Pot is in every town in every state of the union. Of that there should be no doubt. Why is it illegal when a drug that is a proven killer legal? Why do taxpayers contribute billions to the persuit and prosecution of marijaunna users when it is not going to go away?\nThats what is so cute actually, it is here to stay.
119282
Its A LONG Story  That Includes Chapters About PROHIBITION (Alcohol)--As Far As Marijuana  It All Began With DuPont And His Textile Empire  ..  The Rest Is HISTORY\n\nHeres all kinds of mind-blowing long-suppressed facts about Humanity's best \nfriend "The Cannabis Plant". Hemp or Cannabis as it is scientifically referred to is the fastest growing \nbiomass source on Earth. Biomass is a cheap and efficient source of fuel. As a matter of fact, if we \nwere to farm only 6% of the country's available farmland with hemp we could meet all of the \ncountry's Industrial energy and transportation needs. Hemp is 26 times stronger than cotton and lasts \n10 times longer. We can produce 4 times as much paper from Hemp as we can from trees at one \nfourth the cost and 1/5 the pollution and it is 10 times stronger and lasts ten times longer. It is a fact \nthat Betsy Ross made our first flag "Old Glory" from Hemp fiber. Also, our Constitution and \nDeclaration of Independance were printed on Hemp paper. The soldiers clothes during the \nrevolutionary war were made from Hemp. The second most prescribed medicine in the United \nStates for 150 years for over 100 different medical illnesses was a Cannabis extract and it is alot \nstronger when taken in concentrated form. This means that all the children in America for 150 years \nwere brought up as DRUG USERS from birth. Or, it just means simply, that we had a better \nunderstanding of herbs and their medicinal usage 100 years ago than we do today. So who has \nREALLY lost their mind, people who smoke pot, or the "NORMALS" ?\nThe drug war is nothing more than an excuse to suppress consciousness and use the ignorant in our \nsociety to create laws for the New World Order to use to crack down on all of our rights !! According \nto a Feb. 1938 article in Popular Mechanics the invention of a new machine called the decorticator, \nwould once again put Hemp in the dominant position in the fiber and textiles industry over cotton by \nspeeding up the harvesting methods in use at the time. At this same time Dupont held a patent on a \nsynthetic compound used to break down wood pulp to make paper. To make paper from Hemp didn't \nrequire any chemicals. In order for Dupont to profit from these chemicals, they had to see to it that \nHemp was out-lawed. Andrew Mellon sat on the board of Dupont and Mellon's nephew was \nHarry Anslinger, the head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics at the time. William Randolph Hearst \nowned many big newspapers and working together they whipped up a smear campaign of "Yellow \nJournalism" in America, spreading propaganda that the African-Americans and Mexicans were \nsmuggling in a new killer dope weed that would lure white women to fall prey to the seduction of the \n"Negro", while under the influence of Jazz music. Racism and fear were used to outlaw \nsomething that was used by every man, woman, and child in America. It wasn't until after the \nmarijuana tax act was passed that the American Medical Association realized that "marijuana", a \nslang term for hemp was in fact "Cannabis", our second most prescribed medicine. This is when \n"Reefer Madness" began. \n\nNO ONE HAS EVER DIED FROM USING CANNABIS / MARIJUANA !!!\n\nFlexible and environmentally friendly  \nHemp is one of the most versatile plants known to mankind. Its fibres can be used for textiles and ropes or made into paper. Its seeds are a valuable food rich in unsaturated oils, which can also be used as fuel. Hemp requires few pesticides as it quickly outgrows any weeds. It leaves the soil clean for other crops. When hemp stalks are dew-retted in the fields most nutrients are returned to the soil for the next crop. \n\nHemp for textiles  \nWhen in the middle of the 19th century in California Levi Strauss invented the original jeans he made them from hemp canvas because it was the most durable textile availab
138892
Hey cam, you moron, is having drugs be illegal keeping people from getting them?? Obviously not since you can tell that story.\n\nLegalize everything.  You should be able to buy anything in the same way you can buy hard liquor, whatever the rules are in your state.\n\nDrug prohibition does not work, just like alcohol prohibition did not.  Anyone stupid enough to use drugs should be allowed to, it's called thinning the herd.
