The continued prohibition of marijuana is far more harmful than the drug itself.

"You say the prohibition of alcohol "didn't work out too well", but how do you see the prohibition of marijuana as working out any better?" The penalties for both handling and using marijuana are much harsher than the handling and usage of Alcohol. Children have a stronger negative feeling against Marijuana, than they do with Alcohol. I think its working out better than if we legalized Marijuana. "Prohibition has not significantly curbed it's usage or availability." Actually, it has. As per my previous statistic(1), children tend to have a negative feeling against Marijuana. The reason being, its illegal. If its as safe as you claim it is, then clearly this negative feeling amongst children, will decrease, much like it has decreased with Alcohol(2) "but to counter your statement that "I have shown why all your evidence that suggest that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol or tobacco, is inconclusive at best, an, for the most part, blatantly wrong."" The point being, the topic of this debate is not "Marijuana is less harmful than alcohol or tobacco", but "Prohibition of marijuana is more harmful than the drug itself". Congrats, you have shown that Marijuana is less harmful than alcohol or tobacco. If only the topic of this discussion were different, could your argument have any merit to our current discussion. "Chronic pain is one of the most common uses of medical marijuana." Marijuana is far less useful than chronic painkillers such as Oxycontin. "And I mentioned that medical marijuana doesn't increase youth usage to point out that California, where marijuana is a just about as easy for adults to get as beer, that this didn't increase youth usage." Are you kidding me? California made medicinal marijuana, legal.This makes marijuana, as easy for adults to get, as Morphine. "You still have yet to give a convincing argument for why it SHOULD be illegal, and have simply tried to say my statements apply to drugs that they are not being applied to." Youre kidding me, right? Apart from the fact that ive given multiple arguments that show the negative effects of Marijuana(To which your counter argument, was "But its not as harmful as alcohol!!!111"), the current laws in the USA state that Marijuana is illegal. The burden of proof is on you to show why this law should be changed. "There's plenty activities that aren't criminalized even though a small minority can have negative societal consequences." Yes, and there are plenty of activities that ARE criminalized, even though a small minority are the perpetrators. Should we make Drinking and Driving illegal, because a minority gets into car accidents? Clearly not! Oh wait. "You counter my arguments saying they can apply to anything, but I am weighing the consequences of marijuana alone." This is because when your arguments are applied to the other drugs, they fail, miserably. Yet for some reason, you think you can apply them to Marijuana and let it pass. "The first two are no grounds to criminalize things, as the first applies to meat, fast food, playing football, alcohol, and driving cars, and the second applies to television, and video games." Thats interesting. I never knew that all these things such as Video Games and Alcohol, have a chance to cause cancer. "The adolescent use rate of 28% is still lower, and it's been semi-legal since the 70s." And steadily rising. Magic mushrooms were also legal in the netherlands since the 70s, but only recently has it become a problem. Why? Because, as you said above, the culture has begun to change. Its become such a problem, in fact, that the netherlands are banning Magic Mushrooms. "With no conclusive evidence to suggest a significant spike in use" Ive just provided evidence. Its increased since your statistics which was printed in 2002. Sure, 8% may not be much to you. But it is. "more focus on hardER drugs,"-You Great, now you change the word to "HardER". How convenient. I just listed why LSD is just as safe as Marijuana. Yet youve failed to comment on it at all. Furthermore, places like the Netherlands had legalized drugs like Magic Mushrooms since the 70s, and takes a very weak stance against soft drugs. So, how are you differentiating between Marijuana and, say, Magic mushrooms, or LSD? "less tax dollars fighting an impossible war,"-You Are you kidding me? Do you seriously think that our tax dollars spent on the war on ANY drug, is possible? Do you think we can truly eliminate Heroin? Cocaine? Every war on any drug is impossible. Not trying, however, will increase the number of people who use it. "less responsible users denied basic rights,"-You Im guessing you mean "More responsible users", but no. I mean, answer me this. Does it matter if im a responsible Heroin user? "less money funneled to crime,"-You Again, please address my comments at face value. Legalizing any drug will decrease the monetary income of any crime lord or cartel, including the "SoftER" drugs like LSD. Sources: 1. http://www.monitoringthefuture.org... 2. http://www.monitoringthefuture.org...