marijuana legalization

Marijuana should be legal because it is safer than alcohol. Yep. That's right. That's just an excellent beginning to an enormous debate that is full of solid reasoning and logic, and has proven challenging for the best in the business. Believe me-- I know, I've listened to a few debates from national figures on the topic of legalization of cannabis including (but not limited to) Patrick Kennedy, Mason Tvert, Ethan Nadelmann, Rob Kampia, Larry Campbell. We could waste time and continue to dwell on whether or not I correctly established a valid premise for this debate, or we could look at the actual issue of cannabis legalization or prohibition as a subject of our argument. I'd much rather get your thoughts on why you think cannabis should not be legal. I'm much more interested in learning if you have anything that might rattle my brains a little and provoke thoughts I might not of ever thought of before. Challenge me! This is an important topic. I think cannabis could potentially improve our economy, and potentially solve social, energy and environmental issues, which is a whole lot more important than wasting time dwelling on what I said or did not say in my opening argument. What do you think? Life is short. If you're not interested, I understand. I just joined debate dot org. I'm sure someone else will want to debate these issues if you're not up to it. Fact of the matter is, in my rebuttal to your response, I effectively named several solid reasons that marijuana should be legalized. None or little of which you have responded to directly. You have avoided the discussion/issue of cannabis legalization as a whole. Let me reiterate my points in a list fashion that will be easier for you to follow and respond to. And if you wish to challenge any of these statements, let me know and I'll provide data and sources--no problem. But, I don't think any of this is far fetched by any means and in the interest of time and good debate, I'm going to just put it out there: 1) Prohibition of cannabis has been a 1.5 trillion dollar waste of taxpayer money since it began in the 30's. 2) Prohibition of cannabis has proven ineffective in preventing people from getting and consuming it at their whim. 3) Prohibition of cannabis has created a very lucrative black market. 4) Prohibition of cannabis has created and funded very powerful organized crime gangs. cartels and basically what are considered to be terrorists. 5) Prohibition of cannabis has incarcerated millions of non-violent drug offenders, and as a result our nation has locked away more people per capita than any other nation on earth. 6) Ending prohibition will enable government to regulate and tax the sale of it. The revenue generated from those taxes can be used for social programs that help those who abuse it and have problems with it. 7) Ending prohibition will in take the business of distribution away from the organized criminals, in turn taking their power away. 8) Ending prohibition will make it more difficult for children to access cannabis. 9) Ending prohibition will make it easier for serious scientific research to take place that can confirm or deny many medical, wellness and preventative attributes already associated to it. Colorado just within the last 2 days have confirmed they will spend 7 million, half of their marijuana legislative budget on research. This is huge news regardless of which side of the debate you're on. 10) Ending prohibition / regulation of cannabis will create enormous tax revenue. Not incarcerating millions of folks will save billions too. 2014 sales projections are in the 3.4 billion range, which obviously doesn't include states where it is currently illegal. 11) Ending prohibition will enable policy makers to reallocate law enforcement personnel to focus on more important crime issues like terrorists instead of cannabis users. Your suggestion that we go backwards and prohibit alcohol again and never end prohibition of cannabis is irrational because it already has failed once with alcohol and continues to fail with cannabis. Perhaps you lack understanding or have been influenced of damaging stereotypes that are associated with cannabis users in our popular culture. The fact of the matter is, most cannabis consumers are closet users. They are not the mindless "Spicoli" personalities that everyone associates. Rather, they can be brilliant, intelligent people. You might've heard of these who have either admitted to it or have been caught in the act: 1) Steve Jobs 2) Oprah Winfrey 3) Carl Sagan 4) Morgan Freeman 5) Bill Gates 6) Michael Phelps 7) Barrack Obama ...just to name a few. But, too much of anything can be bad for you. Chronic use of weed specifically can slow down cognitive functioning. Obviously, in support of my argument, I want to focus on the positive aspects. In addition to cannabis' recreational, medical, preventative, curative, wellness / nutritive properties, let's look at the plant and how it could solve many other problems currently facing our country. Bio Fuels An industrial form of cannabis, also known as hemp, is low in the psychoactive ingredient THC, but grows rapidly and produces an enormous amount of substance that can be a replacement for gasoline. In fact, the first automobiles were designed to burn hemp gasoline. Fiber Way back, a man named William Randolf Hearst used his vast media empire to demonize cannabis and ultimately was successful. You might've heard of the "Reefer Madness" era. This period in time the prohibition of alcohol had just ended. It was a new target for the massive law enforcement resources left idle after it's repeal. Have you seen the movie Citizen Cane? Orson Wells played Hearst. Hemp threatened his logging business. By the way, Americans at this point became very good at clear cutting forests everywhere. Yet hemp fiber makes superior textiles (they used to make auto body panels from hemp! They were strong and light too!), clothing (the word "canvas" itself used to be made from cannabis, which is why it starts with "can") and regenerates very rapidly and efficiently. Our constitution was printedwritten on cannabis canvas and the first American flags were made with it. Paper users of today wouldn't be also known as tree killers if we still used hemp. And the paper would be very much better quality of we could grow hemp instead of using our beloved and important trees. Way back them, the superior minds that were considered the fathers of our nation (Washington, Jefferson, Adams, etc) were required to grow hemp. And, hmm-hmm, they most likely smoked it too). They often made royalty payments (aka taxes) to the King in England with hemp instead of currency. Speaking of currency, that too was made from hemp. Like it or not, this is the direction our country is going. Legalization. Some say it's inevitable. But there still may be time to stop it! Tell me why it should be stopped. I want to hear it.