All drugs should be legalized and regulated

It was clear Great Britain could not win the second world war when for a short time it was alone in fighting the mighty strength that was Nazi Germany. According to your logic Britain should have accepted defeat as no way it could win the war existed. Hitler's astonishing new blitzkrieg strategy had shocked Britain's European allies into quick humiliating defeats. Nazi Germany had considerable military advantages. The only thing Britain had going for it was a strong navy and a sea boundary between itself and Nazi controlled France. Germany launched a heavy aeriel bombardment of bombs on Britain to weaken its resolve and hope to pressurize it into surrendering or damage its air force to the extent a potential German invasion force could cross the channel without being fired at from the air. Despite its perilous position Britain and its leader Winston Churchill fought on, despite seemingly hopeless circumstances. As time passed Hitler became impatient with the war with Britain and naively chose to invade the USSR. This while initially successful was ultimately a foolish decision as it led to a war on 2 fronts, stretching supplies, troops, weaponry and equipment over too large an area. This gave Britain a lifeline to survive and as the war progressed the entry of the USA decisively turned things in favour of the free world. If Britain had surrendered western Europe would have either stayed in Nazi control or come under communist control. When something is wrong you have to keep fighting. You cannot simply give up and allow evil to prevail, just because you can't win. The reasons why the countries you mention that execute numerous people for drug offences still have major drug problems are numerous. The main issue is clearly corruption. The biggest drug lords can buy their way out of trouble, often using vulnerable people as mules to traffic drugs. Often the people executed or imprisoned for drug offences are not the people really responsible for the offence. Action needs to be taken against drug lords but unfortunately corruption is rife in many areas and the power these gangs hold scares law enforcement from getting to the root of the problem. The general lack of effective government control, especially in the south american countries sees gangs and militias controlling areas where production of drugs and growing drugs is the norm. These countries offer favourable climatic conditions for growing drugs and for local farmers growing drugs offers by far the best source of income. Drugs are a huge problem in central and south America. Corruption, poor law enforcement and weak government control are to blame. My opponent makes a series of claims that Portugal is a good example for how decriminalization of drugs can have a positive effect on reducing drug use. However a key flaw in this argument exists. Portugal decriminalize drug possession. It did not decriminalize drug dealing nor did it as you suggest legalize and regulate the production and distribution of potentially harmful substances. This is a key difference to what Portugal has done. What you are suggesting is that products such as Heroin, Crystal Meth and Cocaine can be picked up off supermarket shelves and placed in trolleys or picked up from the selection in front of the till in a newsagents. This is not happening in Portugal. Children and vulnerable young adults are not seeing these substances in every shop and assuming they are perfectly normal substances to take in the same way tobacco and alcohol are viewed. Education about the dangers of tobacco and alcohol are common place yet considerable numbers of young people choose to use these substances. This is because they are legal, can be brought easily in conventional stores and are viewed as normal by society. My opponents suggestion to legalize and regulate drug production and distribution would normalize many dangerous substances. This would cause increases in drug use, drug addictions, drug overdoses, crimes committed by people under the influence of drugs, drug related health problems and drug related deaths. This would create a huge healthcare burden from treating harmful physical health problems caused by dangerous substances and for treating drug addictions and mental health problems caused by drugs.