Psilocybin ("magic") mushrooms should be legal in the United States.

First, a fundamental flaw in your argumnt is that being that shrooms are food. While they are ingestible, meaning they can go into the body by the mouth, they produce phycodelic effects, thus making them hallucinogens. Also, Wikipedia, (the same site I can tell you've gotten some of your information from, but thats beside the point) says that its being TESTED for medicinal purposes, but has not fully gained a legal status as a cure or antibody for anything absolutly. So that makes your Jefferson statement inaccurate towards this premise. Now to your specifics 1) I'd like for you to give me a religion that necessitates the use of this drug before I accept it as valid. However, it brings up the question if it really is for religous purposes, shouldn't people's own self made states of euforia and joy be enough WITHOUT the help of halucinogens? 2) There's a problem with this, as I mentioned above. Supposing your not allergic, if you eat crab, you eat it, maybe have indigestion at the most, and that's it. If your not allergic to garlic and you eat it you may have bad breath but that is all. In both of these cases, you're still in your right mind when you eat it, after you've eaten it, and once it passes throughout your system. However, with these mushrooms, they cause you to have phycodelic experiences, which can last for hours, putting you outside your normal state of mind. Because they effect your mind, and cause you to do, think, and feel ways and things that you may not do under normal circumstances, they cannot be cosidered food, but halucinogens as I said. So they can't be eaten where ever and whenever, because they can make you do things, while actual foods don't. 3) They may not be addictive, but their effects are desired. People might not have this uncontrolable urge to take them like cocain, but people will still want the effects, which alone will make them keep comin back. 4) While this is true, it's also technically flawed. The majority of the US (meaning the European side) didn't even know about the mushroom until 1955. Until then it was kept within Native American and Mexican cultures. People who saw the effects of the shrooms, did see them overall as negative, cases being when the Spanish settled in South America and early Western Settlers, both of who saw the rituals performed by the natives and didn't approve. When the effects were actually widely known , they promptly made the shrooms illegal. 5) So they aren't poisonous. They are no more dangerous than alchoholic effects, being that they mess uo the mind and might make you do things you wouldn't normally do. (By the way, alchohols legality is not a factor, as it was made illegal, but because the problem of keeping it illegal was more trouble and expensive than it was worth, so they withdrew prohibition simply for conveiniences sake). If someone was to drive a car, the lights and sounds can produce 'bad trips' making the driver freak out and drive just a rechlessly as a drunkard. 6) While those may be true, there are negative effects you failed to mention, including coldness, loss of appetitie, nausea, mouth failure, hallucinations, sadness, and oddly enough, fear. I've never seen a perscription drug commercial where "fear" was one of the side effects. 7) It may reduce criminals, but I think we'd see a massive increase in job loss, bringing about an even greater recession in the economy than we already have. Not to mention death, as I mentioned before, like alchohol, dangerous behavior would greatly increase because people are not thinking in their right minds. Again, we can see that gangs like those of Al Capones have gone away with alchohols re-legalization, however, the amount of drunk driving and (in some cases) house hold abuse have greatly increased. 8) I'll agree with that, however, their effects CAN be compared to alchoholics, which also produce mind and judgment altering effects. 9) Perhaps they will not willingly want to hurt others, but they certain can, like anyone else who is not thinking in their right state of mind. They may not want to endager others by driving s car, but then again, people under the influence don't think they are dangeroue behind the wheel. Also, someone doesn't have to be in the car with the high person for someone to be in danger. Someone esle just has to be driving at the same time that high person is. We can see that most fatalities in drunk driving accidents are innocent bystanders just minding their own business when they get hit. The same applies to shroomed persons. 10) This statement is completly absurd. Every drug's negatives have to be observed. We could EASILY make an argument on why your bro's testoserone meds are bad. But that is not the case here, rather it is your mushrooms. They effect the most crucial part of the body. Not its reflexes, or someones mood, but their mind. You can still think straight (albiet slightly more extreme) with mood swings, and you know what your doing when you your reflexs are affected. However, the shear power of the mind influences EVERYTHING. You alter that you alter the person as a whole. They take these drugs, and they are no longer themselves, but someone completly different. The mind controls the person, and shrooms control the mind, therefore the person. This is a far greater effect than any perscription drug, which still lets you keep your mentality intact. So this factor, beyond ALL others is absolutly a factor. Drunkeness is a problem. This was recognized and made illegal. The only reason it was made legal again was because the crimes organized around it far outweighed the ability of law enforcment to control it. Bt even with it being legal, there are still massivly dangerous effects, which occure everyday around the world. Education helps, but in no way begins to come close to stopping them as a whole. Alchohol alters the mind and thus the person, causing them to act irrationally, violently, and dangerously. Legalization of shrooms may stop some crimes, but just like alchohol, their mind altering effects and their dangerous consequences remain. We can't change alchohols history, but we can prevent that of shrooms. I've refuted all your claims, meaning that none of them are good reasons why shrooms should be legal. I believe they all outweigh your reasonings, and all of mine are as well rooted in the facts you've chosen to ignore, and have negated, or atleast overpowered yours. By the way, I'd like to clarify that I'm not a conservative, just a debater.