Resolved: Marijuana should be legalized in the United States.

Thanks pro, I'm cutting it close this round. I'll go through pro's opening arguments and then proceed on to his rebuttals against mine. Pro's first contention: Making marijuana illegal does not stop people from buying and consuming it. This is completely true. I even know this from my own experience in high school, it seemed like at least half my friends were using or had used marijuana at some point. However, these are not good grounds for the legalization of the drug. Why? Because you could use this argument for the legalization of any drug. People still use cocaine, meth, heroin, and other drugs though they are illegal. In reality, making something illegal doesn't necessarily stop people from doing anything. This applies to murder, theft and so on. People have done these things and are still actively doing these things regardless of the fact that they are illegal, but that does not make it right to legalize these actions because we must consider the repercussions of doing so. When it comes to the law, the mentality cannot be, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!". Pro's second contention: Making marijuana illegal infringes on individual liberty. Here pro says that since using marijuana is a person habit and can be considered a lifestyle, it infringes on the oxford dictionary's definition of liberty. Pro states that we should protect a person's personal habits"...as long as those habits aren't a danger to society.". In my opening arguments I showed how marijuana not only is a danger to the user but can also be a danger to those around the user (society). To state it plainly, legalizing marijuana simply harms society more than it would do good. One of the main reasons we pay our taxes is for our government to protect us. By legalizing marijuana our government would be exposing us to another unhealthy, dangerous drug, doing the opposite. Pro's third contention: The war on drugs has unintended consequences. I feel as though this could be fixed without legalizing marijuana. In fact, if the reason why the arrests seem to be so racist is because that blacks tend to live in the city where it is easier to patrol, and can't afford as good of attorneys, then one can assume that legalizing marijuana is not going to fix this problem. And certainly therefore is not the cause. The police will still end up convicting more blacks than whites based off the reasons stated, if not for drugs then for other crimes. Now I will move on to pro's rebuttals. Pro's rebuttal to my first contention: Pro and I agree on this point. Making marijuana legal will increase the users. Pro weighs in on the benefit of the extra tax money from making it legal. This is a benefit, but in my opinion also helps to further distract the government from cutting spending which is ultimately what needs to happen if we ever want to see a balanced budget again. This annoyance as well as the bad factors involved with marijuana I've previously discussed outweighs this positive. Pro's rebuttal to my second contention: Pro concedes that marijuana is a dangerous drug when he compares it to other drugs he deems dangerous, such as tobacco and alcohol. Since he does concede that marijuana is dangerous, then his previous argument in contention 2 where he states, "...but also protect their personal habits as long as those habits are not a danger to society." becomes moot. Furthermore. I certainly agree that both tobacco and alcohol are dangerous drugs as well. But what I don't understand time and time again after hearing people use this argument is that if you do believe those drugs to be dangerous, why would you want to add another one in with them? If those are a harm already what good will it bring if you add another harmful drug to society? Pro's rebuttal to my third contention: I extend the second part of my argument in pro's rebuttal to my second contention. Pro shows that alcohol tends to make people more violent than marijuana does, but I fail to see how this makes it so we should legalize it. Again, if we both agree that alcohol is a harmful drug to society, what good will adding another harmful drug bring? Let's not add on to societies burden but rather try to lessen it! Pro's rebuttal to my fourth contention: Pro uses a quote that says in the end, "There is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs". And then says that it proves that the gate-way argument is a fallacy. Pro takes a non-conclusive report to give the conclusion that the gate-way argument is false. Aside from this, even though it isn't conclusive, it still supports my argument. It shows that most people who are using harder illicit drugs now initially started with marijuana. It may not be conclusive that marijuana causes people to move on to the next drug, but pro must agree it certainly still supports it. Pro then talks of the drug market and how other drugs are often marketed towards people who just want marijuana. I could see how that would exist, in fact many of those people who are trying to sell the drugs are previous marijuana smokers. I would also argue that a similar thing happens at parties that people go to. Other drugs often get pushed on you once you're in the door. This forum describes all the different types that can be present. http://bluelight.org... Over to you again pro.