The United States Should Legalize Marijuana for Recreational Use

I held out as long as I could due to Pro’s request. I applogize for the shortness as I'm short for time to make my opponent's wishes come true. For this debate I shall be running the following counter-plan. Resolved: The United States Federal Government should eliminate its mandatory minimum sentencing reduce the crime of possession of Marijuana from a felony to a mistermeanor. Contention 1: Racism and Poverty. Coming into this debate one of the key things we can see that is a problem here in today’s date is how upended and racist the War on Drugs is. Even though 14% of African Americans do drugs a whopping 34% are searving time in prison for during marijuana. We can also see that the same African Americans are searving the exact amount of time as violent white criminals. [1] With this being the case we can see that a key issue facing Americans today is the fact that if you do marijuana you get a felony with a mandatory minimum sentencing. This is unfair as not only does this robs Americans of years of their life while they are in jail, but it hurts them after words. We can see that this unfairly targets the poor. 90% of those arrested are for possession and all of those from the inner cities. The FB reports that this occurs once every 42 seconds. [2] We are harming our Civil Rights as well as the Sentencing Project has reported that 8% of the Black voting age population isn’t allowed to vote because they’re a convicted felon due to drugs and the total US it’s 5.85 million. The poverty increases in this according to the “Waiting for Superman” documentary we have seen that in PN that 68% of the inmates that are searving time for doing marijuana are high school drop outs. While it costs prisons $33,000 a year on a prisoner making the total cost of one prison term being to $132,000. To put that in perspective the average cost of a private school is $8,300 per year. [3] Now we should continue our War on Drugs, but tone down marijuana a tad bit and focus on harder drugs. Contention 2: Why Legalization WON’T work. Now I generally agree with a lot with many people who want people to help those in jail for marijuana, but legalization isn’t the answer. For one thing you would only see a 4.4% price decline in marijuana as it is in the black market. [4] There wouldn’t be much of a decrease in crime as the price wouldn’t drop far enough and the cartel would still operate under their territory. In Los Angelas, "police report that areas surrounding cannabis clubs have experienced a 200 percent increase in robberies, a 52.2 percent increase in burglaries, a 57.1 percent increase in aggravated assault, and a 130.8 percent increase in burglaries from automobiles." [5] So we can see that a total legalization would be nothing but trouble for many people. Marijuana is a key gate-way drug and it’s legalization will cause a near slippery slope that will lead to increase of crime in regards to other drugs. A key thing that I like to focus on is schooling. Marijuana cause a reaction in the brain that destroys focal memory loss and cognitivity. This leads to a key thing that causes a massive amount ofd drop outs in school and those who do poorly in schools also turn to marijuana. [6] This is a key double edged sword and is something that the federal government should endorse. To make matters worse they surveyed that 9 out of 10 students that smoked pot turned to cigarettes. This has also harmed the individual as this has harmed the cognitive of the individual. Smoking Marijuana among kids has caused, “negative peer associations, weak social bonds, low aspirations, and increased deviant behaviors.” [7] Before my opponent springs into play arguing for placing limits on it like alchol there is still negative affects that can occur. Criminologist James Q. Wilson argued that legalization would decrease the cost leading to an, “increase the number of users; this increase will be permanent… and many aspects of society will be profoundly impacted by the drug-incapacitated persons [including more welfare, broken families, and traffic deaths].” [8] The National Bureau of Economic Research has found in its research on medical marijuana legalization, “legalization increased both marijuana use and marijuana abuse/dependence in people 21 or older … People 12 to 20 years old were 5 to 6 percent more likely to try marijuana for the first time when medical use was legalized.” Sources (http://www.drugpolicy.org...) (http://www.usnews.com...) (http://www.justice.gov...) (http://www.rand.org...) (http://www.heritage.org...) (Matsuda L.A., Bonner T.I., Lolait S.J. 1993. Localization of cannabinoid receptor messenger RNA in rat brain. Journal of Comparative Neurology 327: 535-550.) Collins R.L., Ellickson P.L. 2004. Integrating four theories of adolescent smoking. Substance Use and Misuse 39: 179-209. (http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu...) (http://www.nber.org...)