Marijuana illegal but not tobacco

[SmithSmith]

"One might ask why tobacco is legal and marijuana not. A possible answer is suggested by the nature of the crop. Marijuana can be grown almost anywhere, with little difficulty. It might not be easily marketable by major corporations. Tobacco is quite another story." Noam Chomsky


Pollution: Petrol vs Hemp

http://www.hempcar.org/petvshemp.shtml

[SmithSmith]

"Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth & protection of the country." -Thomas Jefferson


If Thomas Jefferson thought it was that important then it must be.

[Eleutherios]

Indeed. If it were legalized I'd definitely grow my own instead of smoking Marlboro Greens. And I'd give it away for free to my friends.

But the main reason it was made illegal in the first place was Harry J. Anslinger, a man who pretty much single-handedly convinced Congress to make it illegal. He was a devout racist and was apparently quite paranoid about communist, pacifist murderers.

http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/stories/200...anaIllegal.html (http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/stories/2003/12/22/whyIsMarijuanaIllegal.html)
"There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others."

"...the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races."

"Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death."

"Reefer makes darkies think they're as good as white men."

"Marihuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing"

"You smoke a joint and you're likely to kill your brother."

"Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind."

[SmithSmith]

sennomulo,

Thanks, I learned many things reading your link above.


"Make the most you can of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere." -President George Washington, 1794


It seems like the founding fathers were all over this plant. I being reading, it has the potential to replace almost all petroleum based industry, which is why the capitalists fear it.. Is this true?




interesting..

[Cheung Mo]

Asshole Aslinger and that fascist pig Emily Murphy (Whose "feminist" contributions consist of giving personhood to White upperclass Christian women, who should have been the last women to be granted it.) should be villified by all fair-minded people for their White Supremacist hate propaganda, their war on secularism, and their leading role in the spread of anti-hemp corporatism in Canada and the United States.

[SmithSmith]

MARIJUANA/HEMP WAS LEGAL, WHY WAS IT BANNED?
http://www.cannabis.com/untoldstory/hemp_5.shtml


For the first 162 years of America's existence, marijuana was totally legal and hemp was a common crop. But during the 1930s, the U.S. government and the media began spreading outrageous lies about marijuana, which led to its prohibition. Some headlines made about marijuana in the 1930s were: "Marijuana: The assassin of youth." "Marijuana: The devil's weed with roots in hell." "Marijuana makes fiends of boys in 30 days." "If the hideous monster Frankenstein came face to face with the monster marijuana, he would drop dead of fright." In 1936, the liquor industry funded the infamous movie titled Reefer Madness. This movie depicts a man going insane from smoking marijuana, and then killing his entire family with an ax. This campaign of lies, as well as other evidence, have led many to believe there may have been a hidden agenda behind Marijuana Prohibition.

Shortly before marijuana was banned by The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, new technologies were developed that made hemp a potential competitor with the newly-founded synthetic fiber and plastics industries. Hemp's potential for producing paper also posed a threat to the timber industry (see New Billion-Dollar Crop). Evidence suggests that commercial interests having much to lose from hemp competition helped propagate reefer madness hysteria, and used their influence to lobby for Marijuana Prohibition. It is not known for certain if special interests conspired to destroy the hemp industry via Marijuana Prohibition, but enough evidence exists to raise the possibility.

After Alcohol Prohibition ended in 1933, funding for the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (now the Drug Enforcement Administration) was reduced. The FBN's own director, Harry J. Anslinger, then became a leading advocate of Marijuana Prohibition. In 1937 Anslinger testified before Congress in favor of Marijuana Prohibition by saying: "Marijuana is the most violence causing drug in the history of mankind." "Most marijuana smokers are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes." Marijuana Prohibition is founded on lies and rooted in racism, prejudice, and ignorance. Just as politicians believed Harry J. Anslinger to be a marijuana expert in 1937, many people still believe law enforcement officials are marijuana experts. In reality, law enforcement officials have no expert knowledge of marijuana's medical or health effects, but they do represent an industry that receives billions of tax dollars to enforce Marijuana Prohibition.

