Drug Legalization

Wow. That's the best argument I've seen in weeks. Nice."Humans have the inalienable rights to insert whatever drug they want into their body, however method they please, and should be able to do so without government restriction. "No, they actually should not. What the government is doing is saving us from harms way. And once you do it, it is not a choice to keep doing it or to stop it. It is really addictive. Once you do, you are hooked. You can't just do it a few times and then just lay off. And in severe cases it gets so addictive, you would LITERALLY do anything to get more. Below is a passage from an article [1]: "There have been cases of mothers selling their child, professionals spending thousands of dollars on binges costing from $20,000 to $50,000. Some may lose their jobs, families, become bankrupt, and even die." "life, to health, to due process and a fair trial, to be free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, from slavery, and from discrimination.[1]"...How have ANY (besides slavery) of those things ever worked? We have:*Death Penalty (inhumane treatment)*LWOP (No trial)*Racial remarks everywhere (discrimination)May I also point out that drugs CAUSES torture AND destroys your life and health, which is two violations of that amendment."If non-violent drug users are not hurting anybody else, we should not be sending them to jail for months, and even years."Not about the jail time, that is a whole separate debate there. We are talking about the legalization of drugs, and I don't see how jail has anything to do with this. Please explain in better context.The rest of your first argument has to do with the amendments. We literally violate the amendments every single day. And we don't even know it: *No-Fly Lists: Points out who can and can't fly. That is not freedom but is necessary.*The ENTIRE fourth amendment...*NSA spying"The War on Drugs has left Mexico in ruins."I'm not arguing about the War on Drugs, just if they should be legalized. I'm sorry if you got confused, but that isn't the point of this whole debate. "The overall conflict has left 55,000 people, including 3,000 soldiers and police officers, dead[4]"If 10,000 people a year are dying from something that is rarely taken, then imagine how high those numbers would skyrocket. The 58,000 people dead would almost surely be surpassed within a year if the drugs were legalized. The War on Drugs is not as failed as many people think it is. For example, drugs are about as addictive as smoking [G1]: And smoking kills 5 million people PER YEAR [2]. Cocaine and heroin, the two drugs further up there, would kill five million as well, likely. The other 17 drugs on there would probably kill millions more. Smoking is an example of an average drug. And people are trying to ban it. Also look at the fact that tobacco is actually not that big of a physical harm on that list. That is freakin' scary..."The War on Drugs has cost over $1 trillion dollars, but has it really worked[6]?" Compared to smoking, it has. It may not have worked as well as people thought it would, but it is still doing stuff. Also, your graph on that further proves my point. If drugs were made legal, those numbers would skyrocket. Do we really want that? Also, people would spend a load of money on drugs each year. Like smoking, it can make you bankrupt because it costs so much and you need it so badly."Deaths and Emergency room visits have skyrocketed, despite spending going up every year."I love that. "Deaths and emergency room visits." That's just what drugs can do to you.Also, of course drugs are going up. On your first graph, it stated that 12 people per 100,000 die. That means per the net population growth rate of 80,000,000 [3], there are about 9,600 new users per year. So it isn't going up as high as you think it is.The last thing I would like to say is that the numbers aren't going down because of addiction. It is so addictive you can't quit it without heavy help and rehabilitation."More specifically, 32.000 people are directly infected with HIV/AIDS or Hepatitis C because prohibition isn't allowing drug users access to clean syringes[9]"Ok... just wow. You stated earlier that it is their choice if they want to use drugs, so they are "choosing" to get infected with AIDS. You must think they know the risks and decide to do it anyway. Plus, do you know how dumb that actually sounds?! If you gave drug users clean needles, it would be insane! Numbers would rise by a ton. That is a necessary movement. Also, as I stated in the second round, drugs can weaken your immune system, thus giving you a higher chance to get HIV/AIDS. If it was legal, then the numbers would be higher than 32,000 people."-The Legalization of Drugs would save $41.3 billion dollars every year, with $25.7 billion of the savings coming from state/local government, and $15.6 dollars savings coming from the federal government. "May I correct you? Save the government money. It would bankrupt people at an alarming rate. "• $20 billion to fight the drug gangs in their home countries. In Colombia, for example, the United States spent more than $6 billion, while coca cultivation increased and trafficking moved to Mexico - and the violence along with it."Yes, but taxpayers annually spend 11.26 million dollars every hour against actual fighting wars alone, such as in Afghanistan. That means it would take Americans just 75 days of payment to equal the war on drugs. And that is just war taxes alone. 20 billion seems like a ton, but it actually is not. That goes for all of your next arguments about money."37 million non violent people have been arrested for simple using drugs."So you are stating we need to be violent to go to jail? That is not the case. The government is saving us from ourselves here, and giving us a worthy punishment of our actions."The Federal War on Drugs has racial discrimination to minorities. Although whites and minorities use and sell drugs at similar rates, 67%(2/3) of incarcerated drug offenders in state prisons are minorities[9]. Also, despite government studies showing African-Americans using cannabis at lower rates than whites, African-Americans were arrested in California at 300% the rate of whites for possession. [7]"Yeah, like drugs is the main reason for discrimination. That could mean anything. Maybe it means that whites are better than getting away than minorities, there is no simple way to know what it means.Since I have wasted about 7,000 characters arguing against you, I will keep my arguments short and to the point.We already have sample sizes of drugs, such as smoking and alcohol. Alcohol kills up to 26,000 per year in the U.S.A alone [4]. This compares to some of the "lesser" drugs, which are not cocaine and heroin [G2]: As you can see, if we legalized drugs, a ton of people would become dependent on it.Due to the fact that it is the third round, I did not post a big argument in hopes that you would do the same. Thank you for reading.Summarizing my argument so far;-Addiction-Death rates-Comparisons to alcohol-What it does to you-Foreseeing what would happen if drugs were legalized_____________________________________________________________Sources:[1] http://www.medicalnewstoday.com...[2] http://www.cdc.gov...[3] http://www.worldometers.info...[4] http://www.cdc.gov...Graph websites:[G1] http://www.medicalnewstoday.com...[G2] http://www.drugwarfacts.org...