Our summary

It is time to make a summary of our debate over the issue of decriminalization of drugs. We, the proposition, believe that after decades of futile fight against the illegal drug trade it is time for a change. It is high time we started the fight against the noxious effects of drug consumption, of drug trade in a new way! That is way we advocate for legalization of all drugs. We will go through the main points of clash that arouse during the debate and show you that we proved right! First of all we expressed our understanding that since addictive products like alcohol and cigarettes are currently available on the market drugs should also be legalized. The opposition tried to refute our argument but without much success. It is childish to attempt to dismiss the parallel that we have made with alcohol, simply by saying that the debate is about drugs, not cigarettes. We believe that since there is sound reasoning why alcohol and cigarettes are legal, this should be considered when looking at the case with drugs, because cigarettes and alcohol are also addictive. We provided clear statistics that prove the relatively small number of people dying of drugs compared to the number of people dying of alcohol and cigarettes. The opposition tried to convince us that if drugs are legalized the deaths caused by drugs will rise significantly. That is simply ridiculous! We don’t believe that when drugs are legalized everybody will rush to the market and buy them? Of course, nothing like this will happen. In no way did the opposition manage to prove that by decriminalising drugs will the number of people who use them increase. On the contrary, we have pointed out in various ways, such as the example with the Netherlands and the forbidden fruit argument (even if its impact is limited, it is still existent) that there will be no increase in the use of hard drugs. What we will achieve however, is a better, safer, healthier and supervised legal market for drugs, which will allow a new approach of treatment for the people who suffer from that addiction which will help them to feel less like social outcasts, outlaws and hopeless people. This is the only way to try to help them and reincorporate them back into society as normal individuals rather than recidivists with no future as the opposition would have them be. We explained that even now drugs are available everywhere and if somebody wants to buy some it is not a problem. Once again we repeat that the war against drugs is as futile as it was against alcohol in the USA in the previous century. The consumption of alcohol did not change then. Likewise, the consumption of drugs will not change now! The second clash point was connected with the truism that we cited – “The forbidden fruit tastes the sweetest”. We gave this quotation as a proof that now when drugs are forbidden more people would like to taste them, to see what they are like. Therefore, we are absolutely sure that if drugs are legalized the consumption will either diminish or remain the same. By the way the opposition agreed that there is no direct correlation between the legalization of drugs and the use of them. So our opinions overlap on this point. To prove our statement that the forbidden fruit tastes the sweetest we showed clear evidence in the Bible which is a book known to almost everyone. Trying to oppose us the opposition cited some book which unfortunately we do not possess and therefore we cannot verify the provided information. In the same way we can tell you that in another book there is research supporting our point. The opposition tried to show an inconsistency in our case but let us make it clear. We know that drugs are harmful and that people should not consume them. But now they do this. We have to change that! The current measures have proved ineffective and this is why we are looking for a change! The third clash point (about the individual freedoms) also was closely related with the parallel between drugs and alcohol. Once again we proved that the effects of alcohol are similar to those of drugs. In order to oppose our argument the opposition could do nothing else except just to deny the fundamental freedoms of the individuals quoted by us from the UN declaration of rights. They constructed a whole argument built on the limitation of individual freedoms. We express our absolute confrontation of opinion on that point. In the modern democratic world there is no place for limitation of freedoms which can eventually lead to dictatorships. We will discuss the point more thoroughly when talking about the opposition’s argument. The fourth clash point was about whether legalization of drugs will remove the black market and the organized crime. We believe that the opposition was unable to refute our argument. We explained how the legalization will affect the current situation. It will bring only two main benefits – disappearing of the drug mafia and new income taxes to the budget from the new legal drug business. The opposition’s efforts to contradict us were deplorable. They claimed that the mafia will not disappear and will continue to operate legally. Well, is there a mafia operating legally? We do not think so. Since the dealer will pay taxes he or she will be legal taxpayer with legal business. Moreover, the market will become more competitive. Thus the prices will decrease. Finally, as a result of legalization and lower prices blackmailing, stealing, and drug pushing will also disappear. As we explained in one of our argument the incomes in the budgets will increase and the number of drug addicts will either lessen or remain the same. In our fifth argument which also turned into a clash point we defended the position that decriminalizing drugs will make them safer. We explained that drugs will be of higher quality and thus their consumption will lead to diminishing deaths caused by impure drugs. We also supported our argument by explaining that when drugs are legal every drug addict will have access to a new unused injection. In this way we are sure that spreading of diseases like AIDS and hepatitis will decrease significantly. Last but not in order of importance, I would like to point out that the opposition made an attempt to refute our argument in the second stage of the debate but in the fourth stage of the debate they mentioned almost nothing about it. We looked for a rebuttal in their last new argument but we found none. They did not even interpret the new moments in our continuation of the argument about the warning labels that can be put on the drugs. We guess that this reluctance to give a rebuttal means that the opposition has completely acceded with us on that point. Now let’s go on to the arguments of the honored opposition. The first one