Traditions and common practices can be persuasive, but popularity of a given practice or view simply doesn’t prove it to be correct.

Certainly, authority figures have been wrong about many important matters throughout the ages. For each controversial claim, we can find experts who offer vastly different conclusions. Therefore, a mere Appeal To Authority shouldn’t be enough to prove or disprove a claim – if you really care about the truth of a matter you need more than that. This fact doesn’t stop people from shouting down others in the addiction debate with nothing more than an Appeal To Authority though!

An Appeal To Consequences is often the first and last fallacious argument uttered in any debate about the disease model of addiction. This tactic may be persuasive, but it doesn’t prove anything.