Debate+Notes+(FOR)

Prohibition Works

Many anti-prohibition activists focus on the well-documented dangers of alcohol (such as alcoholism, cystisis, domestic violence, brain and liver damage). Scientists cite statistics to show more deaths caused by drunk driving under the influence of alcohol than by drivers under the influence of marijuana.

A 2002 DAWN report for the USA records two overdoses where marijuana was the only drug found.

Legal drugs however, have been the cause of more than half a million deaths a year: 480,000 from tobacco smoking-related illnesses and 80,000 from alcohol abuse.

Together, tobacco and alcohol cause about 20% of all yearly deaths in the USA.

This inconsistency between the harm caused and the legal status of these common drugs undermines the declared motives of the law enforcement agencies to reduce harm by prohibition of marijuana.