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Why is Marijuana Illegal?

blogs.salon.com — America's first marijuana law was enacted at Jamestown Colony, Virginia in 1619. It was a law ORDERING farmers to grow Indian hempseed. You could be jailed for NOT growing hemp during times of shortage in Virginia between 1763 and 1767, and during most of that time, hemp was legal tender (you could even pay your taxes with hemp -- try that today!)

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  • baxtermaddux, on 10/12/2007, -16/+165I blame Politicians
    • hiPpymIck, on 10/12/2007, -32/+23hemp info link ...
      http://www.concept420.com/marijuana_cannabis_faq.htm
    • vaguelyrandom, on 10/12/2007, -34/+40Me too - perhaps if they inhaled they would think differently.
    • rockforever, on 10/12/2007, -21/+161Policitcians and fear mongerers. Right Wing Christians, Uppity scapegoat searching parents, Moral police, etc. you know the type.
    • gxcdesign, on 10/12/2007, -121/+14Mostly because it's psychotic drug that generates billions of dollars a year in illegal revenue
    • baxtermaddux, on 10/12/2007, -12/+123"that generates billions of dollars a year in illegal revenue"

      it is illegal cause it generates illegal revenue? haha. talk about a continuous cycle
    • laddie, on 10/12/2007, -130/+10Policy and times change for good reason... if you are going to legalize pot then lets burn witches at the stake again too (sarcasm) . With knowledge comes responsibility. We arent in the 1600's anymore.
      • JPOOPOO, on 10/26/2007, -0/+1Yeah, now we have a box in all of our rooms to do the thinking for us.
    • t0mmmmmmm, on 10/12/2007, -28/+6I blame gimmicks

      oh and ignorance too
    • Misogyny, on 10/12/2007, -6/+45"psychotic drug"

      I think you meant something else.
    • baxtermaddux, on 10/12/2007, -4/+53"We arent in the 1600's anymore"
      i guess the internet is a dead giveaway. anyways, marajuana was legal well beyond the founding of the constitution
    • lordmetroid, on 10/12/2007, -17/+68It is not illegal! The law is unconstitutional and hence invalid. And an invalid law is no law at all!
    • Tenlow, on 10/12/2007, -7/+58It was racism and greed that made it illegal. Do some damn research before commenting.
    • AriaStar, on 10/12/2007, -10/+42The politicians are douches. Make something illegal and they can bust people for it and make some money. But we all know they're all doin' a little on the side.
    • madformadness, on 10/12/2007, -21/+10I blame it on the MAN
    • laddie, on 10/12/2007, -48/+6@baxtermaddux

      you are soo very smart... the point was just because something was done in the past does not justify its reinstitution in the present, i hope your b.s. at ***** university is going well.
    • DrFrigmundPseud, on 10/12/2007, -8/+56It's Xenu and the body thetans that make it illegal.

      The body thetans are pissed off because they got blown up by a nuclear bomb in a volcano and....

      Wait a minute, this is total and utter nonsense.

      Damn you L. Ron, damn you...
    • argoff, on 10/12/2007, -4/+128Yes! Most people don't understand that in they eyes of the government that the war on drugs is a stunning success. The war on drugs has allowed them expand government into every area of peoples private lives, it has allowed them to expand their police and prison apparatus by orders of magnitude. It has allowed them to interfere in the banking and trade affairs of every country on the planet, and to monitor and probe peoples private financial transactions on a massive scale. It is not a coincidence that the rise of the war on drugs has coincided with the rise of average percapita taxes from under 10% to well over 40%. Enforcement of such taxes would be impossible in a "free" society. In fact the war on drugs has been so successful at attacking peoples liberties, that now they have brought it to the next level, the war on terror.
    • baxtermaddux, on 10/12/2007, -4/+60@ laddie

      haha. you know Alcohol was made illegal once too. Thank god we came to our senses. You really have no reason to fear Pot so much. It is far less destructive to our society than alcohol. How many people smoke pot and then become abbusive assholes?
    • AriaStar, on 10/12/2007, -6/+30@ baxtermaddux:

      Exactly. My dad smoked it when he was stressed or pissed and mellowed out. But the last time he drank when he was mad instead of doing pot, BANG! Dad's dead.

      This stuff mellows people out. If anything, we should be giving pot to those who could otherwise be abusive or who would drink and do dumb *****. Society would be safer.
    • Dominatus, on 10/12/2007, -2/+33"that generates billions of dollars a year in illegal revenue"

      Funniest thing I think I ever read on digg. I don't think Ive ever seen a more idiotic argument for the illegality of a drug.
    • nayr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+30it's no worse than alcohol.
    • Drahkar, on 10/12/2007, -34/+16Just an important note I thought I'd put out there. Marijuana amd Hemp are two different plants...

      Just a little bit of information.
    • Zippo, on 10/12/2007, -8/+27I'm not a big fan of weed, nor of tobacco. I've never smoked either and never plan to. However, seeing the long-term effects of both, I'm of the opinion that if marijuana is illegal, tobacco *really* should be illegal. So many people are dying due to cigarettes...
      It's all a money scam. The government and private health-care industries make far too much money off of tobacco. In Canada, the burden tobacco causes on our Medicare is offset by the fact that a regular pack of smokes costs $10 after tax (no joke)... and people still buy it.

      If weed were to become legal, a lot smokers would grow it themselves, taking away most of the profit from the government. Not to mention most right-wingers continue to associate moronic pot-head teenagers with the drug, preventing them from really seeing it in any positive light.
      Luckily, hemp is legal here in Canada.
    • madm0nk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+54I know every time I smoke a J, I immediately feel like beating my wife and kids, knocking over a liquor store, get in my car drive like an idiot and crash into a telephone pole (or even worse ... into someone else)..... oh wait .... that's alcohol, not pot .... my bad.
    • Tuscanspeed, on 10/12/2007, -9/+18"If weed were to become legal, a lot smokers would grow it themselves,"


      You know. That's funny.

      I don't know anyone that grows tobacco. And it's legal to do to.

