The United States federal government should legalize soft drugs including marijuana, mushrooms, etc.

>>> the war on drugs used money that could have been spent in other places... but we ar3e not debating weather or not the government spends it's money well. +++ The topic is about the fact that the United States should legalise soft drugs. The utilization of money is included in the topic, for sure. >>> Also there are several websites that state that weed is a gateway drug +++ Well, find one. Take the time to debate. But I've said that Americans have the brain capacity to decide what they put in their mouths, which is common sense an obvious logic. >>> so if i wanted to do what you are doing and simply go and find those websites nothing you have said has come from your own oppinion you simply stated website quote after website quote so in all honesty this debate seems pointless to me. +++ I've stated my opinion and used sources to back up my opinion. I have debated and presented a lot of points. Of which, many, you have yet to rebut. ALL OF THE FOLLOWING POINTS HAVE YET TO BE REBUTTED. IT IS UNFAIR FOR YOU TO RESPOND TO ANY OF THESE POINTS NOW WITHOUT GIVING ME A CHANCE TO DISAGREE AND REBUT THOSE ARGUMENTS. I WIN THIS DEBATE, BECAUSE YOU HAVE YET TO RESPOND TO THESE FOLLOWING POINTS AND I WILL NEVER GET A CHANCE TO DEBATE YOU ON THEM: *** If soft drugs were legal, minors would be virtually incapable of getting them, because that would be the law. *** It is an American person's decision if they choose to use hard drugs. Besides, as I have proven, soft drug legalisation, lowers the usage prevalence. In Amsterdam, as I stated, in round 1, soft drugs were halved in utilization. Also, hard drug usage is significantly more than halved. The 'gateway drug' argument is flawed. [US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, National Household Survey on Drug Abuse: Volume I. Summary of National Findings (Washington, DC: HHS, August 2002), p. 109] [www. drugwarfacts. org/ thenethe. htm] *** Their incarceration, in the Netherlands, rate is 7 times lower, after legalising soft drugs! I've used two sources. You just said "nuh uh." [Walmsley, Roy, "World Prison Population List (fifth edition) (London, England: Research, Development and Statistics Directorate of the Home Office), Dec. 2003, p. 3] [www. drugwarfacts. org/ thenethe. htm] *** The War on Drugs does not even work. If the government can't even keep drugs out of prison, how can it keep them out of an entire nation? The simple answer is: It can't. [Arizona Libertarian Party] *** The War on Drugs costs billions (not trillions as I mistyped earlier) of dollars. [National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University: "Shoveling Up: The Impact of Substance Abuse on State Budgets," January, 2001.] [http:// www. drugsense. org/ wodclock. htm] *** The War on Drugs makes it very difficult to win the war on terror, because they are both so costly and the War on Drugs uses national intelligence resources. [Commonsense.org = Can't Win War on Terror Fighting a War on Drugs] *** We spend 150 million more Euros than the Netherlands on crime annually. [van Dijk, Frans & Jaap de Waard, "Legal infrastructure of the Netherlands in international perspective: Crime control"] *** They're homicide rate is 5 times lower in the Netherlands. [Barclay, Gordon, Cynthia Tavares, Sally Kenny, Arsalaan Siddique & Emma Wilby, "International comparisons of criminal justice statistics 2001,"]