332442
Because law enforcement makes allot of money off of it. In my state for example, if you get caught with just one joint, it's like a 1200 dollar fine. That's allot of money for the corrupt law enforcement and politicians around. That's the only reason, because they make more than if they tax it. And people say you can't tax it because it's so easy to grow your own. Well, tomatoes are easy to grow too, but I'd rather just go buy them at the store, much less hassle, and potheads would do the same.
394189
Absolutly.  Making it illegal wastes tax dollars and ruins people's lives who have not engaged in any sort of violent crime.  Instead, they have done something very similar to drinking or smoking cigarettes, and because they have, they now face jail time, huge fines and criminal records.  It should, at the very least, be decriminalized, as the punishment would be rehab or something.  But absolutly, legalization will put drug dealers out of business (similar to the way the end of prohibition ended the mobster culture).  It would bring in more revenue, it could be regulated (and kid can tell you its easier to get pot than beer, as they don't have to show their ID to dealers), and it would free up our police to search out and get violent criminals more effectivly.
567314
Am I reading this right? A pot head is waging war on a meth head?! I never thought this sort of reasoning would make it farther than the 'idea' having moment during a toking. You got more tar in your head than you do brains. And yes, Meth addicts DO need jail time. Every one of them made a clear and concious decision to pick up that hot rail, needle or pipe to smoke crystal when they started and the time it took to become 'uncontrolably' addicted, so they accepted the risks. Besides, MOST users sell, they keep cutting some out every time it exchanges hands, so lock 'em up!! And I can't belive someone is trying to defend the 'poor' addicts. What and idiot you are Cripple play!!!
104033
Yes it should be legal. For one, I have lived in a place where it IS legal and the differences are astounding. Children/Teens are MUCH less likely to smoke pot if it is legal. It doesn't have the "mystique" that illegal items do. Also, there are fewer Driving while Under the Influence charges per capita where marijuana is legal, because it is used more responsibly. Check your crime statistics, you'll find that I'm right. Marijuana is no more dangerous than a cigarette. In fact, it is NOT as addictive. Infact, marijuana is ONLY a psychologically addictive drug, not a physiologically addictive one. Cigarettes are both. Economically speaking, if it were legal it would be MUCH cheaper to get. This would help regulate quality of the drug, making it much less likely to be laced with other, more addictive additives like PCP. The sale of it could be governmentally regulated, like alcohol and other controlled substances, and TAXED. That would generate a HUGE amount of tax revenue........
368823
I don't think it's fair at all! Even though I don't use either substance, I agree with you 100%. I think at the moment it's a control issue for the Government. If they legalized it right now, they still couldn't keep up with it all because so much is being grown nation wide and there is so much is on the streets. I think they should open up the market for everything. The recreational user will still be the recreational user and the addicts will still be addicts. What does the Government have to loose? Nothing the way I see it, because they will see a new tax base and there will also be plenty of new experimenters turned recreational users. We don't need Uncle Sam telling us what to do and what not to do....especially in the privacy of our own homes!
650466
I think that you're wrong and your information is incomplete. If you mean to say that medicinal marijuana laws have been passed in the states that you've mentioned, then say so. Could you not hold a thought together long enough to pound it out coherently on your keyboard?\n\nYour information sucks. Your spelling sucks. Your grammar sucks. If I were a marijuana advocate, I'd be ashamed to have you on my side.
541489
Keeping drugs illegal hardly makes money for the government.  We spend billions each year and have little to show for it.  Instead, the reality is that it is very politically unpopular to come out in favor of legalization.  actually there are even several conservative thinkers who despise addicts and addiction and drugs in general nonetheless favor legalization (including legendary but controversial conservative economist Milton Friedman who died last week) as a policy.  Until these voices can convince the general public that legalization would save money and lives and not constitute society's tacit approval of what is generally destructive behavior (yes, even marijuana can have dire consequences for its abusers) there will be little political impetus for change.  Thus, right now, the issue is simply a nonstarter for any politician who wants to keep his or her job.
71954
Maybe when the feds realize they don't even have pot in the right classification of drugs. Also when they quit being led around by the drug company lobbyists that want to push synthetic crap that is over rated and over priced and don't work near as well for medical use but I don't see that happening in this life time.  For more info on the efforts to legalize pot visit  site called drug war Chronicles or check out NORML
665076
First off, don't listen to ignorant answers from people like martinamagrace.  Obviously she's lucky enough not to have been afflicted with debilitating pain!\n\nI don't know anyone who's used it, but I've heard opinions that it is more helpful than any other high-potency pain killer.  Medical marijuana should not be illegal.  It's been a great help to many people who suffer from a number of diseases.  And kudos to the doctors who prescribe it.  If only there were more like them!
