hey fellow blades! thanks for reading! i was lucky enough to snag the topic of legalization of marijuana in the US for a debate in my speech class, and on top of that i am representing the affirmative viewpoint. i go to a christian centered private high school [lame i know, i miss public school], so i was surprised i was able to pick this topic. i figured since this was such a great opportunity, i would ask the city for help so that i absolutely "smoke" the opposition, pun intended. any links to articles and studies would be greatly appreciated. and if you can find something that proves marijuana use does not conflict with christianity, that would be especially helpful. any advice, tips, tricks, whatever. thanks for reading!
Think of all the things your opponent has AGAINST maijuana, and be ready to blow those points out of the water. For Example: The black market creates the gateway. Associating marijuana with harder drugs and keeping it on the black market creates not only the gateway for harder drugs, but harder crimes as well. Many people who deal marijuana deal with other, much more dangerous and addictive substances as well, and by associating yourself with an illegal drug dealer, you are more likely to come in contact with harder drugs and therefore the association makes you more likely to try said drugs. Here's another one people use: That is not true as well. The only reason why you associate marijuana users with "pot heads" is because you do not realize how many individuals partake in the consumption of cannabis. Doctors, lawyers, executives -- marijuana is used regularly by a wide demographic. Whether you're a gold medalist or the leader of an entire nation, people of all colors, sizes, and classes choose to use a safer alternative to alcohol as their recreational mind-altering substance in cannabis. You simply refer to all marijuana users at pot heads because those are the only ones you recognize. And here's one I really like to hear from the anti-cannabis crowd. These kids that are "addicted" to marijuana are only there for one reason. The only other option was jail. These kids go to court and they hear the judge tell them, "Well, you can go to the county jail for a month or take a 'rehab' course." At that point, I think most -- if not all of us -- would choose rehabilitation over jail time. Oh and I'll throw in a bonus one for you: This statistic is skewed. When you go to an emergency room, you are asked if you have used any illegal substances recently. If you include marijuana on this list, it doesn't matter if you are there for marijuana or not, it's included in the statstic. You could be there for a severe flu, a hangnail, whatever -- if you have used marijuana within the past week or so and notify them of that, it will be a statistic. The fact is, there has never been a single documented death directly related to using marijuana. That means, there have been more deaths this year from drowning in your own toilet, taking too many Aspirin, and peanut butter than there have been marijuana deaths. That's because there aren't any. In a day and age where one can go to the store, buy a fifth of Jack Daniels, and drink themself to death, that same person can't choose to consume a substance that will not harm themself without being put behind bars.
Excellent points, my good man. Just adding to the gateway drug nonsense. Any statistics saying that all heroin addicts used marijiuana is like saying all heroin addicts drank milk when they were children, so milk must lead to heroin abuse. These "studies" look at the heroin users and record how many of them used marijuana. They do not follow the scientific/common sense method and look at marijuana users and see how many of them go on to heroin. The percentage is much much much lower. Hope that makes sense, best of luck to you.
Matticus you had some great points there and ghou1ie good luck with your debate. show your school whats up!
What harms would be alleviated by making the production and sale of marijuana to adults legal? ..what opportunities would be created, and what costs incurred? List the benefits ranked according to their importance, what is at the top? The number one benefit from legalizing the production and sale of marijuana is to end the murders being committed by the cartels. Nothing is more important than saving the lives of innocent people, so no matter what they throw at you concerning the "harms" associated with smoking marijuana reply that these fade into insignificance when compared with the 6,290 murders that were committed by the cartels last year in order to protect their sales of marijuana into the U.S. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090227/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_drug_battle This is the reason why the alcohol prohibition was ended! People didn't say "alcohol is safe so let's legalize it", they said alcohol is dangerous but its dangers are NOTHING when compared with the violence and murders being committed because it's illegal. Use the same logic they did. The numbers support your claims: ..more than 1,000 people murdered in the first eight weeks of 2009, $10 billion earned annually by the cartels through selling drugs into the U.S., 60% of that money coming from marijuana sales alone, violence more than doubling in 2008 and expected to increase even more in 2009. And don't be afraid to be graphic. talk about how the cartels behead many of their victims and soak their bodies in baths of acid. Talk about the 6 yr-old boy who they killed by injecting acid directly into his heart. Talk about the horrific tortures they commit on police officers before they kill them, and how the prohibition has created a class of people who feed on violence. While there is demand for marijuana in the U.S. there will be people willing to meet it. It's like a multi-billion dollar stack of money sitting just inside the U.S. border and all these incredibly poor people have to do is move a little weed north and that money starts flowing to them. Prevent them from using one route and they will find another to replace it. The Mexican government claims it can fix this problem but even if it executed every single cartel member and totally eradicated the cartels altogether, a new batch of people will simply take their place. Legalization is the ONLY option to ending this violence. Legal production and sale of marijuana to adults will eliminate the cartel's incomes from selling weed. Think about it, where do you buy your booze today? ..from a supermarket or liquor store, or from a bootlegger slanging it out the back of his car? The same applies to marijuana, when we have a legal and safe supply nobody will purchase from drug dealers anymore. GL man!
