Do you think that Marijuana should be totally legalized?

Question

Can anyone tell me any of the real reasons that was made illegal in the first place? Has anyone done any actual in-depth research on this subject?

Rayce B....so far you have gotten the closest to what I was looking for here!

Answer 1

Yes. As for the reasons for it being made illegal:

Same reason everything else happens. Money. Now, who profits directly from hemp being made illegal? Logical first thought would be pot dealers, but they dont have very much lobbying power or influence, so we can rule them out.

Think in the context of the time. Hemp became illegal in 1937. Who back then, and by extension still today stood to profit from it being made illegal? Let me give you a hint. Popular Mechanics, in the '30s reported that hemp was the first crop with the business potential to exceed one billion dollars. In the 1930's that was one hell of alot of money. That much would have to come at the expense of some other industry right? What are the logical industries that a massive hemp industry would damage?

Paper and logging: One can get the same amount of paper from 4.1. acres of trees as they can get from just one acre of hemp. Not to mention that its higher quality paper and more durable than the wood-pulp paper we have today. Naturally without the need to make paper from wood, the logging industry would be threatened as well as the wood-pulp paper industry.

Petrochemical and synthetics: With hemp you can make fuel, and natural, biodegrable plastics. Ford's first Model-T was made from hemp plastics and was made to run on hemp oil. So naturally, with Dupont, in 1937, having just patented the way to make plastics from oil, felt incredibly threatened by the potential of the huge potential of hemp.

Tobacco and alcohol: Who wants to get drunk and throw up everywhere when you can get high and relax right? Same thing with cigarettes. Most people I've seen smoking their first cigarette hate it. By contrast, most people I've seen smoking pot for the first time like it. Right off the bat thats a threat to the tobacco industry, not to mention that the effects of pot are more pleasant than those of tobacco or alcohol.

So now you have some very rich, very powerful industrialists threatened by this plant. How long do you think its going to take for it to disappear somehow? They lobbied in the government, pushed stories of how bad "marihuana" was in newspapers they owned, and of course, movies like "Reefer Madness" and "Marihuana: The Devils Weed" helped push popular opinion against it.

William R. Hearst owned several newspapers, not to mention the Hearst Paper Manufacturing Division of Kimberly Clark. They owned considerable amounts of forests to be used for paper. They would have lost incredible amounts of money with the industrialization of hemp.

The American Medical Association, ironically testified in Congress against the law making hemp illegal, because they hadnt realized until that point that what the media was talking about when they said "marihuana" was the same thing as hemp. Movies like Reefer Madness told stories of people killing their entire families with an ax under the influence of marihuana, and so virtually no-one made the connection between hemp and marijuana until after the law was passed.

Theres lots of irony and inconsistencies in the propaganda that played a part in making it illegal. Its an interesting story, and an even more interesting look at the power corporations wield to this day in this country. Alot of people seem to have this idea that corruption began with Bush and Halliburton, but this kind of thing has been going on for decades now.

Anyway thats it, basically summed up. Theres lots of other details I could go on for hours with, but I wont.

Answer 2

The first state to make marijuana illegal was Texas. The did it to keep out Mexicans (they were the main users in TX's eyes) I personally feel that it should be legal the same as alcohol,in other words,not legal to DUI.I can understand why heroin and cocaine are not legal,they are highly addictive and you can over dose on it and die.Alcohol in my eyes should also be illegal,for the same reasons that heroin and cocaine are.There are NO reported deaths from Mary Jane O.D.'s.But people die and kill on alcohol.And honestly I think that if the Government got involved with Marijuana they would destroy it like they did tobacco.Adding all kinds of chemicals to it to quoit "Make it better",so maybe it's better off left as is.But the punishment should not be as strict as it is.

Answer 3

I really don't know why pot was made illegal, but it makes no sense. In order to smoke marijuana without any legal repercussions, one has to go about as far as Tijuana or the Green Zone in Vancouver. Really adventurous people can go to Amsterdam or most places in Europe. Or you could fake glaucoma and get the medicinal stuff. If the drug laws were up to me, I'd legalize pot and triple the penalties on illegal drugs, and put a very long term on dealing them.

Answer 4

I have done some research, but not a tremendous amount.

What I found out is that it was made illegal at approximately the same time as other substances, such as cocaine and heroin and its opiate cousins. The reasons seem to be a mix of racism (its use was especially connected with Hispanic people and African Americans), ridiculous lies in newspapers (pushers in every school yard, trying to get little Bobby and Susie hooked), and untrue stories of its negative effects (it makes people violent and spawns huge crime sprees--yeah, anyone who has ever smoked it knows that robbing a 7-11 is the last thing on your mind--you just want to hang out and be at peace with the world). The US was also dealing with the Temperance Movement and alcohol issues at about the same time. There was a small but very vocal lobby in the US to make all mood altering substances illegal. And the government fell for it.

