Resolved: The possession, use, and sale of recreational marijuana should be legalized in the U.S.

Rebuttals: "Contention 1: Economic Benefits. Legalizing pot allows the United States to allow a wealth of economic benefits in the form of tax revenue and also in the form of liberating costly prisoners from incarceration. We have already seen examples of collecting revenue. According to the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), between January 2014 and October 2014, Colorado accrued 40 million dollars of tax revenue by legalizing marijuana and allowing 21+ citizens to purchase it. Suppose that we extrapolated legalization to the whole country. According to the Huffington Post, this would result in $8.7 billion per year in the form of state and federal taxes. Taxing any good or service allows the economy to grow, because it provides money that is uesd for other programs. In the case of marijuana legalization, these programs translate to education, health care, and drug addiction treatment, valuable impacts in our society. Furthermore, legalizing marijuana prevents costs that are associated with incarcerating individuals. According to the DPA, approximately 750 thousand citizens are arrested for an infraction of marijuana law each year. Furthermore, the cost of incarceration is $47,000 per prisoner per year. This translates to 7 to 10 billion dollars per year that are wasted on locking up stoners (rather than rapists or murderers). Clearly, not only does legalizing marijuana create money; keeping it illegal costs money. This 35 billion dollars could be used to reduce the national deficit, solve other crimes, or perhaps reduce taxes on American citizens." This is only the money the US gets from the tax revenue, and this is nothing compared to the amount of money spent on substance abuse. The U.S spends about $193 billion on illicit drugs, so the economic benefits are outshined by the drawbacks. "Contention 2: Legalizing marijuana reduces crime. Legalizing marijuana prevents police officers from wasting their time arresting harmless stoners, when they could be spending these efforts and resources fighting actually dangerous crimes, such as murder, theft, or rape. According to RollingStone Magazine, marijuana arrests are no longer real "police work";" My source says otherwise, but do not forget, Colorado is one out 4 states that have no restrictions on marijuana, so tell me, how is it known that other states won't have people committing crimes too. Lots of these cops said that they arrested the smokerrs due to possession alone, and they most likely haven't smoked enough to become depressed, anxious, or want to commit crimes, like what is happening in Colorado. As Pro, you need to prove that legalizing marijuana would be beneficial in all of those states. "Legalizing marijuana reduces or eliminates racial discrimination in law enforcement. It should be clear to the layperson that most marijuana arrests are against racial minorities, particularly blacks. A black individual is no more likely to use pot than a white person but, in Washington D.C., is over 8 times more likely to be arrested for it." Well I will lay some statistics on you, proportionally, blacks cause more crimes than whites do. Not in actuality, but mainly because there are more whites than blacks in this country. Whites make up 63.7% of the U.S population, while blacks make up 12.2%. However, annually whites have an average of 6,484,507 victimizations, and blacks have 4,091,971. Again, the whites have more people, so of course they will have more victimizations, but they have more than 5 times the population of blacks in the U.S, but don't even have twice as many victimizations, and so with the smaller percentage blacks have, they are actually more likely to commit crimes or be accused of one's than a white. Also while there have been confirmed biases against black people by cops, I don't think that nullifies every single case for it, as I don't see proof of that, and I have demonstrated blacks are more likely to commit a crime. " keeping it illegal does not deter its use. In fact, the criminal nature of cannabis provides a compelling reason for drug cartels to enter the country and sell cannabis, with no regard to whether the weed is tainted with dangerous chemicals like PCP. Since the illegality of marijuana fails to have any deterrent effect, legalizing pot will allow the government to closely control and regulate it." If drug cartels come to America, wouldn't that mean that a) marijuana use will be increased? and b) it's likely that the marijuana will be unhealthy? The Drug cartels are not our government, so I doubt they would regulate it. They just want money. And how will the regulations help? It might decrease a few deaths, however, any kind of smoke contains carcinogens, which can give you cancer and destroy your lungs. Are they going to guarantee that it doesn't release smoke? It is still dangerous and can lead to death if this isn't the case. "Americans have freedom of choice. An American citizen should be able to do whatever she want, so long as her actions do not infringe upon the rights of others." Marijuana can lead to committing a bunch of crimes, which does lead to users infringing the right of others, correct? This tramples the freedom in others, and as I have said, what makes you think it is safe to legalized pot across the U.S? If it goes against the rights of others, and marijuana is the cause, then marijuana shouldn't be legal. It is simple. Sources: https://www.drugabuse.gov... http://www.amren.com... http://www.infoplease.com...