      You seem to forget that people are lazy, and why grow it when I can buy a pack of Marlboro Greens for 20 bucks?
    • Corrosionx, on 10/12/2007, -6/+14@Zippo: who cares about your opinions on tobacco or weed? just because you don't like it doesn't mean you should incarcerate people for liking it. it's called tolerance.
    • HigherLogic, on 10/12/2007, -6/+34@Drahkar: "Marijuana amd Hemp are two different plants..."

      WRONG! Marijuana and hemp are NOT two different plants. Marijuana is the slang terms used, nowadays, to talk about the "street drug," the flowering tops (buds) of the Cannabis Sativa/Indica plant. Hemp IS Cannabis Sativa, it is nothing more than the fiber of the Cannabis plant.

      Pot == Weed == Marijuana == Cannabis == Hemp

      Get it right before making a fool of yourself by telling others to get their "information" right.
    • GlenLeafJr, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15You can't just grow, dry, and smoke tobacco. You have to cure it.

      I don't know anyone that grows tabacco either.

      But I know a few that grow, dry, and smoke pot.
    • M4tt3r, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9@Drahkar,

      And the hemp that is grown for commercial production is generally male plants, which has no THC and it can't get anyone high.
    • zombiedepot, on 10/12/2007, -2/+26No one blame the police, some of them want it legalized.

      http://www.leap.cc/
    • n3tfury, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8@laddie:

      twenty bucks says you drink alcohol or at the very least know people that do and have no problem with it. if alcohol is not illegal, there is absolutely no good reason that marijuana should be. how many DUI's were handed out because of marijuana? you'd still be "under the influence", right? "my sister was killed by a guy that was high". ever hear that? didn't think so.
    • SoulRebel23, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13Marijuana is illegal because the police as an institution spend millions of dollars lobbying to keep it that way. The War on Drugs means money for them, and is the reason that a lot of them are employed. Prohibition gives them an excuse to target poor communities and minorities, and they profit from this. A vast majority of police support prohibition and almost all the rest are complacent in a system that sends millions of harmless people to jail every year. There may be some individual police working for change, but as an institution, the police are responsible for the drug war.
    • dagonweb, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Yah that is the up side on being a democracy. We have a multi-party parliamentary democratic system over here and it helps getting laws that are more or less supported by the population.

      As opposed to the US which is governed by an elitist corporate-bought 2 party system put in place to protect the interests of the ruling caste. Change your system and you'll get to be free too.
    • godd4242, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Mostly because it's psychotic drug that generates billions of dollars a year in illegal revenue
      its not psychotic
      its psychoactive, but its not hallucinogenic
    • fourzerofour, on 10/12/2007, -3/+16"@Drahkar: "Marijuana amd Hemp are two different plants..."

      WRONG! Marijuana and hemp are NOT two different plants. Marijuana is the slang terms used, nowadays, to talk about the "street drug," the flowering tops (buds) of the Cannabis Sativa/Indica plant. Hemp IS Cannabis Sativa, it is nothing more than the fiber of the Cannabis plant.

      Pot == Weed == Marijuana == Cannabis == Hemp

      Get it right before making a fool of yourself by telling others to get their "information" right."

      You ALMOST got it right but actually hemp != marijuana. C. sativa subsp. indica = Marijuana and C. sativa subsp. sativa var. spontanea = Hemp. They are the same family of plant but, Hemp has THC in it but if you ate enough to get the high most people get when smoking marijuana then you would probably ***** yourself due to the high amount of fiber you are eating. Hence that is what you can grow hemp in Canada as long there is so many acres so when they fly by they can easily detect weather it is hemp or marijuana.



      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_sativa
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_(drug)
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemp
    • walkingdogs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6@higherlogic
      Here's a quote from an informational website concerning Cannibis
      Before you go off on a rant inform YOURSELF before you look like an ass.
      Yes Marijuana and Hemp are part of the Cannabis family but they are fundamentally 2 different plants

      Botanically, the genus Cannabis is composed of several variants. Although there has been a long-standing debate among taxonomists about how to classify these variants into species, applied plant breeders generally embrace a biochemical method to classify variants along utilitarian lines. Cannabis is the only plant genus that contains the unique class of molecular compounds called cannabinoids. Many cannabinoids have been identified, but two preponderate: THC, which is the psychoactive ingredient of Cannabis, and CBD, which is an antipsychoactive ingredient. One type of Cannabis is high in the psychoactive cannabinoid, THC, and low in the antipsychoactive cannabinoid, CBD. This type is popularly known as marijuana. Another type is high in CBD and low in THC. Variants of this type are called industrial hemp.
    • littlebylittle, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10The CIA doesn't want competition.
    • Jolene, on 10/12/2007, -2/+22I still don't get why religious people are against natural drugs. I mean, their god created everything right? So, didn't he create marijuana?

      And hell, for the people that believe in jesus, you just KNOW he was doin' some weed back then. I mean come on! Twelve guys, always walking everywhere, no jobs, always waring sandals. Come on... You're gonna tell me they didn't?


      Maybe you're god created natural drugs because he wants you to be happy and enjoy you're self. Meh, just a thought.
    • deboosher, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3@ baxtermaddux:

      obviously you blame politicians. they make the laws. who else are you gonna blame?
    • marklar69, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2Why? Because the "man" says so!
    • PimpinOnWelfare, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5It is illegal because pot head congress(wo)mans won't confess to being a pothead in session when prop 215 comes up. No political official will admit to "casually" smoking and enjoying marijuana, therefore it will stay illegal. It is going to be a LONG time (if it ever happens) until marijuana is FULLY legal in the states. Like in children of men, "the goverment hands out suicide kits but ganja is still illegal." - Jasper
    • n00bst3r, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1Or it could be because they used it for useful thing back then and not to get high and get stupid like today.
    • lukas88, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2Hemp is not marijuana, at least not the kind you can get high off of. Hemp is Cannabis sativa, subspecies sativa. Marijuna is Cannabis sativa, subspecies indica. The latter secretes THC, the first one doesn't. That is why one is illegal and one isn't.

