Why marijuana is illegal

[Sachinism]

Ok so Morris asked me yesterday why marijuana is illegal. Here's my response Marijuana being illegal has absolutely nothing to do with its possible harmful effects which are still to be proven. There are many reasons why it was illegal. - During the early 1900's many Mexicans were used as worked in the the US, but when the great depression arrived America wanted to get rid of them as jobs and welfare became scarce. Mexicans smoked weed and brought it over to the US. So they found an easy way to get rid of them, but outlawing marijuana and then deporting the Mexicans. Also they found a lot of black musicians were using it too. This provided them with even more reason to outlaw it. Locking up blacks and mexicans must have been a field day for them. - Then came along Harry Anslinger. He was working for the bureau of narcotics and was on his way up. He quickly understood fighting cocaine alone wouldn't take him to the top and decided as marijuana was the new big thing, he attacked that as well. Anslinger was known to produce wacky theory and scare-tactics. Read some of the crap he came out with

There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others.” “…the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.” “Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death.” “Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.” “Marihuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing” “You smoke a joint and you’re likely to kill your brother.” “Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.” "If the hideous monster Frankenstein came face to face with marihuana he would drop dead."

These are actual quotations from his reports, i'm pretty sure you can see exactly what he was trying to do here. Also check out some of reefer madness videos and you can see it was all ridiculous propaganda. The sad thing is, this garbage is still being used today to mislead the masses. - Then there was William Randolph Hearst. This guy was known to hate Mexicans and when he lost 800,000 acres of his land for Panchao Villa (Mexican revolutionist) it just increased his hatred for Mexicans. He also had invested heavily in the timber industry to support his massive newspaper business (By the 1920s he had owned 22 daily newspapers, 15 weekly papers, and several magazines) and was no way going to let hemp become the new material used for newspapers. Also creating sensational headlines and over the top stories about Mexicans and weed would help sell his papers. - Hearst and Anslinger got together. They were supported by a pharmaceutical company called Dupont who had just patented nylon and wanted to get rid of the competition i.e. hemp. Pharmaceutical companies had another reason to destroy marijuana. Marijuana has many many proven medical benefits. How would they make money if anyone could grow a cure at home for a few bucks? Pharmaceutical companies have even gone as far as taking THC from the marijuana, putting it into pills and trying to sell it back to the public, though that didn't have the same effect as burning it. They then came up with a license you had to have to possess marijuana. The licenses were never given out, or were close to impossible to get. Also to get the license you had to have the marijuana on your persons, but if you had marijuana on your person without a license you'd get ridiculous jail time. Most of the myths created in those days with zero evidence or research, still are around today and people believe them. - There are no conclusive studies showing marijuana leads to psychosis and the ones that do show it, all suggest if you're already suffering from mental illnesses, marijuana will be harmful for you. Thats like saying if you have a weak liver, don't drink alcohol. - Marijuana is a gateway drug. No its not. It may become a gateway drug because its illegal and you have to go buy it from some shifty guy in the street who'll try and sell you something else where he can make more money. Another problem with not having it controlled is people don't know what they're really getting and then when someone smokes a contaminated strain, marjuana will be labelled as the killer. There are no deaths ever from marijuana, yet substances like alcohol and tobacco which cause millions of deaths are sold freely :hmmm: Netherlands where it is legal to an extent, is the only country where the numbers of other drugs users have remained the same over 20 years, where in other places they have increased - Marijuana is more potent today than it was back in the day. Well control it if thats your problem. Increased potency = better high to me But again its a lie, marijuana isn't really that much more potent than it was back in the day. They didn't know how to store marijuana to test its potency properly back in the day. - Marijuana is not addictive. You don't suffer withdrawal symptoms if you stop using it. - Marijuana causes lung damage. Hmmm the study actually shows if used in extreme doses it can do. So the **** what? Eat McDonalds in extreme doses and see what happens. - Marijuana makes people lazy, unproductive, amotivational. This can be true, but usually people smoke to chill out. And if its so bad, how comes so many pot users have been successful in music, arts, business, sport and various other areas. OK I'm tired now

[gs]

OK I'm tired now

Time for a joint then? :cantstop: Very informative post BTW.

[flamy]

brah, I had posted smth abt this in the Never-Ending Thread. Cannabis is not just for smoking. I think plastic made from Cannabis is very resilient. There are lotsa uses from Cannabis. Absolutely magical plant.

