Can someone explain why marijuana is illegal?

Marijuana is illegal. Why? It is one of the most benign substances known to man. In it's four thousand year history, there are NO recorded deaths. In fact, there is no known lethal toxicity level for marijuana in man. Legal substances like alcohol and tobacco have a greater death toll than marijuana. Also, marijuana has great benefits for the ecology as fuel, paper, fabric and a myriad of other products and it is a renewable resource. And, finally, marijuana has numerous medical uses and benefits with few side effects and, as mentioned before, it is safer than most pharmaceuticals as it has no toxicity level in man. Incidentally, aspirin causes hundreds of deaths annually whereas marijuana generally causes a wonderfully relaxed and euphoric state. Why do you suppose this natural substance and resource is illegal?

a) There is no money in it for those that decide on it's legality.
b) It alter's the minds natural state and is therefore bad (Please discount efffects of alcohol when selecting this option.)
c) Any pleasures recieved and utilised by the masses must be vetted and cleared by government agencies (see reason "a").
d) It leads to harder things that are much worse for you like prozac, ritalin(sp), colesterol and and obesity(oh, actually with the munchies side effect that last one might apply -oops!).
e) The sky is blue, water is wet, pot is illegal.
f) All of the above.

Please select any of the above and enter your credit card number at the prompt. Your $5 donation will go to the Providing Joints For The Homeless program in your local community.

Man, i ask myself this question all the time.

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Let me take a stab at this one.

Because Governments are arrogant and stupid?
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IMHO it's the pharmaceutical industry.
They are the ones with the most to lose if Marijuana was legal.
They are the ones that spread anti-Marijuana propaganda.

blogs.salon.com...

Because there is no way for goverments to profit off people having their own marijuana.

cigerettes are ONLY still legal because the government makes so much money of them

end of story!

how many more posts are people going to make about this?....

It has been asked a thousand times, and a thousand times people have responded...

Why is it illegal?.... The drug is allowed in some states for medicinal purposes, but some people are just potheads who want to get high all the time... The drug affects the coordination, attention span and the functions of the brain. There have been as many accidents caused by people being under the influence of marijuana as drunk driving.

Some people might want to smoke this drug because they want their problems to go away for a while, but after the effects are gone your problems are still going to be there, unless you want to be a pothead and keep smoking, then you won't be able to function at all.

This drug is legalized and we tell kids in the US that it is alright to take these drugs to make their problems go away for a while, they won't confront their problems and try to solve them rationally. If this drug is legalized we make potheads of many kids in the US.

If you smoke marijuana, I am sorry to say you are damaging your lungs. You sound like some guy in the 50's saying ciggarettes are healthy or something. Not that i don't agree with you, I believe that marijuana should be legalized, hell if tobacco or alcohol can be then marijuana is just as pollutant or non-pollutant a drug.

It also is a complete fallacy to say that governments can't make a buck off of marijuana. The amount of taxes they make off ciggarette and alcohol companies is mind boggling, they could easily make crazy cash off commercial marijuana, the taxations would just be passed on to the consumer in the price. Not only that but if there were commercial outfits allowed, with huge farms, they could produce machine rolled packs of 20 for the same price as tobacco, the only reason weed is more per gram now is because of its illicit nature and therefore its relative scarcity.

So in the end, yes, why isn't marijuana legal, our governments could be making a crap load of money, thousands could be employed in the various industries and companies involved, the widespread nature would undercut the black market, curbing violence and trafficking, and our jails and courts would not be filled with thousands of productive non-violent offenders who only wanted a toke! This ofcourse would also save not only the government millions but the taxpayers aswell.

WHY GOD WHY!!!!!

S.T.F.U!!! Sorry but had to be said!!! Not once have I ever heard such BS!! You cannot get addicted to cannabis the body may want it but you can live without it unlike, Crack, coke, heroin, prozac, vallium, meths any others......... There are hundreds of thousands that take drugs that are 100% more damaging than cannabis and as for the immune system having direct THC receptors for pain relief and cancer killing effects among others!!! Yep give me a J over a pint, asprin, vallium etc. ANYDAY!!!