613447
I do believe that it is illegal everywhere in the US, but it does seem as though the police are cracking down more on the "harder" stuff.  But please don't get it in your head that you can't be busted for pot....a friend of mine went to jail for a week for a roach in her car ash tray.\n\nNot sure why people call it pot.  I guess people come up with new names for it all the time so other people (like the cops) won't know what they are talking about.
526878
Well, marijuana isn't hallucinogenic...at least not normally.\n\nMy theories are a) racism b) the cotton and pharmaceutical lobby/taxation\n\nRacism--- Marijuana originally was a drug for blacks and just like Jim Crow laws, it was another way to stick it to 'em.  If you look through history, drugs only become illegal in America when associated w/ a minority group.  Take opium for instance...was enjoyed by Americans until the Chinese came to Cali to build the RR.  White men became worried that the Chinese men were seducing white women in their opium dens...so, they made it illegal as a mechanism of oppression.  \n\nLobbyists- Well, hemp is a wonderfully strong material and much more durable than cotton...and marijuana being herbal and something you could grow yourself means that pharmaceutical companies can't profit on.  \n\nThere is no good reason why marijuana is illegal, especially for medical use when oxycontin/morphine which can be deadly and is highly addictive is widely used.  It is so hypocritical.  Marijuana has been proven to treat glaucoma, and is a great pain reliever/appetite stimulant for cancer patients.\n\nFYI:  Teen drug use is lower in Amsterdam where everything is legal than is in the US.  Makes you wonder who are laws are trying to protect because it sure isn't you and I.\n\nGood question, by the way.
5326
Alot of people smoke pot. Lawyers, Doctors, teachers, maybe even the cashier at your local grocery. Im not saying that all of them do but there is no doubt a small percentage. Alot of bad propaganda has been forced on to pot. Its not for everyone and sure isn't for young teens. But lots of research show that the properties of marijuana can help prevent cancer cells and doesn't kill nearly half as much brains cells as alcohol. As for safety, there will unfortunatly always be risk involved when using an illegal drug because of legality and such. And since pot is the least addictive in the narcotic list, any other drug could surely pose a serious risk to your health and life.
199048
There should be no illegal drudge.  There are all kinds of medical uses for every drug created but in the US we have illegal drugs that your Dr. cannot prescribe for you even if it would save your life.  Heroin is used routinely to treat severe cancer related pain in other countries.  LSD was developed to treat alcoholism, marijuana has several uses. Cocaine also has several uses.  I think the hype surrounding illegal drugs is just a propaganda thing of the politicians to have a platform to get our votes.  There are just as many abuses of legal drugs as there is of illegal drugs.  And what about alcohol & tobacco?  They are legal & are the worst of them all.  Anyway,  my point is, if they were legal there would be no war on drugs.  We'd save all kinds of tax money.  Do away with DEA,ATF, RENU & a lot of idiot stupid laws.  I don't even & never have done drugs but if everything were legal, then tax the h--- out of the recreational drugs & set up rehabs etc. for the druggies.
538381
I don't think it will ever be legalized in all 50 states because the government can't figure out a way to get every tax they feel inclined to impose.\nIf pot is legal to smoke then everyone will be growing their own.Can't tax what you don't know about.Only monies collected on homegrown will be thru fines imposed on the smoker after the consumption and that's only if the smoker is dumb enough to go out while stoned and get caught doing something stupid.\n\nIn a way I can't help but feel like they may as well legalize it and save us all alot of tax dollars wasted on the war on drugs.\nBut then on the other hand I really would be uncomfortable going into surgery wondering what my surgeon had to smoke a few minutes before.Or the judge that was trying my lawsuit.Or my kids teachers.And lets not forget the guys building the skyscrapers or the bridges we drive on or the ones working in the nuclear powerhouses.Especially not those guys!Do you really want Homer Simpson sitting in front of the destruct button with a big doobie in his mouth nodding off?\nWe all want a little escape from reality.We just don't think about everyone wanting to escape at the same time or the consequences when they do so.
626242
I think not many people use it because it's illegal and the media and governments have spread misinformation about it for so long.\n\nIt's illegal because unlike alcohol and tobacco, there is no refining/processing required to enjoy pot, it's easy as 1-2-3 to go from seed to joint.  The governments could never tax it.... IMHO