End Prohibition, Drugs Become Public Health Issue

I have 40 minutes. In response to the new link posted, I argue if cannabis can be proven to be a lie in terms of being dangerous in order to maintain it's illegality, so can other drugs. As read here: http://www.naturalnews.com... You can read that marijuana actually protects people from long term mental problems such as Alzheimer's. This contradicts what we're supposed to be afraid of, and is just one example of this contradiction. We're also supposed to be afraid of getting cancer, however modern studies have suggested the complete opposite. THC actually attacks tumors and shrinks them, and not just by smoking. See here: http://www.sfgate.com... To sum up my point, if cannabis can be proven to be completely benign,and actually beneficial to ones health, so could other currently illegal drugs. For instance, psychedelic mushrooms, mescalin, LSD, MDMA, none of these drugs will kill you, and you cannot overdose on them. However they're all illegal, and are not allowed to be studied even though many studies from outside the US and Canada suggest all these drugs could have medicinal value. Shrooms may help with depression, as read here. Note, this is a study done outside the US and Canada: http://www.dailymail.co.uk... Next my opponent argues, "Though this is insightful it is not logically relevant to the debate. Because something that is harmful is legal, it does not follow that all harmful illegal substances should be made legal." If these drugs are harmful, then they should be legalized and regulated. Why would you want cocaine to be illegal, when it can be purchased from a drug dealer who does not ask for ID and could sell to minors, who does not know of the potency of the drug, who does not know of the purity of the drug, who does not know of the cleanliness of the drug. I further argue it has been proven everywhere it is easier for underage students to obtain marijuana than alcohol. This is because their drug dealer does not ask for ID. Drugs like Meth and cocaine are very dangerous, and because of this they absolutely should be legal so they can be regulated so people know exactly what they're buying and have to at the very least be of a certain age. This is currently not happening. Next, "I counter this on the basis that if drug addict is unable to legally fund his addiction due to the debilitation and intoxication his drug causes, he will resort to crime." This is preposterous, you cannot make such a claim. If a drug addict cannot get his "fix" in a legal market, he wouldn't be able to get it in an illegal market anyways. Drugs being in a legal market would make purchasing it more safe, and more reliable. I argue that alcoholics who cannot afford alcohol do not all turn to crime like you suggest, since alcohol is a drug. I see many of them standing outside the liqueur store begging for money. If alcohol was illegal again, they would be drinking an uncertain concentration of moonshine, and how is this any better than we have now? ext, "The illegality is a reference to the aforementioned attempts to illegally gain money for what would now be a legal drug. The numbers of such people would logically increase under my opponents suggestion." The Netherlands which has cannabis legal, actually has a lower use rate per capita than the US who has it illegal. http://www.drugwarfacts.org... As you can see, the drug being legal did not encourage more use, it actually lowered the amount of users. Next, "I would like my opponent to provide a link for this figure, but I do not doubt the overall point that the ‘war on drugs' is very expensive and imperfect." This is regarding the 40 billion dollars a year spent on maintaining cannabis prohibition alone. You can see here, my statement was a much more conservative one, for many predict the cost of prohibition soars into the hundreds of billions when calculating all it's affects.: http://www.canorml.org... Next, "My counter-argument is as follows, Given that cannabis use has been shown by many studies to increase the chances of developing schizophrenia let us imagine for a moment that my opponent is the father of a teenager, You have two choices, you can raise your teenager in a society where he may never be offered cannabis, where he may find difficulty in purchasing it, where he may smoke it sporadically before deciding to grow. This is the current situation. Or you can raise your teenager in a society where it is sold openly and cheaply in the shops and he can smoke as much as he could ever desire without any limits on this personal whims. This would be the ramifications of my opponents choice." Firstly, I would like to point of tobacco can be purchased legally and would absolutely kill my so, or your son, or any human being. However, our children are now educated, and are intelligent enough to make the right choice to not purchase tobacco, as can be seen by lowered usage rates over the years due to campaigns. Secondly, the link between cannabis and schizophrenia is unproven. However, it is most in favor that it either does not cause, or may only cause it with people predisposed to it. Either way, neither of us can prove this point on either side because it is illegal and difficult to study. Next, "Also let us remember that this is not simply about Cannabis, this is about all currently illegal drugs. Cocaine, heroin, examine. Can this substances logically be treated in the same context as say tobacco?" A drug that impairs your ability to think and move properly while being a toxin to your body, harming your brain and liver is currently on the market. A drug that causes the US and Canada billions in health care and kills millions is currently on the market. However if these drugs were illegal, they would kill even more people. We have room to make all drugs legal, and properly educate people on the effects of using them. Them being illegal absolutely does not lower usage rates. ===== I am out of time, what a shame. Unfortunately but not, I was in Cedar Point for a day, and working for other days. I wish I could have participated more thoroughly, though I do feel confident in my arguments. Thank you for the great debate.