I'm not saying cannabis is for everyone but it is a 100% pure naturally grown substance and as for altering your mind, I would much prefer to have a pot head at the steering wheel of a car than an alcoholic. One will drive more slowly and be more reactive and the other will think they are good at driving and speed then kill a child!!!



Since when do we tell kids its ok to take drugs??? Def. not here in the UK. If we legalize pot and teach children properly what the drug does and how it works in the human body then show them how to use it properly and when to use it, tell me which would be safer the kid that knows nothing and puffs away everyday without a care in the world or the one that has been brought up in an unbiased classroom where all facts are presented and questioned. You tell me??? Instead of fighting these people help them teach and help the kids learn.

We have already enough drugs on the market.
The only person interested in get this crap legalized are those potheads that cannot get rid of their vices.

Wake up and get a life.

i love a spliff as much as the next person, but marajuana can only do harm to your lungs. that paired with the mental dependency one can develop (yes, guilty) is a combination for poor health. marajuana has to contain just as many if not more carcinogens as tobacco, and tobacco is a proven killer.

neverminding the physical ailments that can be attributed to MJ, the fact is weed can really altar your personality. It may not impare your ability to drive a car - but you are still far from sober. Your thoughts are different. After a while, honestly, its not fun any more. Its just another addiction. I would aliken an addiction to MJ similar to a perscription drug abuse.

All that aside, I do not think MJ should be illegal. Infact there are few substances I think should be illegal. Whats needed is proper education about both sides of the coin when it comes to drugs. MJ should still be a controlled substance, but there should be public access. Drugs should be distributed to people of age, should they want them, and only after they have been properly educated about it. the goverment would have to be the strictest of drug dealers, but it would work a lot better. people would have the option, but only under a very controlled environment. and it wouldnt have to be illegal.

Because it hasn’t been set up to earn the people in power enough money. It will be legal one day, you’ll just be paying 1000% tax on each gram.



There was actually one guy who died from marijuana poisoning. He was smoking seven joints a day for ten years, then one day died, autopsy claimed it was marijuana poisoning.

People might not die directly from marijuana but there are a load of people who have had their lives ruined from smoking the stuff.



Yes but that is hemp. If that was made legal on its own you wouldn’t be smoking it. You wouldn’t even be able to buy it, it’ll just be used for production or certain things.

This site sells a load of hemp stuff – www.hemp-sisters.com...



How did you figure that one out? Of course if pot was legalized the government would be making a profit off it. It would be sold in pharmaceuticals which the government had control over. It would be taxed just like any other product. Do you really think that every one of the current pot smokers will be bothered to grow their own stuff? I didn’t think so either.



Indeed – I started a newsthread a while ago about the same kind of thing. - www.abovetopsecret.com... quite a few interesting responses.



No it didn’t. What was the need really?



No, you cannot get physically addicted to cannabis, but you can become mentally addicted to the drug which can be as bad. People can get into such a mess from weed that they have to visit the likes of rehab, side by side with the smack and crack addicts. Do you know anyone who smokes over 3 grams a day? I’d say that they were addicted, and there’s a lot of people in the world who do easily smoke more than that.



Yes but wouldn’t you rather have someone who is 100% sober behind the wheel than someone under the influence of any type of intoxicant? Your at more risk when a pot heads driving than someone sober, their body still reacts slower and are generally more tired and drowsy.

Marijuana will not be made legal for the same reasons that tobacco and alcohol would not be made legal today if they were not already established. I have read that it can also be very harmful to the brain with prolonged use and can lead to depression and other mental disorders. I think more research has to be done on the drug to find out exactly what the harmful side effects are, i dont care what people say, it still ruins many peoples lives and effects others.
I personally couldnt give a damn if somebody wants to wreck their brain by smoking it like a pothead, just dont ask me for help getting rehabilitated when u are f***ed in the head.

How about the cotton industry?

Hemp makes linnen what the oldworld used to use before we kew about cotton form the new world. Now to ensure dependance on cotton you have to kill off the old domestic hemp farming, as you going to import cotton form the new world and manufacture it at home.

