The continued prohibition of marijuana is far more harmful than the drug itself.

Although WJelements has already made his mind up, I hope everyone else will at least stop and think about the points i made, regardless of what they decide to vote. I think that Alcohol does more harm than good. That being said, prohibition of Alcohol didnt work out too well, partly because of the times, as this was during the great depression and the War, and partly because the public wasn't aware of the harm of Alcohol. CC01. I agree that Alcohol and Marijuana can both be gateway drugs. Which is why i am against both drugs being used by minors. As for the black market claim, i shall tie that in with Argument C06, later. CC02. Your original argument here, is that legalization of marijuana makes it harder for under-aged youth to get their hands on it. However, the statistics show that the same drug laws that are on Alcohol and Tobacco, make it easier for kids to get their hands on those drugs, than it is for kids to get their hands on Marijuana. This alone destroys your argument in CC02. However, I shall address each statement you have made in this argument. "someone under 21 does not have access to someone over 21 to purchase them alcohol, they simply can't" Actually, no. Rarely do places such as Restaurants, ask for ID(Believe me, i know). However, this seems to rely on ignoring the fact that every child has a parent, and that parent is (hopefully) over the age of 21. I shall address the second part of your statement later, as it ties in with the argument C06. CC03. This is where i get confused. The topic of this argument is "Prohibition of marijuana is more harmful than marijuana itself". In this statement, you appear to be making the argument of "Marijuana is not as harmful as alcohol, so we should legalize it." The above arguments that use Alcohol, is a comparison between current legalization laws of various drugs, compared to prohibition of Marijuana. However, here, you are trying to make the argument that since Marijuana is safer than (insert legal drug here), it should be legalized. However, I find it very humorous that my opponent decided to use the word "Excessive marijuana use", as compared to "Alcohol related death". When you actually go and find marijuana related deaths, and instances where marijuana was the only drug found in the system, the figures actually increase beyond 0(1). I agree that it is extremely hard to die of an overdose of Marijuana. But the number of deaths that were caused by an alcohol overdose, are fairly small, as well(2). However, as the topic of this debate is "continued prohibition of Marijuana is more harmful than the drug itself", removing the prohibition of Marijuana, will increase the number of people who use it(Young OR Old), and therefore this number will undoubtedly increase as well. CC04. The specific argument you used here, is that "prohibiting Marijuana supports the Drug cartels". Youve now changed your argument in CC04 to "Marijuana isnt as dangerous as (insert more dangerous drug here)". Quite frankly, Marijuana legalization is the same as any other drug legalization. Why? Because both drugs are ILLEGAL as of October 2009. It doesnt matter that Heroine is less lethal than Methadone. "I am not taking the position that you shouldn't be denied employment for smoking meth or doing heroin. " Neither am I. What does this have to do with our discussion? "These are drugs with an addiction potential far higher than marijuana with far wider societal consequences." Uh, no. First off, if youre going to compare Marijuana, or more specifically, the smoking kind of Marijuana, to drugs like Heroin or Meth, you cannot, because Heroin is a semi-synthetic compound, while Marijuana is a galenical product. In other words, Heroin has been refined to produce the effect with smaller doses, while Marijuana is in its original natural form, without any refinement. If one were to use, say, Hash oil, which contains up to 30-40 times more THC than Marijuana(3). That would be a fair comparison with Heroin. The galenical form of Heroin, which is simply opium, can be compared to Marijuana, and is generally impossible to die of an overdose. Yet, even opium in its unrefined form is still illegal. The article is very careful to state that the article is only talking about people who "Smoke" marijuana. Most people do not refine Marijuana into Hash oil or Hashish, because this takes not only alot of time, but also alot of money, and an amateur attempt will only produce about 15% of THC within the hash oil. The conclusion being, in regards to addiction potential, it is unfair to compare Marijuana to Heroin. As seen here, the more concentrated the form of Marijuana is, the more addictive it becomes(4). Therefore, id argue that the addiction potential is the same, if you compare the drugs fairly. The problem here, of course, is with the legalization of Marijuana, undoubtedly the increase in refinement of Marijuana will also come, as the drug is now cheaper and therefore allow people to afford to refine it for a better high. CC05, Then do you think LSD or MDMA(ecstasy) should be legalized as well? Both are categorized as a soft drugs. CC06, This is a very important point that a lot of people seem to miss. I have no problem using LSD instead of Cocaine or Heroin, as your main problem with this argument seems to stem around the fact that i keep mentioning Hard drugs. However, most of your arguments seem to apply to any drug, soft or hard. Im against LSD as well. And i dont find any reason to legalize LSD either. Yet, you cannot overdose with LSD. There are numerous deaths associated with it, but it isnt as high as alcohol. Now onto the counter arguments of my arguments. AA01. "a maladjusted minority is not grounds for criminalizing an innocent majority." This is the most ridiculous argument ever. What percent of drunk drivers are caught in accidents? Its clearly a minority(5). Yet, its illegal! Why should we criminalize the innocent majority when the small minority is to blame? AA02. Medicinal Marijuana isnt used as a painkiller. That was the most useless comment ever, as Marijuana is as safe an alternative to painkillers, as Sugar is to Cancer drugs. I never said that 42% of people who use marijuana are marijuana abusers. I refuted your absurd claim that barely anyone becomes addicted to Marijuana. I would call people who were lifelong drinkers of alcohol, as people who are addicted to alcohol. I dont understand why you brought this up, but i think you misunderstood what i wrote. AA03. That statistic is a little old. In 2007, the number of youths who are trying cannabis in the Netherlands has increased to up to 28%, and that is only for kids between the ages of 15 and 17, with an additional 6% for children under 14(6), with the government concerned about an even more prevalent increase in the near future. As i have never stated that Medicinal marijuana increases usage in youth demographics, i have no idea why this was brought up. The same argument that my opponent has made in his final closing statement, can be applied to the other softer drugs like LSD or Ecstasy. In fact, they can be made for any drug that has a low addictive tolerance, including Magic mushrooms. However, most of these drugs are banned, and infact, even Amsterdam has started to ban magic mushrooms which were once legal(6). Why inhibit people from taking drugs like LSD or Ecstasy, when we could be reaping tax dollars, putting age limits, and focusing our police force on harder more dangerous drugs? Sources. 1. http://www.drugwatch.org... 2. http://lizditz.typepad.com... 3. http://en.wikipedia.org... 4. http://alcoholism.about.com... 5. http://www.alcoholalert.com... 6. http://www.huffingtonpost.com...