Who here thinks marijuana isn't legal because of "The Man?"

[Writer]

:smoke:



;)

[liberal_at_heart]

1. I think it is the culture

In America being drunk and violent is more acceptable than being high and relaxed. Culturally, being high means you are lazy and unproductive. I guess people figure if you are beating someone up or driving drunk you are at least doing something where as someone high on marijuana is just lazy and not doing anything.

[BakedAtAMileHigh]

9. relaxed is not lazy!

The cliche of marijuana users being lazy is nothing but propaganda, right up there with how they used to tell young boys that smoking it would make you grow tits (remember THAT one? I heard it in 6th grade. It's not true.) or make you psychotic. Lies, lies, lies, all of it.

Believe it or not, those young male morons who take bong rips and then sit on the couch all afternoon playing video games? They were apathetic and stupid to begin with, they simply chose marijuana as their vehicle to a blank stare. There is quite a bit of research showing that cannabis is neuroprotective and can actually fight brain tumors; claims of cannabis-induced laziness are just as spurious.

But wait, there's more! That "dopey' feeling that sometimes come with smoking God's Own Medicine is actually NOT the result of THC: it caused by the body's release of chemicals like histamines in response to smoke. It's the same reason you feel "dopey" when you have a head cold or get bad allergies. This side effect can be completely eliminated from cannabis consumption through vaporization of plant matter or (my personal favorite) eating tasty snack treats infused with quality ganja butter! :)

To paraphrase the late, great Bill Hicks, pot doesn't make you lazy, it just opens your eyes to the fact that most of what our culture does during its day is either useless, designed to further enslave us to authority or both.

[liberal_at_heart]

11. I'm with you

I was just stating how our society sees marijuana smokers. I think it rediculous that liquor is legal and marijuana is not. I really like what Rick Steve has to say on the subject. It's interesting to see how the rest of the world views the subject. I like Rick Steves for alot of reasons. I like that he advocates traveling as a political action.

[rd_kent]

37. Thats it EXACTLY!

pot doesn't make you lazy, it just opens your eyes to the fact that most of what our culture does during its day is either useless, designed to further enslave us to authority or both


You (or Bill Hicks) is 100% right. I cannot wait to get home and think about that after hitting the hookah.

[alfredo]

10. Indica smokers give us a bad name.

[damntexdem]

19. I think that it's in part due to racism, just as when first outlawed.

I don't know whether fear of commercial competition by hemp is still a motive, but it might be.

[The Midway Rebel]

2. Illegal because of the profit to judges and lawyers...

also illegal because of the dumb ass stereotypes perpetrated by the OP.

[TexasObserver]

16. It's not the judges and the lawyers. It's Big Pharm, Big Religion, Alcohol and Tobacco.

Speaking of dumb ass stereotypes, you need to lose yours about judges and lawyers. You seem to know less about them than the OP knows about smokers.

[The Midway Rebel]

23. Yeah, I will try and remember that next Big Pharm, Big Religion or the Alcohol/Tobacco industry

hauls my ass before a judge in a court of law for smoking a joint.

[TexasObserver]

26. I hope you will.

Find out what's going on.

The judge? He or she's following the law passed by your state rep, and your state senator, and signed into law by your governor. The lawyer? Him or her, too. Your complaint is with your politicians, who reflect the views of your neighbors and the special interests like Big Pharm, Big Religion, Alcohol, Tobacco.

And I'm pretty it wasn't a judge or lawyer who arrested you.

[The Midway Rebel]

27. We do not disagree much.

In hindsight, I should have added politicians, cops, and the views of my neighbors (perpetrated by dumb ass stereotypes)...plus what you said.

The OP was right after all. It is "the Man".

[TexasObserver]

30. We can agree that a lot of people conspire to arrest smokers.

And that we both think such arrests are wrong, and a waste of valuable assets, as well as wrong for the accused.

I don't care what any adult who is competent does with his or her body. If they want to wear a bone in their nose, tattoo every square inch of flesh, have sex with random strangers, or ingest all manner of drugs, I do not care. As long as you do it in your home and you don't hurt anyone in the process, I don't care what anyone smokes, takes, shoots, or eats.

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. That man is responsible? Dang, he's very powerful.