Before the government began promoting reefer madness hysteria during the 1930s, the word marijuana was a Mexican word that was totally absent from the American vocabulary. In the 1930s, Americans knew that hemp was a common, useful, and harmless crop. It is extremely unlikely anyone would have believed hemp was dangerous, or would have believed stories of hemp madness. Thus, the words marijuana and reefer were substituted for the word hemp in order to frighten the public into supporting Hemp Prohibition. Very few people realized that marijuana and hemp came from the same plant species; thus, virtually nobody knew that Marijuana Prohibition would destroy the hemp industry.

Bolstering the theory that marijuana was banned to destroy the hemp industry, two articles were written on the eve of Marijuana Prohibition that claim hemp was on the verge of becoming a super crop. These articles appeared in two well-respected magazines that are still published today. The articles are:

Flax and Hemp (Mechanical Engineering, Feb. 1937)
http://www.cannabis.com/untoldstory/mech_eng.shtml

New Billion-Dollar Crop (Popular Mechanics, Feb. 1938)
http://www.cannabis.com/untoldstory/pmpage1.shtml

This was the first time that billion dollar was used to describe the value of a crop. These articles praise the usefulness and potential of hemp by stating "hemp can be used to produce more than 25,000 products" and "hemp will prove, for both farmer and public, the most profitable and desirable crop that can be grown." Marijuana Prohibition took effect within one year after both these articles were written.

[Vallegrande]

This was the prohibitionists' arch nemesis: Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. Anslinger hated him for his refutation of the accusations against marijuana.

http://www.laguardia.edu/lagfoundation/Images/fiorello2%20.jpg

http://www.pipes.org/Ephemeris/es80/es80c28.gif

Mayor LaGuardia possibly testing the effects of marijuana.


For anyone who doesn't know the whole history and wants really good info, I recommend the movie "Grass", as it shows a detailed timeline of marijuana's prohibition. There are good clips of Harry Anslinger and Fiorello LaGuardia. I have to say it is one of the most complete historical records on video.

[Janus]

Marijuana ismany US states for medicinal purposes. Also, it has been decriminalized in several states as well.

But check out this recent news article.


Originally posted by AP
The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that it does not support the use of marijuana for medical purposes.The FDA said in a statement that it and other agencies with the Health and Human Services Department had "concluded that no sound scientific studies supported medical use of marijuana for treatment in the United States, and no animal or human data supported the safety or efficacy of marijuana for general medical use."

A number of states have passed legislation allowing marijuana use for medical purposes, but the FDA said, "These measures are inconsistent with efforts to ensure that medications undergo the rigorous scientific scrutiny of the FDA approval process and are proven safe and effective."

The statement contradicts a 1999 finding from the Institute of Medicine, part of the
National Academy of Sciences, which reported that "marijuana's active components are potentially effective in treating pain, nausea, the anorexia of
AIDS wasting and other symptoms, and should be tested rigorously in clinical trials."

Bruce Mirken, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, said Thursday: "If anybody needed proof that the FDA has become totally politicized, this is it. This isn't a scientific statement; it's a political statement."

Mirken said "a rabid congressional opponent of medical marijuana," Rep. Mark Souder (news, bio, voting record), R-Ind., asked the FDA to make the statement.

Souder, chairman of the House Government Reform subcommittee on drug policy, has said the promotion of medical marijuana "is simply a red herring for the legalization of marijuana for recreational use. Studies have continually rejected the notion that marijuana is suitable for medical use because it adversely impacts concentration and memory, the lungs, motor coordination and the immune system."

The FDA statement noted "there is currently sound evidence that smoked marijuana is harmful." It also said, "There are alternative FDA-approved medications in existence for treatment of many of the proposed uses of smoked marijuana."

Mirken responded, "There is abundant evidence that marijuana can help cancer patients, multiple sclerosis patients and AIDS patients. There is no scientific doubt that marijuana relieves nausea, vomiting, certain kinds of pain and other symptoms that don't respond well to conventional drugs, and does it more safely than other drugs.

"For the FDA to ignore all that evidence is embarrassing," Mirken said. "They should be red-faced."

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

I've seen loads of information about why weed is illegal in the US, but I have seen very little information concerning why it is illegal in the UK and other countries.