Drugs should be legal

First I'm going to specify something, in this debate I want to talk about drugs that only affect the person doing them. There are thousands if not millions of drugs, I'm sure there are some drugs that one you take them you lose complete control of yourself and you could do anything you normally would not such as, stealing, killing, raping, etc. So in this debate let's talk about that huge majority of drugs that only affect the person doing them. The huge majority of drugs only affect the person doing them. To make a short list of examples, weed, cocaine, adderall, ecstasy, salvia, other hallucinogens, etc. The reason why they should be legal is because the government should not be able to tell the individual what decisions to make when it comes to the person's body and well-being. The government cannot make better decisions than the individual. Cigarettes and alcohol are harmful, why are they legal then? If you grant the government the power to make decisions for you, where do you draw the line? Why don't they make tobacco and alcohol illegal? How about putting a restriction on the amount of sugar a product can have to solve obesity? How about banning ALL added sugar in every product? The people know that added sugar, tobacco, caffeine, alcohol and many other things are harmful but they still do them. It's their choice of life. I would much rather live 65 years happy than 90 years that could have been better (especially since the earlier years seem to be the best). Another reason why drugs like these should be legal is because it just doesn't make sense to put in prison someone who is doing drugs (non-violent "crime"). One of the government's main job is to protect its citizens. Now think about a college student doing drugs in his dorm and gets caught and put into jail. The government is basically saying "you're not hurting anyone, but you're hurting yourself, so we're going to protect you from yourself by throwing you in jail for the rest of your life. You'll be safe there because we won't let you do anything." How does that make any sense? Are you going to tell me that people that do drugs are automatically dangerous and should be put in jail before they commit an actual crime? Last time I checked, in the United States of America we're INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY. So don't even try saying "drugged people are dangerous" because you would be crapping all over the US justice system by incarcerating a person because you deem them "dangerous" even though they haven't committed a crime. Also, a significant portion of the prison population are people who were found guilty for nonviolent drug offenses. Not only does the State have to spend a tremendous amount of money in keeping the prisoners alive (food, safety, healthcare, etc.) but also most of those nonviolent people are probably nice and got ripped away from their families. If a guy is the main bread winner for a given family and you put him in jail for doing cocaine for 10 years, you basically just destroyed an entire family. Now the mom has to work and raise the kids by herself and maybe even find a new husband. If you lock up a senior in college, you just wasted his entire life. What is he going to do when he's 35 and gets out? Go back to college? Yeah, right. In addition to the previous points, legalizing drugs would make the streets safer. Why? Because gangs would completely disappear. Maybe where you live there are not that many gangs but in some places near the border with Mexico, gang members literally kill each other to have control over territory to sell the illegal drugs. That's how they make their income. If you legalize drugs, companies and maybe even the government could make them safer and cheaper. The gangs would have no market/territory to fight over because people would buy the cheaper, safer drugs from companies and the government. As an added bonus, our drug policy would also affect Central and South America because we are a huge part of their illegal drug traffic market, so gangs would see a decline in those areas as well. Needless to say, if drugs are legalized, new industries would be created, in other words, more jobs. Look at the weed industry in Colorado for reference. Another thing is that the government would save SO MUCH money. We would save money by not spending it in the enforcement of the "war on drugs." Plus, the government could tax the drugs to make more money. So we spend less and revenue more, it doesn't get much better than that! You know what could all that extra money could be used for? The military industrial complex. Just kidding! We could use it for education. And part of that extra education money could be used for rehabs and to educate people to do drugs responsibly, just like alcohol. That way, the people DECIDE not to do drugs as opposed to not having the freedom to decide. Lastly, it has been shown in various countries (look up European countries as examples) that after they decriminalized a drug or made it completely legal, the rate of that drug being used went down over the years. One of the reasons why people get into drugs is exactly because they're illegal. They do it for the thrill of doing something forbidden. Why would those people try cocaine if it was legal and they knew it was harmful? I know it's counter intuitive but don't take my word for it, look it up. Portugal is a pretty good example of this. Summary of point: 1) The government shouldn't tell me how to live my life unless I'm affecting other people. 2) Incarcerating non-violent drug users not only breaks up the most fundamental unit of society (families) but is in no way efficient nor a deserved punishment. 3) The government would save money in keeping prison inmates. 4) The government would save money from law enforcement. 5) The government would get more money by taxing drugs which are consumed whether they are legal or not. 6) Gangs would be greatly affected, if not completely go away. 7) People who decided to do drugs responsibly would get safer drugs from FDA approved companies. 8) More jobs would be created. 9) I would get high and I would be happy.