The current federal drug war should be ended

~refutations~Numero uno:You concede the drug war isn't working, and now claim that we should change strategies. That is against the resolution:"The current federal drug war should be ended"As it does not apply to the resolution it should not be counted. Dos y tres:My opponent concedes the cost, then diverges into revenues through fines. Already (as of march 7th) The drug war in 2012 already cost our state and local goverment 7 billion dollars. [1] Also, you must find how fines increase revenue past 7 billion, and even then you must find how fines pay for the 15 billion used in 2010. Also this DEA subset "DEA resource for parents" Shows criminal charges are pressed much of the time. [2] The Government can jail you if your in control of more illicit drugs (meth heroin etc). [3]"The United States leads the world in the number of people incarcerated in federal and state correctional facilities. There are currently more than 2 million people in American prisons or jails. Approximately one-quarter of those people held in U.S. prisons or jails have been convicted of a drug offense. The United States incarcerates more people for drug offenses than any other country. With an estimated 6.8 million Americans struggling with drug abuse or dependence, the growth of the prison population continues to be driven largely by incarceration for drug offenses." [4]Also the fines must pay for the guys in jail... So tell me: Do these fines create revenues of 7-15 billion? No probably not. ~His case~His case revolves around the "care for the citizens drugs hurt people". Illicit drug usage only kills 19,000 people. [5] Alcohol is linked to 75,000 deaths. [6] SO you have the mindset of... drugs are bad allowing them would increase users therefore more people die, correct? First I have provided evidence that legalizing drugs would decrease users... But how about this:"fear [of legalisation] is based in large part on the presumption that more people would take drugs under a legal regime. That presumption may be wrong. There is no correlation between the harshness of drug laws and the incidence of drug-taking: citizens living under tough regimes (notably America but also Britain) take more drugs, not fewer. Embarrassed drug warriors blame this on alleged cultural differences, but even in fairly similar countries tough rules make little difference to the number of addicts: harsh Sweden and more liberal Norway have precisely the same addiction rates." [7]So banning doesn't actually help, therefore no lives are saved with a ban. Also as I stated when Portugal decriminalized drugs usage in these drugs decreased and the goverment says its a success. [8] [9] 5 years after the decriminalization overdoses fell and HIV doses from heroin needles declined as well. [10]The point is, legalization decreases users and banning them doesn't have a link to decreased drug usage, therefore in your logic illeglaization has no benefit, and under my stats total decriminalization lowers users, therefore using the same logic I have proven legalization is better. Also, the police in raids kill many innocent people. [11] 47,000 people total have died because of the drug war, [12] and therefore legalization would still save lives. ~Argument I promised~The drug war... is... UNCONSTITUTIONAL The drug war violates the limited governments role given by the constitution. [13] There is no amendment written to ban drugs in the first place too. [12] Why does it violate the 10th amendment? Remember how it gives all in-enumerated power to the people or states? As there is no enumerated power, the drug laws should be a state issue. If we added an amendment, it would be ok, but the illicit drug war violates the 10th amendment, and as it violates the 10th amendment this war should not exist. VOTE PRO.[1] http://www.drugsense.org... [2] http://www.getsmartaboutdrugs.com...[3] http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov...[4] http://www.justicepolicy.org...[5] http://drug-rehabs.org...[6] http://www.msnbc.msn.com...[7] http://www.economist.com...[8] http://www.time.com...[9] http://www.forbes.com...[10] http://www.scientificamerican.com...[11] http://www.cato.org...[12] http://en.wikipedia.org...[13] http://www.druglibrary.org...