Why is marijuana illegal?

[Bobtheicon]

From Tom Head,
Your Guide to Civil Liberties.

Top 7 Reasons

From a prohibition-based perspective, marijuana is illegal in the United States primarily for these seven reasons.

1. It is perceived as addictive.
Under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, marijuana is classified as a Schedule I drug on the basis that is has "a high potential for abuse." What
does this mean?

It means that the perception is that people get on marijuana, they get hooked and become "potheads," and it begins to dominate their lives. This unquestionably happens in some cases. But it also happens in the case of alcohol--and alcohol is perfectly legal.

In order to fight this argument for prohibition, legalization advocates need to make the argument that marijuana is not as addictive as government sources claim.

2. It has "no accepted medical use."
Marijuana seems to yield considerable medical benefits for many Americans with ailments ranging from glaucoma to cancer, but these benefits have not been accepted well enough, on a national level. Medical use of marijuana remains a serious national controversy.

In order to fight the argument that marijuana has no medical use, legalization advocates need to highlight the effects it has had on the lives of people who have used the drug for medical reasons.

3. It has been historically linked with narcotics, such as heroin.
The first piece of federal legislation to formally regulate marijuana was the Narcotics Act of 1914, which regulated heroin, cocaine, and marijuana. The only trouble is that cocaine and marijuana are not technically narcotics; the word "narcotic," when used in English, has historically referred to opium derivatives such as heroin and morphine.

But the association stuck, and there is a vast gulf in the American consciousness between "normal" recreational drugs, such as alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine, and "abnormal" recreational drugs, such as heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine. Marijuana is generally associated with the latter category, which is why it can be convincingly portrayed as a "gateway drug."

4. It is associated with unfashionable lifestyles.
Marijuana is often thought of as a drug for hippies and losers. Since it's hard to feel enthusiastic about the prospects of enabling people to become hippies and losers, imposing criminal sanctions for marijuana possession functions as a form of communal "tough love."

5. It was once associated with oppressed ethnic groups.
The intense anti-marijuana movement of the 1930s dovetailed nicely with the intense anti-Chicano movement of the 1930s. Marijuana was associated with Mexican Americans, and a ban on marijuana was seen as a way of discouraging Mexican-American subcultures from developing.

Today, thanks in large part to the very public popularity of marijuana among whites during the 1960s and 1970s, marijuana is no longer seen as what one might call an ethnic drug--but the groundwork for the anti-marijuana movement was laid down at a time when marijuana was seen as an encroachment on the U.S. majority-white culture.

6. Inertia is a powerful force in public policy.
If something has been banned for only a short period of time, then the ban is seen as unstable. If something has been banned for a long time, however, then the ban--no matter how ill-conceived it might be--tends to go unenforced long before it is actually taken off the books.

Take the ban on sodomy, for example. It hasn't really been enforced in any serious way since the 18th century, but most states technically banned same-sex sexual intercourse until the Supreme Court ruled such bans unconstitutional in Lawrence v. Texas (2003).

People tend to be comfortable with the status quo--and the status quo, for nearly a century, has been a literal or de facto federal ban on marijuana.

7. Advocates for marijuana legalization rarely present an appealing case.
To hear some advocates of marijuana legalization say it, the drug cures diseases while it promotes creativity, open-mindedness, moral progression, and a closer relationship with God and/or the cosmos. That sounds incredibly foolish, particularly when the public image of a marijuana user is, again, that of a loser who risks arrest and imprisonment so that he or she can artificially invoke an endorphin release.

A much better argument for marijuana legalization, from my vantage point, would go more like this: "It makes some people happy, and it doesn't seem to be any more dangerous than alcohol. Do we really want to go around putting people in prison and destroying their lives over this?"

[Back Country]

Alchohol

1. It is addictive.

2. It has "no accepted medical use."

3. It has been historically linked with narcotics, such as heroin.

4. It is associated with unfashionable lifestyles (drunks/hobos. Why some afraid to go to AA)

5. It was once associated with oppressed ethnic groups.

6. Inertia is a powerful force in public policy.
(DWI. MADD. Alcohol related deaths vastly higher then marijuana)

7. Advocates for alcohol legalization rarely present an appealing case. (bootleggers/rumrunners beat it, if someones making money gov wants in and wants to maximize profits. More points for it being illegal then for the opo)


AKA its illegal b/c its easier for the gov to make a substaintial amount of money off of it as an illegal substance then a legal substance.