My personal feeling is that the US has a strong Protestant streak in it which considers anything that is pleasurable to probably be dangerous and immoral, as well. Back when what are now controlled substances were legal, there wasn't any problem with drug-crazed people running around and creating a crime wave. People who used drugs used them because they liked the effects. For example, Sigmund Freud liked the feelings of euphoria that accompanied cocaine use, but he also stated that he was able to do some deep thinking and make some very important connections in his theories while using cocaine. I think people listened when he said it was pleasurable, but not when he said it was useful.

There are several ironies in the fact that marijuana is illegal. For one, unlike coke and the heavy duty opiates, it's nearly impossible to OD on marijuana alone. It's also one of the most effective drugs available for a host of problems. Most people know it's good for nausea and appetite, which are problems faced by people with cancer, or AIDS, among other things. Many people don't realize, however, that it is a very good medication for people with depression and bipolar syndromes. Over time, marijuana stabilizes mood, and brings up the mood of regular users who are depressed, while suppressing the high-low cycle of individuals who are bipolar, helping them move to a more regular mood. It is excellent for the treatment of pain, with some studies concluding it is every bit as effective as opiates, but without the dangers of overdose or addiction. It can help insomniacs sleep, and can help restore regular sleep rhythms, which is hard to do with other medications for insomnia. (They can make you sleep, but they interrupt your natural sleep rhythms, so you don't get the proper balance of the different types of sleep, like REM sleep). Every doctor who has ever agreed to speak with me off the record about marijuana has told me that they think it's a very good medicine, and that it should not be illegal. Most of them say they would like to go back to the old system where it was legal for a doctor to prescribe it for people, and it was supplied by the Federal government from high quality stores of confiscated plants.

To me, the absolute biggest irony of all is that if it were legalized, all of the crime associated with it would be eradicated. It could be dispensed as a quality controlled substance, it could be taxed, and the criminals who are making money on it would be out of business. I mean look at the Volstead Act. What was the one major result of it? It made criminals who ran illegal booze into millionaires. It didn't stop drinking. It didn't stop alcoholism. It just made people like Al Capone wealthy.

So my answer is a resounding YES. It should be legalized. It has a lot of benefits--it has a millenia-old track record as a good medicine. It isn't harmful--just compare it to alcohol, which causes a lot of deaths and assaults in the US every year. And legalizing it would take the air out of a lot of criminal enterprises. Not legalizing it is just silly. I hope that people will wake up sometime during my lifetime, and realize its benefits.

Answer 5

"Can anyone tell me any of the real reasons that was made illegal in the first place?"

Ask the alcohol and tobacco industries

Follow the money and you'll usually find a republican or a corporation (redundant) being unethical

Answer 6

Hemp has been on this planet for thousands of yrs. It was legal when Christ walked the earth. It's been used for rope, clothes, paper (the Constitution was drafted on hemp), and is basically one of the strongest fibers known to mankind.

When it became 'illegal' the only people who benefited were 'attorneys' and drug dealers. And the members of Congress who are paid off to keep it illegal. It's only a plant. It's a cash cow for attorneys representing defendants. HUGE $$$$!!!

When i had my last knee operation - pharma drugs gave me headaches and I couldn't sleep. Had a friend find some pot, had 2 hits and was finally able to sleep. Smoked it every night so I could sleep, until my knee healed.

btw, all 'acts of Congress' are only for residents of the Districit of Columbia and all fed states only. (guam, v. islands, etc. ) NOT within the 50 states of the Union. There, Congress has no authority.

Answer 7

If I recall history there are more than any fair share of studies done with pot. And it all depends on who funds the study on whether pot is harmful or not.

My personal opinion (and I certain there will be someone against this aaaannnnddd we don't have to hear the rebuttal) is that I believe pot to be a "gateway" drug. People who believe they need alcohol and/or drugs to satisfy their recreational needs will more than likely experiment to a hard drug at one point of time but pot was probably their first illicit attempt.

Answer 8

Make it legal and lets put a sin tax on it like alcohol and cigarettes. Then the idiots of the world will pay off the national debt. I am also for a national lottery too. I do not play lottery or smoke pot, but the money we can make off them I am all for.

Answer 9

It should be legalized and treated as ciggerates. That way you can tax it and regulate it while putting some drug dealers out of business.

You would have to be over 18 to buy it and you could not drive while high.

Answer 10

The Mexicans who came up to help build the south loved the stuff; they passed it to the blacks; and paranoid white America said it had to be stopped.
Legalizing and taxing the crap out of it would be a perfect source of income to help fund the war on drugs that come from Afghanistan (Heroin), and South America (Coke).