Why is the herb marijuana considered "evil" by american culture?

Question

To answer some comments...
does alcohol not ruin lives and make people do stupid stuff...
Why the ban on Marijuana and not on the other drug alcohol?

Answer 1

If you look at the history that led up to the criminilization of maijuana, psychotropic factors had little to do with it. Business and political reasons are responsible. One example is William Randolph Hearst (you know, many of the magazines and stuff are published by Hearst). Besides using it as a drug, hemp has many uses. One use is paper. Hearst owned timber companies that made paper. Major competition by the hemp companies, so he used a smear campaign on Marijuana through his publication empire to wipe out his competition. This smear campaign was fear based and racially biased (black men get high, can't control themselves, and rape white women implications). This is just one example. So, to answer your question, propaganda has made marijuana "evil".

Answer 2

because of many reasons - one is definitely money - alcohol/tobacco is big business and marijuana would definitely cut into their markets.

another is pseudo moralistic - for some reason, alcohol, which can cause damage a lot faster, is regarded as appropriate, whilst marijuana, which can be damaging...only over a long time and in certain circumstances, is regarded as bad. our culture doesn't like things that are not in the norm and marijuana is not in the norm - hence the backlash.

Sad really - in all the years I was an EMT, I never once saw someone get into a fistfight while on weed. I never saw a domestic violence dispute between a stoner married couple...the biggest danger you have with marijuana is the propensity to raid the fridge.

Answer 3

Look up "Mexican" and "Immigration" and "Depression Era"

- I'm astonished that alot of people don't know this.

During the 1920s when there was a boon of employment created through the underground work of selling and making Alcohol, places such as New York, Texas, Arizona, Californa, all brought up Mexican citizens, exchanging home and lodging for work. Because they were illegal, if they got caught with alcohol they were merely sent back to the Mexico.

During the 1930s, when the Depression hit and no one had jobs, the Government needed to get rid of people, FAST. Mexicans were taking jobs that American people could have; and that became a big issue - mostly in the southern states. The appointed drug and food commisioner of the time didn't want to make a weed illegal - because it was unconstitutional, it was impossible for the government to make the consumption of a "plant" illegal.

During the same time, to make machine guns illegal, a NY lawyer decided to "Tax" machine guns - anyone who owned, sold, or purchased the gun had to have a Tax Stamp from the US Gov. The trick was, the US Gov. only released a certain amount of stamps a year, and didn't sell them to the public - highest bidder private company, only.

So, they did the same with weed. They just didn't release the tax stamps. Immediatly most Mexicans were deported for avoiding taxes.

Then, during the 1940s there were still a lot of issues with the tax stamp - people were calling it unconstitutional, and to calm people down; the Government started pushing through the Media many different movies, articles, etc; exagerating the use of Marijuana.

One of the movies, for example, talked about how Johnny came home from smoking, and chopped up his whole family with an Ax. Or how Marie suddenly ran out of her desk and jump out the window after smoking. One movie was about a kid beating his mother with a frying pan until she was dead. They played movies about rape, sucide and murder - all because of people smoking marijuana.

This, of course, isn't true - but people didn't know back then!

So everyone quiet down and said, ok if it's that horrible then....

Finally, president Nixon - after almost 30 years of the government banning subtances through the use of taxation - created the Schedule of Drugs; mostly because the vast majority of LSD users were starting to form a revolution against the Government, because they were displeased with the "erroding of liberties" and the useless wars.

Overnight, all higher ups in the revolutions were in jail for life because of use of the drugs.

Fast forward to today, and people "claiming" that they are erroding our freedoms and we're in useless wars have not checked the history. History repeats itself. Marijuana is still legal (even though before the Schedule of Drugs was passed there were MANY documents on how Marijuana is BENEFICIAL for society.) - now w/ the schedule, no one can ever do research on the drug without intervention from the house.

History Repeats Itself.

Answer 4

Marijuana is great for medicinal purposes. It is also better to do then to sit and nurse a bottle of alcohol to chase your problems away. I think that marijuana is okay if you are old enough to make that choice soundly and you don't consume yourself in a cloud daily to make the world go away. Almost everyone out there does it too. Better then snorting some coke up your nose or smoking some crack and killing someone. I have never heard of someone smoking a joint and then robbing a bank(robbing the refrigerator maybe)..lol. The government knows that if everyone smoked it there would be much less violence and they can't have that. They want us to destroy ourselves. The Government also can't Tax marijuana if it were legalized so they would have nothing to gain. So they make it look like it's so bad and they convince people that it is a "gateway" to other drugs. PLEEEEAAASE!!!!

Answer 5

I consider alcohol much, much, much worse than marijuana. It has unlimited potential for medicinal uses and I've never seen a violent person who's smoked dope like you see with a "mean drunk". It's probably been given an "evil" title by the government because people could easily grow it and they'd miss out on all the $$$$ like they take in from alcohol taxes.

Answer 6

America is a thirdworld craphole inhabited by north korean like idiots, it can't be understood because they are morons and lack any type of logic or intelligence. The only logic or intelligence they think they have is false and self invented to hide their worthlessness and how their useless and never going anywhere in life and that the country will fall hard in the next couple decades. Time to just get over a useless waste of a continent and pathetic dump and just abandon ship and let the idiots die off and kill each other like the rest of the world.

Answer 7

Marijuana is not considered "evil" by American culture, it is considered impossible to tax and therefore profit from by the American Government.

Answer 8

Alot of people think its bad because some people abuse of it. Many people use it (alot) though it being considered evil I don't know if that is the way they see it.

Answer 9

Because so many people buy into the propaganda without doing any research on the subject.

Answer 10

Although it does have medicinal purposes it is still an illegal drug. As far as the American culture labeling "evil" I feel it is more illegal.