Total legalization of all drugs

Hello and thank you for this debate. Pro believes that all drugs should be completely legal, i will be arguing that a more moderate stance of partial legality is more beneficial. 1. alcohol Alcohol is a popular drug because it makes us feel nice and increases sociability. Along with this however, are decreased motor skills and impaired judgement. This combination leads to some unpleasant consequences for individuals/societies. My opponent already acknowledges that alcohol is bad for ones health and can lead to increased violent behavior causing domestic abuse. On top of this we can see statistics that show alcohol is dangerous for both the user and those around the user. For example, 30% of fatal car crashes involved at least one person with more than the legal limit of alcohol in their blood[1]. Women who drink while pregnant increase their childs risk of developing a FASD, which will adversely affect them for the rest of their lives[2]. Increase risk of miscarriage and infant death are also increased[2]. Alcohol consumption should not be legal for pregnant women, just as it should not be legal for drivers. Alcohol contributes to 79,000 deaths anually and " is the 3rd leading lifestyle-related cause of death for people in the United States each year"[3]. 2. Tobacco The negative health aspects of tobacco are pretty well known, although i will concede my opponents point that it is more to do with the additives than the nicotine. nicotine is not even on the suspected carcinogens list and most of its negative aspects only occur in higher doses. However in its most commonly consumed forms it is not only unhealthy for the individual smoking it, but the smoke escapes into the environment which causes health problems to nonsmokers near the smoker. The CDC estimates that second hand smoke causes 46,000 deaths each year[4]. Even if you believe in the individuals right to harm themself you have to agree that this habit is harmful to others as well, and should therefore be made illegal. An alternative i offer is that while smoking tobacco(especially the stuff with additives) should be illegal, nicotine cartridges and electronic cigarettes should remain legal. this minimizes harm to the user as well as those around the user. Remember that pro wants full legalization for all drugs. I'm advocating only partial legalization for tobacco. 3. other drugs many other drugs, including but not limited to heroin, cocaine, pcp, prescriptions,and amphetamines, are highly addictive and harmful to both users and bystanders. heroin and cocaine give short highs that usually need to be satisfied again after the they wear off. they cause the user to do things to get high again that would not normally be done, such as violent crime. They do not enrich that persons life but they inevitably destroy it, and in the process hurt many innocent people such as the users friends and family. Drugs like these should not become cheaper and more widely available or more socially accepted. production and sales should remain illegal and non violent use of these drugs should lead to manadatory treatment. If it were as simple as one individual weighing the pros and cons and then deciding to consume something that was only harming theirself, then yes maybe we could legalize drugs. instead people decisions affect many people besides themselves and do not always make rational choices. It is moral irresponsibilty to ignore this and just say legalize everything and things will magically work out for the best. 4. antibiotics antibiotics are drugs used to treat bacterial infections. once again, i will support only partial legalization instead of the total legalization that pro wants. Because bacteria are highly adaptable, they evolve quickly and unnecessary use of them can allow for resistance to be developed[5]. thus losing an important drug that can save many lives from serious infections. This drug should be illegal except in cases prescribed by a medical doctor to preserve the usefullness as long as possible. rebuttals ill address each paragraph on its own, since pro didn't use bullets or numbers to identify his exact argument. p1-war on drugs is failing. prohibition creates black markets. drugs were made more harmful by prohibition. If the war on drugs is failing, then we should be reforming our methods to be more effective and cheaper. Should we end the war or murder or the war on rape just because the cost money and rapes still happen? No. Similarily there are black markets for killers and sexual slavery, should we legalize killing so that we can get the business out of blackmarketeers and into legitimate business? no. as for the last bit, alcohol might be safer than during prohibition but look to my above argument for how it is still harmful to individuals and society. It being more dangerous also sounds like an effective deterrent. p2- it costs money to keep it illegal, people sometimes get searched for drugs. it costs money to send killers and rapists to jail, it costs money to enforce other laws, why in this case all of sudden we shouldn't spend any money to protect society? If people are getting searched it's possible they were acting suspiciously or driving in a way that suggested there motor skills may be impaired. I think not searching would unjustified. If we found someones fingerprints on a murder weapon should their house not be searched? p3- petty drug users get arrested, you're responsible for your actions i don't think that petty drug use should be an arrestable offense, however manadatory treatment should be the prescribed punishment for those abusing illegal substances. as for responsibility, what about the kid in the backroom who's mommy and daddy just od'ed on cocaine? its not as simple as i harmed myself and no one else suffers. their actions affect others. p4- "Tobacco itself isn't that bad, but these companies are poisoning us and the government is fine with it." pro contradicts himself here with his p1, first he argues that legalization would make drugs safer and now argues that the gov't is fine with how the tobacco companies have made tobacco worse for us. the rest of this paragraph is a strawman of arguments not made by con. p5- "Back to alcoholism. This is a extremely big problem in the United States. " ummm i agree, actually thanks for this whole paragraph it supports con that alcohol is detrimental and should be at least partially illegalized. p6- making something illegal doesn't stop it from happening. same rebuttal as p1. basically this line of logic supports legalization of murder and rape. p7- kind of a summary of previous points. In summary i believe that partial legality of certain drugs is more beneficial than total legality of all drugs. I look forward to your rebuttal. [1] http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov... [2] http://www.cdc.gov... [3] http://www.cdc.gov... [4] http://www.cdc.gov... [5] http://www.acponline.org...