We Should Legalize All Drugs

I'd like to start off by saying I don't support prohibition of any kind, however I will attempt to debate from a pro-prohibition mindset. **NOTHING I SAY IN THIS REPRESENTS MY ACTUAL VIEWS** Marijuana is currently legal in 7 states within the United States of America, and the US's citizens have been pushing for the legalization of marijuana. Many people believe marijuana to be a wonder-drug, with few negative effects, however this is not true. Marijuana can cause hallucinations, delusions, and psychosis when taken in high doses. As well as impaired memory even in low doses. Marijuana also affects brain development. When people begin using marijuana as teenagers, the drug may impair thinking, memory, and learning functions and affect how the brain builds connections between the areas necessary for these functions. Researchers are still studying how long marijuana's effects last and whether some changes may be permanent. For example, a study from New Zealand conducted in part by researchers at Duke University showed that people who started smoking marijuana heavily in their teens and had an ongoing marijuana use disorder lost an average of 8 IQ points between ages 13 and 38. Those who are depended on heroin, and other opiates are disproportionately involved in criminal activity. Here is an excerpt from an article from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... titled "Insights into the link between drug use and criminality: Lifetime offending of criminally-active opiate users" "We test whether the offending trajectory of those who test positive for opiates is greater than test-negative controls and whether the relationship is constant both prior to, and post, opiate initiation. We consider whether these relationships differ according to gender and offence type. The study provides an analysis of historical offending records in adults linked to test results for opiate and cocaine metabolites. Those testing positive for opiates were linked to treatment records to retrieve data on age of opiate initiation. Rate ratios (RR) were calculated to compare opiate positive testers to opiate and cocaine negative controls, separately by gender and adjusting for age and birth cohort. Age of opiate initiation was included in a second model as a time-dependent variable. Within-subject clustering was accounted for using generalized estimating equations. Opiate-positive cases had higher rates of offending than test-negative controls, both prior to, and post, opiate initiation. Initiation of opiate use increased the RR by 16% for males but doubled it for females. The RR increase in non-serious acquisitive crime was greater than that seen in serious crime. For males only, opiate initiation narrowed the difference in violent offending rate between cases and controls. A larger offending increase was associated with opiate initiation in female, compared to male, users. For most crime categories, the difference between groups is exacerbated by opiate initiation. The findings indicate that opiate prevention initiatives might be effective in reducing offending, particularly among females." It is clear that these substances cause crime, and can be quite dangerous. (NOTE: I threw this crap together quite sloppy, so please excuse improper grammar, and overall s**ty-ness of this argument) Sources used: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... http://www.drugfreeworld.org...