Drug Legalization

I'll use this round as an outline for my case. I will use upcoming rounds to expand where necessary and post my sources. The Role of Government The U.S. government has a monopoly on force. Citizens are required to obey the laws with no opportunity to opt out of the majority’s limitations. Thus, the U.S. was founded on the concept of minimizing government intrusion on the private lives of its citizens. Tyranny of the majority and other control restricts liberty and personal values. It is not the government's job to ensure that people are moral and upright, assuming proper standards could even be assessed. It is not the government's responsibility to ensure that people make smart and healthy decisions, even if there were a consensus on what constitutes as such. Instead, laws are created to resolve discrepancies in the way people act and trade - not to command people on how to treat their own bodies. It is not one's inherent obligation to contribute or be a productive and functional member of society. Laws imposing on one's body are intrusive and immoral. The government does not have this right or obligation. Nobody should be punished unless they have infringed upon the rights (agressed against) another person. History and the War on Drugs Humans have sought altered forms of conscious since the dawn of man. The WOD has not been effective at preventing the widespread use of drugs. For instance, the opium trade flourished during the temperance movement. At the same time, doctors prescribed whiskey and other alcohol known as "patent medicines" much like doctors write scripts for pharmaceuticals today. Doctors had made an estimated $40 million dollars in 1928 writing prescriptions for whiskey. Criminalization does not eliminate demand. In addition to the recreational appreciation of drugs, there is also a demand for their medicinal purposes. Prohibition has not only failed but had damaging results, as evidenced by our government’s decision to decriminalize alcohol. The criminalization of street drugs has had similar effects. Gangs and other groups like the mafia have capitalized on the government’s restrictions by facilitating the distribution of banned substances on the black market. These distributors of illegal drugs have made untaxed profits of epic proportions. This lucrative enterprise encourages the recruitment of gang members and thus breeds violent crime. Poverty stricken Mexicans illegally seek asylum in the U.S. due to terrible conditions in Mexico for which our policy is largely responsible. Drug criminalization empowers corrupt cartels by fueling demand for their product. This burdens both the U.S. and Mexican economy, while keeping drug lords rich. It breeds criminals at all levels from high ranking distributors to low-level dealers. Moreover, there is a plethora of irrefutable proof regarding the United States' own government involvement in trafficking illegal drugs. Dan Russell explains, "Illegal drugs, solely because of the artificial value given them by Prohibition, have become the basis of military power anywhere they can be grown and delivered in quantity. To this day American defense contractors are the biggest drug-money launderers in the world." We use the arbitrary criminalization of certain drugs as an excuse for dangerous, unsustainable foreign policy. By the end of the 1980's, it was calculated that the illegal use of drugs in the United States now netted its controllers over $110 billion a year. There's also evidence of the drug trade funding multiple government operatives, including the CIA. The WOD has been a failure. Still the government and other criminal agencies have been using it to manipulate the world and monopolize the market. The U.S. government has used the criminalization of drugs to harm its own citizens, while benefiting friends of politicians in particular industries who profit from anti-drug laws (see: Prison and Military Industrial Complex). Impact of Anti-Drug Efforts In the past 40 years, the U.S. government has spent 3 trillion dollars in the WOD. Still, the number of illicit drug users in America has risen despite the increased incarceration rates and a crackdown on smuggling. This is a waste of taxpayer dollars that could be spent in a more significant way. At the same time, tobacco use has gone down while the product remains legal due to emphasis in education and rehabilitation. Other countries that have legalized drugs, such as Portugal and Switzerland, have noticed similar effective results at discouraging drug use. Scholars note the WOD has resulted in the creation of a permanent underclass of people who have few educational or job opportunities. It’s a cycle: penalties for drug crimes among youth almost always involve permanent or semi-permanent removal from opportunities for education, strip them of voting rights, and later involve creation of criminal records which make employment far more difficult. Additionally, the WOD disproportionately disadvantages minorities and the poor in particular. While blacks constitute only 13 percent of all drug users, over 35 percent of those arrested for drug possession are black, and 3/4 of those people are sent to prison. Rates of drug use or drug selling are no greater for members of minorities than for non-minorities, yet minorities are stopped, searched, arrested, prosecuted, and incarcerated at far greater rates than whites. There is a law enforcement emphasis in low-income communities, which disproportionately targets and penalizes drug users of particular demographics. This is unfair and suggests more evidence of a class war than a drug war. The WOD is largely responsible for the Prison Industrial Complex. Not only is law enforcement distracted from preventing more dangerous crimes, it costs an exorbitant amount of money to perpetuate this failing criminal “justice” policy. We need extra police, equipment, court personnel and jailing resources to house people for the victimless "crime" of voluntary inebriation. This is a massive burden on tax payers in addition to those accused (and convicted) of said crime. It penalizes them even if they do not harm others. Especially frustrating, the black market created by criminalization is responsible for a lot of gangs and violent crime - again increasing the demand for law enforcement resources. An overly militarized, dehumanized and tense police-like State is being created as a result of the WOD. The U.S. has the biggest, most expansive prison system in the world. Children of inmates also suffer. They are 5-7 times more likely to commit crimes than their peers, and are at a much greater risk of educational failure, joblessness, addiction and delinquency. Furthermore, the criminalization of drugs has significantly inhibited research of particular substances and how they could be used medicinally and therapeutically. Drugs and ViolenceOf all psychoactive substances, alcohol is the only one whose consumption has been shown to commonly increase aggression. Drug-related violence is not an issue prevalent because of drug use itself, but due to disputes among rival distributors. Arguments and robberies involving buyers and sellers, property crimes committed to raise drug money, and social and economic interactions between the illegal markets and the surrounding communities are the real threat to society. All major authorities agree that the vast majority of drug-related violent crime is caused by the prohibition against drugs, rather than the drugs themselves. This means that Con's position actually encourages violence and threatens safety. Health Risks and Public SafetyTobacco kills about 350k people a year, not including the 50k who die from second-hand smoke. Alcohol kills about 80k. All illegal drugs combined kill about 4,500 people per year - or about 1% of the number killed by alcohol and tobacco, both of which are legal. Moreover, products like alcohol and tobacco are considered more dangerous and addictive than illegal substances such as LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, MDMA, marijuana, etc. In a society that emphasizes the value of life, it is completely non-sensical to wage an unwinnable WOD when the repercussions of said drugs are less harmful than the drugs that are already legal. In the upcoming rounds, I will address how the dangers and harms of many illegal drugs are greatly exaggerated.It's true that drugs altar consciousness and create inhibitions for users that can create problems for those around them. That is why we have laws that prohibit drinking and driving. There's no reason to assume we couldn't implement similar laws against driving while intoxicated or being intoxicated in public just as we have for alcohol. In a free society, we should punish people only if they aggress against others or immediately threaten other people's safety. Arresting or penalizing someone on the basis that they could hurt you is nonsensical and aggressive in and of itself.