Why Pot Is Illegal

(Sources are from the Documentary "Grass" - If you havn't seen it, you should)

Hello everyone, this is my first time posting, I am a very new member.

Grass, although people have been smoking it for thousands of years, it didnt reach the USA until the mexicans came in looking for work in El Paso, Texas. The white people didnt like these people... so they made a law banning posession of Marijuana (because they liked to smoke it).

Years passed, lots (we are skipping a few minor Marijuana banning laws and such throught the state). A man named Harry J Anslinger, Commis. of the Federal Bur. Of Narcotics, started a Campaign against the drug, (for whatever his reason, must have had a stick up his ass or something against mexicans), he couldnt get Marijauana acts passed alone, so he wanted to get the people of the country terrified of this drug, so he started Radio Ads, TV Ads, Movie Ads, every possible media source, and lied in them. Ex: Marijuana Kills you, It will make you Insane, You will kill other people. So people, in all their wisdom, were scared shitless and asked congress to make new laws banning the narcotic all over.

Now, more years, and more fake ad campaigns and billions of dollars wasted later, this idiot named Nixon was elected. Blah blah blah, he started all these anti-drug actions. But some people wanted scientifical answers about this drug. So for the first time, since the early 1900's, scientific testing was approved for Marijuana. This is what came up: Caused you to be sleepy, Hungry, Intoxicated, and happy... (duhh, what people have been saying the whole time). So Nixon was reccomended by a council, that private use and private experimentation would be ok, and could be legalized.... he completly dissaproved of the reccomendation.... the test results came in.. he discarded them without ever looking at them... thousands even millions dollars wasted...Nixon wanted to be tough on crime... but was a criminal himself, he had to resign...

The new secret weapon of Reagon, to Bush Sr, and to Bush Jr. against Weed... was attacking the problem before it became one... the Youth...the Kids... I think we all know about the DARE, and Just Say No programs dont we? Go ask a kid now if he wants to toke up with you and your buddies, see what the response is... lol... it proves effective right? I dont think we will see a day when Marijuana is legal in the United States... I think we should all save our breath on getting it legal....

Thanks for reading this!!!

-E

 

bump

 

i was told by a history teacher that it was very much a political and economical move relared to taxation problems

 

The reason marijuana was banned:
Dupont was working on synthetic fibers (nylon, etc.),
W.R. Hearst had millions invested in timber,
and alcohol prohibition had been repealed, and H.J. Alsinger was out of a job.
America needs demons. First it was demon rum. When prohibition was repealed the gov't invented demon weed.
At the time marijuana was used mainly by Mexicans, Negro's and musicians.
Congress acted illegally by prohibiting marijuana, but they got away with it because H.J.A. had scared them (which, btw, is why jr. got elected president, fear based on lies).

The reason marijuana is illegal to-day is mainly economic. If marijuana was legalized this minute, prob a million people would have to get new jobs.
Less cops needed, as well as less judges, lawyers, courtrooms, prisons, guards. The pharmacutical industry would take a big dip.

Legal marijuana goes hand-in-hand with legal hemp. So millions of $$ in timber would be lost. The textiles industry would be stood on it's head.
Just as many jobs would be created however.
And the earth would be healthier.
Example: An acre of hemp produces 3 x the paper pulp that timber does. Legal hemp would mean the paper pulp industry would re-tool to make paper out of hemp. That means less trees chopped down. It would eliminate clear-cutting. Ir would cut the use of pesticides and herbicides which the timber industry uses, because marijuana grows so thickly it chokes out weeds and hemp has few natural enemies (except man).

Politicians recieve billions of $$ by keeping marijuana illegal. All the industries/groups mentioned above contibute heavily to the anti-marijuana forces.
he U.S. gov't makes billions by controlling the illegal drug market. Believe it or not, the gov't imports billions of $$ worth of illegal drugs into this country. There is no "war on drugs", it's a "war on competition".
If marijuana was legal, millions of people would no longer be forced to get their weed on the black market.
Lots of dealers sell other drugs besides pot; truely harmful, addictive drugs. People smoke weed and find out the gov't has been lying to them. So they deciede to try other drugs to see if the gov't was lying about those too. The gov't knows this and counts on it.
Marijuana prohibition is also responsible for the loss of thousads of innocent lives yearly.
Legal pot--less need invade places like Iraq to get their oil.
Legal pot--less need to invade Afganistan (the reason the U.S. invaded Afganistan was to build a oil pipeline across Afganistan, and to re-vitalize opium poppy cultivation, which the Taliban has virtually wiped out).
Not to mention the millions of lives ruined here at home (prison record, assest seizures) because of a plant.

The solution: start at the local level. Find out which candidates are pro-pot; campaign and vote for them.
Act to get meaures on local and state-wide ballots to end pot prohibition.
When enough people become pro-pot, marijuana will be legal.

 

I agree with everything you said, aside from Iraq and Afganistan. We invaded Iraq for oil, and Afganistan for Osama.

The road to legalization will be a long and hard one. It will not be suddenly legalized. As you said, many MANY people make tons of money off keeping marijuana illegal, these people will not give up with out a fight, and there fighting as hard as they can to keep us down.

