All drugs should be legalized.

In this round, I will simply go more in depth on my rebuttals, which I will admit were very weak in the previous round considering I had focused more on my opening arguments. "Apparently, my opponent disregarded my entire morality section, and continued with his view of morality." As I stated in the beginning of my argument, I was going to first address my opening arguments, and then my rebuttals to what my opponent had to say. This includes having my say on morality before I have even addressed what con had to say. "Recall, on balance legalizing drugs will have a huge concern on public safety, specifically that drugs are related to crime." Prohibition has shown to have worse effects on crime rates in numerous ways. According to the NCJRS, alcohol, while already having ties with homicide rates, prohibition only made an increase in homicide rates. According to another study conducted by CASAColumbia, more violent crime has been linked with alcohol. 21% of violent inmates were under the influence of alcohol, while only 3% had any ties to cocaine or crack, and while less than 1% had been under the influence of heroin. A study conducted by the justice policy institute found that when drug usage is met with drug treatment rather than criminal punishment, crime rates lowered 31.5% while costs to treatment increased 14% and admissions to treatment increased 37%. Many of the crimes due to drugs are related to the users in need of money to buy these drugs (more on that later). "Also, drugs are highly addictive. Once you take them, you simply cannot let go, and it is nearly impossible to do so. It is almost similar to suicide without any help." This is a great argument for then, also prohibiting alcohol and tobacco. Considering both substances are just as addictive, and even more addictive than some drugs. According to the data, two of the most addictive are meth and heroin, next in line would be alcohol, tobacco, crack, and cocaine, and trailing in the least addictive is marijuana, caffeine, and hallucinogens such as LSD. "-One of the purposes to legalize drugs is to use drug trafficking money for good use -The money will not even cover the damages to legalizing drugs! -In the end, you had an intention to put the money to good use, yet the money will not even cover the damage" I would like to request that my opponent shows some form of evidence, or calculation as to what these damaging costs would be to society. The estimated amount of money made from drug cartels alone is estimated up to more than $300,000,000,000. Also take into account the extra $40,000,000,000 spent on the drug war itself, and the costs of prisons crowding. That's also without mentioning the millions of people you'd be putting back into the workforce. Another study by the justice policy institute concludes that drug prevention treatment is much more cost effective than drug imprisonment. "By my opponent"s logic, all the crime and homicide should be decriminalized due to race disparity!" The point is that while usage rates are very similar among the races, the disparity in cases of incarceration rates, stop and frisk policies, police discrimination, ect. Is much greater. "However, crimes such as theft or murder that drugs have played a role in." These crimes are not because of the effects of drugs, they are due to the effects of prohibition. There have been correlations with prohibition and violent crime, and countries that enforce harsher drug laws and violent crime. "Huge loss of jobs in America, however this time it is even more because you have made drugs legal." Workers who are unproductive are at an economic disadvantage, and can be incentivized to get back into the job market. My opponent could make the case that since we are living in a welfare state, that is not the case and we would see more citizens on government assistance. That is where I will make the case that I do not favor drug legalization while we still have a welfare state. It is either that you have millions of prospective citizens who may or may not be either productive, unproductive, employed, or unemployed. Or that you end up with millions of citizens in prison who are costing us money and possible worker productivity. I would also, again, like to point out what a success it's been in places such as Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands for sensible drug policies. Usage rates have gone down, and addictions aren't as prevalent. Sources: http://www.drugwarfacts.org... http://www.unodc.org... http://www.gfintegrity.org... http://www.icsdp.org... https://www.ncjrs.gov... http://www.justicepolicy.org... http://www.casacolumbia.org... https://www.ncjrs.gov... http://www.drugwarfacts.org... http://www.erowid.org... http://www.drugsense.org... http://www.drugwarfacts.org... http://www.pbs.org... http://www.independent.org... http://www.nyclu.org... http://www.emcdda.europa.eu... http://www.trimbos.org... http://www.emcdda.europa.eu...