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.