Marijuana Legalization

Con's RebuttalsC1: My opponent has missed the point here. There is no evidence suggesting the legalization of marijuana will increase use. The point is that one trillion dollars is only justified with results, and no results are demonstrated. Since the legalization of marijuana in Colorado use has stayed approximately the same [1]. It did decrease the amount of state court cases related to marijuana by 77 percent, saving the state large amounts of money. Legalization also brought in 184 million dollars in new tax revenue. A look at the prohibition (1920-1933) gives a similar result. There was an initial drop in alcohol use but a steady increase shows it would have stabilized at a consumption level very similar to before the prohibition. [2] [2]Legalizing marijuana has not been shown to increase use, and the War on Drugs has been completely unsuccessful in reducing marijuana use.C2: My opponent claims the national debt is 170 trillion, which is clearly a typo. The US debt is 17 trillion [3] and we have spent nearly 1 TRILLION dollars on the war on drugs which has been a failure in every way. Con shrugs this off, but it is extremely important. This is money that could be spent elsewhere. We could be improving schools, building roads, or paying off the national debt, but instead we pursue an unjustified moral war against a crime that, first of all shouldn't be the government's business, and second of all has done nothing to reduce drug use. The cost is an increase in violent drug cartels and a skyrocketing national debt.C3: I'm not sure if my opponent read my argument here. I explained in my opening arguments how marijuana is a major source of revenue for drug cartels. Actually almost 30% of cartel's revenue in the US is from marijuana [4][5][6]. Legalizing marijuana would severely damage drug cartels.C4- Actually legalization of marijuana doesn't include the ability to smoke wherever you want. It is similar to cigarette laws actually. In Colorado smoking is only allowed at private properties with the permission of the owner [7].- Con claims legalization will make other people more likely to smoke, but this is blatantly false. Awareness of any possible health dangers reduces this risk to zero. I have already demonstrated above in my rebuttal of C1 that marijuana use does not go up with legalization.- Con says that the legalization of marijuana will raise production and advertising, both of which are false. Rather than cartels producing marijuana, which runs the risk of dangerous mistakes or mixtures, the production of marijuana will be run in the US in a much safer setting with less risk. Advertising with marijuana, just like advertising with smoking, would obviously be heavily regulated. That's a no brainer. Next Con basically claims that marijuana is addictive. This is actually totally false. Unless Con provides evidence to support this assertion there is no reason to believe it.Con's Arguments1. This argument is a joke. There is no evidence to show what musicians sing about influencing people to do these same things. I occasionally listen to rap, but believe it or not, don't do drugs, don't treat women terribly, and don't swear constantly. This argument lacks any evidence.2. Perhaps instead of imprisoning marijuana users we could put the money that would have been used on the marijuana users into the Police Departments. Then we could imprison actual criminals. The need for private prisons actually arose partially from the war on drugs on account of overcrowding [8].3. I'll assume this a troll argument. This debate is not about what a select few "government officials" want so that they can create a "police state". This is about the path of action that is most beneficial for the United States as a whole.4. Another claim without evidence. This argument should be ignored without anything to back it up.Con's Solutions1. lol Abolishing paper money creates to many problems. First of all not everyone has a credit card. Second, if everything was digital, then all the money in the world would be at risk. And who wants all of their transactions to be public knowledge?2. Government reducing the sentences of marijuana users is a poor plan. It's basically acknowledging that the government doesn't have the right to imprison them, but won't legalize marijuana.ConclusionI have presented strong arguments that support the legalization of marijuana, none of which have been refuted. All of Con's claims lack any evidence at all and hold no weight.[1] http://justsaynow.firedoglake.com...[2] http://www.cato.org...[3] http://www.usdebtclock.org...[4] http://www.cbsnews.com...[5] http://www.huffingtonpost.com...[6] http://www.npr.org...[7] http://www.cnn.com...[8] http://en.wikipedia.org...