Debate: U.S. should put an end to war on drugs, legalize pot?
Side: End the war on drugs, legalize

"But the American public has come to understand the bad that can come of these drugs."Annual deaths in the US from tobacco: 435,000Annual deaths in the US from alcohol: 85,000Total recorded deaths due to marijuana: 0I'm not so sure people understand the harm that comes from them.I don't see how you can support prohibition of marijuana, but not alcohol and tobacco without realizing what a hypocrite you are. Alcohol and tobacco are far worse no matter what metric you use."Just because pot may not be physically addicting, does not mean it is not mentally addicting, which is just as bad. It means your brain is hooked and can't function without it. "No you can still function without it, you are thinking about the addiction that comes from cigarettes which you support. Marijuana can be psychologically addictive. All that means is that if you really like the feeling of being high, you will want to do it again. This does not mean you are not able to not do it. Anything that you enjoy can be psychologically addictive (Sex, gambling, createdebate.com). Even if marijuana were addictive like cigarettes and alcohol, you cannot use this point to argue against legalization unless you support prohibition of alcohol and tobacco. As I said name something bad that it doesn't have in common with those two drugs."They tend to forget that marijuana smoke is 6 times worse than cigarette smoke, when it comes to carbon monoxide and the toxicity of the smoke itself."You have one misleading and one incorrect fact there. Marijuana smoke has been shown to not cause cancer. Scientists hypothesized that it would cause cancer because it contains more harmful chemicals, but when they did actual studies on live animals, they found absolutely no link between marijuana and any form of cancer. This is just one study by UCLA I can get more if you desire them.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR2006052501729.htmlSo while it may be true that it contains more harmful chemicals, for whatever reason it still doesn't cause cancer. In reference to the toxicity of the smoke, you couldn't be more wrong. Scientists have not been able to induce death in an animal due to marijuana. It's LD50, or quantity that would be lethal to half the population, is so high, that we cannot even find it. It is physically impossible to overdose on marijuana and consequently there has never been a recorded death due to it.http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/mj_overdose.htmI have absolutely no idea what you are talking about when you say smoke causes "little nicks" in arteries. Please cite an article or study because what you are saying makes no sense.The study you cited by the British Lung Foundation doesn't appear to have been published in a peer reviewed medical journal like the studies that show marijuana is not harmful. Here is why the study is misleading.They start out with a very bold statement "Smoking pure cannabis is more harmful to lungs than tobacco, a health charity is warning." So you continue on reading to see how exactly they proved that.First "evidence": "A study by the British Lung Foundation found that just three cannabis joints a day cause the same damage as 20 cigarettes."First of all it is very uncommon to smoke three joints a day. Secondly they were most likely comparing unfiltered joints and filtered joints which is really intellectually dishonest. They also don't talk about what type of damage they are referring to. Marijuana smoke does temporarily paralyze the cilia or small hairs in your air passageways which can temporarily increase the risk of colds and other upper respiratory tract infections(OH NO). The smoke does not cause permanent damage to the lungs. Furthermore there are other ways to ingest marijuana, including water filtering which removes a significant amount of tar and dangerous chemicals, vaporizing which releases only the THC and no harmful chemicals, and eating which also releases no tar or dangerous chemicals.Second "evidence": "Evidence shows that tar from cannabis cigarettes contains 50% more cancer causing carcinogens than tobacco."As I said earlier this is a really dishonest thing to say. While it may contain more carcinogens, it doesn't cause cancer. Numerous studies have failed to find any link. Yet there are an immeasurable number of studies that show the direct link between tobacco smoke and cancer. Think about it, if marijuana smoke was so much worse than tobacco smoke, or even bad all, why are there no studies showing it actually causes cancer, but so many showing tobacco causes cancer. There is even research marijuana may kill cancerous cells and leave healthy cells alone.http://www.salem-news.com/articles/january112008/cancer_treatment_11008.php As I said, they don't have any concrete evidence that it causes health problems. It is not enough to say it contains dangerous chemicals. Especially when numerous studies show the chemicals don't cause damage.You still somehow manage to fail to name one negative result of legalizing marijuana that does not apply to alcohol or cigarettes with evidence. Every thing you named once again is present in alcohol or tobacco and most of them weren't true.So once again I ask you to name a negative result of marijuana that isn't present in tobacco or alcohol. And don't give me, 'it's too late to make alcohol and tobacco illegal.' First of all it is never too late, that is a cop out. But regardless of the pragmatism of making them illegal, I'll bet you still don't think we should.