Drug Legalization

I will start off with some rebuttals. "but about the effect keeping them illegal is doing to the world. "And my argument is about what making them legal would do to the world. I have gone to three main points: addiction, long-term consequences, and death. Here's an example of addiction, and an example of a drug user [1]:'"Later, I was hanging out at a friend’s house smoking marijuana when someone pulled out a bag of cocaine. Snorting cocaine quickly became a daily habit. I was stealing money from my parents’ business and from my grandparents on a daily basis to support my alcohol, cocaine, marijuana and LSD habits. Then I was introduced to oxycontin and began using it on a regular basis. By the time I realized I was addicted, snorting OxyContin was part of my daily routine. I needed something stronger—and was introduced to heroin. I would stop at nothing to get high. My addiction was winning. And every time I tried to kick it, the physical craving would send me back for more. ”' —EdithThis would happen much more often. That is an example of a normal drug user, not even a severe one. "However, the potency/harmful nature of the drugs are irrelevant to the bigger overall picture. We should be helping these people, not imprisoning them. "It is in no way irrelevant. Keeping drugs illegal is at least reducing the internal injuries and the external injuries. Also, yes, we should be helping people who go on drugs. But that is a change we can make while making drugs illegal. We don't have to legalize drugs to get people help. We could reduce the prison sentences and increase rehabilitation for softer users, all while keeping drugs illegal. So in conclusion, we can improve the overall picture without making drugs legal. "What evidence do you have for that? "The evidence I have for that are the two graphs marking dependency on it. Nicotine and heroin are worse than alcohol in my graph, so I compared them to it. Alcohol users become dependent on what they drink. Before the legalization of alcohol, users were down 50%. Then, they skyrocketed by 50% [2]. And since the graph I showed you marks that it is reliable to compare alcohol to drugs, my point is proven. Just in case, let's go further into the stats of alcohol:During prohibition. .. [2]Hospital visits due to alcohol declined from 10.1 to 4.7Arrests between 1916 and 1922 due to alcohol dropped by 50%Consumption of alcohol, by best estimates, dropped by up to 50%Now, after legalization, alcohol users increased. Today, as most of us know, alcohol causes 20,000+ car accidents every year. Is it really worth the price there? "I would also like to point out the vast differences between rehabilitating drug users, and throwing them in jail. "As I stated earlier, we could do all of those things without legalizing drugs. This is an error on the governments' part, and yes, should be changed. But it doesn't support your argument due to the fact that it could be done without legalizing drugs. This goes for your next four arguments about the countries. Also, the long round was entirely acceptable. I had a ton of fun rebutting it. So now, I will polish up my arguments. And sum them up. What drugs do to you long-term: Drugs can ruin your life mentally, physically, and financially. For mentally, I pointed out that rugs screw with your mind and disables your ability to think straight. Physically, drugs can cause many diseases, and death. Financially, you need more and more money to get drugs, which means you end up spending all of your money, and cripples your life. What the legalization of drugs would do: I compared drugs to alcohol and smoking, supported by my two graphs in the third round. I showed that users would go up significantly through the legalization of alcohol. What we can do while keeping drugs illegal: My opponent stated many problems with the current system of drugs. But we can increase rehab and decrease jail time to a better amount while still keeping drugs illegal. I also pointed out that we are only costing the taxpayers a small portion of money by the war of drugs, even if it seems like a lot. I would like to add one more thing. Once you do cocaine, or any other drug, you're hooked. It's a known fact [3]. From 8th grade to tenth grade to 12th grade, here are the numbers: % of eighth graders that have used cocaine in the last month: 0.50 Tenth: 0.80 Twelfth: 1.10 The numbers climb significantly over time. This proves my point of once you do it, you're hooked. I would like to thank my opponent for a wonderful debate. Thank you! [1] . http://www.drugfreeworld.org...[2] . http://www.nytimes.com...[3] . http://www.drugabuse.gov...