Keeping illicit drugs illegal is the right thing to do, but sometimes it can be hard to refute the pseudo-intellectual arguments that people throw at you. Here are some answers:

You’ve heard it before that…
All of the crime associated with drug use would be eliminated if drugs were legal.

So now you can say…
The problem of drug crime is not just the illegality of drugs, but drug use itself. Six times as many homicides are committed by people under the influence of drugs as by those who are looking for money to buy drugs. 80 percent of the people incarcerated or in the criminal justice system have substance abuse problems. 50 percent of arrestees are high at the time of their arrest.

You’ve heard it before that…
Marijuana would be okay to legalize because people on weed are just laid back and giggly.

So now you can say…
Marijuana users are four times more likely to commit violent acts and five times more likely to steal as non-marijuana users.

You’ve heard it before that…
People who smoke pot just smoke pot; they don’t do the harder stuff.

So now you can say…
Pot users are two to five times more likely to go on to use harder drugs. Specifically, they’re eight times more likely to use cocaine and 15 times more likely to use heroin.

You’ve heard it before that…
Marijuana is a natural substance – how could it be a bad thing?

So now you can say…
Arsenic and belladonna are natural substances, too.

You’ve heard it before that…
People can take drugs and manage their use without getting addicted.

So now you can say…
There is no completely safe way to use illegal, harmful drugs or to inoculate yourself against addiction. Addiction is the number one preventable health problem in the industrialized world.

You’ve heard it before that…
People still use drugs, so the drug war is a failure.

So now you can say…
95 percent of Americans do not use illegal drugs, and the latest studies indicate drug use by teens is going down. That’s a failure?

You’ve heard it before that…
But doesn’t marijuana help those with AIDS and cancer? Shouldn’t it be legal just for those patients?

So now you can say…
Everyone wants to help those victims of such awful diseases, but doctors are already allowed to prescribe a tested, approved medicine that contains the very ingredient in marijuana that helps to alleviate the symptoms that cause so much suffering. Doctors are not afraid of addictive drugs if they can help with pain, but they don’t prescribe smoking the raw form of a medicine to patients whose immune systems are already compromised.

There’s also a lot of misinformation out there about the flawed notion of harm reduction. Misinformation like: it’s a viable, effective option; that addiction is inevitable – that people will always use drugs – so reducing harm is the most effective way to address the problem; that it should be instituted in the U.S. as it is in some European countries; that it improves the lives of addicts and the general public alike by removing the stigma of drug addiction.

Consider these facts and statistics and then think again.

• One conservative estimate of the cost of drug abuse to society is 41 billion dollars a year – but the cost in human suffering is beyond measure. Imagine what it would be if drug use were legal and accepted.

So legal drug use and harm reduction would minimize the harms to users and those around them? Consider those you’re around every day in the workplace…

• Businesses spend between $7,000 and $11,000 more to employ a drug- using employee than a drug free employee.

• Employees who use drugs utilize 300 percent more medical benefits than nonusers and are absent 1.5 times more often.

• 80 percent of the people hurt in on the job accidents involving marijuana are the co-workers of the users—not the users themselves.

Think drugs and the drug culture can be made “safer” for kids? Consider harm reduction measures such as Dance Safe and pill testing at raves…

• Ecstasy often results in severe dehydration and heat stroke in the user, since it  “short-circuits” the body’s temperature signals to the brain.

• Ecstasy can heat your body up to temperatures as high as 117 degrees.

• Today’s drug dealers are savvy businessmen. They market to kids by imprinting Ecstasy pills with cartoon characters and designer logos and promote parties as safe and alcohol-free, while club drugs can flow easier than water.

• Because of new marketing tactics of drug promoters, there is a growing perception among young people today that drugs are harmless. A decade ago, for example, 79 percent of 12th graders thought regular marijuana use was harmful; only 58 percent do so today.

Think legalization and harm reduction protects the general public, as well as users and those who engage in the drug business (dealers, cultivators, growers, etc.)? Consider California, where so-called medical marijuana is legal…

• U.S. Forest Service law enforcement agents estimate the street value of marijuana planted on national forest land in California alone exceeds $1 billion a year.

• Since 1997, the U.S. Forest Service has eradicated seven million pounds of marijuana grown on California national forest land.

• Law enforcement officers and agents say hikers, hunters and other backcountry users have been chased away at gunpoint after stumbling into marijuana gardens—on U.S. National Forest land!

So you think harm reduction should be instituted in the U.S., as it is in some foreign countries where harm reduction is now the norm…

• Registered marijuana dealers in the Netherlands are allowed to deduct from their taxes the business expenses of drug dealing—things like guard dogs and assault rifles.
  
• The Swiss government supplies consumption rooms to provide a " supervision.
  
• Maintenance treatment, like other harm reduction measures, is designed to regulate addicts’ drug use. Methadone maintenance is the most common, but several countries, including Germany, are experimenting with distributing heroin itself.
  
• In the Netherlands, where harm reduction policies are practiced, there is a union/lobbyist group for addicts called the Federation of Dutch Junkie Leagues.
  
• When they found out that crack smoking had increased 22 percent, a harm reduction group in Vancouver decided to attack the problem by giving out free rubber tubing so smokers wouldn’t burn their lips on their crack pipes.
  
• After the Netherlands legalized marijuana use for adults, the usage rate for 18 to 20 year olds nearly tripled from 15 to 44 percent.
  

Speaking of misinformation, there’s hardly more of it floating out there about marijuana than anything else. That it should be approved as a medicine, it’s harmless, it should be legalized outright just like it is in some European countries and it’s all about a laid back and worry-free lifestyle. What’s the truth about marijuana?

