Legalize Marijuana

"Citing a Forbes" article written by a known stoner, an article about the estimated decrease in heroin addiction in Portugal, where possession of any illegal drugs, including cannabis, is still illegal, doesn't prove anything. " I Don't know why you would state this and then continue the rest of your argument on that subject. I feel you should have focused on more important subjects in your rebuttal, but how you conduct this is up to you. You must see that my main point is the following: legalizing Marijuana does not condone the use of the substance but is the better way in approaching the regulation of the substance for society as whole. When you make comments like "Wow! That is righteous stoner talk, dude!" you make it seem as though I approve legalization just because I am a stoner. However Marijuana remaining criminalized would only benefit me as a stoner, but not society as a whole. I am more focused on the benefit of society not in my self interest and therefor support the legalization of Marijuana. We are both in favor of bettering society, we just see believe in different approaches. Let us define several things that I should have done so in the first round. Let me define the law currently prohibiting Marijuana. The Controlled Substance act currently has Marijuana under s schedule 1 drug along with Heroin. In fact it is scheduled higher than cocaine, if you see no problem with this, then it is clear you have a bias particularly against Marijuana. Schedule I substances are those that have the following findings: A. The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse. B. The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States. C. There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision. 1. Prohibition is a failure at high costs. Let's see how this prohibition has worked. The CSA was passed in 1970. By the 1970"s marijuana use had grown 20%. Marijuana hit its peak use at 1979. Prohibition is a failed approach to control substances. If there is a demand than there will be a supply. This is true regardless of laws. Prohibition is enforced through the war on drugs. Let us look at the effects the WoD has on society. Since society is the the most important factor at hand here. The stats show the frivolous attempts by the WoD to halt drug trafficking. Given that the WoD only intercepts 15% of narcotics being imported presents us with the fact that these efforts might as well not exist. 85% of narcotics still make it into the United States. I will attempt to take this 85% from the micro to macro scale to display fecklessness of the 15%.10"15% of illicit heroin and 30% of illicit cocaine is intercepted. Drug traffickers have gross profit margins of up to 300%. At least 75% of illicit drug shipments would have to be intercepted before the traffickers' profits were hurt. Years after the declaration , cocaine use had multiplied by five. Marijuana hit its peak use at 1979. More contemporary, MDMA and other amphetamines have also alarming rates of increase. Similar to cocaine they have too increased by almost fivefold. The drug network is very similar to a large business. Let us say a narcotic addict (Harris) wants to buy heroin. Harris knows many small time dealers, but there is a particular man that he likes to buy from(Max). Max buys from Erik who gets larger quantities of heroin from which he pushes to small time dealers. Erik then may know two main drug dealers for the town. These two dealers get the largest amount of heroin from regional narcotraffickers. From these regional narcotraffickers we can assume maybe one or two more stages until we reach the drug lord inside the United States. Even though the efforts of the WoD intercepted 15% of narcotics, Harris can walk outside and buy any amount of heroin that he wants ( given he can afford it) regardless of that seized 15%. Feel free to replace Heroin with Marijuana wherever it applies. Now that tree could very well have flaws in regards to the specific stages, but it is the idea that counts, the same conclusion applies give or take several stages I may have missed. Now we must look at this example and apply it to the goals of the WoD. Will you accept that the goals of the WoD are the following? - End the import of illegal narcotics - End the manufacturing of illegal narcotics - End the selling of illegal narcotics -End the use of illegal drugs As seen in my example, no single one of these goals was achieved. Harris bought drugs that he is going to use. These drugs were manufactured and then imported. Now multiply this transaction by several thousand, and you get the number of transactions or "failures" that are completed every day within the United States. Since the WoD is unable to achieve any of its primary goals, the WoD is a failure. Even U.S. drug enforcer Gil Kerlikowske concedes the strategy hasn't worked. "In the grand scheme, it has not been successful, Forty years later, the concern about drugs and drug problems is, if anything, magnified, intensified." The availability of drugs will always be there and it is open to those who want to use them. If they do not want to they do not want to. The WoD will never change the validity of that statement. "The increased number of grade school and high school students that are currently getting stoned, which will only increase dramatically once marijuana is legalized in many states." In August, the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity, which poet-turned-peace activist Javier Sicilia founded after his son was murdered by suspected drug-gang members, put the death toll from Mexico's drug war at roughly 70,000. Marijuana comprises nearly 60% of all cartel profits. By legalizing Marijuana and having Marijuana be government regulated we can effectively weaken or dispose of these destructive cartels. When you have high level drug dealers saying prohibition is good, you want to scratch your head a little and think, well shoot why would they want to continue prohibition? Because prohibition allows drug dealers and cartels to reap massive profits thus perpetuating the drug trade. Answer me this: Does 70,000 lives and 1 trillion dollars in spending seem like a problem that need to be solved? Or are you more keen on making sure that I don't smoke pot in my room? Even though prohibition does not work and I will smoke pot in my room if I want to just like every other person who wants to smoke pot. Sources: http://latino.foxnews.com... http://jim.com...... http://www.gallup.com...... Stephen R. Kandall, M.D.:Women and Addiction in the United States"1850 to 1920 http://www.monitoringthefuture.org...... http://www.drugwarfacts.org...... http://www.justicepolicy.org...... http://www.lao.ca.gov......