2007-01-05 13:20:54 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
Marijuana was outlawed for two major reasons. The first was racial prejudice against Mexicans. The second was the fear that heroin addiction would lead to the use of marijuana -- exactly the opposite of the modern gateway myth.
You can find a short summary of the reasons, along with links to original source documents at http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/mj_outlawed.htm
The idea that marijuana was outlawed because of an industrial conspiracy by cotton, timber, and chemical interests was advanced by Jack Herer in The Emperor Wears No Clothes. While Jack wrote a wonderful book, I have to disagree with his theory. For one thing, hemp was such a minor crop at the time that no industrialist would consider it a threat. When it was outlawed, the hemp crop was so small that even the farmers who were growing it didn't protest.
You can find a discussion of that idea at http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/hemp_conspiracy.htm
Do not accept other answers. These are the definitive references on the subject.
2007-01-06 03:38:01 · answer #1 · answered by Cliff Schaffer 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It goes back to the 1920s & 30s or so. The cotton industry feared the competition from hemp and got Congress to pass the Marijuana Tax Stamp Act. There's a bunch of propaganda items from that era on the effects of Marijuana that are pretty funny actually.
2007-01-05 23:48:52 · answer #2 · answered by ccf4980 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
#1 because if you are going to get F'ed up on drugs, the government wants its share of the money you spend on it.
if anyone can grow the stuff, people can avoid giving the government their cut.
so make it illegal, drive the price up, and now they get even more then their cut when they confiscate the dealer's house car, money, furniture, and drugs.
because they turn around sell it all, and keep the cash.
and if you think the government isn't the biggest drug dealer, then you have had your head under a rock for pretty much the entire past few decades.
#2 people who are the type of characters, that do drugs are typically dissident and rebellious of rules and law. what better excuse to spy on them, and keep them under the thumb than to create a war on drugs.
#3 its the biggest cash crop for many nations that aren't Christian theocracies.
2007-01-05 21:53:06 · answer #3 · answered by qncyguy21 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it was made illegal because the government wanted to get arid of the Mexicans and back then the Mexicans smoke a lot of it so they hoped by making it illegal the Mexicans would leave but they made it so you could have a licenses to have it you just had to have it in the first place so you would be braking the law to get the license
2007-01-05 21:36:27 · answer #4 · answered by cthulhu will raise 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well considering marijuana is grown not manufactured it technically is considered an herb not a drug but since it's grown the government has no control over it so therefore they cannot tax it. If they found a way to legalize it and tax it it'd become legal.
2007-01-05 21:41:37 · answer #5 · answered by wranglerchic74 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Because it doesn't have Pfizer, Eli Lilly, or Bristol Myers Squibb on the packaging so our government can't make any money off of it.
2007-01-05 22:29:50 · answer #6 · answered by Steenskees 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the paper idustry was failing and the owner has connections.
thus a smear campagin on the by-product of cannabis
2007-01-05 22:11:12 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Couldn't be controlled therefore not taxible therefore govt. couldn't get its fair shair = illegal.
2007-01-05 21:24:01 · answer #8 · answered by takeashot30 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
So all the potheads would be arrested and not high everywhere causing trouble.
2007-01-05 21:29:34 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
because it couldn't be controlled
2007-01-05 21:22:58 · answer #10 · answered by changRdie 3 · 3⤊ 0⤋