      THAT IS WHY YOU CAN STILL LEGALLY GROW HEMP TODAY. Sorry I felt that should be in caps, it is a major oversight that makes this article absolutely meaningless according to the way it was intended.
    • Zippo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@Corrosionx
      I'm not incarcerating anyone... you're welcome to do whatever the hell you like. It was my opinion; just that. I'm free to voice said opinion and you're free to read it and/or ignore it. I never said you had to agree with me. It's called tolerance.

      @Tuscanspeed
      Too true... I don't doubt, though, that if weed were to be legalized and sold just like cigarettes, it'd be taxed so heavily, it would be ridiculously expensive.
    • steal_apps01, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1@Zippo

      Medicare? It's called OHiP not Medicare, and you call yourself "in Canada."
    • Zippo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@steal_apps01
      Not everyone lives in Ontario, douchebag. And, for the record, our nation-wide public health care system IS called Medicare, albeit unofficially.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_%28Canada%29
    • MunodiUSA, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1...which is why all Americans should join the Libertarian Party today www.lp.org!

      The Libertarian Party's official positions are actually aimed at restoring individual freedoms to all people and in the process will turn this country around! Check out the Issues page for more info.
  • anonymoustroll, on 10/12/2007, -50/+31Why? ...because.

    What? That's not a good enough explanation?

    Welcome of your "freedom" America; you deserve it.
    • hambend, on 10/12/2007, -3/+77It's even more frustrating for the rest of the world. Here in New Zealand, as with most of the developed world, the reason Marijuana is illegal is because America said so. Not even Holland has the balls to fully legalize pot, for fear of violating 40-year-old UN trade agreements.

      So if all this stuff seems irrelevant in America, imagine what it's like for the rest of us.
    • Buddhist, on 10/12/2007, -5/+73Looks like I refreshed at just the right time:

      http://img377.imageshack.us/img377/4249/goodthingsl3.jpg
    • ricearoni, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8@hambend

      Same here in Canada.
    • Heembo, on 10/12/2007, -11/+4420 rocks! Do NOT smoke HEMP it will give you a headache!
    • kettle, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13Why did anonymoustrop get dugg down? He hit the nail on the head. We live in what is still (mockingly by most of the rest of the world) called a democracy.

      We complain bitterly and at length about the iniquities of our leaders, yet how often to we actually bother to exercise our political and constitutional will in order to effect the policy that we believe in.

      The sad truth is that we tend to accept these 'because' types of explanations without question. We accept the authority of our leaders without question, when in fact they have no more clue as to what the long term ramifications of their decisions are than we do. (not to mention the fact that they often don7t seem to be acting in the public's best interests...)

      Digg him back up, for shame.
    • anonymoustroll, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3> Why did anonymoustrop get dugg down?

      ...because people, in general, do not like to hear the truth, but especially Americans (who, upon hearing the truth from someone with a name like anonymoustroll, tend to get confused and upset).

      No worries... I'm used to it.
    • Absinthminded64, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Wrong! Dugg Down for the following text.

      "Welcome of your "freedom" America; you deserve it."

      I digg Kettle up though :)
  • baalzebub, on 10/12/2007, -16/+98Legalize pot!!!

    we like it a lot!!!
  • Darkjedi, on 10/12/2007, -34/+57Pot is bad because it's illegal.
    And it's illegal because it's bad.
    • Misogyny, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12People's irony sensors must be out of whack. Oh, that's right, this is Digg...
    • ardenr, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15Gah. It's because people can't recognize circular logic when they see it that we have these problems with legalizing it, although possibly short attention spans with over-quick reactions contribute as well. Thanks for pointing that out Diggers.
  • XISUPERMANIX, on 10/12/2007, -15/+38If marijuana is illegal then so should tobacco and alcohol. Both are harmful and I bet more people drink, rather than smoke weed. But of course that will never happen because alcohol and tobacco are 2 heavily taxed items, what does this mean? U.S. government likes your money. If anything alcohol is worse than weed, many users may remember about a month ago a post about a ex-cop here on digg selling a video on how not to get caught with something illegal when confronted by police. He said that alcohol was more of a gateway drug than marijuana was. Drinking kills brain cells, causes alcoholism, causes so many DUI's and accidents, what good does it do for us? Nothing just good money being made from its sales. Alcohol impairs every sense, as well as your judgement and ability to drive. I have never met anyone that could drive drunk and not get caught or even drive straight, I have hotboxed in a car before when the driver was smoking and his driving was fine, nothing changed at all. People say their reaction is slower but it was exactly the same. I really hope it gets legalized, if not I hope tobacco and alcohol become illegal.
    • SlappyMc, on 10/12/2007, -10/+4there are some health benefits being researched, but I agree with you. I had this conversation with my sister the other day.
    • exsst, on 10/12/2007, -45/+8Even though I am one for addressing issues, like marijuana being illegal, the fact still remains that it is pretty harmful to smoke due to the actual 'smoke' from marijuana.

      alcohol is certainly a bad drug, but it's much easier to take in.

      also, alcohol is good for you on occasion.
    • exsst, on 10/12/2007, -29/+16I'd also like to point out the fact that just because you've had some experience with a driver under the influence of weed does not make the driver safe at all times.

      I would never get in a car with a driver who is high, it's a pretty stupid idea.

      Marijana has it advantages and disadvantages just like alcohol.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_(drug)
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol

      I know many friends on weed, and the disadvantages are quite evident (one of the main ones is memory loss on a long term scale)
    • ngmcs8203, on 10/12/2007, -22/+7Memory loss long term... but most immediate is short term memory loss. I myself used to use the same argument: "Smoking and driving is totally alright". Did it on many long car trips. But look back on it as a dumb part of my life. Once we went to go see a movie, but were so high that none of us remembered who drove us. In the end turned out it was me that drove. And the only thing that sparked that memory were the bags of in-n-out sitting in our trash can the next morning.