[Ram]

Good post Brah. While I am leaning towards agreeing with you on the historical aspects of why Marijuana was made illegal (the mexicans, blacks, commercial interests etc..), I think you have casually glossed over some of the medical aspects of using the drug. I read some stuff on the internet that indicated that marijuana use had the potential to harm your lungs, heart, brain, immunity etc. My thing has always been - Marijuana should be made legal. From a pure philosophical point of view, I dont see what business govt. has, in terms of regulating what individual citizens can/cannot consume for their own personal recreation. Besides, they've already made tobacco and alcohol legal. We all know what happened when they tried to ban alcohol during prohibition and how well it worked out for the govt. That said, will I do it myself, or recommend its use to a friend? Of course not, its a freaking drug. There's a reason why it makes you feel good and there's an excellent chance that with that 'high' feeling, comes along a whole host of medical and psychological risks that come along with drug use. And as with any drug, with the word 'use' comes along the word 'abuse'. Taking the odd joint every other day may not be that bad after all, but how many people have such levels of personal discipline? I'd like to know the proportion of marijuana users who're not just casual snotters, but like totally into it. My guess is, that number is probably quite high.

[triam]

Good post Brah. While I am leaning towards agreeing with you on the historical aspects of why Marijuana was made illegal (the mexicans, blacks, commercial interests etc..), I think you have casually glossed over some of the medical aspects of using the drug. I read some stuff on the internet that indicated that marijuana use had the potential to harm your lungs, heart, brain, immunity etc. My thing has always been - Marijuana should be made legal. From a pure philosophical point of view, I dont see what business govt. has, in terms of regulating what individual citizens can/cannot consume for their own personal recreation. Besides, they've already made tobacco and alcohol illegal. We all know what happened when they tried to ban alcohol during prohibition and how well it worked out for the govt. That said, will I do it myself, or recommend its use to a friend? Of course not, its a freaking drug. There's a reason why it makes you feel good and there's an excellent chance that with that 'high' feeling, comes along a whole host of medical and psychological risks that come along with drug use. And as with any drug, with the word 'use' comes along the word 'abuse'. Taking the odd joint every other day may not be that bad after all, but how many people have such levels of personal discipline? I'd like to know the proportion of marijuana users who're not just casual snotters, but like totally into it. My guess is, that number is probably quite high.

marijuana is less addictive and less harmful than tobacco as far as research has been done, yeah everything in excess is harmful, including rice which leads to diabetes and other issues. It is kind of a shame that to this day marijuana is banned.

[Guest Hiten.]

No wonder why I start speaking in Spanish after a good J yo :hmmm:

[dev.goswami]

Sorry for going off topic but can someone tell what is opium and why is it illegal to????I think its some kinda tobacco right???

[Sachinism]

And as with any drug, with the word 'use' comes along the word 'abuse'. Taking the odd joint every other day may not be that bad after all, but how many people have such levels of personal discipline? I'd like to know the proportion of marijuana users who're not just casual snotters, but like totally into it. My guess is, that number is probably quite high.

Anything could be abused. Its upto the individual to know the difference between using and abusing. I know many users who don't use regularly, only on very rare occasions. I have times where I smoke daily, times where I smoke every other day, times when I go weeks without. You're, for some reason assuming everyone who does marijuana is addicted to it or something, even though marijuana is known to be less addictive than so many other substances; even caffeine is less addictive than marijuana

[DomainK]

A tale of a vegetarian religious bird Once upon a time there lived an eagle. It would fly all over the world and gather food. One day the eagle decided to become religious. It kept flying looking for God, but could not find him. He decided to meditate and impress God. So the eagle started meditating flying high up above the world and gave up his usual diet of non-veg. It became a vegetarian religious Eagle. Soon it became very popular as the vegetarian religious eagle. People started worshiping it and the king came to visit it often to take religious advice. One day while flying and meditating, it got hungry. It saw greenery down and flew down to eat. Being a born non-vegetarian, he was not good at recognizing veg food. Soon after eating, the vegetarian religious eagle fell ill and fell down from the sky. The people of the country were devastated and the king ordered all the doctors in his kingdom to treat the eagle back to normal health. Soon the eagle was fine and started flying and meditating again. The king then investigated what made the eagle ill. He found it was marijuana. He declared that marijuana means an ill-eagle. Sine then Marijuana has been ill-eagle.....err.... illegal.

