marijuana legalization

"Marijuana should be legal because it is safer than alcohol. Yep. That's right. That's just an excellent beginning to an enormous debate that is full of solid reasoning and logic, and has proven challenging for the best in the business." It is not challenging if you are logically consistent, it is only challenging when you hold conflicting beliefs like legalizing marijuana for being less harmful than alcohol but not legalizing heroin for being less harmful than alcohol "Believe me-- I know, I've listened to a few debates from national figures on the topic of legalization of cannabis including (but not limited to) Patrick Kennedy, Mason Tvert, Ethan Nadelmann, Rob Kampia, Larry Campbell." You listened to all of them but never sourced them once? "We could waste time and continue to dwell on whether or not I correctly established a valid premise for this debate, or we could look at the actual issue of cannabis legalization or prohibition as a subject of our argument." Considering I never said any about correctly establishing a valid premise, I think we were looking at the actual issue. "I'd much rather get your thoughts on why you think cannabis should not be legal." As mentioned in the first round I don't support it because it is a gateway drug and has bad health effects. "I'm much more interested in learning if you have anything that might rattle my brains a little and provoke thoughts I might not of ever thought of before. Challenge me! This is an important topic." It isn't that important of a topic, and this isn't challenging? "I think cannabis could potentially improve our economy, and potentially solve social, energy and environmental issues, which is a whole lot more important than wasting time dwelling on what I said or did not say in my opening argument." So, you want me to stop focusing on what you are saying and start focusing on things you never said before this round? "What do you think? Life is short. If you're not interested, I understand. I just joined debate dot org. I'm sure someone else will want to debate these issues if you're not up to it." If I wasn't up to it I would not have accepted the debate "Prohibition of cannabis has been a 1.5 trillion dollar waste of taxpayer money since it began in the 30's." unsourced, not mentioned in previous agruments, This equal about 19 million a year which isn't much "Prohibition of cannabis has proven ineffective in preventing people from getting and consuming it at their whim." Also unsourced, Prohibition of murder has proven ineffective in preventing people from murdering at their whim, should we legalize murder then? "Prohibition of cannabis has created a very lucrative black market." Unsourced, Prohibition of heroin has created a very lucrative black market, should we legalize heroin then? "Prohibition of cannabis has created and funded very powerful organized crime gangs. Cartels and basically what are considered to be terrorists." Unsourced, Replace cannabis with heroin, should we legalize heroin then? "Prohibition of cannabis has incarcerated millions of non-violent drug offenders, and as a result our nation has locked away more people per capita than any other nation on earth." So what? "Ending prohibition will enable the government to regulate and tax the sale of it. The revenue generated from those taxes can be used for social programs that help those who abuse it and have problems with it." Ending prohibition of murder will enable the government to regulate and tax the sale of licenses to kill. The revenue generated from those taxes can be used for social programs that help those who abuse it and have problems with it. "Ending prohibition will intake the business of distribution away from the organized criminals, in turn taking their power away." Unsourced, Because ending prohibition will magically make all the drug cartels disappear, and lose power. It won't make them a legitimate business though. "Ending prohibition will make it more difficult for children to access cannabis." Kind of like how having more guns decreases the rate of people getting guns? "Ending prohibition will make it easier for serious scientific research to take place that can confirm or deny many medical, wellness and preventative attributes already associated to it. Colorado just within the last 2 days have confirmed they will spend 7 million, half of their marijuana legislative budget on research. This is huge news regardless of which side of the debate you're on." There is already lots of info and research about it, you make it sound like it is an unknown substance. "Ending prohibition / regulation of cannabis will create enormous tax revenue. Not incarcerating millions of folks will save billions too. 2014 sales projections are in the 3.4 billion range, which obviously doesn't include states where it is currently illegal." This of course to into account the increases in accidents, health effect, bureaucrats to make sure tax is paid, and inspectors to check if they are following the rules right? I would have checked your source but you didn't have one. "Ending prohibition will enable policy makers to reallocate law enforcement personnel to focus on more important crime issues like terrorists instead of cannabis users." Because police are too busy arresting pot smokers to catch the murderer. Then again maybe we should legalize murder. "Your suggestion that we go backwards and prohibit alcohol again and never end prohibition of cannabis is irrational because it already has failed once with alcohol and continues to fail with cannabis" We have better enforcement now than we did over 80 years ago. I told you before the prohibition of alcohol and banning of marijuana can't be compared because they did not do the same thing. "Perhaps you lack understanding or have been influenced of damaging stereotypes that are associated with cannabis users in our popular culture. The fact of the matter is, most cannabis consumers are closet users. They are not the mindless "Spicoli" personalities that everyone associates. " The short answer: nope "Rather, they can be brilliant, intelligent people. You might've heard of these who have either admitted to it or have been caught in the act: 1) Steve Jobs 2) Oprah Winfrey 3) Carl Sagan 4) Morgan Freeman 5) Bill Gates 6) Michael Phelps 7) Barrack Obama" Many people have used appeal to authority too, but it is still a logical fallacy. "Bio Fuels" It could not replace gasoline unless you grew tons of hemp. "Fiber" This is just a conspiracy theory that ignores the fact that many states already banned it, and there was very little hemp growing in the US Anyways. "Like it or not, this is the direction our country is going. Legalization. Some say it's inevitable. But there still may be time to stop it! Tell me why it should be stopped. I want to hear it." Just like the people said when prohibition was coming "Like it or not, this is the direction our country is going" So, please don't fight it, just sit there and do nothing.