      One of the worse health effects, however, is the effect on your lungs. If you smoke the equivalent of one tobacco cig a day in weed, your lungs will take a much worse beating than they would have if it was tobacco that you were smoking. The tar/resign residue left on your lungs due to chronic... well, chronic chronic smoking is a yellow colored mucus that sticks and lasts much longer than tobacco residue. Bio 101.
    • glasgowm, on 10/12/2007, -19/+15@ exsst

      Marijuana does not need to be eaten, a lot of people (me included) prefer taking it orally. It's also much potent and lasts longer this way.

      btw; I've seen a few tests performed where the stoned driver actually performs better than a sober driver. I have many people that agree that they drive better stoned.

      I wouldn't think twice about getting in the car with a stoned driver. drunk driver, much different.

      Alcohol would be a class A drug if it was illegal, Weed is only class C and it deserves to be legal.
      http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41949000/gif/_41949092_drugs_graph_416.gif
    • n0stix, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9Anti-tumor properties, anyone? Take it with a grain of salt, as with anything on the internet.
      http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/20008
    • rockforever, on 10/12/2007, -5/+26The actual smoke from marijuana is not as dangerous as tobacco smoke and with a vaporizer, hookah, or bong, the smoke is signifigantly less harmful.
    • thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -14/+16The thc derivative used clinically is done to increase appetite in cancer patients. Not remove the pain.

      That is what morphine derivatives are for.


      As to the memory loss effects.

      A friend of mine at work literally had his short term memory fried. He's got all of 5 minutes of shot term memory. He has to take notes on everything or it's gone. That's definitely NOT the way I want to live.
    • ngmcs8203, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8Right... the cleanest way to smoke is with a vaporizer. Smoking out of a peculating device gives you water filtration... and smoking out of a pipe your inhaling butane.

      That still doesn't take away the fact that the actual smoke leaves a residue on your lungs that is stickier than tobacco. Hell I'm all for people doing what they want to do, but the things you learned from a former stoner biology teacher can sometimes leave a lasting impression.
    • laddie, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16"I have never met anyone that could drive drunk and not get caught or even drive straight"

      you obviously dont know that many alcoholics
    • higherness, on 10/12/2007, -10/+4MARIJUANA IS NOT HARMFUL!

      why else would it be legal in canada? it only relaxes the user.
    • Hammerfel, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1"If anything alcohol is worse than weed, many users may remember about a month ago a post about a ex-cop here on digg selling a video on how not to get caught with something illegal when confronted by police. He said that alcohol was more of a gateway drug than marijuana was."

      Have a link for this?
  • bigdt87, on 10/12/2007, -10/+49Its absoultely unacceptable ***** that pot is illegal. Its absolutely unnaceptable ***** x123892374987 that hemp is illegal.
    • XISUPERMANIX, on 10/12/2007, -14/+4you know hemp is legal as long as you use it to make clothes or furniture, isn't that another load of hot steamy *****?
    • nick2354, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5lol my hairgel is made from hemp..

      bed head manipulator.
    • TyRaNNOus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@XISUPERMANIX
      Actually hemp is legal to posses in the USA it is however very illegal to grow any variations of cannabis sativa. You can get some sort of DEA exemption but in reality that never happens. Because in order to do that it would actually cost money, and they aren't in the business of spending money.
  • Bashon, on 10/12/2007, -166/+11Sorry to have to tell you the truth. But here it is.

    Most kids who really liked pot a lot at age 16 or under die of exposure to the cold while sleeping outside in the winter before they reach age 42. The people who had to raise their grandchild due to pot making their children too stupid and lazy to work because they were too stupid from smoking too much pot wanted to make it illegal. I have watched for several decades and seen this occur in our friends and children and their children.

    The cold hard fact is that if you like and use pot a lot then someone else will have to raise your kids and you will die in the cold unloved and very unhappy. And you will be ignorant as to why every thing in your life went so wrong.
    • XISUPERMANIX, on 10/12/2007, -11/+71yeah because we all sleep outside [/sarcasm]


      I declare Bashon's comment the dumbest ever made on digg.
    • wheaty, on 10/12/2007, -8/+54@Bashon,

      Thanks for telling us 'the truth'

      Your post is the stupidest ***** most ignorant thing I've seen all day. If someone is a lazy stupid moron and smokes pot, you would probably say, "oh, it's the pot that makes him lazy and stupid." But, that's just not true. What about all the successful people that smoke pot. Are you aware that some doctors and firefighters smoke pot? Oh, but that's right... the pot will probably kill them and someone else will have to raise their children.

      Oh, God won't someone please think of the children.
    • dblondon, on 10/12/2007, -6/+42I love reading dugg down comments - they always cheer me up.

      Wacko!
    • EricCiccone, on 10/12/2007, -10/+3I second the motion, all in favor?
    • elnerdo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+29I highly doubt that even 1% of pot smokers freeze to death, let alone "most" of them.
    • ngmcs8203, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8The only time I've slept outside was when I was camping. And I never camp in the winter time. Nice try though jackass.
    • headzoo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+42I've known far too many successful people who smoke pot. Top architects in their field. The real truth is, lazy stupid people who smoke pot, were lazy and stupid before they started smoking pot. Hell, them being lazy and stupid is probably what led them to smoking pot in the first place.

      The worst part about your rant is this: It should be MY ***** choice to be dumb, lazy, or freeze to death in the cold (WTF?). I already have a mom thank you. I don't need another one in the form of my government.

    • unicornhunter, on 10/12/2007, -2/+29I like his comment. It's funny. I should say stupid stuff like that to see how many digg downs I get.
    • m0laria, on 10/12/2007, -4/+16Dumbest comment...Or GREATEST COMMENT EVER?
    • bloqmon, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7I bet he believes in Pillowpants and other sub-pantaloon dwelling creatures.
    • Brickhaus, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12I hope you guys realize that Bashon is just some high ***** getting a quick laugh out of infuriating all of you.
    • overlordmead, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2why are we packaging lazy and stupid? I work very hard at being as lazy as I can; our society prides itself on making life "easier" or at least more novel... why not just coast the seas as a barnacle on the good ship Turtle Island.