Its status as an illegal substance pays law enforcement, government official, judges, lawyers and so on

Its always about the money

[captaincapper]

I think marijuana should be legalized, however i doubt that it will be in my life time. The reasons that i think that it won't ever be legalized are:

1) Most of the people who want marijuana legalized are marijuana users. I don't know what the statistics are but it's safe to say that marijuana is used by the minority, not the majority of the population.

2) Not enough government legislators smoke marijuana to give a shit about legalizing marijuana.

3) Even though legalizing marijuana would pay for itself in the long run, it would be extremely expensive in the short term. And even in the long term it wouldn't bring in as much revenue for the government as it does today, "enforcing" the law.

4) Once you legalize something, it's then hard to "illegalize" it in the future. ex Prohibition. Legalizing weed would be a social experiment, and therefore even though it sounds like a good idea now problems could arise. In this unlikely event, it would be next to impossible to make it illegal again without serious backlash.

5) People who heavily use marijuana are too stoned to effectively argue that legalizing marijuana is a good idea.

[QuadzillaXXX]

When I was in Vegas years ago they had a great TV commercial by some group trying to get it legalized.
They had fine upstanding people dressed in business attire and with their families who kept saying "I'm against it, that's why I'm for it."
The idea was that they were basically anti-weed so if it were legalized it could be controlled.
I think it was the first time I've ever seen a campaign that didn't involve a Cheech look-a-like quoting stats from High Times.

[Victor]

I have been and always will be for legalizing marijuana!

[xxxFTWxxx]

$$$

[snapdad]

Have you guys seen the documentary on showtime American Drug War? It is pretty eye opening.

[revnecro1273]

i am sure there is some bullshit religious basis to go along with those other possible explanations...just as most laws stem from religious crap...which, i might add, is in violation of separation of church and state

[Jahred]

gambling is 10x more addictive

[revnecro1273]

Originally Posted by Back Country

AKA its illegal b/c its easier for the gov to make a substaintial amount of money off of it as an illegal substance then a legal substance.

Its status as an illegal substance pays law enforcement, government official, judges, lawyers and so on

Its always about the money

but it is illegal in most countries around the world...and there are many countries where drug isn't high

[Wellahiya]

driving too fast - illegal
parking at the bus stop - illegal

do i care?

[Mark]

The govt is unable to make money on weed as compared to alcohol, etc. "They" prohibit the production of alcohol so they are the only supplier and are able to tax it as they see fit. The same can be said for tobacco. When it comes to weed, how are the authorities going to control it when it grows everywhere by anyone. They wouldn't be able to tax it because few would purchase their low potency weed thru them. Gov't wouldn't be able to distinguish if it's theirs or yours either, making prosecution impossible. Make a long story short, its ALL ABOUT THE MONEY and they make their money by handing out ridiculously large fines/incarceration. I've always maintained that if the authorities would allow a person to grow 1 plant per yr (i.e) the criminal element surrounding marijuana would disappear. The "corner" dealer wouldn't have anyone to peddle their dope to. It's also alot safer to grow your own because the dangers of being shot or mugged decrease when you're in your backyard puffing on some sweet maryjane.

[Gobbler's Knob]

Originally Posted by Jahred

gambling is 10x more addictive

Bet ya it's not.

[Back Country]

Originally Posted by revnecro1273

but it is illegal in most countries around the world...and there are many countries where drug isn't high

wtf are you trying to say?

US is always about the money. You want a reason for almost anything follow the money

[Bobtheicon]

Doesn't it cost a lot of money to keep people incarcerated for marijuana crimes?

Doesn't it seem sacreligious for man to deem one of God's herb bearing seeds illegal?

Doesn't it imply corruption to say that the government makes more off of this plant due to it's illegality than it would if it were not illegal? What does it say about the citizenry that accepts and actually expects this sort of corruption?