2006-12-08 07:13:25 · 32 answers · asked by southcentral_lafynest213 1 in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
Because they couldn't make prohibition stick. I think one day they will legalize marijuana. Plenty of other countries have...we're just behind.
2006-12-08 07:15:12 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
Alcohol kills more people than marijuana. Alcohol kills about 100,000 people per year. No deaths have ever been attributed to marijuana. You can find a chart of the number of people killed by drugs at http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/basicfax3.htm
Marijuana was outlawed for two major reasons. One was racial prejudice against Mexican immigrants. The other was the fear that heroin addiction would lead to the use of marijuana. You can read the story at http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/mj_outlawed.htm It is a funny and fascinating story.
The reason it is still illegal is because the US Government has had a long campaign of Reefer Madness to convince people that marijuana is bad. For example, the US Official Expert on marijuana testified that marijuana can make your incisors grow six inches long and drip with blood. He also said that when he tried it, it turned him into a bat.
Some people still believe that nonsense, as you will probably see from some of the answers you get.
Do not accept answers from people who can't give you references to back up what they say. Most people don't know their butt from their elbow on this subject.
In response to the misinformation posted above:
No, the marijuana laws were not the product of the Duponts and Hearsts wanting to outlaw hemp because it competed with their industries. See http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/hemp_conspiracy.htm
No, it didn't have much to do with the pharmaceutical industry. The first law in California did, but it was not a major law. See the history linked above.
No, it wasn't because the members of Congress drink alcohol. It was because they were woefully ignorant of the subject. If you read the transcripts of the hearings for the law, the major question is "What is this stuff?" Nobody really knew what it was.
It did have something to do with fears of addiction -- as one person has stated -- but they are completely wrong about the circumstances. The fear was that heroin addiction would lead to the use of marijuana, and they simply didn't know what marijuana was.
If you read the sources I have linked, you will see that just about none of the answers above have any basis in reality. Most of the answers you get on these topics will be completely clueless. Read the research and you will see what I mean.
2006-12-10 04:45:14 · answer #2 · answered by Cliff Schaffer 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Basically, our nation's bad experience with Prohibition is the reason alcohol is still legal. Were it up to the medical profession, alcohol would be illegal as well.
But my guess is that the policymakers of today are saddened by all the bad effects on our society caused by legal alcohol, and they fear that legalizing marijuana will lead to similar bad effects. They think "two wrongs don't make a right." Obviously, there are lots of inherent differences between marijuana and alcohol that make grouping them together counter-intuitive, but my guess is that's the way the geezers who run our country have been taught to think.
Our nation's long history of drinking and getting drunk probably also plays into it. Our Founding Fathers didn't toke the spleefa the way they drank the wine and beer. Marijuana, on the other hand, has culturally been connected with anti-establishment types, so why would The Establishment want to do them any favors?
2006-12-08 07:32:32 · answer #3 · answered by Dave of the Hill People 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There was a time when you could buy marijuana in the drug store.Then the religious & political groups had to stick their 2 cents in, as usual. Just think how much money could be made in taxes if they legalized marijuana.
I've never seen anyone try to out run the law or get really violent who was smoking . They're all too busy snarfing cheetos, LOL,but we all know the horrible things that happen when alcohol is involved.
They tried prohibiton of alcohol and it was a disaster, but I think legalizing marijuana is a good idea.People do it anyway and the government could make money off of it like they do with alcohol & cigarettes. People are never going to give up all of their vices anyway.
2006-12-08 07:36:42 · answer #4 · answered by fatkatn 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because members of Congress passed a bill and the President signed it making marijuana illegal. Exactly what their reasoning was I don't know, but I think basically it amounts to the fact that the US could not stand 2 addiction problems as bad as Alcohol.
