Legalization of Marijuana

Thank you for your argument. And I will answer it with six points. 1) Marijuana is often used as a stepping-stone drug, leading to heroin, cocaine, or other harder drugs. According to studies made by institutions such as the NIDA Marijuana users use it thinking it is harmless. It causes a "high" and then a bigger "high" is needed to have an effect so people turn to harder drugs such as LSD, cocaine and heroin. People generally do not start with harder drugs but, marijuana emboldens people to do so. 2) Stoned driving and other dangers would be increased. Marijuana is not a victimless crime because many crimes are committed when under the influence of drugs. Drunk driving is still a major problem in our society despite all the education and stiff penalties. Alcohol is legal. But, driving drunk is easy to detect and to stop. If someone is "driving high" it would be harder to detect. There is no distinctive breath odor from someone driving while under the influence of marijuana. There is also the possibility that the lapse of judgement caused by marijuana will cause felonies to be committed. 3) Legalization would increase the chances of the drug falling into the hands of kids. Even unhealthy legal items such as cigarettes and alcohol are prohibited from being sold to kids. This is because kids generally don't exhibit the same reasoning, responsibility, and judgment of an adult. And their bodies aren't as equipped to handle the intake of these substances. The problem is even worse for marijuana use. Developing brains and bodies can be dealt serious blows by the use of marijuana. Any time you make something legal, you increase the accessibility to children. All too often kids and teenagers get their hands on alcohol or cigarettes. We shouldn't let the same thing happen with marijuana. 4) Because of drug-related arrests, people who have committed or are likely to commit more serious crimes can be taken off the streets. People who produce, sell, traffic, or use illegal drugs have already established themselves as people who will break the law. Anyone who commits drug-related felonies isn't likely to be constrained in committing other felonies, such as robbery, rape, murder, etc. If such people are in prison because of drug charges, they aren't able to go out and commit other crimes. Also, it often occurs that there isn't enough evidence to imprison felons for the serious crimes like murder; however, if they can be imprisoned for something, society is much better off. At a minimum, they will be off the streets, unable to wreak more havoc. 5) Physical damage would be done to users that abuse the drug Although some studies have been disputed, marijuana abuse has been tied to brain damage, cancer, lung damage, depression, amotivational syndrome, and even death. The brain damage has been shown to cause memory loss and difficulty in problem solving. It is the governments duty to protect the public from such dangerous drugs. After all, that's why the FDA was created. 6) More widespread use would increase the dangers of secondhand smoke-damage to bystanders The dangers of secondhand cigarette smoke are well-publicized. Common sense tells us that more widespread usage of marijuana increases the likelihood that other people would suffer the damage of inhaling other people's smoke. Public places like bars would expose innocent patrons. In the home siblings, roommates, kids, and spouses would all face increased exposure. Thus, the health damage to society becomes somewhat exponential. The government has a responsibility to protect citizens of the United States from dangerous things such as marijuana. In your argument you mentioned something called a "vaporizer". Could you not say that more people would use other methods which are considerably easier to use like paper wraps or bongs?