Drugs should be legalized.

I will first address my opponents arguments, and then make some contentions of my own. Rebuttal 1First my opponent correctly notes that the social underclass often uses drugs. However, that being said drugs are not the reason that they are the underclass to begin with, poverty is. That being said, most poverty stems from a lack of a proper education. [1] More so, a proper education can break the cycle of poverty, however the writer notes that paradoxically "the poor cannot afford education, and the illiterate cannot hope to earn enough to overcome poverty." [2] Basically what is happening here is my opponent is confusing a symptom with the cause. It is not the illegality of drugs that causes poverty, it is poverty that drives people to use drugs. Ultimately legalizing drugs would only relieve one symptom of a very complex social problem. According to Robert Kaestner in a study performed by the National Bureau of Economic Research "..The public has a significant amount of empirical evidence, some anecdotal and some systematic, that links drug use and poverty." [3]To address your point about African Americans, they actually perform worse in education. Now there are a myriad of reasons for this, which could be discussed in another debate, but mainly is because of institutional racism. However it's is important to note for our debate that they perform worse on SAT scores [4] and academically overall, which leads to poverty due to a poor education, which leads to drug use.Rebuttal 2Moving on to your crime argument. This is inherently false that legalizing drugs would bankrupt criminal organizations or somehow reduce crime. The illegal drug trade will still exist because black market trades will always be cheaper and more lucrative. There is no doubt that if drugs were legalized that they would be taxed, we draw this inference from the empirical evidence of US lawmakers taxing other addictive intoxicants. Because of this, it would be much cheaper and easier to operate outside of the law and the bureaucratic red tape that comes with getting a license etc. etc.The same arguments were made to legalize gambling, although there is still a lot of gambling that operates outside of the law. Moreover, even if it did decrease consumption, supply would still need to come from somewhere, and importing it from criminals outside the country would still be more cost effective, basically funding illegal groups.Contention 1Next, Drugs harm the Environment. According to the Guardian, currently 300,000 hectares (741,316 acres)of Rain Forest are destroyed each year to make Coca plants that form cocaine. This is done primarily by illegal groups. [5] Legalizing drug use would create a need that remains at the same level or more, furthermore destroying more rain forests.Contention 2Lastly, Illegal substances are addictive even if legal, and cause economic harm to individuals and society. According to a study performed by the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, "The proportion of children and teenagers in treatment for marijuana dependence and abuse jumped 142 percent since 1992" [6] This is just Marijuana which is considered one of the least addictive substances. Addiction creates dependence, which means one will have to spend money, even if they don't have it, on drug luxuries. Also addiction will cause taxpayers to have to pay for more substance abuse treatment for individuals, increasing the economic burden on society as a whole.[1] http://www.fightpoverty.mmbrico.com...[2] http://www.chinadaily.com.cn...[3] http://www.nber.org...[4] http://nces.ed.gov...[5] http://www.guardian.co.uk...[6] http://alcoholism.about.com...