Legality of Marijuana in the US

Adam, no need to apologize, you are entitled to the full allotted time. Adam, it was around this time in our first debate that I realized how strongly you feel about your positions, I respect that. I think you and I have demonstrated how two people can disagree, but do so in a respectful way. We have both shown manners that would make any Mother proud, and have each devoted great time and effort into our arguments. I sincerely hope, many people will read , and vote on this debate. Win, lose, or tie we both deserve that. Our debate has taken us from the inner cities, to the affluent suburbs of America, To China, to the Netherlands, and finally to the United Arab Emirates. We have even debated the role of personal experience, as part of a debating (more on this later). Through it all, my argument in this debate began and remains " As a Nation, rather then spending resources on marijuana enforcement, treating addiction is where we must devote our money, time, and energy." Adam, you have contended that we must continue the war on trying to control the supply of marijuana. The path you recommend is what we have tried for the past 40 years, it has not worked, it is time to change the battlefield of this war, from marijuana supply, to combating opiates, and other lethal drugs. I have listed some additional sources below, that my bolster my arguments from round four, and below that, I have responded to your new argument that we should be more like the UAE."War on drugs a trillion-dollar failure By Richard Branson, Special to CNN" "Have U.S. drug laws reduced drug use? No. The U.S. is the No. 1 nation in the world in illegal drug use. As with Prohibition, banning alcohol didn't stop people drinking -- it just stopped people obeying the law. News: Marijuana advocates hope to rise from 'prohibition' About 40,000 people were in U.S. jails and prisons for drug crimes in 1980, compared with more than 500,000 today. Excessively long prison sentences and locking up people for small drug offenses contribute greatly to this ballooning of the prison population. It also represents racial discrimination and targeting disguised as drug policy. People of color are no more likely to use or sell illegal drugs than white people -- yet from 1980 to 2007, blacks were arrested for drug law violations at rates 2.8 to 5.5 times higher than white arrest rates. Prohibition failed when the American people spoke up and demanded its repeal. Today, the American people are showing their dissatisfaction with the war on drugs by voting for change, often in the face of federal law. Colorado and Washington recently became the first U.S. states to legalize recreational use of marijuana. Eighteen states and the District of Columbia allow the medical use of marijuana, and 74% of Americans support alternatives to locking people up for marijuana possession. How would our society, our communities and daily lives improve if we took the money we use running a police and prison state and put it into education and health? Treating drugs as a health issue could save billions, improve public health and help us better control violence and crime in our communities. Hundreds of thousands of people have died from overdoses and drug-related diseases, including HIV and hepatitis C, because they didn't have access to cost-effective, life-saving solutions. A Pew study says it costs the U.S. an average of $30,000 a year to incarcerate an inmate, but the nation spends only an average $11,665 per public school student. The future of our nations and our children should be our priority. We should be helping people addicted to drugs break their habits rather than putting users in prison. When it comes to drugs, we should focus on the goals we agree on: protecting our kids, protecting public safety and preventing and treating drug abuse and addiction. To help unlock barriers to drug reform, last June, I joined the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which is bringing global leadership to drug reform to make fact-based research public and draw attention to successful alternative approaches. Opinion: Mr. President, fix our broken drug policy It is time we broke the taboo and opened up the debate about the war on drugs. We need alternatives that focus on education, If you ignore a serious problem, refuse to debate it and hope it will go away all by itself, you are very naive. The war on drugs has failed. It's time to confront the issue head on." http://www.cnn.com..."Economic Scene Numbers Tell of Failure in Drug War By EDUARDO PORTER Published: July 3, 2012 "http://www.nytimes.com... Adam, you suggest we should be more like the AU on marijuana enforcement, below is an example of their laws. Adam is this really what you want in America?"AU: Death Sentence Handed Down To Briton Convicted On Drug Charges"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- A Briton has been sentenced to death in the United Arab Emirates, the British Embassy confirmed Tuesday, after he and another man were convicted on drug-related charges.The unnamed British man and a Syrian citizen were found guilty of trying to sell 20 grams (about 3/4 of an ounce) of marijuana to an undercover officer, local newspapers reported."http://www.huffingtonpost.com...I am confident I have demonstrated that our resources should be focused on treating drug addiction, and not in enforcing laws against marijuana use. I have used many sources in this debate, and have quoted many individuals who have experienced drug addiction. I have shown that the current laws against marijuana are a misuse of dollars and resources, desperately needed elsewhere. I ask for your con vote for change.Finally, Adam,we debated debating itself. We both agree that debates do need to have facts and sources, and many good debates contain only facts and sources. However, debating is not just about facts and sources, it is also about personal experience, passion, and persuasion. Debates with only facts and sources can be good, but I believe the debates that combine facts and sources, with passion, poetry and persuasion, can be great. This is why I have a devotion to debating, and why many on DDO, are devoted to art of debating. Having defended the place of personal experience in debating, I will conclude this debate with how I began it, with a deeply personal appeal.A few years back, I went to a support group, for friends of drug addicts. I sat in a room, while my friend Josh was in the adjacent room, participating in a group session with others struggling with addiction. In my room I heard story after story, all too familiar to me, of heroin addicts pawning every last possession to buy heroin, of not caring how they looked, if they ate, or who they hurt. I heard stories of young men wearing long sleeve shirts in the summer to hide needle marks, of endless lies, stories of kids whose lives were wasted and lost. At the end of the session , a woman, about forty-five, stood to speak. She cried as she detailed her teenage daughters problem with marijuana. She feared her grade point average would drop. I do not mean to minimize the Mom"s concern, but as I sat there I thought to myself "if I only had this to worry about".Marijuana is an issue to be dealt with by families, schools, and churches. Heroin needs all these plus a national war to fight the demand, and to treat the addiction.The Mom in the room, feared her daughter would not get into College, that"s a shame.I fear Josh, will not live to see his daughters sixth birthday, that"s a tragedy.