      Harm none, do no foul...right?
    • whiteguysamurai, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Here's the truth..
      When i smoke pot, and i leave my window open (cold Washington state weather..BRRRR) I close it.
      I then say, "That was cold!" To a friend who is also stoned.
      Then i prep my weekly jango script, and that's not easy..

      In one simple paragraph i have disproved all of your statements.
    • jigaxx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@Bashon

      "if you like and use pot a lot then someone else will have to raise your kids and you will die in the cold unloved and very unhappy"

      WTF?? hahaha hehehe..

      you're getting buried with that comment.
  • kingink2007, on 11/02/2007, -3/+17lol....i think bashon was totally smokin pot when he wrote that....
  • Bashon, on 10/12/2007, -78/+2Having read the replies to the truth about why marijuana is illegal, I can tell by their language and grammar who the heavy pot smokers are. They did not notice that I stated the word “most” and the idea that successful people smoke pot a lot is a Hollywood induced error in thinking. Are you aware that doctors and firefighters who smoke pot do not smoke it “a lot”?
    • EricCiccone, on 10/12/2007, -0/+24Work on your word choice buddy, and for once, instead of criticizing what other people do (which is none of your business), why not put that energy into something else like your school work or job, something other that telling people what to do.
    • kakwakas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20Bashon, you obviously have no idea how many people smoke weed. I work at a gas station and about 2/3 of my regular customers (ranging from the 20-something kids to the 50+ people) buy rolling papers (and most rolling tobacco comes with papers, plus I say "We have a new sharing tax on these" and they always grin). This doesn't even account for any other regulars who may use pipes, vaporizers, etc to smoke.
      So long as you're the type of guy that demonizes weed and other people know, they'll never tell you that they smoke. You'll probably never even notice. (Unless they smoke every day. Moderation is the key to everything).
    • Etaoin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Uh oh! You forgot a hyphen between "Hollywood" and "induced"! Oh man, you must have been SOOO high when you were writing that!
    • ngmcs8203, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Vaporizers can be killer. Holy smokes those were good times.
    • daftcain, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I'm curious about how to tell how much pot somebody smokes based on their grammar. maybe you could give some examples of how this works?
    • Brickhaus, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3I hope you guys realize that Bashon is just some high ***** getting a quick laugh out of infuriating all of you.

      C'mon fellow tokers. You're making us all look bad by succumbing to this guy. His name is BASH-ON for christ sakes. Get it? Bash On...him. He's probably still laughing at you.
  • tanside, on 10/12/2007, -9/+5Oh man what an impossible dream, it would make me happy to see it legalized, but i know that won't happen, so i think alcohol should be made illegal again, its only fair.
    • thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7We saw what illegal alcohol lead to....

      Marijuana.... Sure, make it legal. But tax the hell out of it. Just like they do with alcohol. And impose the same restrictions.

      If a bartender lets someone walk out of the bar, or serves someone who is obviously toasted, they can be held liable.
    • Spacejack, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Yeah, alcohol being illegal wouldn't be exactly fair, and plus no one would ever get laid.
    • tanside, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I understand it would be "unfair" if alcohol would be made illegal... again, but my point is that marijuana is much safer, yet its totally illegal, and considered to be totally unsafe for anyone to even whisper in public about. Its just a double standard that makes no sense, Alcohol = Legal, and perfectly ok, Marijuana = Illegal and THE WORST THING EVER!!!!!.... AHHH!!!....RUN AWAY!!!!!!
  • unicornhunter, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18Because:

    1.) It's a conspiracy motivated by profit

    Pretty simple.

    But during WWII, it's "Hemp for Victory!".
    • thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -17/+2Hemp yes.... Marijuana no.

      Hemp has a multitude of military uses.... the same cannot be said for marijuana.

      I'd rather be with a solder who has hemp rope... than a soldier who is smoking marijuana.
    • DrFrigmundPseud, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7... CARTMAN: Ma'am, I need to clear out your giggling stoners and your drum-circle hippies RIGHT NOW, or soon they're gonna attract something much worse!

      ELDERLY WOMAN:
      Ooooo.what's that?

      CARTMAN:
      The college know-it-all hippies.
    • thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2bury me all you want... but think about that statement when you're repelling down a cliff to assault a bunker.
    • unicornhunter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3the point is that hemp, even the industrial stuff, is illegal. psychoactive mary jane is just a form of hemp.
    • thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1and ethyl alcohol is just another version of isopropyl alcohol...
    • unicornhunter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2exactly. one is used for practical purposes and is available over the counter, and the other is regulated. They are not both thrown in the 'illegal' category. You see my point.
  • Nougat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9I believe it had something to do with Dow chemical wanting to make money off of their products and wonting to eliminate the competition that hemp was. Hence, Reefer Madness.
    • hiPpymIck, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2reefer madness ...under comedy
      http://www.americafree.tv/index.shtml
    • shadus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7You know its pretty funny but I saw reefer madness in high school... I graduated in 95. The entire class was in hysterics and when it finished the teacher told us, sorry that it was required curriculum and that he wasn't allowed to debate any of the points brought up in the movie. I should call over to my old HS and see if its still required material for the health class lol.
    • shadus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1NE oHIo
  • tinker123, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5I don't believe marijuana is innocuous the way the hemp advocates would have us believe, but it isn't any worse than alcohol and like alcohol it isn't going away. Might as well make it legal so the government can deal with it more effectively. I think that will happen someday, but not for a long time. It would be political suicide for many politicians to even open debate on it.
    • headzoo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3We'll probably have to wait till all the old fuddy-duddies in government die off, and a new generation of politicians not raised on reefer madness ignorance takes over.
    • daofma, on 10/12/2007, -6/+3I don't understand where the term "high" comes from. I've done it three times. First time, I got a sort of permanent smile. It was combined with some alcohol. Second time, all I got was dry eyes. Third time, I became completely detached from reality, it was one of the scariest things that's happened to me.

      I find the effects of alcohol much more appealing than THC. THC screwed with my though processes, made them slow in a way that made everything painful. Alcohol has a nice, round around the edges effect to it. It softens everything.
    • mulling, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7daofma:
      That round around the edges feeling comes from the random, irreversible damage that is happening to your brain.
    • DerProfi, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1@headzoo "and a new generation of politicians not raised on reefer madness ignorance takes over."

