Me, me, me, I know why, I know why, please let me answer.
Ehm ehm, it’s a conspiracy. Shhhhh!!
Yes, it is. Apparently the tobacco and alcohol lobbyists are the ones behind the lies and propaganda exaggerating the dangers of the relatively harmless drug and making it seem similar to the very dangerous ones such as cocain, heroin, ecstacy and meth. Plus these greedy lobbyists know very well that if marijuana gets legalized, their profits will come diving down like a crazy World War II Kamikaze.
Okay fine, let’s get serious. Yes, there is some truth to the aforementioned but are there other reasons? Why is it illegal? No, not in Sudan. There even alcohol is illegal. After all it’s a majority Muslim country and most Muslims want no alcohol or marijuana (for the record I don’t smoke weed or drink alcohol but I do enjoy shisha).
I’m talking about America. Alcohol is super abundant here and it’s legal but weed isn’t. Why? I mean scientific research shows that both substances - unlike other hardcore drugs - are relatively the same in terms of harmful effects. Some even say alcohol is more harmful than weed. In mainstream American culture, alcohol is a part of most adult social gatherings (just like it is in many other places in the world). Why is the attitude towards marijuana different and why is it illegal?
So, besides the tobacco and alcohol lobbyists, what are the reasons? Maybe economic ones are also part of the answer. The “underground” economy is worth billions in various American states, especially California. Legalization will mean bye bye to all that money.
Any other reasons?
Just a random question that popped into my head after stumbling on a Facebook cause calling for the legalization of marijuana. 
Oh and in case you didn’t know, Elephant presidential candidate Ron Paul basically supports its legalization. He thinks it will free more time for cops to go running after the real criminals instead of catching non-violent people who use it recreationally. Those who oppose him have begun calling him the Pot Candidate.
SudaneseThinker
SudaneseThinker
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
The history of the criminalization of marijuana in the US has a long and tortured history. It was initially made illegal for racist reasons because it was felt at the time that it caused certain minorities to commit crimes (especially African-Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans). The US drug chief at the time even mentioned that marijuana was responsible for satanic jazz music. The movie ‘Reefer Madness’ describes the prevailing view at the time.
Marijuana was illegal but not a big deal until the 50s and 60s when mandatory minimum sentences were given for all drug convictions. And after the 70s with the creation of the DEA and the start of the so-called War on Drugs, significant efforts were put into attacking marijuana.
This is a brief history and a full history would fill books. US Constitutional Law has an enormous part in the debate on the criminality of marijuana as well as the items you mentioned (tobacco lobbyists and alcohol lobbyists). To discuss this issue in depth requires a deep understanding of US Constitutional law as well as how it has changed over time (especially the interpretation of the Commerce Clause). It is obviously a very political issue and even US courts commonly give split rulings. In general, Republicans support funding the DEA, increasing penalties, and devoting more resources to the War on Drugs which includes the criminalization of marijuana–with no exceptions. Democrats generally support funding the DEA at current levels but don’t want to increase the penalties or devote any more resources to the War on Drugs. They also support allowing exceptions for medical use or non-drug related use (like hemp). Libertarians, like Ron Paul, think that the DEA should be abolished and that no drugs should be illegal.
i’m all for legalizing marijuana. i think in NY you can carry a certain amount on you and not get busted if you’re seen w/ it and such. i think, to some degree, it is a conspiracy, but who knows. the same thing happened back in prohibition w/ alcohol, so maybe one day they’ll legalize it, but who knows.
i personally know many who smoke and i don’t find anything wrong w/ it. it has done nothing to them, and i even know ppl who smoked while preggers, and this one girl had two kids and she smoked w/ both. they’re fine and intelligent young kids. and look at all the ppl who did drugs in the 60s. their kids are fine.
i think it’s a big lie in that it hurts you or leads to heavier drug use. i totally disagree w/ this, because i’ve seen it and i know ppl who’ve smoked for years and have never gone to heavier drugs. it all depends on the person, i think, and what type of personality you have.
more power to legalizing pot!!
