Against Legalizing Marijuana.

Resolved, marijuana should stay illegal. There are no staisfactory reasons to permit people to walk around high. The world is already screwed up enough as it is, why make it worse? Some people say marijuana isn't harmful, some say it isn't addictive, but I beg to differ. If it weren't harmful, why would marijuana have some of the same chemicals that tobacco has, which HAVE been proven detrimental? If it weren't addictive, why would 150,000 individuals enter rehab for marijuana treatment every year?

Marijuana is a gateway drug. A Columbia University Centre on Addiction and Substance Abuse study showed that children who smoke marijuana are 85 times more likely to use cocaine then peers who have never tried it. They are also more likely to have unwanted pregnancies and/or get STD's. Studies show that people using crack or heroin have almost without exception used weed first. There are some simple reasons why marijuana leads to harsher drugs: it desensitizes, people will often say, "Marijuana didn't kill me - I don't know what all the fuss is about so how about I try some other things?" From targeting by dealers, "My buddy gave me some free dope and had some other free stuff, so I took it all."

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Knowledge of supply, "I was thinking about trying something else and I already knew exactly who to ask." Drug-taking as a part of social life, "My friends do stuff together. We all smoke weed. Someone had something else, so for a bit of a laugh we all tried it." These are all common quotes from people who have smoked marijuana. Denise Kandel, a researcher in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University stated that, "Very few individuals who have tried heroin and cocaine have not already used marijuana."

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