:rofl:

[Robb]

18. Indeed. His bongo skills belie a political acumen second to none. nt

[ensho]

4. private owned prisons love the ban - they make much money off

of tokers and growers

[madokie]

5. That has more to do with it that any of us would want to admit too

I'm a firm believer in that we should not have for profit jails nor hospitals

[BolivarianHero]

12. No shit...

If you support prison privatization, you do not deserve to live in a democratic society.

[SammyWinstonJack]

36. Big part of it, for sure.

[joeybee12]

6. It was legal but became illegal as a way to get rid of Mexican workers

in texas.

[The Midway Rebel]

7. How's that working out for ya'll? n/t

[MajorChode]

14. There is a bit of irony there, however

Perhaps THE first anti-MJ law was recorded in El Paso after Mexicans were bringing wacki-tabaci into the city and were alleged to be creating a ruckus. Now all the violence in Juarez and El Paso is opening even non-imbibers' eyes as to the needlessness and waste that anti-MJ laws cause. Back in January, the El Paso city council passed a resolution asking the federal government to reevaluate the federal MJ policy in this country. Even though the dipshit mayor vetoed it, some in congress took note and it's been enough to get the ball rolling.

[The Midway Rebel]

28. Most US prohibition laws have a root in racism. n/t

[EOTE]

8. That depends on who the man is.

Is "the man" Harry J. Anslinger? William Randolph Hearst? Then yes, it's illegal because of the man.

[Zodiak]

13. Sathington Willoby (sp?) too n/t

[Trillo]

25. At the Federal Level, yes, based upon what I'd read.

However, that theory is only part of the story. At the state level in California, marijuana was banned in 1913, the same year that the Federal Reserve got started at the federal level. So it appears an earlier association may be the creation of a semi-privatized or quasi-public central bank. What would that association be?

One possibility is that the Nation's Central Bank acts as an money laundering agent, and could be why they don't want "transparency" today with respect to public funds used to rescue banks in 2008. As a money anonymizing agent, the possibilities for corruption are broad.

However, a timeline association is not causation. One might look even further back, the change from an agricultural community to an industrial one. That also dovetails nicely with the establishment of corporatism in the U.S. I've seen a number of references over the years that hemp was a valuable agricultural crop in our early years as a nation.

My current thinking is that corporatism itself is inherently hostile to marijuana. This appears probably primarily ideological: authoritarian versus liberal, but may be even simpler, simply being an issue of money.

Marijuana prohibition seems primarily about: control of everyone by corporations and a few uber-rich-folks' money versus individual's inalienable rights to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.

In other words, the whole shebang is a mess, and it keeps going back to our failure to keep corporations highly limited in their charters.

So, I guess "The Man" is a paper entity, a "person" for the purposes of subjecting real humans to unreasonable and generally anonymous authority.

[WeDidIt]

15. I believe cannabis is illegal for a few reasons

1) To give something for the DEA to do.

2) Blatant racism

3) Protection of synthetic fibers from the natural competition.

[Flaneur]

17. Who benefits from marijuana prohibition?

Law enforcement

Prosecutors and courts

Defense attorneys

Drug testing industry

Drug treatment industry

Marijuana dealers

[HelenWheels]

20. big business can't figure out how to make money off it

I think it's that simple. It's a weed anyone can grow it so they can't make a huge profit.

[kenny blankenship]

42. Govt. can't either - how will they recoup lost revenue on lost liquor/tobacco sales?

I agree completely with the idea marijuana is too easy to grow, too easy to process and distribute for Big Business to see it as a money maker for them. Anybody with a backyard can grow a year's supply. Anybody who can press a flower can "process" it to usable state. The distribution network of neighbors helping neighbors exists in every town. Where's the point of entry for Big Tobacco companies or Big Liquor? They'd find that very tough sledding; and since their sales would be hurt by legal marijuana, Uncle would lose tax revenues. There are fiefdoms and empires within state and federal law enforcement agencies that would be hurt badly by "surrender" to marijuana users, growers and traffickers. How will they justify their massive budgets? Where will they get informants for other crimes? Criminalizing vast swathes of the civilian population isn't just useful for police, who are constantly looking to expand their own powers and impunity, it's useful to political parties as well. A durable and massive confluence of interests will always look at legalization of marijuana as tantamount to the end of western civilization.

The private-public partnership will continue to be very much against the Demon Weed and will fight heroically against its attempts to poison our young people!

[asdjrocky]

21. It's a total money thing.

Woddy Harrelson explains it all really well in the movie Grass - A Documentary.

