (JFDA).~ AND MOHAMMAD F.A. NSOUR ~Lawyer and associate law professor at the University of Jordan.~ OREGON REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL LAW ~Vol. 17, 259 2016~ https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/20019/Nsour.pdf?sequence=1andisAllowed=y SM Since 2001, no real foreign investments from originator companies in Jordan have materialized.
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, the decrease in pharmaceutical industry export will affect the Jordanian economy.278
Jordan generic pharmaceutical industry is key to economic growth and Middle East healthcare.
from Hamzah or from another royal rival who has yet to reveal himself.
Jordan instability due to economic failure spills over regionally – independently ruins Israel-Jordan peace treaty.
Al-Shami et al 4/13 "Jordan’s Thorny Spring Spells Trouble for the Middle East" Farah Al-Shami, Research Fellow, Arab Reform Initiative (ARI), Tuqa Nusairat, Deputy Director, Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East - Atlantic Council, Paolo Maggiolini, Associate Researcher, Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) and Lecturer in History of Islamic Asia, Catholic University of Milan, Bruce Riedel, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, Center for Middle East Policy, Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology, Director - The Intelligence Project, Brookings, April 13, 2021 https://www.ispionline.it/en/pubblicazione/jordans-thorny-spring-spells-trouble-middle-east-30024 SM Jordan's image, painstakingly built by the country’s authorities as an oasis of relative stability
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to survival of the Israel-Jordan peace treaty which is deeply unpopular."
Instability spills over to Israeli security crises specifically.
Solomon 4/6 "Instability in neighboring Jordan is ‘bad news’ for Israel" Ariel Ben Solomon ~Middle East Correspondent for the Jerusalem Post~, Apr 6, 2021 https://www.jns.org/instability-in-neighboring-jordan-is-bad-news-for-israel/ SM Instability in neighboring Jordan is ‘bad news’ for Israel For the past several
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not in the offing, instability in Jordan is bad news for Israel."
Collapse of Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty causes Middle East war.
a locally produced ICU bed, massively cheaper than those imported from abroad.
Failure to contain the pandemic causes Middle East escalation – multiple hotspots.
Alaaldin 20 "COVID-19 will prolong conflict in the Middle East" Ranj Alaaldin ~visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center and nonresident fellow in the Foreign Policy program. He's also the director of a Carnegie Corporation project on proxy warfare in the Middle East.~, April 24, 2020 https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2020/04/24/covid-19-will-prolong-conflict-in-the-middle-east/ SM CONFLICTS AROUND THE REGION In Libya, as Frederic Wehrey and others have pointed
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which houses 70,000 refugees, including ISIS combatants and their families.
Middle East turmoil goes nuclear.
Silverstein 4/23 "Iran-Israel tensions: The threat of nuclear disaster looms large," Richard Silverstein ~writes the Tikun Olam blog, devoted to exposing the excesses of the Israeli national security state~, 23 April 2021 https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/iran-israel-tensions-threat-nuclear-war-looms-large SM Israel had a near-miss of potentially catastrophic proportions on Thursday. As it
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will fight with F-35s, ballistic missiles and possibly nuclear weapons.
Regional war escalates quickly and draws in Russia and the US.
to escalation there, and perhaps even military intervention by the United States.
Nuke war causes extinction – Ice Age, famines, and war won’t stay limited
Edwards 17 ~Paul N. Edwards, CISAC’s William J. Perry Fellow in International Security at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. Being interviewed by EarthSky. How nuclear war would affect Earth’s climate. September 8, 2017. earthsky.org/human-world/how-nuclear-war-would-affect-earths-climate~ Note, we are only reading parts of the interview that are directly from Paul Edwards — MMG In the nuclear conversation, what are we not talking about that we should be
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two nuclear powers would stay limited to these smaller, less destructive bombs.
Plan: The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan ought to reduce data exclusivity for medicines.
Barqawi 19 "The access to medicine puzzle: scaling back the negative effects of the Jordan–US Free Trade Agreement" Laila Barqawi ~Lecturer of University of Central Lancashire, Preston (UCLAN)~. Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice, Volume 14, Issue 9, September 2019, Pages 678–686, https://doi.org/10.1093/jiplp/jpz080 SM We now examine each of the JFDA’s recommendations:
‘Shortening the
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authority, ending the protection referred to in Article 89 shall be justified.