      Bwahahaha! As if a bunch of genx/y highboys would have the energy, focus or interest that it takes to become (and remain) politicians.
    • Guitarsenal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You SHRIVS who blocked its legalization - your BANISHED from the LAND!
  • jjb123, on 10/12/2007, -25/+9Only hippies smoke pot.
  • GMorgan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+19Because people feel they have a right to interfere in the lives of others.
    • thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -15/+1People only have a right to privacy on their own property. But if there are laws against marijuana and the police have a warrant. Too bad.


      Why don't you try politics and get it changed?
    • thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -10/+2Come on people...

      Do you not want a police officer to enforce ANY law that you think is invalid??

      Just because you think a law is wrong, doesn't give you the right to ignore it.
    • Tsuyoi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4"Just because you think a law is wrong, doesn't give you the right to ignore it."

      Really? Research "Civil Disobedience" for a little enlightenment on non-violent methods to challenge unjust laws.
  • Mworthin, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7I would like to give you a long and detailed answer to the question, but I have to go and get the potato chips, just now.
  • alcimedes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17If you have problem with marijuana being illegal, you should take some time to read up on, or work with groups that are doing something about it.

    http://www.mpp.org

    Take a look around, *do* something about the problem if you don't like it.

    While digging something to the front page is nice, a little time, a little money or a little bit of education on the subject would probably do more good.
    • GMorgan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Personally I feel no strong pull to campaign for it to be legalised since I don't use it but if it came up as an election issue in my country it would be an influence in my voting. Personally I'm all for allowing people to have the ultimate choice in how they run their lives because it is exactly that, their choice. I have no right to inflict my protection on people who want to take risks and would never consider doing so.

      Provided it doesn't harm others or their property in a physical and coercive manner it's all fair game. So drug legislation is really part of a larger battle against the nanny state.
    • thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2@Gmorgan

      As long as they stay on their property, I've got no problems... But once they leave it... they are fair game.
    • GMorgan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Depends what you define as their property. It would be perfectly sound for people to set up establishments where they can take drugs. What the policy is on public land would be open for debate since it is owned by the state.
    • thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2@Gmorgan

      Their own property -- A Definition:
      --------------------------------------------------

      1.) Where said person owns the deed to the land.
      2.) A person's main living quarters (#1 supersedes #2)
    • GMorgan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2So a PS3 could never be property under your definition. Property is whatever you own as a result of your hard work. Some properties are granted at birth most notably that of your body.

      Under that definition though the establishment I suggested would be covered by 1 so there's no problem.

      You're original assertion is wrong though. They're only fair game if they infringe on your property.
    • thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1Well, since your ps3 will be in either of the 2 defined locations... it's yours.

      Now, if someone can prove that you stole it.... tough *****.
  • Bashon, on 10/12/2007, -26/+1Thank you for your word choice of calling me "buddy". EricCiccone. You missed acomma or two there. I am not criticizing what other people do. But, driving 80 miles an hour in front of a grammer school IS my business. Telling the truth is just what I like to do. If you live to be over 60 years old maybe you will lean a few truths, too.
    • ngmcs8203, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8driving 80 mph in front of a grammar school? What the hell does that mean? And how can that be a business? Do the kids follow you punctuating their sentences and learning when to use semi-colons?
    • mer-uno, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Bashon:
      Simply amazing...
    • Misogyny, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I sure would like to know what kind of drug this guy is on.
    • EricCiccone, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I'm pretty sure acomma is not a word.
    • Nydas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Alright Mr. High and Mighty. Since your so smart, show me some proof of your claims. Where are your facts that support your argument? O thats right. There isn't any. And no, I'm not some hippie pot smoker. Ive never smoked pot in my life.
    • shranko, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I think Bashon took 'Reefer Madness' a little bit too much to heart. He is over 60 after all and everyone over 60 is incapable of lying. Although, you can still be a jackass at any age.
    • drude, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1*****
  • chriskzoo, on 10/12/2007, -18/+6Personally, I say legalize it. But if you're going to go by what was legal in the 1700's, then bring back slavery - I have some chores that need to be done.
    • GMorgan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13Slavery is an infringement against the rights of others in violating their property right in their own body. Really it falls under the same category as drug legislation although obviously at a greater severity. In banning drugs a person is asserting ownership over your body in refusing you the right to use it in non-coercive pursuits.

      Nobody wants drugs to be legalised because that's what they were 200 years ago. People want drugs legalised because the state has no right to claim such power over peoples life.
    • thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1Yes, but it was legal at the same time as Hemp.

      I'm no supporter of slavery, but the OP has a point. Comparing Now to 300+ years ago is a hollow argument that shouldn't be entertained.
    • Spacejack, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The Marijuana Tax Act, the originating federal cannabis law, was passed in the 1930s. But I guess it was also legal during the Middle Ages, so go ahead and make some straw man joke based on that too.

      "Hey, if you want it like it was in MESOPOTAMIA, go ahead and make pot legal!"
    • Misesean, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"People want drugs legalised because the state has no right to claim such power over peoples life."

      The funny thing is, it required a constitutional amendment to outlaw alcohol - everyone understood that it would have been unconstitutional.

      Where's the constitutional amendment banning marijuana?
  • thedude1181984, on 10/12/2007, -22/+4It's illegal because NOTHING would get done. Marijuana for the most part makes people lazy and lethargic. Not saying that everyone would do it, but still majority of the population would probably start. I think it would be a social decline in the end because a lot of people that smoke like to just stay in and play video games or watch Discovery.

    On the positive side, the Cheeto industry would double their revenue!!
    • WeeklyGeek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9That's a stereotype. When I smoke I tend to feel more creative and interested in things. It's different for everyone.
    • thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2Who's gonna pay for my welfare check??????
    • ksponge, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Depends on strain. You obviously are spouting propaganda.
    • bentejis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You have lost the privilege of calling yourself "the dude".