So, you think it should be legalized, just like it has in some European countries? Think it hasn’t had a negative impact on the citizens of those countries?

• After the Netherlands legalized marijuana use for adults, the usage rate for 18 to 20 year olds nearly tripled from 15 to 44 percent.
  
• Registered marijuana dealers in the Netherlands are allowed to deduct from their taxes the business expenses of drug dealing – things like guard dogs and assault rifles.

You think marijuana makes you mellow, relaxed and worry-free?

• According to freevibe.com, marijuana users are four times more likely to commit violent acts and five times more likely to steal as non-marijuana users.

You think marijuana use is harmless, that it can’t get you into any trouble or lead you into further drug experimentation?

• Pot users are two to five times more likely to go on to use harder drugs.
  
• Marijuana users are 8 times more likely to use cocaine and 15 times more likely to use heroin.

You think smoking marijuana is a victimless crime? That it doesn’t affect anyone around you?

• 80 percent of the people hurt in on the job accidents involving marijuana are the co-workers of the users – not the users themselves.
  
• You’re hurting everyone around you – even people you don’t even know. One of the greatest myths of marijuana is that it is a “victimless” crime. So you know what marijuana’s doing to you? Think about the people in your life who depend on you. And what about the public safety of others when confronted with intoxicated drug users? Marijuana affects safe driving skills, such as alertness, concentration, coordination and reaction time, as well as makes it difficult to judge distances and react to signals and signs on the road. Don’t kid yourself into thinking it’s not dangerous.

You think marijuana should be a medicine? That doctors and medical groups are saying it should be, and that those are the people trying to get it legalized, one state at a time?

• The majority of funding for state ballot initiatives (and legislative measures) to allow marijuana to be used as medicine comes from drug legalization organizations, not qualified medical professionals.
  
• The bulk of the funds and the effort come not from small contributors, but from millionaires who are long-time supporters of the drug-legalization movement.
  
• Ballot initiatives in CA and AZ were passed through a major disinformation campaign financed by wealthy individuals who don’t even live in those states!
  
• Proposition 215 in California and Proposition 200 in Arizona were drafted, financed and supported by legalization proponents using the compassionate pain argument as a guise for their recreational drug legalization agenda.

You think marijuana’s not addictive? Think it’s safe? There’s no harm in having a few drinks and smoking some pot?

• The effects of one drug can magnify the effects and risks of another. Mixing drugs can be lethal. When you binge drink and then smoke pot, there’s a chemical in the pot that suppresses your body’s natural urge to throw up. You may die from alcohol poisoning.
• Currently, 60 percent of teenagers in drug treatment are seeking help for their marijuana addiction.
  
• An Australian study found that one in three teens who smoke marijuana become psychologically addicted by the time they hit their early 20’s.
  
• In 1999, marijuana was the primary drug of abuse in about 14 percent of admissions to treatment facilities in the United States. 57 percent of patients had used it by age 14 and 92 percent had used it by age 18.

You think marijuana is a “safe” drug, a clean one, with no sketchy dealers or strung out violent people roaming the streets?

• Hashish dealers will use filler to mix with the marijuana plant resin to extend their profits. A commonly used filler in Morocco is goat dung.
  
• Marijuana dealers will sometimes lace their drug with a highly addictive drug like crack or pcp to get their users to come back.
  
• Many drug dealers don’t use the drugs they sell. They stay straight so that they can concentrate on making money off their addicts.

So you know smoking tobacco is bad for you, but think something marijuana isn’t the same thing? Well, you’re right. It’s not the same – it’s worse.

• Marijuana has 50 percent more tar than tobacco and contains more than 400 chemicals.
  
• According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), someone who smokes five joints per week may be taking in as many cancer-causing chemicals as someone who smokes a full pack of cigarettes per day.
  
• Smoking one marijuana cigarette deposits about four times as much tar into the lungs as a filtered tobacco cigarette.

You think marijuana’s all about the laid-back, hippie, environmentally friendly lifestyle? You know the type – think West Coast.

• U.S. Forest Service law enforcement agents estimate the street value of marijuana planted on national forest land in California alone exceeds $1 billion a year.
  
• Since 1997, the U.S. Forest Service has eradicated seven million pounds of marijuana grown on California national forest land.
  
• Law enforcement officers and agents say hikers, hunters, and other backcountry users have been chased away at gunpoint after stumbling into marijuana gardens – on U.S. National Forest land!

(These are all straight out of National Geographic, by the way.)

Think legalization of marijuana wouldn’t lead to more kids trying it? Think legalization would have no effect on how they think about drug use and its harms? Think the issue has nothing to do with kids at all? Think again.

• A study in the American Journal of Psychiatry found that teens’ brains are hardwired for addiction, making them more vulnerable to the addictive properties of drugs.
  
• A long-term study of 1,000 children found that those who had used marijuana by the age of 13 were more than three times as likely to develop a mental illness as adults. A tenth of these youth developed schizophrenia, compared to three percent of the non-using group.
  
• In 2003, one out of every six high school seniors admitted to driving under the influence of marijuana.

Think you and your family are immune to the problems of drug use and addiction?

• One in six Americans will struggle with addiction to either alcohol or illicit drugs.
  
• Four out of ten families in the United States directly suffer the effects of addiction.
  
• One out of every four deaths in America is caused by the use of addictive substances – tobacco, alcohol or illegal drugs.
  
• The number one preventable health problem in America and in other developed countries is addiction.