Legality of Marijuana in the US

Cannabis is bad for diplomacy, here is why: Since you are libertarian, I would assume that you want to minimize the gov't and gov't spending as much as possible. Legalizing Cannabis will actually INCREASE the scope of gov't. The gov't will have two choices diplomatically when they legalize cannabis (If you come up with an alternative option, you may tell me what it is). A. Don't enforce the exportation of it to other countries that have it banned (Terrible for diplomacy, allowing your country to bring illegal substances in to another country is always bad for diplomacy) B. INCREASE border enforcement (Costs more $$$), and crack down on all illegal Cannabis&Narcotics exports. Both of these will have extremely negative effects on our country, or any other country. 2. China and Opium I will not go on an extended argument for this, I will copy and paste my original argument on an old DDO post I made: "Is taking the situation in China where the British introduced opium to the Chinese a good historical example of why we shouldn't have marijuana? Marijuana is a little less potent than opium, but both boil down to virtually the same thing. My argument can cite various sources of why opium/marijuana substance is dangerous. . http://en.wikipedia.org...... . http://answers.yahoo.com...... . http://isedphistory.wordpress.com...... . http://faculty.quinnipiac.edu...... My sources fairly explain why Opium destroyed China's economy, society and resulted in multiple devastating wars. " Read my sources and they will cite the various failures of the lax opium policy in China, some are not applicable to modern society, some are. 3. Functioning and non-functioning Drug Users Some people justify the usage of Marijuana and Cannabis by claiming that there are functioning and non-functioning drug users. The sources I have found claim that this is highly untrue. They also say that Cannabis and Marijuana may not be lethal, but they kill brain cells much faster than alcohol, and Cannabis acts as a gateway drugs to other lethal, more harmful drugs. 4. Your rights only extend out to the point that they don't affect others As stated in the constitution, your rights can not get in the way of other people's rights. Marijuana, due to it's addictive qualities (my sources cite that Marijuana is, indeed addictive), can cause people who can not afford the substance they are addicted to, to do things they are not proud of. These things could include stealing from family members, or other people, abusing or hurting others due to their anger at withdrawal, and more. 5. The taxation argument While my opponent may not agree with this, it does not take logic or even proof to back this simplistic, but true statement. People who sell Marijuana & Cannabis already have no regard to the law, why would they when it comes to allowing their weed to be taxed? The arguments I have stated above should outweigh the little bit of revenue we would gain from the minority who would tax their weed. People might still buy from the people who don't tax their substance because it will be cheaper, since they won't have to put their prices up from product taxation. You could crack down on those who don't tax their substance physically, but this would once again be detrimental to your libertarian argument, because it would cost money to enforce the taxation of marijuana! My extra links are here: . http://www.expatica.com... . http://www.ibtimes.com...