      "Wanna do a J?" -- The Dude
    • Niten, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2... and when alcohol was legalized, every man in America spontaneously began to beat his wife.

      Stereotypes are fun!
  • sislak, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3In Canada, one of the main road blocks to decriminalization is the lack of a reliable road-side impairment test. Without one, and updated impaired driving laws (which we have), the government can't move forward.
    • apetrie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Oh come on, the road block in legalizing or even decriminalizing it in Canada is our friendly neighbour to the south that threatens us whenever we even talk about it.
    • Caleb83, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I want to know more about how illegal marijuana is in canada. Why do all my friends want to move to canada? are laws really that lax?
    • TyRaNNOus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Cannabis is illegal in Canada in everyway you can think. It comes down simply to law enforcment of the drug though.

      If you look at the numbers overwhelmingly most drug charges are as our neighbors to the south for marijuana. Possesion rarely nets jail time though and there is no minimum sentence for any drug use. Most time and effort are spent on busting growers and distributers of the plant. For example if I was busted with say 7 grams on me in one bag, claimed it was personal it could go either way. They may write me up and charge me for possesion or they may just take my drugs and tell me to ***** off. The chances of being busted with drugs though is extremely low because most police are not nearly as intrusive as american police. Now say for example though you had that 7grams wrapped all individually in dime bags, well then theorhetically they could nail you with intent to sell which is a much bigger charge.

      Generally even when you are charged it usually results in very little punishment things like house arrest, addiction programs, community service or even possibly nothing at all. I know several people personally who were let go even after being busted, and the only people I have seen take any punishment were dealers who were dealt with extremely lightly and simply just put on unsupervised probation.

      So to sum it up don't come up here expecting to walk down the street smoking a fatty in most places. There is exceptions like Vansterdam(Vancouver, BC) where the freedom surrounding the drug is extremely high. But if you want to smoke pot the yes I would say definatly consider Canada as a place to live just remember you have to be tolerant of all things not just drugs we are a very diverse society which requires an open mind if we wish to make a name for ourself on the world stage.
    • Guitarsenal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2If you can't tell that someone is impaired then they aren't.

      "Hmm.. His driving is good, pupils look OK, passes the field sobriety test with flying colors... Better bring in the lab equipment..."
    • waffledad, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0For the most part, it is decriminalized here. That means if you have a prescription (and it is quite the go through to get one), you can legally carry a small amount on you. I do believe the stipulation is you need to "be out of site" as in your own home or backyard sort of scenario. Hell, walk in my city and you'll smell it being smoked (or burnt I suppose) at least 3 times in that walk (assuming you go for a 15-30 min walk).
  • postal21, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7It should be brought down to a level that it can be studied better by groups and scientists.

    Im all for it being legalized because it is just old government fear-mongering from the 20s and 30s...

    Most of the "official" material on marijuana is not up to date and is just plain wrong, but nobody is allowed to study it... so "meh"

    I loved the Penn & Teller ***** episode where they show the guy that still gets his marijuana cigarettes once a month or something in the mail from the federal government. He's one of the few remaining people who were given some liscense to smoke pot, so he can just go outside and like lightup right in front of the White House. Amazing.
  • Brainwave, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Yeah, I think they will eventually decriminalize marijuana here in Canada. The government would make a lot of money selling "marijuana cigarettes".
  • masamunecyrus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4FTA: "Early stories of Marco Polo had told of 'hasheesh-eaters' or hashashin, from which derived the term 'assassin.'"

    Actually, that's (almost) completely false. "Assassin" did, in fact, come from the word "hashashin," however, Hashashins originated around the 8th century and the word came from the fact that the Hashashins were a militant religious group during the crusades and commonly became very intoxicated -- so that they wouldn't fear death -- and performed ambushes on the crusaders at night.

    That said, the word "hashash," in various forms, has been used throughout the ages, usually meaning "assassin" or "outlaw." It originally had nothing to do with drugs, as Wikipedia points out:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashshashin#Etymology_of_the_word_.22assassin.22
  • lifeandtimes, on 10/12/2007, -22/+1Its illegal because it has absolutely no value to society. The medical use of marijuana is BS, for what it actually does help with there are better drugs out there that don't include inhaling a bunch of crap into your lungs. The only thing I have seen marijuana has done is turn my friends into a bunch of lazy idiots who spend too much money on it and the idiotic ideas they come up with while high.

    There, that's why. Have a good day.

    Oh, and about alcohol being legal, alcohol, in moderation is good for you, i.e. one drink a day or two days. It does not turn anything black just to get it. Beer has been around for centuries and was used in place of water because clean water was hard to come by.
    • postal21, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Beer used in place of water?

      Reference that please, Im calling ***** because if you drank beer instead of water you would become incredibly dehydrated...
    • GMorgan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6That sounds like a very communist argument to me, they are big on banning things for the greater benefit of society. Point is society doesn't exist, it's just an abstraction of a series of individuals.

      //edit - beer was used in place of water in the UK a long time ago but it was only 2.5% stuff not modern 5% beer.//
    • lifeandtimes, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0It was on a history channel program, I can't remember which program exactly, but it may have been the one about whats called the "little ice age" or perhaps the modern marvels about alcohol.
    • lifeandtimes, on 10/12/2007, -7/+0It has nothing to do with communisim, how the heck did you come up with that? :P I mean, how many democracies/capitalist societies are banning tobacco smoking in public places? Plenty.
    • kakwakas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4FACT: Smoking out of a vaporizer eliminates all (or nearly all) of the tar in cannabis. The 'tar' is the only thing that has truly been proven to be bad for you.
    • Nickatnite101, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Hey Aspirin does the same god damn thing as a drink a day so don't use that argument.
    • GMorgan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6It is a communist argument in that it claims to be in support of a greater society and makes assumptions about state ownership of the individual. You don't need to call people comrade to be a communist. You just have to believe you have a right to tell them what to do with their property.
    • ksponge, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Please go back to your dull world inside your average brain. You'll never be much.
    • shadus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6> "Its illegal because it has absolutely no value to society. The medical use
      > of marijuana is BS, for what it actually does help with there are better drugs
      > out there that don't include inhaling a bunch of crap into your lungs. The only
      > thing I have seen marijuana has done is turn my friends into a bunch of lazy
      > idiots who spend too much money on it and the idiotic ideas they come up
      > with while high."

