Should marijuana be legal

I am strongly against legalizing marijuana. I will first counter my opponent's arguments, then provide some of my own. 1. The government certainly does have the right to tell people that they cannot smoke marijuana. The Pro's only argument here is that it is "on shaky ground", but that is not a real argument. The government does have the right to do this because there are far more health risks than benefits, which I will explain latter on in my argument. 2. The Pro's argument that marijuana should be legalized because its enforcement is racist is flawed. That is like saying that we should legalize murder just because more black people are convicted than whites. This is clearly a faulty argument and should be ignored. 3. The Pro has no source to back up her statistic about the cost of enforcement, so it to should be ignored. Even if you take her word for it, cost is not a good reason to legalize marijuana. All law enforcement costs quite a bit, so by Pro's logic, we should let all the criminals out of prison because it costs too much to keep them there. Also, the police force in general costs "about $635 billion" [1], so $7.7 billion isn't really all that much. 4. The Pro's argument that marijuana crimes ruin lives is not valid. Of course getting arrested for committing a crime will be bad for you; that's one of the main reasons behind the justice system. We should not legalize something just because the punishment hurts them. By that logic, we should make everything legal and have no laws. 5. Pro says that marijuana creates a criminal underground, but gives no indication that legalizing marijuana would help. Marijuana is just one of many of gang related "illegal money-making activities, which include robbery, drug and gun trafficking, fraud, extortion, and prostitution rings. " [2] You can see here that there are many more crimes than illegal marijuana sales going on here, so legalizing one of them would not make the gangs go away. 6. Once again, Pro's arguments are unsupported by evidence and logically faulty. Just because we cannot catch every criminal does not mean that we should just let them commit their crimes. By Pro's logic, if we cannot catch every murderer, we should probably make murder legal. 7. Pro says that we should legalize marijuana because it would bring in tax revenue, but that would go against the moral code of America. Legalizing marijuana for the purpose of tax revenue would be akin to the government taking bribes. We would be allowing a criminal act to take place in return for money. Bribery is against American honor and should not be a reason to legalize marijuana. 8. Pro's point about how alcohol and tobacco are already legal does not advance her case at all. I personally believe that alcohol and tobacco hurt our society, so her point could be as much a reason to outlaw alcohol and tobacco. Just because alcohol and tobacco are legal doesn't mean that they should be, therefore this point falls. Now, onto my argument. The main reason that marijuana should not be legalized is the harmful effects it has on the smoker's health. Smoking marijuana, especially at a young age, can have seriously detrimental effects on the smoker's mental capacity. A Science Daily report said that "people who start using marijuana at a young age and those who use the greatest amount of marijuana may be the most cognitively impaired". [3] Smoking marijuana also increases the risk of cancer. Men's Health says that "men who reported smoking pot in the past were twice as likely to have certain types of testicular cancer". [4] Finally, government studies say that "marijuana users generally report lower life satisfaction, poorer mental and physical health, relationship problems, and less academic and career success compared to their peers who came from similar backgrounds". [5] This should be enough reason to keep marijuana illegal. 1. . http://www.salon.com... 2. . http://www.fbi.gov... 3. . http://www.sciencedaily.com...... 4. . http://news.menshealth.com...... 5. . http://www.drugabuse.gov......