In Israel it is also illegal, with the exception of those who have a medical permit for use in-house. Marijuana is very good as a painkiller for those who have cancer, without the extreme side-effects that other alternatives offer.
Two problems exist. In terms of dosage, marijuana is much more toxifying than alcohol (mental rather than physical damage, for the short-term), and the main damage from any drug is not merely what it does to you, but what you do to yourself and others under its effect. In theory, pot could be regulated in the same manner alcohol is, but this raises another question: how? Allow only mild-effect plants? But even those are enough to make you an unpredictable driver (as several car accidents in Israel showed).
Then you have the long-term damage: memory. Alcohol takes your kidneys, tobacco takes your lungs, but marijuana takes your mind. I know several heavy marijuana-smokers who suffer from not just persistent short-term memory loss (I.E, they’re now stuck with it) but also long-term memory loss. I personally view that kind of damage as by far worse than physical hardship, including living with a machine to clean your blood.
On the matter of marijuana leading to stronger drugs, the same is easily said of alcohol. If escapism or pleasure-seeking is what leads you down that avenue, then they’re equally dangerous. Heck, many among Russia’s youth have switched from the traditional alcoholism to hard drugs.
So, it’s a tricky issue. Marijuana is somewhere in the murky waters between what we allow and what we don’t. It’s a maybe, with one of the chief barriers between it and legalization not being this or that lobby or drug lord (hard drugs bring in the real cash), but rather the belief that what was is what should be. We accepted alcohol and tobacco for a long time, so we accept them still. Marijuana is relatively new to us of Western culture, so as we did not accept it already we prefer to keep it that way. That’s what being a conservative is all about, after all, trying to keep tomorrow much the same as today.
This is such a long and complicated story. I don’t want to even try and explain it all but let me say that the initial prohibition of marijuana was a result not so much of pressure from special interest groups or even racism as it was the personal ambitions of one Mr. Anslinger. Decades of irrational arguments and scare tactics from prohibitionists and ignorant alarmists ensured that the legal status quo hasn’t changed much for a drug that is probably somewhat less harmful than alcohol overall.
I suppose one of the biggest reasons the laws haven’t been altered is simply because it isn’t a major concern for many people: those who want it can easily get it and those who want it prohibited can continue to vote for politicians who will act accordingly. The rest of the population doesn’t care very much one way or the other.
um naief: i think it’s a big lie in that it hurts you or leads to heavier drug use.
it has been PROVEN to harm you. Memory loss, hallucianations, temporary, permanent the works.
The problem these days is that marijuana is laced with so much other shit like heroin or coke that it IS harmful when ppl think that it isn’t because it not only gets a person hooked, it does infact lead to harder drugs.
and as for pregnant women smoking pot: that is just pure stupidity. Scientific studies have proven that women who smoke and drink alcohol during pregnancy have mentally retarded and lower IQ kids, yes they may seem perfectly normally, but they will be of a much lower IQ than a normal child.
The fact is, the side effects of marijuana hv been medically proven, if it could be shown that it had no side effects, then it wouldn’t be illegal.
and I’m sure the racial reasons for banning it are unfounded. Is Opium illegal because governments didn’t like the fact that Chinese merchants were having a good time?
Drima, I’m sure you know the side effects of marijuana. ehem. But they’re totally diff from alcohol. Small doses of alcohol don’t completely incapacitate a person, nor do they severely impaire judgements (generally speaking, maybe not ALL people) But weed is a hallucinogen that can cause hallucinations for up to 10 years AFTER smoking it. Complete lack of judgement. That’s why it’s illegal. It’s impossible to control it’s use or abuse.
There’s a legal limit on alcohol (2.5? or whatever it is) how do you impose a limit on weed? 1 joint? 1.5? what about different potencies? Get my drift?
LOL
As for the origins of the whole demonization of Cannabis, Tommy’s put it nicely. There are, however, economical factors also making an impact. Just off the top of my head, the industries financially endangered by Cannabis:
Cotton (hemp is cheaper and more durable),
Logging (hemp pulp is a cheap construction,
isolation, burning etc. material),
Alcohol (weed is a major competitor to booze),
Illegal cannabis trade (legalization would mean yearly losses of hundreds of billions for assorted mafias).
