Marijuana should not be legalized in the United States

I am glad my opponent clarified, supported, and made logically sound arguments for his case on how marijuana hurts our economy. This is my first time debating Marijuana Legilization but I think I'll do fine. Let's begin. Marijuana is a Personal Choice Marijuana is a personal choice and the government has no business in regulating that of which is a personal choice among humans. The government has an interest in protecting others from things they don’t want, but when a human makes a personal choice that will only affect their own body of their own consent, the government has no business in regulating or denying someone the decision of acting upon these choices. Now, you may argue that the government should make marijuana illegal because when humans are high they may be under the influence. Marijuana is much like alcohol. When used correctly and appropriately everything will go fine and as intended. They are only dangerous when abused. Alcohol can be completely safe, but once someone over drinks and gets drunk is the only time when alcohol ever becomes a danger. Since marijuana is inherently non-dangerous when used correctly, the government should not have an interest in making it illegal. To argue against this would follow under the logic of “well some people are terrible drivers, so we should punish those who do drive correctly and just ban all cars all together since they can be dangerous.” Obviously this logic is completely flawed. Humans should have the freedom to make a decision that will only affect them, whether it is bad for themselves or not. Marijuana Prohibition Is Not Worth It Instead of illegalizing marijuana and actually making its existence disappear all together, all that really happens is that marijuana goes to the black market, where it is sold to citizens illegally. This means that despite marijuana actually being illegal, people are still going to be able to get their hands on it, and quite easily at that. Just look around you, I guarantee that you know at least a few people (if not indirectly) that do weed and are pretty open about it. Fact is, people don’t think it’s wrong, and they recognize it as a personal choice with little to no harmful effects. Seeing this as true, the government spends 7,000,000,000 dollars funding marijuana prohibition in the United States.(1) That is ridiculous, especially for something that shouldn’t be illegal at all. In addition, 60-70% of all jail inmates are in there for drug possession(1); Seeing that Marijuana is the most popular and easiest to get drug this would mean a good chunk of those inmates cold be free right now. Once you legalize marijuana you just freed up a lot of prison space for people that actually deserve to be in there. In addition, this helps solve the problem on the prison space issue that has arisen in the United States. Even more to all of this, by legalizing marijuana you can make it government regulated and taxed, therefore adding money growth to the government. After all, Marijuana is the single largest cash crop in America and the government should take advantage of this. (2) Conclusion All humans, through their basic dignity that they are born with, should have the right to make a decision that will inherently affect their own body, whether that choice is dangerous or not. Marijuana directly falls under this category and unlike hardcore drugs, has far less harmful effects on the user, and far less chances of it being dangerous to other people around them. By keeping marijuana illegal, you degrade our free will to make decisions that will only affect us, while spending a lot of money on marijuana prohibition that could be well spent elsewhere; In addition by legalizing marijuana you free up a lot of jail space which helps solve that problem. Legalizing marijuana has many benefits for the United States and should therefore be legal. (1) http://www.changetheclimate.org... (2) http://www.drugscience.org...