Why is marijuana illegal?

i heard, i mind you this is jest a rumour, when Lincoln freed the slaves in 1863 many angry politicians (all White) were looking for ways to show they still held power over the Nigro. thus from 1914 - 1936 (depending on the state) 'The Harrison Act' called for the national prohibition of cannabis in the USA. since the typical white past time was drinking and the steriotypical black pastime was 'toking' that is how it came to be illigal. please tell me if this is atleast partially true

 

I hated marijuana. It smells terrible and burns your lips.

 

hey your 60! I needa ask ya sumthin, do you guys honestly thing marijuana will make you go skitzofrenic and kill people, have jiz stains on your pants from constantly jacking off when we cant find rape victums? haha nah Im jus joking..



alright folks get this one, in my old town last week a women was raped behind a hotel by the train tracks, now these train tracks are by a skate park, and by the skatepark is the cop shop. Now they never witnessed it, saw it or even enforced that rape, and I doubt theyr looking for the sick bastards right now....and whys that? Cuz my buddy makes a bit of extra money for selling his weed(and white *cough*). Now while those piggys are havin donuts and coffee across the street from his apartment, theres a gurl getting raped and nobodys around to stop it because thier all busy tryna bust kids with dope when they leave his apartment.


heres my theory, I think the CIA buys/manufactures and sells drugs like marijuana, cocaine, meth etc; Because then the DEA can bust the rest of the big suppliers, then they sell thier drugs to more big supplyers, and then the DEA busts em afterwords.haha jus a theory.

 

The real question is why is it STILL illegal?

It all boils down to politics. politicians won't take the neccessary steps towards legalizing marijuana in fear of losing votes from the conservatives(which they would) and the only ones wanting to legalize it are the crazy hippies and rambuncious youngsters who really aren't organized enough to hold any sway in politics. so we either need to get a liberal in office or we need to do something radical for them to take us seriously. it will be legalized in time tho. california is already taking steps (i <3 club cards).

 

cuz 6 people have had bad experiences smoking pot and so people think these strict non-usage laws are saving america from total degeneration... the fact that 60 million people are wasting their lives away with alchohol is not taken into consideration cuz jesus was a brewmaster

 

i have never had a bad experience w/ weed, unless its low quality.

 

the core premise of making and keeping hemp illegal is the first and second drafts of the u.s. constitution were composed on hemp parchment and with the current administrations initiative to nullify the constition, they down want anymore hemp parchment around for people to write more constitutions

 

Hey all of you out there should stop using the term "marijuana"! The goverment labeled our sacred cannabis "marijuana" in the early days of prohibition. It was their way of calling it "spick weed".

One of the shady things about the Amercan system is that convicted felons cannot vote. If we could get felon voting rights back I think it would be easy to pass pro-pot measures on the ballot since over 90% of felons would vote on our side. It is almost unbelievable how fucked babylon is, some people get busted with little more than an ounce and it's bye bye voting rights for life.

Well time to puff one down now...

GreaseMonkey

 

we love mexicans

 

weed is illegal because of propanganda. the head fbi dude would make lies and say it was more addicting than heroin and he was friends with william hurst who owned many newpapers, and he would print out articles saying bullshit about it. people look at reefer madness as a comedy now, but people took that shit serriously in the 30s. also , if weed become legal , alcohol and tobacco would lose sales, and the gov't would lose all their kickbacks.

 

Marijuana was made illegal due to economics and racism.

Also, the US needed a "bogeyman". Demon rum had just been re-legalized.

ECONOMICS
-Hearst owned thousands of acres of timber and new techniques had just been developed to make more higher-quality paper from hemp.
-These new techiques also allowed hemp fabric to be made soft like cotton, bad for the cotton industry and DuPont which was busy developing synthetics like nylon and rayon.
-The newly re-legalized liquor industry did not want competition.

RACISM
-At the time cannabis was made illegal (by the way, the marijuana tax act, which illegalized marijuana was in itself illegal), smokers were predomininately hispanics (in the southwest) and blacks (in the gulf and east coast). Jazz (feared by white folks) musicians LOVED smoking cannabis.

Why is marijuana still illegal?
Economics.
Think of the industries that would be negatively impacted by legalizing cannabis.
Directly, the pharmicutical industry.
Law enforcement, d.a.'s & prison guards.
Less need for judges, lawyers, jails, courthouses, dea agents, and the hundreds of millions spent on interdiction like planes and boats and cop stuff.
And with cannabis legalization would come hemp legalization.
Now we're REALLY talking big bucks. The cotton and synthetic fabric industries would take a HUGE hit.
So would the timber industry. The 3 largest private land-owners in the U.S. are timber companies.
An acre of hemp provides 3 x the amt. of paper pulp vs. timber.
Many wood substitutes can be made from hemp.
And hemp can be grown under conditions that timber can't.
Hemp needs far less pesticides and herbacides that cotton or timber so the chem. co's would take a hit also.

All of the above entities contribute heavily to anti-MJ politicians, which keep pot illegal.

