All drugs should be legalized and regulated

Firstly I will defend the analogy used in the previous argument. The comparison I made was that both weeds and drugs will always exist. Giving up and allowing them to become uncontrolled and endemic though would be economically damaging to the parties involved. My opponent states that many lives are ruined each year by the war on drugs. In my view this is an inaccurate statement. It is drugs that are ruining these peoples lives not the battle against them. My views on the prohibition of both alcohol and tobacco are based on the negative effects these drugs have on people. Both cause significant health risks and decrease productivity in the work place. Alcohol causes increases in both crime and substance related deaths. The following link shows the economic costs each year incurred by the US government from the use of Tobacco, Alcohol and all other illicit drugs combined. . http://www.google.co.uk... Tobacco costs the US government $295 Billion annual loses of which $138 Billion is from health care costs, Alcohol $224 Billion of which $25 Billion is from health care costs and Illicit drugs cost $193 Billion of which $11 billion is from health care costs. All of these figures are horrifically high and demonstrate the danger posed by theses substances. However these statistics show that my views on not legalizing and regulating drugs are correct. Despite being less dangerous then many currently illegal drugs the costs of both Tobacco and Alcohol each year are greater then all illegal drugs combined. The total for illicit drugs even counts the cost of the war on drugs. This shows that while expensive the war on drugs is value for money. If the hundreds of currently illegal drugs were legalized and regulated the small savings from policing the war on drugs would be offset by huge increases in health care costs, costs from crimes committed by people under the influence of drugs and a decrease in productivity in the workplace. If regulated and legalized the annual costs of drugs would increase. This would mean the government would need to introduce hefty taxes on the many newly legalized substances to pay for the large increases in government spending needed in order to fund the economic shortfall created by the significant increase in drug use. This would see a similar situation to tobacco and alcohol where users of the substances are heavily taxed to pay for the many issues the substance creates. It is clear that legalizing and regulating drugs is the wrong approach. Although tobacco and alcohol consumption is decreasing among 15-20 year olds in the US these substances are still by far the most commonly used substances. The reason for this is clear. It is because they are legalized and regulated. Use of all other types of harmful addictive substances is considerably lower in the Western world than these two legalized substances. Although education works to an extent in reducing the use of these two legal substances they will always remain the most commonly used substances unless either they are banned, reducing their use, or other substances are legalized and regulated resulting in increased use of the newly legalized substance/ substances. Despite education warning people about dangerous drugs the legalization of drugs will see increases in drug use, especially the most dangerous types of drugs. My opponents approach of setting up numerous stores selling individual drugs would be both socially irresponsible and economically disastrous. Any country that used this policy would see increased drug use, drug related deaths and health problems, increased government spending on drug related problems and economic damage caused by the destruction of town centres caused by drug selling shops. The decrease in workplace productivity and increases in crime would also be problematic. Imagine an 21 year old bored hanging around in the town centre. I think its more likely he/she would enter into one of the proposed drug shops and try a legal substance then look for a dealer in a dark alley as they would need to currently. Yes its true some people are happy to source drugs from drug dealers but the majority are deterred by it for both concerns about safety and concerns about arrest and persecution. The threat of persecution is a genuine deterrent for the majority of citizens. Most people including myself do not want to break the law and risk going to prison. It is not a nice place. Drug legalization and regulation would remove this deterrent and many people put off by the threat of persecution would take advantage of the opportunity to try a variety of dangerous substances. It is true a small minority of people are tempted by the lure of using something that is illegal but these people re certainly a small minority as shown by the large gap between users of alcohol and tobacco and users of illegal drugs. In my view adult humans do require protection from the government when it comes to preventing them from taking addictive substances that cause impaired function and major health risks. It is comparable to how adult humans need protection from crime such as burglary, rape, fraud and murder. If the government simply decriminalized these immoral activities and let everyone get on with life as they please then a minority of adults would commit these immoral acts. It is the responsibility of the government to protect its citizens from threats whether that be another nation threatening war, a criminal threatening burglary, a bridge on a public highway that has become unsafe and at risk of collapse or from a dangerous substance that threatens to cause addiction, impairment and death. In my view it is immoral to allow people to purchase such dangerous products. There are many vulnerable people in society such as people with disabilities and mental health problems who have impaired function when making a decision such as taking drugs. Allowing somebody to walk into a heroin shop and buy heroin is both immoral and wrong. The legalization and regulation of drugs will normalize drug use as will the numerous proposed drug shops. Many vulnerable adults will be tempted into trying dangerous drugs. Currently a small minority of people are tempted by the world of crime and use drugs. The legalization and regulation of drugs may end the problem of drug smuggling and drug dealing but it will come at great cost to any country that opted to do so both economically and socially. It is no coincidence that no major economy has regulated and legalized drugs. It is clear it is the wrong thing to do.