Legalization of Drugs in the United States

Secondhand smoke I'm afraid my opponent missed or dodged my point. Indoor or outdoor, exposing anyone to secondhand smoke who does not consent to it should be considered an assault. It is no better to have to endure clouds of tobacco smoke clustered around a doorway or just outside an office window than to have to inhale it indoors. The same goes for marijuana use ... it was not infrequent but daily and regularly that I was exposed to secondhand marijana smoke. When I was pulled over for a traffic stop, the officer accused -me- of being a marijuana user apparantly because I was exposed to so much secondhand smoke that it was soaked into my hair or clothes, much the same way someone living in a smoking household reeks of lit cigarettes, even if they themselves do not smoke. There have been several confirmed cases of elevated incidents of lung cancer among people who did not smoke but were regularly around secondhand smoke. Under no circumstance and in no location should you be allowed to expose an unwitting victim to secondhand smoke. If you own your own home, you should be required to post signs warning visitors they may be exposed to secondhand smoke in your home if they visit you. Your smoke (regardless of whether it is tobacco or marijuana ... again, I think "legal drugs" like tobacco need stricter regulation!) must not drift into a neighbor's property, or that too should constitute an assault. Keep your bad gas to yourself! And anyone exposing underaged minors to secondhand smoke should be given the same penalty as if they had given the below-legal-age minor the cigarettes or marijuana (if marijuana were given the same legality-with-restrictions as tobacco in this hypothetical if-I-made-the-laws scenario). Parents who do so regularly should be considered as abusing their children, since studies have shown children exposed to secondhand smoke regularly will be disadvantaged in academic performance in school. If I have medical reactions to secondhand smoke, it is too strong and I don't trust a drug user's promise that I wouldn't suffer a failed drug test because of it. If an officer smelled it on me and suspected I myself was a user, I feel I have good cause to believe I would be in danger of failing a drug test, despite an drug abuser's assurances. Does drinking and driving constitute a non-violent, taxpaying citizen to Pro? Mind altering substances, by their very definition, impair judgement and perception. A person's behavior and ability to carry out regular tasks can become unreliable and unpredictable rather quickly under the influence of a mind-altering substance. I often work around dangerous machinery, should I not be concerned whether the operators of those machinery are under the influence? It takes only a slight hesitation for a forklift operator to take my life due to their use of drugs that Pro asserts are safe. An individual's right to enjoy themselves, to me, should not infringe my right to my own personal health and safety. The use of mind-altering substances -- drugs -- must be kept tightly controlled and regulated, and again while I agree some adjustments need to be made, in my mind there are quite a few drugs that need even tighter regulation than they do now. Anything with "secondhand smoke" effects should be consumable only in sealed areas built expressly for that purpose to avoid the slightest exposure to any unwilling person. No outdoor smoking, no hanging outside a public building nor in a work truck (which is where I was exposed to secondhand smoke on one jobsite ... unfortunately most places don't regulate work trucks for secondhand smoke, my state certainly doesn't). Again, I believe some drugs could stand to be "less illegal" than now, but they should be much more tightly regulated than alcohol or nicotene are today -- and alcohol and nicotene should have their use more tightly regulated. I would not have a problem with, say, tobacco cigarettes and marijuana being given similar restrictions, but it should be much more controlled than tobacco cigarettes are today anywhere in the U.S.