Victimless crime laws should be repealed.

Illicit drug use and sale is a large part of my argument in this debate and as such I will devote this round to eliminating any doubt that these substances should be illegal and that their sale and use are anything but victimless as well I will discredit my opponents statements regarding the prohibition as a model of failure of regulation and his claims That the Netherlands are a successful example of legalized drugs. I will also include several examples that show conclusively that not only would addiction and abuse rise with legalization but that crime would follow that pattern. First my opponent stated that the prohibition was a failure and only lead to a rise in violent crime. The facts of the era show clearly that it was by large measure a success below are the actual statistics from prohibition era America: During Prohibition Alcohol Abuse fell by 30 to 50% Death from Liver Cirrhosis fell from 29.5 in 1911 to 10.7 in 1929 Per 100,000 population wide Admission to state hospitals for alcohol addiction fell from 10.1 per 100,000 to only 4.7 As well the rate of Suicide declined 50 % over all as did the number of Alcohol related arrests. These figures do not lie, as I am sure my opponent will attempt to discredit them I will leave a full list of references at the end of this post. Now we will look at legalization and crime rates per US history. We have in this country had a long history of legalization movements their outcome was by far enough to dispel the myth that legalization would work to do anything other than destroy society. From 1919 to 1922 the US experimented with legalized drug use the government sponsored clinics which handed out free drugs to addicts in the hopes of controlling their behavior the effort was a total failure Societies revulsion against drugs and extended efforts by law enforcement were needed to eradicate the new scourge of addiction In 1976 California de-criminalized Marijuana and within the first six months arrests for driving under the influence skyrocketed 46 percent in adults and 71.4 percent in juveniles The fact remains that Most incarcerated "Drug" offenders violated other laws as well as cited by Professor John Dilulio of Princeton " Only 2 percent or 700 inmates in federal prison are there for purely drug related charges, they generally have committed violent and other crimes to get themselves arrested" However 70 percent of current inmates were under the influence of and illegal substance when they were arrested and if the drugs become cheaper due to legalization we can then expect these violent crimes to increase I will also note here that there is no evidence whatsoever that taxing hard drugs would bolster revenue any more than alcohol and tobacco currently do or that revenue from such taxation would offset the social and medical cost of legalization, Currently the government only spends 3.3 percent of its budget in criminal justice half of that goes to law enforcement and less than 12 percent of that half goes to drug law enforcement. This is hardly the cash cow it is made out to be. My opponent likes to use other nations as success stories of drug legalization however the truth is, There are no success stories when it comes to legalization of hard drugs History tells all we need to know China Legalized Opium early last century the legalization resulted in 90 million addicts it took over 50 years to repair the damage to the economy and social structure Egypt Allowed Cocaine and heroin trade in the 1920's The resultant epidemic of addicts was catastrophic. In Thailand and Iran countries where drugs are readily available addiction is hitting new heights prevalence soars. Modern Day Netherlands is often sighted as a country where drugs legalization is a success. Marijuana sold over the counter heroine and cocaine users are not arrested or prosecuted. Official tolerance has led to a significant increase in addiction and crime Amsterdam's 7000 addicts are reported to be responsible for over 80 percent of all property crime and Amsterdam now has a burglary rate 200 percent higher than Newark New Jersey Drug problems have forced the city to double its police force. Dr. K.F. Gunning president of the Dutch National committee on Drug Prevention cites the following statistics Cannibis use increased 250 percent from 1984-1992 during the same period of time: Shootings rose 40 percent Car theft rose 62 percent Armed Robbery rose 69 percent Sweden legalized prescribed IV amphetamines in 1965 addiction rose 88.5 percent crime rose in correlation with addiction Great Britain expiremented with controlled heroin distribution between 1959 and 1968 according to the british medical journal the number of addicts doubled every sixteen months the increase was accompanied by an increase in the narcotic crime division of Scotland yard of 100 percent to combat the crimewave perpetrated by the "Legal"addicts Several years ago the Swiss opened a legalized drug are in Zurich local addicts were given drugs, needles and emergency medical care. The number of addicts surged to over 3500 in the district and violence overtook the district then known as Needle Park open warfare raged between gangs police vehicles were shot at and tipped over in 1995 the area was brough under rule when the law creating the park was overturned all involved conceded it was a grotesque spectacle. In April 1994 the mayors of 21 Major European cities formed a group called "European Cities Against Drugs" an acknowledgement that legalization had been a complete failure. There are countries in the Middle East that my opponent would not like you to know about they have almost no drug related crime of any kind, this is because they have much harsher penalties for drug crimes than any other countries. The following statistics speak volumes as to why drug abuse and sales are not victimless crimes In Chicago 31,000 abused and neglected children are represented by a court appointed attorney over 80 percent of the physical, sexual abuse and neglect cases involve drug use by the parent or guardian there is evidence that legalization could drive the percentage higher. In our nations capitol 90 percent of reported child abusers are illicit drug abusers. Most startling in Philadelphia cocaine is implicated in 80 percent of all abuse cases and 50 percent of cases where a parent beats their child to death. Sources: Wayne J. Roques, Legalization: An Idea Whose Time Will Never Come, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (Miami Field Division: U.S. Department of Justice, 27 December 1994). Drug Policy Action (Washington, D.C.: Drug Policy Foundation, July/August 1994) 18. Jill Jonnes, "Forgotten History of Legal Drugs 1995. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Source book of Criminal Justice Statistics -- 1992, NCJ-143496 (Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1992) 603-604. 38. U.S. Department of Justice, Drug Legalization 43. John Bradford et al, "Substance Abuse and Criminal Behavior," Clinical Forensic Psychiatry 15 (1992): 605-621. Substance Abuse: The Nation's Number One Health Problem, Institute for Health Policy, Brandeis University, prepared for The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Princeton, New Jersey, October 1993: 8-16. The Drug Policy Letter (Washington, D.C.: The Drug Policy Foundation, 22 Spring 1994). U.S. Department of Justice, Drug Legalization. K. F. Gunning, "Statistics on the Netherlands," President, Dutch National Committee on Drug Prevention, Rotterdam, Holland 22 September 1993. Marijuana Research Review, October 1994. Annals of Pharmacotherapy 28 (1993): 595-681