For those folks that defend marijuana, you are wrong. Marijuana use can ruin your life or kill you. Driving impaired by marijuana has killed people, not the marijuana directly but in auto accidents. It has been shown that marijuana does damage to brain cells. My goodness, I don't have enough good functioning ones as it is, I don't think I need to do anything that would hurt the ones I got!
Last, and certainly not least, marijuana is illegal. Using marijuana can get you fired from your good job and keep you from getting a good job or career. Get caught with too much and go to jail, not a good idea.
2006-12-08 07:27:36 · answer #5 · answered by plezurgui 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because the government has not found a way to make money from it yet. If they leaglized it, they would open the flood gates to other street drugs.
They can do it with alcohol and cigarettes by taxing it more. The reason for making substances illegal have nothing to do with the death rate. If that were the case, cars would be illegal, because they kill more people every year than every drug on the planet combined, and I am not including impared driving accidents due to substance abuse.
If I were King, I would legalize it all, let the weak minded kill themselves on their drug of choice. Eventually people would realize that they are responsible for what they do to their own bodies, not the government. It's ironic that the government tells us what we can and cannot do to our bodies except when it comes to abortion, then "It's a woman's body and she has a right to choose"... but it's actually affecting the rights of someone else, the baby.
For the guy above me, there has never been a marijuana overdose in the history of recorded time.
2006-12-08 07:22:17 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Both can cause bad effects with over-use and lack of responsibility. There definitely is irony in allowing alcohol to be legal and marijuana, not. Do I think that marijuana should be legalized? Yes. However, it will be the cause of more deaths because it does impair your judgement whether addicts would like to admit it, or not. I know first hand.
So, Hey! Why not allow something else that results in more deaths. That's okay, right? Hey!!! Let's cloud ourselves with something else...that's okay, too.
In either case, people hate life so much they don't want use either with moderation.
Humans should have free will to do what they want, this is true. Marijuana will continue to be abused by youth that don't understand the efftects it can have, or simply don't care.
Same with alcohol.
Money will always be in the mind of the government whether they say they have good intention in either case, regardless.
I'll tell you what the government should do with their money... teach responsibility with both marijuana and alcohol to instill good judgement in the minds of people.
People do have to be told what to do, or they'll keep on making bad choices. But, hey! Marjority doesn't care, anyway!!!
2006-12-08 07:52:48 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Listen People! This isn't tough. Marijuana has Tetrohydrocannabinal or THC. Your brain cell becomes a host to THC. It does not leave and keeps building up in the brain. If it took you 5 Mags to get high the first time and you keep it up soon you will only need 1 to get you high but you won't know it. Then you become a Mushhead! How much of a mushhead is only specualtive depending on your use. One must understand that it affects the way you think. Use the brain you have left to decide what that affect might be!
Alchohol destroys brain cells but does not become part of the cell. that can be stopped/reversed by going on the wagon (or stop drinking for you know nothings out there.)
2006-12-08 07:27:56 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
People have been asking this question for a long time. Neither has to kill or ruin lives. Really, why not just meditate and save your body and mind and money?
I think it is just a "can of worms" that no politician wants to risk his/her support over. The people-in-power won't act on it so no grass roots (sorry) action ever gains ground.
AND JUST THINK OF THE TAXES!!!
All things in moderation and none of it while driving or operating machinery, Right?
OK, let's let the oil companies grow the mary jane, rigtht next to the ethanol corn, compensate them for the losses in income from green vehicles....
2006-12-08 07:25:59 · answer #9 · answered by Pleiades 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It does not kill near as many people as alcohol. It is illegal because in the 1920s some guy and I can't recall his name, but he decided it was time to make it illegal. Hence we had movies like Reefer Madness and soon enough marijuana became illegal. I believe it has stayed illegal thanks in large part to the alcohol and pharmaceutical companies. They do not want to compete with a legal marijuana because they know they would lose. Prozac and all these other anti-depressants would lose in that battle, so they, along with alcohol lobby the government to keep it illegal. Thanks and have a nice day.
2006-12-08 07:20:08 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