All recreational drugs should be decriminalised.

Nice rebuttal Pro! In addressing your points, I will attempt to be concise. "People should be properly informed about the dangers of recreational drugs." In the age of information, which I believe we are in, ignorance is a choice. The knowledge of the recreational drugs (from now on rec drugs) are there, plain for everyone to see. Insofar as illegal rec drugs: cannabis, LSD, et. al. being as safe as alcohol & tobacco, that is false. Please see my link with regards to cannabis containing 4xs the amount of tar that nicotine has. {http://www.debate.org...} Moderation is the key. Addictive substances are almost a whole different argument because what is addictive varies as people are varied. People are addicted too much food, biting their nails (there are numerous pleasure zones located in the jaw line), shopping, gambling, feelings of being in love; there are numerous vices under the sun. Psychosomatic addition is less harmful than biological addition. As master of self is a lifetime goal - mind skills. Illegal rec drugs create more of a biological addition; if you fry your brain cells there is no chance at accomplishing self-mastery. Yes, that point can be argued ad infinitum since frequency of usage is a factor in addiction. Legal rec drugs are what society can stand. Illegal rec drugs have repercussions that society does not want to encourage by legalizing them (dealing with human vegetables that "chose that risk"). I agree that the current government stance, War on Drugs, does not work & "locking up these people" is not a viable solution. So you want to legalize everything, in my view: going backwards & not lifting up higher morals; and I want to go forward: harsher punishments and or a redistricting of geographic locations where rec drugs are lawful. The US is a nation of laws. Globally people come to the US to live in a nation that has structure. Let me clarify my Black Market viewpoint since I was not clear. Black Markets will exist. Those that abide the laws, people with moral spines do not frequent black markets since it usually harbors criminals and criminal elements. Just because people choose to do illegal rec drugs, and it's "their choice" it becomes the burden upon those who chose not to do rec drugs and that is why recreational drugs need to stay criminalized. If a person who chose to fry their brains now becomes a burden instead of pillar for society, it becomes society's best interest to deter and create laws to do everything they can to deter such behavior. You might have heard of the Marshmallow Test. It was an exercise in delaying gratification. "Children who are able to pass the marshmallow test enjoy greater success as adults."[1] If we legalize something that is inherently bad, it places the person in the same situation as the child with the marshmallow right there. In general, people are impulsive. Remove the obstacle & thereby, deter the vice. People do not normally have much self-control or moderation. If you were able to reign over a society, would you not want fewer vices, granted alcohol & tobacco are a vice, available, not more? Why add to people's troubles? Therefore we should keep all recreational drugs illegal. I thank my esteemed colleague for the chance to debate such a poignant conundrum. If my opponent brought up the point that many artistic geniuses, Coleridge's poems and Lewis Carroll's stories for instance, works are heightened by illegal rec drugs, that would have been a point I could not have argued. I acknowledge there are very small instances where rec drugs are possibly useful but as a whole, for all society, no. 1. http://www.newyorker.com...