And last but not least let's not foget the shadow organizations.
Listen folks there are A LOT of people in our gov't making millions from the importation of marijuana into the U.S. as well as sales. Iran-Contra revealed that the cia/nsa were bringing tons of cocaine into the U.S. during the early 80's.

All the way from crooked local cops to the top eschalons of our gov't, a lot of people are making money keeping pot illegal.

The U.S.'s War On Drugs is misnamed. It should be called The War On Competition.

 

Henry Aslinger, the man who criminalized marijuana, said that it was addictive, caused people to go insane, and had no medical use, all of which are lies, but are still believed today. It was basically to keep out the mexicans...

 

There's a problem... Do you think every convicted felon would vote? And even if they did, would it outweigh the opposition? Here's how this thread portrays the activists for legalization of marijuana: Crazy hippies, reckless teenagers, and convicted felons. Sound like we have much of a chance? I think not....
People just do not vote. And if it came down to legalization on a ballot, we would lose just as miserably as the republicans did in this off year election. Everyone would get spurred up, because there are so many people out there against it. Almost al of America voting would vote against it, to keep things the same, regardless of political stance (liberal or conservative).

This brings me to another point. Someone said we needed a liberal in office... We have many in office now, thats pretty much what a democrat is. But they'd all vote the same for this issue, I can almost gaurantee it. Its just not going to happen. No one in office would propose such a bill, almost all of congress would reject it, and like I said before, the constituents will not have it.

I am so very for the legalization of mariuana, I've four reports now on the subject in my short high school career, and this has only solidified my belief. But America is not ready to change its ways.

Another point: You keep saying that if marijuana became legal, then the government would lose money from alcohol and tobacco industries. Not true. Just ask around the forums, and see how many stoners drink and/or smoke cigarettes. In my area, if you smoke, then you do the other two as well, this is almost always the case. Besides, they COULD tax it, believe it or not, just like they do with all the other crops out there, and it would bring in much revenue to the government just like the tobacco industry and the alcohol industry. So any money lost from those two would be made up by the CANNABIS/HEMP INDUSTRY (god I love how that sounds). All they have to do is legalize it. But will they?

NO

Just because other industries could be afffected negatively by its legalization does not make it a bad thing. Democracy is about free enterprise, so eliminating monopolies and and creating competition is a good thing. Though timber industries, etc. would lose profit, think of how much money could be saved in paper manufacturing from hemp as opposed to the traditional way. And with more output, The cost of running such an industry would vastly out pay itself. The loss of need for the timber industry could easily be made up for by hemp. And pharmacies would not suffer, but benefit with the legalization of marijuana. It adds another product to the public in which they can sell with much more ease.

The point I'm trying to make in all the above rambling is that its legalization will not make the government suffer as much as is thought. We are just too stubborn to accept such change.

 

11 states have passed med-MJ legalization.

And every year for the past 4 years at least there has been country-wide bills introduced in Congress to either decrim or legalize MJ.

Yeah lots of people who toke also drink. But area's where marijuana has been de-crimed down to a traffic ticket experiences a lower alcohol consumption rate.
People who do both usually drink less, from the culmative effects of MJ + booze.
The liquor/brewery industry contributes heavily to anti-MJ politicians.

If marijuana was legalized maybe the gov't would allow large commercial grows, and tax it.
But remember pot can still be grown in backyards for pennies.

Here's the ONLY marijuana reform law I would FULLY support:
Allow every adult in the U.S. to grow let's say a dozen plants, with NO gov't involvement of any kind.
Just like with alcohol.
In most parts of the U.S. you are allowed to brew/vint/distill beer, wine and liquor. It's a huge amt. something like 100 gallons/year per household. You can make it; you can't sell it.

 

Shit, that sounds good

 

http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/stories/2003/12/22/whyIsMarijuanaIllegal.html

 

The history is because marijuana was misrepresented in court and lied about to make it illegal because that is what Mexicans used, instead of alcohol.

The reason it is illegal today is because once something like that gets illegal it builds decades of prejudice on top of that. The reason it is illegal today is because of the feer of drugs (even though alcohol is a more dangerous drug) and the image of marijuana. Prejudice is about image. Smoking is not a good image, smoking to get drunk is an even worse image.

If you want weed legal you would first start working on the image and that starts with the method of consumption. Even if nobody is getting cancer from smoking weed it is not going to look like you guys are very conserned about healthier choices if you are smoking. But Weed is healthier than alcohol. If you want to help the movement try to figure out how to make good tasting quick to make marijuana drinks without alcohol that are NOT strong like weedihol or brownies and give it names that are similar to alcohol. Then promote that you care about health and you are drinking a drink safer and healthier than alcohol. Get rid of the smoke variable and make the drink like one light hit in strength. Tell people that the reason we have so much DUI and irresponsibility is because the government and society cares more about the color of the bottle than what is in it or what you do after you drink it. This is it. Weed will be legal if lots of people do this or it catches on. Thats all you have to do, its about image. That is how dumb society is.

 

What if Obama is elected

 

It seems if he is elected cannabis in the United States is likely to receive reduced sentences, at least a little. Obama smoked before, in the end.

 

Yeah, he said he "experimented" with marijuana and cocaine, which is a good indicator.