marijuana illegal? how can a plant be illegal?
339899
yeah but cocaine paste is man made  marijuana plant in natural form isnt.  it is a rubbish law .
512143
Because they cannot arrest everyone.  And the only reason marijuana is illegal anyway is to keep kids from smoking it.  It's really better for you than alcohol.  Most people I know smoke it, and those who don't are cool with it.  I know a bunch of cops that smoke too.
301680
ILLEGAL.\nrent it at the store, for like three dollars, geez.
977188
Marijuana was legal when Prohibition went into affect and saw a rise in popularity as people sought an alternative  for the alcohol they couldn't get anymore. Two factors combined to make Marijuana illegal, one, the liquor industry that didn't want competition and the other was the bureaucracy set up to suppress alcohol found itself out of business once alcohol became legal again. When has any bureaucracy ever dismantled voluntarily? They just created a new boogie-man to suppress.
433183
I see there are quite a lot of uneducated people answering questions nowadays.\n\nThe only reason marijuana was made illegal was to discriminate against the Mexicans coming into America during the early 1900s. First, they passed a law that said if a person possessed marijuana, they needed a tax stamp on it, but the government never gave anyone these stamps so the cops would just throw those people in jail. It had nothing to do with people actually getting high off of it. Then in the 1950s, the government went and made it completely illegal because they were so uneducated about it, they thought it made people psychotic murderers.\n\nEdit: I swear, some people just buy into everything they are told on TV. As I see more stupid people comment on how marijuana is a gateway drug, I must interject once again. It's is NOT a gateway drug. People see all drugs as taboo, so if they try marijuana and like it, that makes them wonder if the government is wrong about all the other illegal drugs out there. Legalize it, and I guarantee people who do other drugs will quit doing those and just smoke marijuana. And the people who just start smoking marijuana will be content with the affect it has on them and won't do anything else. The folks that are so bent on trying other drugs will do so regardless if they ever smoke marijuana. It's just the fact that marijuana is much more accessable, so that is usually the drug they use first.
340421
it's illegal, who does it?!?
824511
It's illegal, period.  You use it, sell it, have it in your possession, etc, and get caught, you are going to prison.
996347
unlawfull                                illegal
707195
its always been illegal.  you need to know when the common law prohibition was codified into statute.
511062
it is illegal...report it to the proper authority.
1021616
marijuana is the most commonly uses illegal substance in the United States. it is used by many people, most of which aren't your stereotypical "druggie", with no life agead of them. Many of them hapen to be very successful, good people. Think about it almost if not every person who reads this paper will know (even if they don't realize it) at least one if not several regular users of marijuana. Its often made out to be much more harmful htan it really is, unfortunatly not every one realizes this. \n\nWhat many people don't realize is marijuana is much less harmful than alcohol or tobacco. Yet it's the one of the three that gets a bad rap and is illegal. Marijuana isn't even physicaly addicting. You certanly don't see meetings for marijuana like you do with alcohol and AA. Unfortunatly due to American culture the less harmful of the three is illegal.\n\nThe most common reason why marijuana can be harmful is that people can often come across laced marijuana without realizing it. Marijuana can easily be mixed with other more harmful drugs with out the buyer realizing it, until they have already used it. This is a dangerous thing that causes many people to do more harmful, hard core drugs without realizing it. If it were to be legalized the government could provide guide lines, like it does with alchol  to insure that people knew what they were putting into their bodies.\n\nMarijuana actually has many helpful benefits toward diseases / sicknesses. Marijuana can reduce nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite caused by AIDS. It can Reduce interlobular pressure, which alleviates the pain and slowing and sometimes even stopping the progress of glaucoma. Common side effects of chemotherapy are nausea, loss of appetite, and vomiting, all of which marijuana would help. It can limit muscle pain and relieve tremor nad unsteadiness of gait for multiple sclerosis patients. Marijuana can help prevent epileptic seizures in some patients. It can also alleviate chronic, often debilitating pain caused by myriad disorders and injuries. Each one of these applications have been deemed legitimate by at least one United States court, legislature, and/or government agency.\n\nDue to these reasons and many others many people are going to jail/prison on a daily basis due to simply smoking a little pot These aren't dangerous criminals that would kill or rape someone. Many of them are teachers, lawyers and respected members of their communities. But yet we still pay thousands of dollars of tax payers money to lock up non dangerous "criminals" yearly even though most aren't going to stop after they get out of jail. Don't you think the money spent here is a waste? Couldn't it be going to more useful things such as hospitals, disease research, or better schools? These are the things that would benifit the people of this country. Certanily you would rather benefit the people more than throwing a non violent pot head in jail who was only trying to smoke a joint and relax after a long days work in jail. There is up to forty million regular (note thats just the regular not occasional users) drug users in the United states. If we were to throw all of them in jail it would cost $500,000 per million people, plus the cost and space of building many more prisons. Couldm't that money be spent on building hospitals? There's already about 1.5 million people tax payers are paying to keep in jail over drugs. From 1990 to 2003, nearly 5.9 million people had been arrested for smoking marijuana. Thats a greater number than the entire population of Alaska, Delaware, The District of Columbia, Montania, North and South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming combined. This country simply can't afford to put 40 million more in jail.\n\nMarijuana should be legalized. It has many uses such as helping sick patients. People are going to smoke it no matter what the government sais, and with out govenment guidelines this can b
314571
pot was made illegal when lsd and all the hard druggs of the 60's were i think. instead of actually knowing what pot was or how it was different then acid and x and cocaine, and the other hard drugs, it was illegialized right along with it. so really for no good reason is it illegal.. yes it should be legalized.. we wouldnt spend so much money on the fight against drugs, and would be able to focus on the important things like coke, and crack, and heron, exc... the things that actually kill ppl
750149
Because ILLEGAL means NOT LEGAL.
953956
Why don't we just legalize murder and fraud and robbery and rape.  Smoking Marijuana is illegal and just because millions do it desn't make it right.  Millions of people around the world supported the 911 attacks, does that make them rifght?  Crime is crime and people who commit it should be punished.  Lock up the crinials who use, grow and/or sell marijuana.
812342
Marijuana IS government regulated!!!  As with other drugs that are "illegal"  Once confiscated, it is resold on the streets and that is the vicious cycle of why these drugs are ILLEGAL...therefore making the government money "ILLEGALLY" by arresting, charging and sentencing a person to jail and fines as restitution for their possession of illegal drugs.
991949
I bet there's nothing illegal about it. They say it's "herb" that you can smoke, they never say specifically what kind of "herb".
1129278
Well.. I am Dutch and I could ask the same question for my country. It is tolerated for more then 30 years in the whole of the Netherlands (so not just the city of Amsterdam), but still not legal. That's mainly because of pressure from other countries and the European community, even if we have the lowest amount of harddrug addicts because of our drugpolicy.\n\nI find it completely ridiculous that it is still illegal to smoke a plant!\n\nSo, if it is still not legal here after such a long time of tolerance, I don't know where you come from but if you are Americain I wouldn't bet on a quick legalisation.