We should Legalize Marijuana

To rebut your arguments I will start with your introduction paragraph. "Legalization marijuana will help lower crime rates." You are correct in saying alcohol also is harmful at a young age. On your site http://www.livescience.com..., It states that "Both alcohol consumption and pot smoking can take a toll on the body, showing both short- and long-term health effects." I would not make the assumption that marijuana is safer as in this quote they are grouped together. You are right in saying that anything can be abused and dying from drinking too much water is a real thing called water intoxication. Although I would argue because of marijuana's addictive properties it is much easier to abuse this substance. As for the age limit you are correct in saying they both damage developing minds, if it were up to me I would raise the legal drinking age to 25 as to that is when a mind stops developing. 1. I definitely do not want to see people penalized for life unless they did something that was illegal. Doing marijuana is in fact illegal and should be treated as such in court and in prison. We should not legalize it because of it's harmful properties. As for the prohibition those facts are correct although I would argue that America is not having a prohibition type problem with marijuana. If you could please provide facts for your statement of " But this is wrong and America has the proof to back it up." I believe these people are in jail because they did something illegal and that is what jail is for. Employees want the best of the best and if your record says you did illegal drugs, drank alcohol and then operated a vehicle or anything else that is illegal then they have the right to say no to you. This is because there are many more less risk applicants waiting for the job. My final point on this argument would be that you choose to resort to crime and are not forced to take part in criminal activities. 2. As for this argument I will point out that marijuana is a gateway drug, sure marijuana is less of a risk than cigarettes but hard drugs such as meth are certainly not. If it were up to me I would ban them all, the only reason alcohol and cigarettes are legal is that a) people made such a big fuss when they were announced illegal previously. And b) because the government gets taxes out of them. So why add another harmful substance into the mix? So we can harm ourselves even more? So we can now legally mix marijuana and alcohol to harm ourselves? So teenagers can now have easier access to a drug that will ruin their future? I say no way. We have alcohol, we have cigarettes, if you want to get high/drunk use those, we do not need another harmful substance legalized. 3. As for your third argument I am on the fence with the tax, it is both good and bad. Although the government is practically taxing people so they can harm/kill themselves in a slow drunken/high downward spiral (which is very wrong) the money is a steady (and deadly) income for the government. Also as for the jail argument you already know my thoughts on that, if they did something illegal they should be in jail. As for your last argument I will also provide personal experience. You are right, it is easy to obtain at schools and it shouldn't be. As for your last statement yes it will make it more accessible. I know for cigarettes at least adults either buy them and sell them to under age buyers or the teenagers steal them from their work. I got denied a job just because the employer recently had one of his teenager employees steal cigarettes and the employer now was not hiring anyone under 19 because of it. These events are wrong and it happens very often, teenagers are taking advantage of cigarettes being legal (for people over 19) and using that to have better access. My questions are, why in the world wouldn't they do that for marijuana if it was legalized? How would this legalization not make this drug more accessible? It is quite clear to me that putting this drug on shelves in front of teenagers will make it more accessible even if it has an age requirement. These are my arguments against yours. Good luck in the next round!