[Ram]

Anything could be abused. Its upto the individual to know the difference between using and abusing. I know many users who don't use regularly, only on very rare occasions. I have times where I smoke daily, times where I smoke every other day, times when I go weeks without. You're, for some reason assuming everyone who does marijuana is addicted to it or something, even though marijuana is known to be less addictive than so many other substances; even caffeine is less addictive than marijuana

Now, dont put words in my mouth, I never said that. I said there's a good chance that 'big proportion of marijuana users are addicted to that drug'. . Now, how big is that number? 20%, 30%, 45%, or even 75%? I dont know, but I dont know that you can say with reasonable assurance that the number is high enough to make you worry about the potentially addictive nature of the drug. You're never going to get me to support the use of a 'controlled substance'. As a matter of fact, I am against people consuming alcohol or tobacco either, so why would my position be any different to marijuana? But let me reiterate again that I think that the usage of marijuana should be made legal because simply making it illegal is not only going to stop people from using it, but it will also create a huge and dangerous black-market for that drug, a black market that acts as a breeding ground for drug mafias and gangs to flourish.

[Sachinism]

If you don't do it, what are your reasons? Is there anyone who would try it if it was legal?

[EnterTheVoid]

I tried marijuana. Absolutely hated it, won't try again.

[Holysmoke]

I tried marijuana. Absolutely hated it' date=' won't try again.[/quote'] :hehe:

[dev.goswami]

I agree with what marris had to say about the government. They should not be making our choices. If they are really concerned (which i do not think they are seeing the tax difference on cigarettes and beedis, but that is another debate) they can run an education campaign alongside just as they do with tobacco. After that leave it up to the individual to make his choice...if he wants to ruin his life what business is it of the government to stop him. What brings out the irony is that, it is not that you will not find it being consumed or sold. The ban has no effect except making it costly and depriving the govt of taxes. In Mumbai itself, without taking any names, it very well known among my generation that right outside a prominent college near a bus stop you can find what you want....so then this ban does not make any sense.

[flamy]

No wonder why I start speaking in Spanish after a good J yo :hmmm:

ya, u smoked a bud, ya we believe you, ya :finger:

[Ram]

Coming back to the debate, based on historical aspects/other existing current laws on other controlled substances, you can definitely make a strong/substantive argument in favor of making Marijuana legal. But no one in their right minds could possibly make a case for its 'use'. You cant possibly say 'My way of relaxing and chilling out is to have a snort Marijuana or binge-drink or finish a pack of cigs in one day' and expect people to take you seriously. Sure, at some point in the future, the use of marijuana might well be made legal, but that doesnt imply its use is now being condoned or in any way, encouraged. After this topic was opened, I was talking to a friend of mine and this subject came into discussion. Because I dont personally know anyone who consume marijuana (or even if they do, they've probably not disclosed it to me), but this dude's house-mates were regularly into it. So I asked him for his opinion on this subject and what he makes of it. He told me that a) Almost all of the guys he knew who started marijuana as a casual hobby are now addicted to it and b) He couldnt put a finger on what the change was, but he felt those guys werent just the same anymore.

[flamy]

[flamy]

Also, when we are saying Mary Jane is not addictive, we are talking about the physical dependence. Anything can be psychologically addictive - ICF for example :winky:

[Lurker]

Marijuana is another case of "Its all about me" atitude that seems to be getting increasingly prevalent these days. Although I am personally a liberal at heart, and maybe an extreme liberal to many, I kind of appreciate the right wing's stance on this. Whether or not marijuana is healthy is for the Doctors(I wont take it but then again I am a health freak) but really how many people(specially Americans) realize that many a Latin nation, specially Mexico, Columbia and Guetemala have been completely ravaged by this menace just to fulfill the satisfaction of addicts, or pleasure seekers. If people would simply give up smoking marjuana for about a month there would be more lives saved (due to drug violence) than the number of people killed in Iraq or Afganistan. Making it legal or not is up to the lawmakers, but making it legal simply because people shall continue to "experiment" and human beings are killed across the border makes absolutely no sense. xxx

[flamy]

Marijuana doesn't cause violence brah. One LOVE. :canabis: