Resolved: Marijuana should be legalized in the United States.

Thanks pro, hopefully I can prove myself a worthy contender. I am aware that I cannot make any rebuttals until the next round. As such I will give my opening arguments as to why I do not believe marijuana should be legalized. I'll use the same contention format as my opponent used. 1st Contention ~ Legalizing marijuana makes it more available to the public and therefore will produce more users. This is pretty logical. Let's say you are a person who always wanted to try marijuana but never got the chance, or simply never wanted to go against the law to do so. One day you walk into a gas station to put $20 in the tank and spot a pack of joints, the chances of you trying marijuana now is much higher because it is no longer illegal and is completely available for you to buy. This may be a make believe scenario but the reality of it is anything but. "In Washington state which, like Colorado, in 2012 legalized marijuana use and limited possession for adults, monthly marijuana use rose by about 20 percent. http://www.denverpost.com... 2nd Contention ~ Marijuana is a dangerous drug. I do not mean this in the sense that someone is going to overdose of it. It's marijuana, you don't overdose on it. In fact the only way you could likely die while smoking it is if you choke on the bowl it's sitting in. However this being said marijuana has been linked to heart disease and mouth cancer according to studies. Other side effects are not so obvious, as marijuana has a very strong connection to people developing schizophrenia. This is directly connected to how many times you use it, "Those who were heavy consumers of cannabis at age 18 were over 600% more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia over the next 15 years than those did not take it.". Also, birth defects may occur if a woman is pregnant and decides to smoke marijuana; such as miscarriages, developmental and learning issues, and premature births. Furthermore, marijuana poses a danger on the roads. People who are smoking and driving are twice as likely to appear in a car accident than those who are not. This shows that marijuana not only is a harm to the user as explained above, but can also be a harm to others around them. Why should we give society another harmful drug to use? http://www.schizophrenia.com... http://druglibrary.net... 3rd Contention ~ Marijuana is not entirely understood. There are several studies showing that marijuana has a pacifying effect on the user. It shows a decrease in violent acts and gives someone a kind of "mellow" state. However there are cases where marijuana has caused someone to act incredibly violent, such as the case of a Denver man who, after eating a cookie laced with marijuana, became violent and jumped from the roof of his building committing suicide. His friends said that after he ate the cookie, he began exhibiting hostile behavior. Legalizing a recreational drug that is not entirely known is the same, in my eyes, as a doctor who prescribes a medication of which the side effects are unknown. http://www.usatoday.com... http://psycnet.apa.org... 4th Contention ~ Marijuana is a proven gate-way drug This isn't to say that if you try marijuana that you're automatically going straight for heroin, but people who use marijuana do have a higher chance to begin using other drugs, such as cocaine and heroin. These drugs are shown to be highly addictive and very dangerous for the user. People often in a way get addicted to the way the high feels, and once they get used to the high they get from marijuana, they will turn to other drugs to satisfy themselves. There are also other studies that show that many marijuana users do other illicit drugs while still doing marijuana. These would all be unintended consequences of legalizing the drug, but it is something we must consider nonetheless. http://www.jstor.org... In conclusion, marijuana is a drug that is not entirely understood yet that has many health risks to the user. It also poses the threat to be harmful to non-users through things like car accidents as well as hostile actions done by the user. Therefore, marijuana should not be legalized as it would not be good for our society. Over to you pro.