There are other affected industries which I can’t be bothered to look up right now.
RK:
Driving while intoxicated should be illegal, period. Does it matter what your particular intoxicant is?
And as for memory loss… you have to REALLY overdo it to get to that stage. The abuse of any substance - be it cheese, Vitamin C or sugar - will eventually cause you tremendous harm.
Aimster -
Uhm. “problem these days is that marijuana is laced with so much other shit” - quite. Legalization would solve this, now wouldn’t it?
In the meanwhile, buy only from respectable growers you know and trust. It’s kind of like buying meat from a butcher - you don’t know where it’s been.
Nobody would lace your weed with cocaine or somesuch - it’s an urban myth. Why lace a 20$/gram drug with a 200$/gram drug and still sell it for 20$?
People do put all sorts of crap in though, especially in hashish - usually henna and plain old mud in the Middle East.
As for the rest… I think you’re confusing Cannabis with LSD and other hallucinogenics. THC (Delta-9 Tetra Hydro Cannabinol), the active ingredient in Cannabis, is a depressant-type drug: it slows down your nervous system, making you more relaxed. It does not induce hallucinations. It can make you faint, though, because THC ties up glucose really quickly (you’ll have to smoke a LOT to faint, though).
Hallucinogenics are… well, they induce hallucinations, and some hallucinogenics can cause flashbacks for the rest of your life. From the above you can probably conclude that Cannabis is not a hallucinogenic.
As for smoking while pregnant - it’s a bad idea in general, but you got your facts wrong there are well. A simple googling could fix that, though
Raccoon, the weed is viewed as milder than alcohol, which leads to a great deal of trouble down the road (figuratively *and* literally). Allowable dosages of alcohol for drivers are easy to regulate, but the same is not true for marijuana. Any amount of the mildest plant that would actually be considered enough to smoke properly, is more than enough to take you off the road for hours. The worst part is that you don’t notice that you’re still reacting slowly even after the relaxing-high is already gone.
In terms of driving (or anything else that requires attention and reflexes) marijuana is more dangerous. Alcohol is much more dangerous if you drink a lot more, but marijuana is worse where it matters: from the very beginning, when you feel you’re in a “safe zone”.
As for memory-loss, I’m afraid that you don’t have to abuse it that much. We’re talking maybe four to six rolls a day here, not comparable at all to eating four kilograms of cheese a day.
It looks safe, man. It feels safe. But its degree of use-vs-damage is worse than cigs or booze.
weed is so impossible to manipulate by corporates, unlike alcohol.. anyone can grow pot in his backyard, but not anyone can make budwiser.. feel me?
i feel like talkin about weed here in Sudan man, maybe later
i think that Ron Paul should definitely legalize marijuana. i think that if he were to legalize all drugs, then he is in the wrong, no doubt. certain drugs, like cocaine, heroin, etc. should not UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES be legal. all drugs except for marijuana have killed multiple people in this world.
i have to admit that i don’t understand what people have against smoking weed. really, it doesn’t do anything to you. it doesn’t give you lung cancer, like cigarettes, it doesn’t make you go all crazy and hallucinate, like some other drugs, and it definitely doesn’t kill you, just like every other drug out there, including alcohol. even alcohol is legal, yet it’s listed right underneath tobacco for number of deaths in the world annually [tobacco is #1, no doubt]. seriously, marijuana does no harm, whatsoever. maybe it impairs you for a bit of time, but not to a point where you’re hallucinating, or going insane or anything like that. it makes you laugh, it makes you hungry, it can make you emotional… it has few side effects, yet none of them are life threatening….
soooo WHAT’S THE PROBLEM!?!?
seriously, just have it legalized already. i’m sure that more than half the population IN THE WORLD smokes weed.
but on a side note…
don’t do it while driving.
driving under the influence is never a good thing, not matter what you are on. and that includes weed.
Leave a Comment