Marijuana should be legalized

Yea it really is a nice debate :) This is my first debate on this website, on any website actually, and I'm taking this as an opportunity to learn from other great debaters such as yourself. I will be countering your points and adding some of mine which will be my counter argument. By saying illegal gambling do you mean like counting cards ? Nevertheless since marijuana is illegal most of its sellers are either small solo distributors or work for a criminal that gains money by selling weed in the streets, funding them with more and more money. According to about.com "the average price of 0.5 grams (a unit) of marijuana sold for $8.60 on the street, while its cost of production is only $1.70." Making the average profit a big 7 dollars on each unit. If you think about since marijuana is illegal you can only buy it from criminal; however, if it became legal you may have Marijuana stands like cigarette stands on the streets, giving people, who have a potential at farming, jobs. People can even get creative with them, like making bars for weed like bars for alcohol, where people can go in a smoking environment and buy marijuana and smoke them and cant leave while being high... You cant compare gambling with marijuana because gambling doesn't have medical benefits whatsoever, it even has a much more higher addiction rate than cannabis. According to common belief, Marijuana is considered as a gateway drug to more serious drugs like cocaine and heroine, which is wrong. According to drugpolicy.org " Marijuana does not cause people to use hard drugs. Marijuana is the most popular illegal drug in the United States today. Therefore, people who have used less popular drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and LSD, are likely to have also used marijuana. Most marijuana users never use any other illegal drug and the vast majority of those who do try another drug never become addicted or go on to have associated problems. Indeed, for the large majority of people, marijuana is a terminus rather than a so-called gateway drug. " In my opinion, doing cannabis, which has proved many and many times that it has medical uses, is better than doing any other drug or cigarettes, and I'm sure many marijuana and other drug users and non users would agree with that. You had made a point stating that there is little to no financial benefit in legalizing marijuana, I beg to differ, and so does the Huffington Post. According to an article about Marijuana, legalizing the drug will help the economy in a major way. " The states could see a major economic boon because of the legalization. The new measure is expected to bring the two states more than $550 million combined, with more than 300 economists previously estimating that legalizing pot could save the U.S. up to $14 billion a year...". The prohibition of the drug alone costs about 13.7 billion dollars a year, which can be used for more useful purposes than stop a "useful" drug. What if marijuana is legalized? That doesn't have to mean that every one will use it. Like anything else in the world, marijuana has its cons, but they are nothing compared to its health benefits. You said that mothers who are pregnant and smoked pot had problems with their babies. Just because marijuana is legal doesn't mean everyone, children, adults, pregnant women, grown men, will smoke it. Cigarettes and alcohol are legal and you don't see everyone smoking and drinking. In addition, unlike alcohol, overdosing on marijuana is virtually impossible. Furthermore, marijuana is known to help with depression, and reduce muscle pains with just the first joint. To conclude, weed is widespread anyway, instead of paying all this money and effort on trying to stop it why not think smart and give the people what they want while making profit and saving money to give poor people a better lifestyle? Sorry my answer took time, I was travelling