Reducing data exclusivity revives the generic market which boosts accessible healthcare and the economy.
Alawi and Alabbadi 15 Investigating the Effect of Data Exclusivity on the Pharmaceutical Sector in Jordan Rand Alawi ~Pharmacist, MBA, Faculty of Business, The University of Jordan~ and Ibrahim Alabbadi ~ Associate Professor, MBA, PhD, Biopharmaceutics and Clinical Pharmacy Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, The University of Jordan Jordan Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Volume 8, No. 2, 2015 https://journals.ju.edu.jo/JJPS/article/view/9377/4480 SM On the other hand, medicines prices have continued to rise in Jordan after IP
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medicine with no generic equivalent was resulted from the enforcement of data exclusivity.
1AC – Framing
Naturalism is true – evolution.
Lutz and Lenman 18. Lutz, Matthew and Lenman, James, "Moral Naturalism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2018 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/naturalism-moral/.Massa The second argument against moral non-naturalism concerns moral epistemology. According to evolutionary
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, instead, provide a deep vindication of those beliefs (Copp 2008).
Pleasure and pain are intrinsically valuable.
Blum et al. 18 Kenneth Blum, 1Department of Psychiatry, Boonshoft School of Medicine, Dayton VA Medical Center, Wright State University, Dayton, OH, USA 2Department of Psychiatry, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL, USA 3Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Keck Medicine University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA 4Division of Applied Clinical Research and Education, Dominion Diagnostics, LLC, North Kingstown, RI, USA 5Department of Precision Medicine, Geneus Health LLC, San Antonio, TX, USA 6Department of Addiction Research and Therapy, Nupathways Inc., Innsbrook, MO, USA 7Department of Clinical Neurology, Path Foundation, New York, NY, USA 8Division of Neuroscience-Based Addiction Therapy, The Shores Treatment and Recovery Center, Port Saint Lucie, FL, USA 9Institute of Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary 10Division of Addiction Research, Dominion Diagnostics, LLC. North Kingston, RI, USA 11Victory Nutrition International, Lederach, PA., USA 12National Human Genome Center at Howard University, Washington, DC., USA, Marjorie Gondré-Lewis, 12National Human Genome Center at Howard University, Washington, DC., USA 13Departments of Anatomy and Psychiatry, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC US, Bruce Steinberg, 4Division of Applied Clinical Research and Education, Dominion Diagnostics, LLC, North Kingstown, RI, USA, Igor Elman, 15Department Psychiatry, Cooper University School of Medicine, Camden, NJ, USA, David Baron, 3Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Keck Medicine University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA, Edward J Modestino, 14Department of Psychology, Curry College, Milton, MA, USA, Rajendra D Badgaiyan, 15Department Psychiatry, Cooper University School of Medicine, Camden, NJ, USA, Mark S Gold 16Department of Psychiatry, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA, "Our evolved unique pleasure circuit makes humans different from apes: Reconsideration of data derived from animal studies", U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 28 February 2018, accessed: 19 August 2020, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6446569/, R.S. Pleasure is not only one of the three primary reward functions but it also defines
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these circuits contribute to diverse pathologies, including obesity and addiction or RDS.
Thus, the standard is consistency with hedonic act utilitarianism.
Prefer additionally:
1~ Actor specificity –
A~ Aggregation – every policy benefits some and harms others, which also means side constraints freeze action.
B~ No intent-foresight distinction – If we foresee a consequence, then it becomes part of our deliberation which makes it intrinsic to our action since we intend it to happen.
2~ No act-omission distinction –
A~ Psychology – choosing to omit is an act itself – governments decide not to act which means being presented with the aff creates a choice between two actions, neither of which is an omission.
B~ Actor specificity – governments are culpable for omissions cuz their purpose is to protect the constituency – otherwise they would have no obligation to make murder illegal. Only util can escape culpability in the instance of tradeoffs
– i.e. it resolves the trolley problem cuz a deontological theory would hold you responsible for killing regardless. Actor spec o/w – different agents have different ethical standings that affect their obligations and considerations.