you can always watch "the union" and get some facts there, dont forget to get facts about how legalization will pave the way for the hemp industry. you know talk about all the stuff it can do id get links but im too hungover lol
http://coedmagazine.com/2009/02/06/...theads-on-the-planet-cool-enough-to-admit-it/ Here is the 10 must successful potheads..So you can show some examples of non losers Pot doesnt ruin lives. People ruin their own lives. If it isn't pot, they'll use alcohol, or overeating, or being anti social, or cutting themselves, or whatever. Like alcohol, it can be used responsibly. Holland legalized and their crime rate, prisoners per 1000 people, and rate of kids using have all gone down
My advice: go to amsterdamage's profile, click on statistics, click find more posts, then go through all his posts, and get that info, the man is a genius, and just about every post has something worth reading, and something you could use. -BW
Yes lol every post he makes looks like a completed and edited by an editor magazine article in some sort of NORML publication.
Give an amazing debate recite like 500000 facts from memory using long verbal citations to sound amazingly well read speak an amazing monologue that would be in a movie Speak about biochemistry and canbanaoids and thc molecules and neurotransmitter interactions and sound like a nobel science prize winner genius Then your closing statement is: By the way, I was stoned through out that entire presentation. ...I've always wanted to do that
Here is a tip that I ran into while doing this same topic back in high school. If you asked to find sources with facts which need to be sited, don't use sources such as High Times and the Cannabis Bible etc...I found that "less educated" individuals, who need to spend some more time on G.C. relate these type of sources with less then credible information. Don't get me wrong..I love factual literature such as these and have both of them on the back of my toilet. Sources done by Universities or interviews of individuals within the field relate better to the audience. I found they were less likely to position themselves off the bat on the debate. Here are some stats form the April 2009 edition of High Times: Change.gov which is the official website for the Obama administration. asked American to list the top public policy questions facing America? Visitors of the site were then asked to vote on which topics should be priority of the new administration? Out of 10,000 citizen votes covering 7,300 questions. The top question was,"Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs while creating a billion dollar industry right here in the US?" The answer, "Obama is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana." The surprising thing to me was not that Obama was not in favor but it was that the sole mass of individuals thought that this was such a meaningful factor the new administrations plan. CIA is getting trigger happy and have continued to shoot down mistaken planes for that of importers of the green herb into the United States. The most recent was in April 2001, a missionary family of the US family shot down over Peru by CIA. 10 other instances in the recent past have been documented. A question was posed, "How much money could the US make if marijuana were taxed and regulated?" Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron wrote an chapter on this very topic in my book POT POLITICS (Oxford University Press). His best estimate including the money saved in law enforcement man hours as well as axtual tax revenue was $10 billion per year. Just to give you a feel for how big that number is, if you spent it at the rate of $1 a second, the money would last you over 316 years. Good Luck!
Ha, that would be great. yea ppl already gave you some great advise. good luck man. don't get nervious. And don't get mad if the ppl don't believe you, remember they were brainwashed to think neg about pot.
A person commented on that article and requested to see the 10 most unsuccessful pot-heads in the world. The 10 most unsuccessful would probably be people in jail, having their lifes ruined by the prohibition with a permanent record of "drug abuse". If it was legal, the 10 most unsuccessful pot heads would probably not be that much different from the 10 most unsuccessful sober people but probably better than the 10 most unsuccessful alcoholics.