smoking and drinking should be illegal in the u.s

While I agree that alcohol and cigarettes are a terrible blight on society, I don't believe they should be outlawed. I will provide reasons for why each drug should remain legal. Cigarettes - Banning cigarettes and expecting every cigarette addict to quit cold-turkey would not only be unpractical, it would be far too harsh. It would be a form of torture for some. It would turn housewives into criminals overnight. The Government produced the cigarettes, the Government advertised the cigarettes, the Government got hundreds of millions worldwide hooked on cigarettes while making billions of dollars in the process. It is therefore the Government's responsibility to help addicts stop killing themselves with cigarettes. Turning addicts into criminals would NOT help. My opponent said: "people can die from secondhand smoke and it isnt even therie fault." There are far more effective ways of reducing the amount of second-hand smoke that non-smokers receive. I personally don't drive a car, and am getting a bit sick of breathing in your deadly exhaust fumes, but I do not advocate banning cars altogether. Once again, there are far more practical ways of reducing the amount of 'innocent' people exposed to the by-products of your vice of choice. Alcohol - From the years 1920 to 1933, the U.S. tried to do exactly what my opponent is proposing by prohibiting alcohol. It was extremely unsuccessful in stopping the consumption of alcohol, and was subsequently repealed. In fact, a large number of countries have tried, and failed, to implement the prohibition of alcohol: 1900 to 1948 in Prince Edward Island, and for shorter periods in other locations in Canada 1914 to 1925 in Russia and the Soviet Union 1915 to 1922 in Iceland (though beer was still prohibited until 1989) 1916 to 1927 in Norway (wine and beer also included in 1917) 1919 in Hungary (in the Hungarian Soviet Republic, March 21 to August 1; called szesztilalom) 1919 to 1932 in Finland (called kieltolaki) 1919 to 1933 in the United States None of these prohibitions were successful, and were all repealed in the end. The reasons for why prohibition inevitibly fails are many and varied. Wikipedia states that: "Many social problems have been attributed to the Prohibition era. A profitable, often violent, black market for alcohol flourished. Racketeering happened when powerful gangs corrupted law enforcement agencies. Stronger liquor surged in popularity because its potency made it more profitable to smuggle. The cost of enforcing Prohibition was high, and the lack of tax revenues on alcohol (some $500 million annually nationwide) affected government coffers. When repeal of Prohibition occurred in 1933, organized crime lost nearly all of its black market alcohol profits in most states (states still had the right to enforce their own laws concerning alcohol consumption), because of competition with low-priced alcohol sales at legal liquor stores." As can be seen, my opponent's claim that alcohol should be illegal because it causes problems with "health,accidents and things that aren't meant to be done" is far beside the point. Prohibiting alcohol has proven time and time again to be unsuccessful in stopping or even slowing alcohol consumption, and therefore wouldn't solve any of the problems proposed by my opponent. I will leave my first argument here and await my opponent's response.