The United States should NOT Legalize Marijuana

I believe that marijuana would economically stabilize the United States, improve the lives of cancer patients, lower the crime rate of the US by severing our bonds with foreign drug cartels, and make it so we wouldn't have to waste our important police forces on arresting people for possession. First off, marijuana would be a major cash crop in the United States if it were legalized. In Colorado, in just the FIRST WEEK of being legal, the marijuana sales exceeded 5 million dollars. (1) Because it is estimated that 100 million people in the United States have used marijuana, and it's obvious that they aren't all lifetime criminals, it would be a good plan to just legalize it. (2) That way, the United State's government will be able to collect the hefty tax that comes with marijuana being purchased legally. This will make America lots of money, and get our economy moving like no other new product could. Now, I would like to point out that because many studies have been done that show marijuana "causes cancer," and many other studies have been done that show that marijuana doesn't cause cancer, that that means that there is no CONCLUSIVE proof that marijuana causes cancer. There have been studies that suggest otherwise, therefore it is not valid to just reference random studies. In fact, there have been a SUBSTANTIAL amount of studies that prove just the opposite, that marijuana can CURE cancer. (3) In fact, here are 20 studies that prove that cancer cells can be killed by the use of cannabis. I would also like to say that marijuana does not cause nearly as much cancer as cigarettes do. There has NEVER been a documented cases of lung cancer caused my marijuana, and I'm sure you know that 80-90% of lung cancer cases are caused by cigarettes, and an estimated 159,480 people died last year because of it. (4) (5) (6) Like I also said before, legalizing marijuana in the United States would help us distance ourselves from the drug cartels of different countries. In fact, a think tank in Mexico released that if JUST Colorado, Oregon and Washington legalized marijuana, the drug cartel's earnings would go down 30%. (7) Because the marijuana would be domestically grown if it were legalized in the United States, we could essentially completely cut Mexican and Colombian drug cartels out of the picture. This would lower the crime rate, and make our citizens safer. My last statement is just simply a fact. If we made it legal to use marijuana, we wouldn't have to waste our valuable police forces on arresting college kids for carrying marijuana... they could concern themselves with much more important business. This would also make our streets safer, because the police forces would be more focused on things that mattered. Because I have shown you that there is no conclusive evidence that marijuana causes cancer (in fact evidence of the opposite,) that legalizing marijuana would stabilize the US economically by creating a brand new industry, and that through distancing ourselves from foreign drug cartels and keeping our police forces on the important issues, our citizens will be safer, I urge a vote for con. (1) http://www.huffingtonpost.com... (2) http://norml.org... (3) http://www.collective-evolution.com... (4) http://patients4medicalmarijuana.wordpress.com... (5) http://www.lung.org... (6) http://seer.cancer.gov... (7) http://www.cbsnews.com...