Legality of Marijuana in the US

Hello, Teddy, I would first like to apologize for waiting until the last 3 hours to reply to your argument. Also, I would like to ask that you do not bring up any new subjects in this round, since I will not be able to reply to them. Now, let's wrap this thing up, shall we? I would like to start by talking about your round 2 arguments a little more. It was not the theme you argued that I had a problem with, it's the way you argued it. You only argued from personal expereince, then you used an appeal to emotion w/ a video+song+personal story. This is all nice for a chat in a bar (no offense), but it is not fair to use in a intellectually based debate. This is my final comment on your round 2 argument, I respect your defense of it and your usage of it, but ultimately do not condone it. Now let's talk about some of your other arguments: "- The Netherlands is famous for its tolerant drugs policy. But a lot of people don"t realize that drugs are in fact illegal in the Netherlands. Understanding the Dutch drug policy can spare you a lot of trouble. As I have stated, this is relatively hilarious because Marijuana/Cannabis is the 3rd most popular export (even though the Netherlands is extremely wealthy due to exports in general), here is more proof of the huge Cannabis industry in the Netherlands. http://stash.norml.org... "I have a two word answer for you, Snoop Dogg. This observation comes courtesy of our very own Garret. "I would love him to quote where ANY of his sources claim there is NO SUCH THING as a functioning marijuana user. Besides, we all know Snoop Dogg (or is it Snoop Lion?), the famous pothead who told Reddit he smokes 81 blunts a day! Considering he has sold 30 million albums worldwide, coaches a youth football league and high school football team, and is the chairman of a Priority Records, it would be silly to call him 'non-functioning." GarretKadeDupree, debate.org. " Snoop Dogg? Very funny, I don't consider someone who has been arrested 7 times functioning. Also, I don't consider rap artists who get their income by walking in to a studio once a week and rapping (and then acting every once in a while in a commercial for endorsements) a good representative of the average joe. http://crime.about.com... Also, I have a blunt, but insightful response to your other argument. If we just crack down and make sure the stuff is either minimally available or not at all, the prices will go way up due to high demand and low supply, then no one will be able to afford it. If no one can afford the stuff, no one will buy it, hence no one will get addicted, and those who are addicted to it currently will be forced to go cold turkey if they can't afford it. I really have little to no sympathy to drug users and would like to point out that my idea works due to this statistic. In the United Arab Emirates, they have extremely strict, zero tolerance drug policies, and if you look at the price of Marijuana there, it is the highest in the world, at $110.00 per gram! Therefore if you minimize the amount of drugs through strict enforcement, the prices go up due to low supply and high demand, and the average person won't be able to afford the drugs to start with. Here are links to back my statements regarding this point. http://www.havocscope.com... http://www.emirates.com... I would like to conclude this round with a summary, then my argument in general. This round I have proven that sometimes strict enforcement can win out over tolerance. I have proven this by showing the high amount of illegal drugs still exported and produced in the Netherlands, and then I showed you an alternative plan to drug tolerance, zero tolerance. I showed you an example of a zero tolerance policy in the UAE (United Arab Emirates), and how it has worked great for them, minimizing the supply of drugs, causing prices to skyrocket and causing the drug to be unavailable to the average person, stopping addiction at the source. My arguments overall are as follows: -Enforcement and zero tolerance wins out over drug tolerance. - Drug tolerance is bad for diplomacy due to exports to countries that ban the drug. - Marijuana and Cannabis still can cause violent behavior, and therefore the usage of these drugs do effect others. - Marijuana taxation when legalized will not actually increase revenue all that much, because people will still illegally sell untaxed Marijuana that will go for cheaper prices due to the fact that they won't have to increase their drugs prices because of taxation. (People will buy their illegal drug due to lower prices) I wish my opponent the best of luck in voting, but still think my argument of enforcement and zero tolerance wins out over his argument of tolerance, so I ask the voters weigh their decision based solely on the argument and not their personal bias. This has been a great argument, and I look forward to your final reply. Thank you -Adam