Marijuana should not be legalized in the United States

I’m going to go ahead and respond to this now before I accidently forfeit the final round. “because my opponent didn't argue against marijuana being legalized, he has conceited all of his arguments and has agreed that marijuana shouldn't be legalized.” Lulz no. If I had forfeited the final round then yes, I would have conceded all of your points, but I don’t plan on going that far so this debate will go one as usual. I won’t be presenting any new arguments; I will only spend this round rebutting my opponent’s arguments. Personal Choice Argument Unfazed “the government has all the right to be in our bussiness especially if it affects the population as a whole.” I agree with this statement, however, inherently marijuana simply doesn’t affect anyone but the user meaning the government has no business in illegalizing marijuana. “My opponent also stated that marijuana is like alcohol in that if you use it correctly everything will go right. Let's be serious and mature about this, when in the world has anything gone right when alcohol has been used? marijuana is like alcohol in that everyone will abuse it, it will become a habit like that of when someone begins to drink.” I could give you a plethora of examples where people drink alcohol and everything goes alright, that’s because unlike how you make it seem, there are responsible, mature adults out there. Also, correlation is not causation. You talk about how as soon as marijuana is legalized everyone will get their hands on it and abuse it, but you show absolutely no logically reasoning for this. In fact, the whole point is downright illogical. It also doesn’t matter if someone will abuse it, if inherently that something is only dangerous when abused. We don’t ban cards because there are bad or irresponsible drivers out there, and we don’t ban alcohol because there are a few irresponsible people that abuse it. In the same, we shouldn’t ban marijuana because of its potential to be abused, because like alcohol and cars, it is inherently safe when correctly used. My opponent drops my entire argument on marijuana prohibition. “My opponent stated that people will be degraded from their free will. This is just bananas. People will not be degraded.” If an individual is unjustly punished for something they should have the freedom to do, their free will and human dignity are degraded. I concede on my opponent’s point on how the government will not benefit from marijuana legalization, not that the entire point really matters anyways. I think people would prefer the government not tax it. My main point has to do with the individual’s right to make a decision that inherently only affects themselves, even if that decision is dangerous. By conceding that the government doesn’t benefit doesn’t help my opponent’s arguments, but only doesn’t help my own arguments. Kills Bio-diversity “Because marijuana is a plant, it can grown anywhere with the right soil and the perfect amount of exposure. once marijuana is legalized growers are going to begin to expand and can start taking the homes of animals and the homes of other plants and trees, which kills trees and will begin to kill the food sources of the animals and this is bad.” First off, correlation is not causation. I mean, this is pretty far-fetched, and you didn’t even give sources or anything to back it up. Even so, the rights of the individual are more important than some trees and animals. Anyways nature is nature; stuff like this has been going on for years. Nature will continue to evolve with it like it always has. Also, isn’t there some law that for every tree you cut down you have to plant a seed to grow another one? And who says that these farmers are going to necessarily expand into these areas? They already have acres of land. They can also buy off other land for farm use. There are too many variables to your argument for it to be legitimate. Economy For goodness sake man! Are you serious?! “If marijuana is legalized people will begin to abuse it and never want to go to work because they would rather be high off of their minds” Seems legit. Seriously now, there is no logic behind this. No one is going to quit their job because of marijuana. If anything, they would want to keep their job so they can continue to buy it. (I'm fiating the next part) people will spend all of their money on buying marijuana and will go poor. No. This assumes that every person who smokes marijuana is some irresponsible and immature person who can’t control themselves. This is simply not true. This also assumes that marijuana is some highly addictive drug, which it is not. The crime rate will increase because people will want more marjuana hence, would need money to get it, and so we will eventually die off of diseases and other inhumane illnesses.” Correlation is not causation. Like, I can’t even take this argument seriously. There is absolutely no way to respond to it. Every one of your premises are illogical and you simply assume this and this will happen with absolutely no proper reasoning behind it! None of these arguments my opponent just presented should be taken into account at all whatsoever, because my opponent did not back up his arguments at all with facts, sources, or anything that weren’t his own flawed and illogical thoughts. Conclusion My opponent fails to rebut my argument on personal choice, which was the main argument on this entire debate. In fact, this argument was so important that in comparison all other arguments really meant nothing. If the government has no proper reason to make marijuana illegal, then it shouldn’t be illegal. I showed through my argument on personal choice that the government has no proper reason to make marijuana illegal. My opponent drops my entire argument on what a failure marijuana prohibition is, and that was probably the second most important argument in the debate. My opponent had nothing backing up his argument on bio-diversity, and my opponent gave absolutely no logical reasons to believe his arguments on how marijuana legalization will affect the economy. Thank you.