[abq e streeter]

22. +1 .....excellent documentary

[Swede]

24. The most arbitrary of laws make it illegal.

Scotch kills more people than weed ever will.

[Joe Fields]

29. question: do you not smoke pot because it's illegal, or you don't like it?

or both?

[Trillo]

31. That would be a good poll question.

I'd make it myself, except I'm not currently a donor.

BTW, my answer would be I don't smoke it because it's illegal, and because I don't have a medical marijuana card at this time. I think I might see a MM doc, as I do have chronic pain these days. It happens when you get older, and the generic, non-patented pain meds like Naproxen Sodium upset my stomach.

[Uncle Joe]

32. It isn't "The Man," it's "The Corporation." n/t

[Echo In Light]

33. Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

The war on pot (a REAL war on people in the guise of a 'war' on drugs) is driven by both profit and ideology. But I s'pose it likewise benefits the Establishment to a certain extent to keep drugs within reach to help keep the populace disinterested in organizing against its aims - - to an extent, anyway, as Establishment types learned from the Counter Culture.

But the idea that corporations can increase their profits via slave labor inmates also says a great deal about the overarching ideology fueling the desire to punish and exploit those who use marijuana.

[Uncle Joe]

39. I agree, but I also believe the true enemy to the American Peoples' freedom is corporate supremacy;

the concept of "We the Corporations" having the same rights as persons; indeed super citizens, and to this end I believe the reference of "The Man" is counterproductive as it humanizes what are essentially amoral organizations; whose preeminent concerns are profit over the welfare of the American People and for that matter the world.

They would dis-empower and criminalize the people for the almighty dollar as in for profit prisons, wage eternal war to feed military industrial corporate lust for money, let people needlessly suffer from debilitating pain in order to push legal corporate drugs, literally turn health care in to a casino for blood money; willing to sacrifice 44,000+ Americans every year to support their addiction to greed and risk humanity's very existence or at least organized society by fighting overwhelming "peer reviewed" scientific evidence warning the people of catastrophic global warming, climate change.

One thing I've learned having grown up in this Ferengi Society is the power of marketing, and I see "The Man" as a subliminal, Orwellian Phrase which misdirects and obfuscates the truth of what the true antagonist to the people is, while simultaneously taking power away from "We the Real People."

It was a corporation which led the demonization fight to outlaw Marijuana in order to eliminate a more effective competitor; that being hemp; which has nothing to do with drugs and this wasn't done for the benefit of the people it was done for the "The Corporation" and I believe we stand a better chance of winning this fight by labeling the enemy for what it is.

Peace to you, Echo in Light.

[Trillo]

40. That's a great point.

"One thing I've learned having grown up in this Ferengi Society is the power of marketing, and I see "The Man" as a subliminal, Orwellian Phrase which misdirects and obfuscates the truth of what the true antagonist to the people is, while simultaneously taking power away from "We the Real People."

[Echo In Light]

45. Excellent response. Thanks

[Chemical Bill]

34. Me! n/t

[NICO9000]

35. How about medical marijuana?

Here in Los Angeles, we've had hundreds of dispensaries open up in the past few years and the DEA and L.A. County officials just can't stand it. Thankfully, Obama's Justice Dept. just told them to lay off the raids, and that freaked out L.A. County so bad that they're probably going to pass draconian measures next week to put everybody out of business (for a while at least). Never mind that this state is famously broke and could use every tax dollar it can get, especially from such a benign substance as pot (which, btw, is STILL classified as a Schedule 1 narcotic, just like heroin!).

I visited Amsterdam back in '94 and asked one of the coffee shop owners how they were able to get personal pot use tolerated by the authorities. I'm pretty sure it's not technically "legal" there, but their government has been smart enough to distinguish between weed and hard drugs. He told me that every time a shop opened up and was closed down, another one would pop up. Eventually, the authorities gave up and quit wasting resources on it.

I think we'll probably see the same thing here, but it's gonna take many, many years for that to happen. Our privatized prison system needs plenty of warm bodies to keep their profits up and will fight tooth-and-nail to keep the drug laws as nasty and inhumane as possible.

[Romulox]

38. Unrec for derisive tone. Lame. nt

[spanone]

41. never had an mj hangover yet alcohol made me miss work many times....

[debbierlus]

43. Marijuana isn't legal because of hats such as that!

Couldn't resist....

:toast:

&

K & R

[Festivito]

44. Partly because it competes with the man who makes cotton?

The touch the feel of cotton, the fabric of our lives.