Marijuana Legalization

This debate will be on whether the legalization of marijuana (also known as pot, weed and cannabis) for consenting adults would be over-all more beneficial to society than other-wise having it illegal. I will be arguing the pro side while my opponent will be arguing against it. Debating will begin without hesitation. I thank my opponent for agreeing to this debate. ===ARGUMENTS=== 1. Use is not as bad a thing as you may think: Alcohol and tobacco are both more addictive and detrimental to one's health than pot. Yet they are legal. There is no record of anyone ever over-dosing on marijuana. It creates a state of relaxation for the user and has many legitimate medical uses. It doesn't have to be smoked, it can be inhaled from a pot-vaporizer or spread as a lotion on the skin, thus causing no harm to the lungs. Many medical professionals agree that pot causing death of brain-cells is just a myth. A good example of this is famous astronomer and intellectual Carl Sagan who reported that he smokes pot every day. Other large and successful figures who have smoked pot include many of the founding fathers, Barrack Obama, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Paul McCartney. There has actually been surprising research into the beneficial effects of marijuana like it's ability at disrupting the abnormal clumping of malformed proteins in the brain which has been used for the prevention of Alzheimer's and treat Seizures. [1] It is true that there is notable debate in the medical community on whether there is any harm in it or not but there is absolutely no confusion on the fact that it is definitely better for you than either tobacco or Alcohol and not nearly as addictive. If you are going to be against pot you must also have the intellectual honesty to extend your logic to it's rational ends so to also be a prohibitionist to tobacco and alcohol. It is widely known that tobacco smoke greatly increases risk of lung cancer and similar diseases but there is no evidence to support that is the same case with those who smoke pot. Studies have actually shown there is no increase of risk for such things in pot-smokers as opposed to the general population. [2] People have claimed that pot makes you lazy. This is obviously not a lingering effect. It is only the relaxation felt during the time of high. Should we ban video games? Vacations? Follow your logic to it's own ends. 2. Legalizing marijuana would lower the rate of violent crime dramatically: It is called the black-market effect; whenever you ban something which has a high consumer demand, such as guns or many drugs, the product will not simply disappear but will be moved to the black-market where it will be used as revenue for fueling other criminal activity, most notably the amount of violence. It is no little known fact that the main driving force behind violent gangs is the profit they bring in from illegal drugs. 3. It would free-up the jails: The American prison system is currently busting at the seems with inmates. We are loosing room, things are becoming very inefficient and hard to maintain. Why? Because currently between 60 and 70% of inmates are behind bars for drug possession. [3] Just within year 2000 over 2,000,000 people had been incarcerated for drug possession. [3] If marijuana was legalized it would solve a huge amount of tension in this growing prison problem. 4. It will help fix the budget problem: It costs over 7,000,000,000 dollars annually to fund marijuana prohibition in the United States.[3] We just don't have the resources to be spending that kind of money right now especially on such a confounded, unjust and pointless cause. Instead of spending money on marijuana we could actually be making money off of it. Marijuana is currently the single largest cash-crop in America. Even larger than corn. [4, 5] Imagine what could be generated from letting the industry be and taxing it. Legalizing and taxing pot would be one huge and welcomed step towards fixing the budget crisis. 5. It will directly aid the economy: Legalizing pot means many more jobs, much more business, much more tax revenue, much less spent on oppressing it and many very happy costumers. You'd have to be out of your mind to be against it! ==== I could go on and on about what the benefits of legalizing pot would have on society above any comprehensible ill effects it could possibly have. But I'll save a little for later and give my opponent a chance. Con now has the floor. ===SOURCES=== [1]http://www.scientificfactsofpot.com... [2]http://www.foxnews.com... [3] http://www.changetheclimate.org... [4]http://www.drugscience.org... [5]http://abcnews.go.com...