Marijuana should remain illegal

Ok so, I'm going to make my opening claims and in the next round I will give rebuttals. Contention 1: The ban is not working. As someone who has never been involved in any sort of drugs/alcohol coming from a good, mostly crime free school I know at least 20 people who I could get weed just from being a moderate to highly social person. Cannabis use is on the rise. 6.9% of the population of the U.S. admits to regularly using marijuana. Keep in mind that is just those who admit it, not everyone who regularly uses it. (1) On top of that 49% of Americans claim they have tried marijuana at least once. (2) . The use has gone up in the last year and is predicted to go up in the coming years. (1) For better or for worse we live in a culture that is very tolerant to weed use. Over half of Americans support legalization of marijuana. (2) This has rapidly changed in favor of legalization in recent years and remains on a steady increase. State governments have recently reformed laws hugely in favor of legalization showing we have a culture that is becoming increasingly supportive of Marijuana legalization. Contention 2: Economy Legalizing marijuana would be fantastic for the economy for two different reasons. 1. We would be able to tax/fuel the new industry of legal marijuana. 2. We would be able to greatly decrease spending on the war on drugs. Point one. With only 4 states selling and taxing marijuana the industry is exploding in growth. In one year's time the industry has grown 74% bringing in 2.4 billion last year. It is estimated the industry will be worth 11 billion in 2019. (3) If marijuana was legalized nationwide the industry would grow exponentially. We're talking thousands and thousands of jobs and millions/billions in tax revenue. Sales are predicted to quadruple by 2018 (3) Were marijuana taxed at levels similar to tobacco/alcohol we would gain 46.7 billion in revenue. (4) Point 2. The government spends over 51 billion yearly on the war on drugs. Were the most common drug by far made legal this figure would decrease astronomically. We could hugely decrease the amount of people in jails with legalization greatly decreasing spending. In 2013 693 thousands arrests were made for marijuana related crimes. Were the drug to be legalized the spending that went into that figure would never have to be made. Contention 3: Vicious drug cartels If only there were some way to cut off the revenue of the most violent and brutal gangs in North America, oh wait. The minuscule amount of legalization of marijuana has been hugely effective on cutting illegal trade of marijuana. That means less money for the cartels and more money for the government (5). That means less money to buy guns, bribe cops and murder. Not only are we shutting down drug cartels we're taking down domestic gangs in urban areas. With no money they have no way to recruit and operate. These are gangs who terrorize the population. They recruit their members by giving them an option. Join or die. These criminals take away the hopes and dreams of citizens by trapping them in a criminal culture and dooming them to their inevitable fate of dying before they get a chance to really live. Because of legalization crime is decreasing in the US as well as Mexico. (5) We have a chance to not only improve our country, but to fix a broken one. Didn't we learn anything for prohibition? Making drugs illegal just makes people turn to gangs and cartels to get their supply. Once prohibition was lifted those gangs declined and soon ceased to be. Contention 4: Rehab over punishment. Instead of taking away the drug users future, we need to give them a future by getting them off drugs instead of sending them to prison. Even if we do not make marijuana legal we should at least decriminalize possession of it, so we are not taking away the future of those who really have a chance at making one. Contention 5: Liberty We have the choice to smoke tobacco if we chose to do so at the age of 18. At 18 we also can make the choice to enroll in the dangerous life of a soldier. At 21 we are trusted with the legal ability to consume alcohol. What makes marijuana any different? Is it harmful to the user? Yes, but the state should not baby it's citizens through making choices in their life. We should follow the values that this country was founded on. Specifically liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If that is the choice citizens would like to make to follow their own path, who are we to decide for them? 1. http://www.huffingtonpost.com... 2. http://www.pewresearch.org... 3. http://www.huffingtonpost.com... 4. http://www.drugpolicy.org... 5. http://time.com...