Drug Legalization

I thank con for their arguments, as now I would like to present by rebuttal to debunk his arguments on why drugs should not be legalized.A. War on drugsThe enourmous cost on America's War on Drugs is pretty bad. We are throwing too many prisnors in jail for non-violent drug crimes. Most prisnors are in jail due to drugs, and overdose deaths are at an all time high. Also, making drugs legal does not mean more people are going to use them. Many people are aware that some drugs (cocaine, meth, opiates, ect.) are bad and they won't use them even if they are legal. Illicit drugs are very easy to get thanks to dealers. Drug dealers are drug dealers due to the insane amoutn of money they get. Having something illegal does not simply cause it to decrease. If drug use has decreased over the years, it was due to education about drugs, not the legal status. Drug use in the US is higher than in any other country and USA criminalizes drugs more than any other country.War on drugs is simply not working, people are just thrown in jail and very few actually receive drug treatment. We should not be throwing non-violent drug users in jail. Mexico has decriminalized possession of drugs, you can legally possess small-medium quantities of drugs as a Mexican citizen. Yet, drug use still remains lower in Mexico."I would like to remind my opponent that he is advocating for drug legalization, not drug treatment over punishment."Legalization would mean treatment is easier and there's no punishment. sourceshttp://pastebin.com...B. HeroinWhile Jzonda's argument for heroin possibly going the same way as tobacco, there can be laws passed to prevent this. Laws can be passed to maintain the purity of heroin. Many heroin users are thrown in jail for non-violent drug offenses and the criminalization of heroin may scare them from finding drug treatment. Only around 15% of heroin addicts actually receive treatment, so finding treatment may not be as easy as you think."Neither of Pro’s last two paragraphs in this section justify heroin being legalized. One talks about medical marijuana and ibogaine lowering addiction rates for heroin. This does not make a case for heroin being legalized."I apologize for that as I should have retitled them "A better way to prevent heroin addiction." A junkie can easily live a normal life if they can easily get enough heroin easily to support their addiction. If a junkie can use heroin without harming anybody, why should they be criminalized? C. PsychedelicsOne of jzonda's first arguments was that psychedelics require higher doses for the same effects when tolerance builds up. This may be true, however psychedelics can still be used in moderation, just a higher hit every time. Drug tollerance only builds up with prolonged and constant usage of drugs. Some of my sources have supported the claim that psychedelics can positively impact someone's life. 2 examples are the study that magic mushrooms can expand your mind and Steve Jobs implying that dropping acid has enhanced his creativity. I don't know but expanding your mind and enhanced creativity sounds like a positive impact on life. I have also given some sources giving first hand accounts of people who claim psychedelics positively impacted them. Another point Con has mentioned is that some people use hallucinogens to escape reality. Computers and video games can also be used to escape reality and many people use them for a quick escape from reality. Should these drugs really be outlawed just because some people can't use them properly? Many people if not the majority of psychedelic users use it properly. Hallucinogens can be used to enhance reality aswell, not just to escape it. Many things (food, video games, computers, phones, television, partying ect.) can be abused. Con's point that usage may increase from legalization of psychedelics, I may actually agree on this. However, there is nothing wrong with increased usage because if used properly, psychedelics can be good for you. If people are well educated about harm reduction and properly using psychedelics, then I do not personally see the issue. One way to avoid abuse is if people must be properly educated about harm reduction before being able to legally buy hallucinogenic drugs. There are negative properties to psychedelic abuse but flashbacks are very rare. Remember that psychedelics also have many positive effects which can outweigh the flashbacks to some people. Sourceshttp://pastebin.com...D. Medical Marijuana Jzonda has mentioned alternative cancer treatments without hemp oil. However, a lot of these treatments if not all are very harmful or they do much more harm then hemp oil. The 2 main cancer treatments are chemotherapy and radiation therapy which both can be severly harmful. The cancer treatments you mentioned are not effective because they target everything, not just tumour cells. Hemp has an anti-tumoral effect in which it only targets cancerous cells leaving the healthy cells alone. Marijuana is not that harmful at all, it's safer than many legal drugs such as caffiene, alcohol or nicotine. The negative effects are commonly exaggerated by anti-drug people. CBD (cannabidol) rich strains of cannabis reduce the negative effects of THC (tetrahydracannabinol). CBD can also halt seizures and is approved as a safe and effective medicine for childhood epilepsy.Hemp can also be used for chronic pain management. Currently, opiates are used to kill pain. Opiate drugs have very high abuse potention and are far more dangerous than hemp, prescripion opiate painkillers are just weaker forms of heroin. Opiate abuse often leads to heroin addiction. Hemp is not only safer, but is also more effective at fighting chronic pain than opiates ever could. When pain becomes really serious, high doses of opiates can easily lead to abuse. You can also look up other medical properties of cannabis, it has a lot of medical uses. Abuse with marijuana does exist but caffiene abuse is a much bigger issue. Caffiene is more addictive and possibly more harmful than marijuana. Just because some people abuse marijuana does not mean everybody does. Most people use marijuana responsibly and it shouldn't be outlawed just because of a few irresponsible people. sourceshttp://pastebin.com...http://news.distractify.com...Con's CaseLegalization ProblemsI have debunked most of Con's cases about drug legalization causing increase in usage, crime and potency. Drug usage is highest in US when it is most criminalized in USA as opposed to other countires such as Mexico where possesion of drugs is legal.A lower cost of drugs from legalization can be a good thing because addicts have a better chance of living a normal life. An addict will go mad and insane if they don't have their fix and participate in violent crimes to get their next fix. However, an addict will not do that much crazy things if they have enough drugs. Cheaper drugs mean addicts can afford them without doing some crazy shiz. Synthetic DrugsNote that synthetic drugs just mean drugs that are produced in labs instead of found in nature. LSD and MDMA are both synthetic but many people can use them in moderation. There are some synthetic drugs that are bad, yes but we shouldn't just throw users of these drugs in jail like that. Legalization will not cause increase in use if people know it's bad for them, dealers make drugs as easy to get as something that's legal. Other DrugsYou have also mentioned that I did not give reasons for meth, cocaine or other drugs to be legalized which I will give now. Legalization of other hard drugs can be seen the same way as my reasons with heroin legalization. A legal and cheaper drug market will mean addicts are safer.additional sourceshttp://pastebin.com...