was a rather simplistic – drugs are bad. Yes, we also think that they are harmful. The opposition admits that drugs are harmful that they are bad, but do not propose any solution that will actually change the status quo. In fact, their claims are not supported by any real substance or novelty but simply childish, archaic and useless claims of an outdated model of thinking. "There is no place for drugs in our society" is the mistake of the past. "Drugs exist in our society and we have to deal with it" is the way of the future that we propose. By simply not paying attention to this problem, we won’t diminish the drug consumption. We do not say that it is a healthy thing to be addicted to drugs. What we say is that it is much better that it is done so LEGALLY rather than ILLEGALLY. Furthermore, even hard drugs can be harmless if they are consumed in the right quantity and many individuals are responsible enough and strong enough to take drugs in that manner, so there is no reason to deprive them from that opportunity or in fact force them to go to the underworld. The opposition wrote a long verbose explanation of how drugs can influence human beings. As we have already said the aim of this debate is to show whether legalization will lead to improvement of the current situation, whether less people will use drugs and whether there will be more benefits to the society as a whole. So from our point of view the first part of the opposition’s argument was a bit useless and even not very relevant. The second part was concerned with the harms that legalization will bring to society. We once again showed to the opposition that the harms to society caused by drugs are similar to those caused by alcohols. In fact, as our statistics proved only drunken drivers are responsible for more deaths than all drugs in the USA. The opposition also argued that legalizing drugs will lead to even more economic losses that the current ones. However, we proved that their reasoning was wrong. The legalization of drugs will not increase the number of drug addicts. It will actually increase the incomes in the state’s budget! Therefore, legalization will bring about some very good economic benefits! We would also like to say that in the fourth stage the opposition also did not response to our rebuttal of their argument. We suppose that this means that they agree with what we offered as a rebuttal. The second argument of the opposition was concerned with the restriction of individual rights. One more time we totally disagree with them as their argument is in a clear contradiction with the UN declaration of rights that we cited. Nevertheless, we again refuted the opposition’s argument. They stated that the behavior of drug addicts was myopic. We drew a parallel with alcohol. The opposition accused us that we were making very much reference between alcohol and cigarettes. Eventually they even said that ban on alcohol and cigarettes is also possible. We do not consider that as an opportunity since this also contradicts with the UN declaration of rights. We can look for other methods of stopping accidents with drunken drivers and drug addicts. Such can be a stronger control by the police officers. To support their argument the opposition also proposed government restrictions. The opposition stated that the government knew better than its citizens what is good for them and what is not. Well, we showed that it is not that simple. Many governments have made mistakes and will continue to make mistakes. As an example we gave the ban of alcohol in the US in the 20th century. This was a mistake made by the government. This ban did not accomplish any of the intended effects. So governments are not perfect. After all, they are also ruled by people who make mistakes. Unfortunately, once again the opposition did not interpret our counterargument. We guess they also agreed with us on that point. We know that the summary does not have to include new rebuttal but we feel it was unfair to leave us without opportunity for response to the opposition’s last argument. By repeating most of our arguments we will try in very concise way to show that our arguments can serve as counterargument to your new third argument. About your last argument we did not see a clear statistic that confirms your allegation that the profile of people dying from overdose has changed from poor Afro-American youngsters to working white male in their 40s. About your argument about sedatives and painkillers we would like to say that nowadays these people are not paid much attention to. When drugs are legalized everyone who buys drugs will give his ID and the government will be able to process this information and help these people overcome their addiction. Currently nothing is done to help these people. About the overdoses, unfortunately, no one can stop people from committing suicides using sedatives and painkillers or whatever substance they use. This is their choice, their life. And actually it is quite a simplistic view to think that if something is legal, the government sends a message that it is good for you. The best examples once again are with drugs and cigarettes and the labels on them showing people they are harmful. The same will be with drugs which could even lead to diminishing of number of people addicted. Once again we have shown that possible legalization will only lead to benefits for the people. To recapitulate, let us write in brief why our arguments are better and why in they are implemented only benefits will follow. 1. Drugs have to be legal because addictive alcohol and cigarettes are also legal. We cannot ban all of them because this contradicts the UN declaration of rights. 2. The current situation of ban on drugs only increases the interest of people in them. The forbidden drugs taste the sweetest. In this train of thought if they are legalized it will diminish the number of drug addicts. 3. Our third argument defends the rights of the individual and show that there must not be restriction of these rights. Other methods can be implemented in order to diminish the crimes connected with drunk and drug addicts. 4. Decriminalization will lead to the disappearance of the drug black market! Taxes will be paid on drug trade. Thus bigger incomes will go to the budget! So legal drugs will took the money from the black market and put them in the state’s budget. The disappearance of the black market and the appearance of the competitive market will lead to disappearance of blackmailing, stealing and drug pushing! 5. Legalization will lead to better quality of drugs, to easier access to needles and health care for drug addicts. The better quality, the health care and the abundance of needles will diminish the death rate of drug addicts!