Currently we are fighting the battle over medical marijuana, and we are winning, despite the recent court ruling. Rhoad Island now allows medical use, and there are several states on the verge of pushing for it. A good deal of americans, more then 2/3 of the population, think that medical marijuana should be allowed. I believe the first big victory will be getting congress to bring marijuana down from Schedule 1 to Schedule 2 (dangerous, but accepted medical value. Cocaine is in this one).

 

noooooo, marijuana is illegal because it is bad for you. everyone knows that.

 

I also would say it is illegal due to lack of good common information on the subject, most people have been taught all throughout school that Drugs are bad for you, plain and simple... How many politicians will actualy take the time to actualy research something?

Anybody know how many congressman read the patriot act befor it got signed?

 

Beleg:
The Taliban offered to turn Osama over if the U.S. would provide it with evidence why jr. suspected him.
jr. said no deal.
The current president of Afganistan used to work for Unocal.
If you don't believe the war/drugs connection, read up on Iran-Contra.

Good luck on getting congress to re-classify marijuana. They won't do shit until Americans demand it.
When politicians see that people are less likely to vote for them because of their anti-mj stance they will change and not before, because they currently get millions for their campaigns from people who want it illegal.

adoutsider: none.

 

But the current big step is medical marijuana. After that, hemp. Then after awile, full out legalization. I'd give it 5-15 years from now, at the rate were going.

 

Jesus I am glad somebody posts the real reason it was made illegal. People are always saying racism was why pot was made illegal, when racism was just a propaganda technique to help persuade the public to hate marijuana, and to persuade congress to make hemp illegal. Cash rules everything, and the rich want to stay rich.

 

That part about it being brought over Mexicans was BS...it was grown in the colonies waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay before Texas was even established...

All the rest, as far as I know, is true.

RangerDanger, you are my idol

 

WishIWasAHippie:
What was grown in the colonies wasn't cannibus, it was industrial hemp, used since prehistoric times for cloth and rope and many other things.
The first U.S. flag was made of hemp cloth, btw, and the draft of the U.S. Constitution was written on hemp paper.

Anyway, industrial hemp has very very little THC, you can smoke that shit all day and get nothing but a headache. So don't smoke your friend's hemp backpack.

Cannibus was brought by Mexicans to what is now the southwest U.S., and also by merchant seamen from the West Indies into New Orleans around the same time, where it was favored by jazz musicians.

Little known factoid:
I've always wondered how cannibus got the name marijuana.
After all, MariJuana (MaryJane) is a common woman's name.
So why not PeggySue or LindaLou?
Here's the straight dope:
In the late 1800's/early 1900's there was a brand of cigarette's in Mexico called--you--guessed it--Marijuana. It was the brand name of a cigarette. It had a drawing of a woman on the pack. At some point back around then cannibus picked up the slang marijuana.

Sudden thought--if someone found one of thos old packs they could prob. sell it for a lot of $$ on e-bay.

 

Yeah u are right about the colonies, but it wasnt first smoked in Texas really until the mexicans brought it over to do so while after workin in fields.

By the way, im shocked as hell that this thread is still the leading one on here... i made this thread like last month, and it was my first... lol

 

Interesting site at http://www.cannabis.com/untoldstory/hemp_5.shtml

Check out the links to two magazine articles written within a year before marijuana was prohibited.

 

"Hemp is the standard fiber of the world. It has great tensile strength and durability. It is used to produce more than 5,000 textile products, ranging from rope to fine laces, and the woody "hurds" remaining after the fiber has been removed contain more than 77 percent cellulose, which can be used to produce more than 25,000 products, ranging from dynamite to Cellophane."

I got that from the article... theres ure answer, thats one of the main reasons its illegal nowadays. Its too big of cash cropt.... if hemp was used to make everything tons of buisiness using other dumbass ways to make something with so many artificial things, that could be easily made with hemp, would be out of work... we dont want multi-billion dollar companies to lose money now do we! NOO NO THAT!

But on the flip side, if we used hemp, which is a plant that grows fast and produces an abundance, it would be HIGHLY beneficial to the earth and the enviroment... but greedy companies and corporations always want that money in there pocket, so they just wont have it.

 

Another thing people don't realize is that their hemp sneakers and hemp clothes would be DIRT cheap if hemp was legal to grow here (in the US). As of now, in the US, hemp has to be imported. This makes it cost more in the stores, while the .gov makes money off of tariffs.

 

I remember reading that one of the founding fathers liked to indulge in the occasional J.

 

The slater man said himself... Geroge washington grew fields of that shit man... and even though it was a movie, he was right, George washington DID grow fields of that shit all over cuz he knew it was a good cash cropt. And Martha Washington indeed, did have a fat bowl waitin for George after a hard days work. See... thats why Slater is my god... cuz he does know all!!! Lol

 

So did Jefferson.

 

i saw this show on the history channel about the history of weed. it said that during the depression all the white ppl in the food handouts didn't want mexican people there too. so since the mexicans were known to smoke weed the government passed a law against it...

if you had this marijuana stamp you could buy it, but to get the stamp you had to go to a government building or something with your marijuana. but if you had marijuana they could arrest you. so one way or another they forced a lot of mexican immigrants out of the US.

so pretty much, the mexican's were a great labor force in the 20's but during the 30's the white men didn't want them around to share with. so they outlawed weed because it was the only way to get them back to mexico.

so why don't they make it legal again?

p.s.: i was watching this while i was stoned... laughed my ass off at all the propaganda films.