Thats pretty stupid Phixion

Think about it, why go buy something , having to pay taxes and all this # when u cna grow something small and personal in ur own backyard..

IF people could GROW ciggeretts easily , do u really think they'd buy it ?

That's pretty stupid Phixion?

I hate this new attitude of posters which claim to be all knowledge of everything, and if you post something opposing their views you get 'STFU' or called 'stupid'. Please tell me how that is stupid? It's purely my opinion, I didn't call you stupid for your remarks did I?

It costs a lot of money to start growing marijuana, and a lot of time and effort. Have you even any knowledge of the subject? The plant needs to be nurtured every day and looked after with great care. The light, water etc all needs to be right, all the time. And then you might even get male plants which are no good to you as female plants produce the 'buds' that you smoke.

Because I work in the construction industry and have been around drugs and drug users quite a bit, I can see the practical reasons for its illegality, although I am a bit conflicted about the law.

Smoking pot frequently causes side effects which linger beyond the time of use. Although I would be open to any scientific evidence to the contrary, I have heard, and have observed first hand that those who smoke pot regularly tend to be more forgetful, more relaxed, and a little slower even when not immediately under the influence. I work around massive loaders- Cat 988Gs to be specific. These machines are incredible. These things can back right over a 1 1/2 ton truck loaded to the gills with tools, push it over a hundred feet, and the operator would not even feel the impact- he would have no idea he'd hit anything. POWERFUL machines. The operator has to be on the ball. If he forgets to check his mirrors, if he is just a little too slow to react- if he spaces out and forgets what his surroundings are- somebody will get killed.

In certain industries especially, there is no doubt in my mind that marijuana use MUST be prohibited. To a lesser extent this applies to areas of life that affect everyone, such as driving. I could perhaps be swayed on the question of use for the general public. Afterall, we let people drink, and I've observed drunks to be almost as bad as potheads, even when sober. I wouldn't want to be driving around somebody who is having major nicotine withdrawls either. So there is certainly room for debate in most areas. It could be argued that the legality of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana should be a package deal. That being said, there are some areas of society where drug use is completely and totally unacceptible.


EDIT to add:
On the conspiracy-related aspect, I believe that some drugs are illegal because it keeps prices high. I am a firm believer that the CIA and other government agencies as well as private operations which "lobby" law makers are involved in the drug trade and benefit from the inflated cost, not to mention having competition curtailed by the law.
If every Tom, Dick, and Harry could grow his own, a dime bag really would cost a dime (well, only if that bag were 100% sticks and stems i guess- i have a penchant for exagerration) and that would take away a valuable source of covert fund raising. When the CIA needs "unofficial" funds- they have a "bake sale" (they also sell coke with ice!- I kill me!). They'd probably be pissed if somebody took that capability away from them. What happens when you P.O. the CIA? Ask a Kennedy- if you can find one breathing.

[edit on 2-5-2005 by The Vagabond]

Ok, ima poke the first Q. JawaPunk..."So in the end, yes, why isn't marijuana legal, our governments could be making a crap load of money, thousands could be employed in the various industries and companies involved, the widespread nature would undercut the black market, curbing violence and trafficking, and our jails and courts would not be filled with thousands of productive non-violent offenders who only wanted a toke! This ofcourse would also save not only the government millions but the taxpayers aswell." It isnt b/c they're makin more money off the criminals slangin the sh*t around on the city blocks, just like prohibition back in the day, they"ll never legalize it cuz they're fulla sh** like most of the world, get used to it.

an interesting read on marijuana, its history and why it was banned, is a book published by Jack Herer called 'the emperor wears no clothes'.

the author has put half the book online for free and it can be read here www.jackherer.com...

its simply political suicide to support legalizing it, and all politicians just want the same thing, to get in office or stay in office or clmb to a higher office, so nobody gets behind a movement to legalize it.

Would your minds change if you were driving on the highway (no pun intended !) and saw 4 teenage guys in a car with a huge spliff ???