End the War on Drugs...

Resolved: The United States ought to end the War on Drugs, and fully legalize all illegal substances. I will affirm the resolution. Definitions: Ought: expressing a moral imperative Illegal substances: drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, etc. Legalize: make legal Plan: End the failed "War on Drugs" policy, strike down all anti-drug legislation, and legalize all currently illegal substances. Advantage 1: Maximize Individual Liberty Individuals are sovereign over their own bodies. Thus, an individual ought to have the right to do what they wish with their own body. An act only becomes wrong when it infringes upon the rights or individual sovereignty of another human being. Using illegal substances in no way infringes upon the rights of others, and cannot be said to be immoral. Advantage 2: Make Drugs Safer Sub-point 1: Because drugs are illegal, the drug trade is carried out in the black market, rather than out in the open, where it can be appropriately regulated. During the 1920's alcohol prohibition, unsafe, poorly made alcoholic drinks such as bathtub gin caused huge health problems for users. Today, illegal substances are laced with dangerous chemicals in order to minimize the money spent on their creation, and increase profits. These side-effects of the illegal drug trade make drugs more dangerous than they have to be. With proper regulation, these practices would disappear, and illegal substances could become as safe as alcohol is today. Sub-point 2: Organized crime is dangerous to everyone, and the illegality of drugs is their main source of power. Because drugs are illegal, they are a major black market commodity, and are sold in huge quantities by gangs and mafias. Were these substances part of a legal industry, they would not be profitable on the black market, and organized crime would take a huge financial blow. Sub-point 3: Drug cartels in third-world countries such as Mexico destabilize the society far more than drug use itself. These massive illegal organizations, spawned from the profitability of black market drugs, oppress the peoples of their countries, engage in turf wars with the local governments, and destroy their environments, both socially and ecologically. Advantage 3: Save the Government's Money and Effort for More Useful Policies Sub-point 1: Our tax dollars that are spent on the War on Drugs could be used for more important and less destructive policies, such as education and infrastructure spending. Sub-point 2: Our prisons contain over 1% of our total population. The United States has one of the highest prison populations in the world. If drugs were legalized, the majority of America's prison population would be freed. This would save the government a huge amount of money and effort, and help to repair the social fabric of our society. Sub-point 3: Legal sales of popular drugs such as marijuana would bring in huge amounts of revenue through sales taxes, which can also be devoted to more important and useful government policies. To summarize, drug legalization would increase individual liberty, make both drug use and drug trade (which are inevitable, and have not been curbed by anti-drug legislation) safer for producers, consumers, and the society at large, and it would allow the United States government to devote its resources (which the legal drug trade would increase) to more important and useful policies.