Drug Legalization

P1: I do agree that legalization of drugs would likely cause increased drug use. But a small increase at most—not a massive influx of new users. Take Portugal, for example. My opponent claims that, "If drugs are made legal, a new influx of users would be created as people would no longer fear punishment for using drugs." But the empirical evidence from Portugal's decriminalization of drugs contradicts this. It wasn't the same thing as legalization—producing and trafficking drugs is still illegal—but drug use is no longer punished as a crime. Portuguese drug users "no longer fear punishment for using drugs." If my opponent were correct, drug use would increase significantly. But that isn't what happened. Hard drug use stayed approximately the same or decreased overall, and all drug use decreased among youth. [1] Legalization is different from decriminalization, and would likely have somewhat different effects—but my opponent's claim that a lack of punishment for drug use would cause a significant influx of new users is false. P2: As there would be no massive influx of new drug users, this point is irrelevant. In addition, many of the health problems associated with drug use are the result of their illegality, not the drugs themselves. When Portugal decriminalized drugs, drug-related deaths and overdoses decreased dramatically, as did the rate of infections of HIV and other STDs. [1] Legalization would also eliminate health problems associated with drug impurities. Heroin use alone, for example, causes no serious health problems—health problems associated with heroin use are actually because of heroin prohibition, which causes impurities in the drug, and the use of dirty, infected needles. [2] P3: The problem with Con's evidence that drug use hurts workforce productivity is that it fails to take into account other variables. Once those are taken into account, the evidence paints an entirely different picture. Studies have found that illicit drug users actually receive higher wages than non-users. [3] [4] Other studies have found that illicit drug users generally have equally good or better productivity and absentee rates, and equally high or lower health-care costs. [5] [6] [7] Gangs: Con claims that using my logic, we would should also legalize rape and murder. This is false. My logic is that the harm caused by drug prohibition greatly exceeds the harm that a legal market in drugs would cause. That logic could not be applied to legalization of rape or murder, since legalization of those things would obviously cause much greater harm than their continued prohibition. My point stands. Police: Con claims that the abuse of power by police enforcing drug laws has to do with the police themselves, not the laws. This is partially true—there will always be corrupt police—but the drug laws themselves are responsible for a significant amount of the abuse and corruption. The difference between drug laws and laws against things like murder and rape is that murderers leave bodies and rapists leave rape victims. Thieves have stolen stuff. Such people can be found, prosecuted, and convicted without laws that violate the rights of innocent people, because they leave victims and evidence of their crimes. Drug users do not leave victims; they only victimize themselves. Police-state tactics are necessary to fight the drug war because that's the only way the government can find enough evidence to convict people. The asset-forfeiture laws used in my previous anecdote are an example of this. Asset forfeiture laws were considered clearly a violation of individual rights for much of America's history, but that changed during alcohol prohibition. [1] http://www.cato.org... [2] http://www.ukcia.org... [3] Kaestner, Robert. "The Effect of Illicit Drug Use on the Wages of Young Adults." Journal of Labor Economics 9 (1991): 381. [4] Gill, Andrew M. and Robert J. Michaels. "Does Drug Use Lower Wages?" Industrial and Labor Relations Review 45 (April 1992): 419. [5] Gust, Steven W. and J. Michael Walsh, eds. Drugs in the Workplace. National Institute on Drug Abuse, Research Monograph Series, no. 91. Rockville, Md.: The Institute, 1989. 183 and 209-210. [6] Parish, David Charles. "Relation of the Pre-employment Drug Testing Result to Employment Status: A One-year Follow-up." Journal of General Internal Medicine 4 (1989): 44-47. [7] Register, Charles A. and Donald R. Williams. "Labor Market Effects of Marijuana and Cocaine Use Among Young Men." Industrial and Labor Relations Review 45 (April 1992): 435.