      Your friends were a bunch of lazy idiots to begin with, but its easier to blame a drug for it than to put the blame where it really belongs -- with your friends. Some of the most hard working industrial people I know are pot heads. I suppose I could blame it for making them work-a-holics who ignore their family, but the reality of it is... it's their own choice. Same with being lazy.

      > Oh, and about alcohol being legal, alcohol, in moderation is good for you,
      > i.e. one drink a day or two days. It does not turn anything black just to get
      > it. Beer has been around for centuries and was used in place of water
      > because clean water was hard to come by.

      Beer wasn't generally used in place of water because of spoilage which was a problem they had with water also. Rum however was used in place of water or rather, generally mixed with the water... it's called grog... it kept the water from spoiling and kept the sailors from getting blasted. Yes, alcohol in limited amounts has some medical benefit to your heart, just like a small dose of aspirin a "better drug" with no side effects like alcohol. Cannabis was first classified in the 1780s and was in active use long before that in both egyption (2600 bce), hebrew (5th century bce), and the chinese cultures (2000-6000 bce). It was used both medicinally and commercially across the entire world until it was outlawed in the us in the mid 1900s.
    • AK10, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@postal21
      It is true. Beer was considered "liquid bread" for millennia, as it contained more calories that the equivalent use of the grains for bread. Also, it did not spoil as quickly and provided much safer way to get fluids than the filthy river and drainage water. Recent archaeological finds are showing that the Egyptian society was probably almost entirely fueled by beer. Cannabis was a valuable herb to many cultures. It was used for everything from clothes, paper and rope, as well as a nutritious food source and versatile medicine.
  • chriskzoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10One of the main reasons I think decriminalization never gets any traction is that the pro-marijuana people always roll out some lawyer with a ponytail to argue their case.
  • Nickatnite101, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2I have a friend and she tells me how bad smoking is and all i say is "If you quit drinking, I'll quit smoking"
  • Stuntaneous, on 10/12/2007, -10/+2so couldnt be ***** with these legalisation debates on digg anymore

    who cares if its legal or not, you noobs can still smoke it right? yeah cool, go own yourselves.
    • apetrie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Actually no. Try finding some statistics on how many men are in U.S. prisons on Marijuana posession charges, and even if you remove the people who had a ton of it (obvious growers or dealers) from the equation, you still are left with a lot of guys in prison for having some weed. Lets not even get into the number of repeat offenders in jail who became more hardened criminals doing worse than smoking a joint, even though thats all it took to ruin their lives and get them in there to begin with.

      Putting aside all that though, laws should be just. It doesn't matter if most people could get away with it anyway.
    • Stuntaneous, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1rofl, easy tiger.

      im against legalisation and smoking it whether or not its legal. but, if you hang around here long enough youll find yourself having to fight a losing battle over and over again with an audience which on the most part.. likes weed immensely lol. i just meant.. let em go for it, theres no point having another argument here.

      so ah, chillax? kthx
  • JavertHolmes, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1How do you express the logical fallacy "The law is old, therefore it's valid today" in Latin? I've got a great set of biblical laws we can crack open. Whether you're pro or anti marijuana, this is not the way to prove your point.
    • forseti, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I took discussion around the absence of laws against marijuana use in the past as a way for the author to illustrate the novelty and uniqueness of modern marijuana laws and not as a general validation of any laws that were older. I'm certain the author and nearly every single human being would agree that we shouldn't formulate our current laws solely because "that's how they used to do it."
    • zappo1776, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3RTFA!
  • WeeklyGeek, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9Great article. Too many people think that cannabis is illegal because of some sort of medical research or non-racist government policy. Too bad those people are so ***** ignorant that even if you show them an article like this they will shake their heads and ignore it.
    • GMorgan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6The whole argument misses the point though. A person owns their body irrespective of the harm they may do to it. A person has the right to harm themselves the same way the smash my PS3 guy had a right to smash his PS3. The PS3 belongs to him and so does a drug users body belong to them. So if a drug was known to cause death in 20% of users it should still be legal because if a person wants to take that risk it should be their choice.

      The only time legislation need come into it is in specific cases where secondary effects are guaranteed. If a person smokes in my presence its almost certainly not going to be good for me as a direct physical effect. The solution is that each person sets a smoking policy that you agree to abide by when you enter their property, they are also liable for ensuring that pollution doesn't leave their property should they choose a pro smoking policy. Physical damage by drugs users* is not validly covered by this since the offence would be covered under the appropriate law. Murder by a drugs user is simply murder and is no more or less severe than if the person had been totally clean.

      *as opposed to the drugs themselves
    • WeeklyGeek, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1agreed. high fives all around.
    • Misesean, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1http://www.adrugwarcarol.com has a nice history of (US) drug laws in the "ghost of Christmas past" sequence.
  • FearFactory, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude.....................
    http://youtube.com/watch?v=5QBiA12nZfo
  • MrOmniscient, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Try Peter McWilliams' "Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do" for an interesting read on this. His perspective on "consensual crime" is interesting and well researched.
    http://www.mcwilliams.com/books/books/aint/303a.htm#illegal
  • dstz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I'd try to guess from the strongest to the less important reasons for the current prohibition:
    - apathy, as a culturally induced lack of interest and comprehension for the question (included: "just a bunch of stoners" mindset).
    - more or less founded and objectables beliefs in the damaging effects of canabis on society.
    - stronger relationship in the popular mindset of Cannabis with migrant populations
    - personal interest for politicians (easy votes given the cultural mindset) and industrials (one less competitor can't be bad)
  • Brandondork, on 10/12/2007, -8/+4It's illegal because by popular demand it's illegal. Thats what i love about our country. If most of the country wants marijuana to be illegal, then get over it, it shouldn't happen. Who cares if your body and do what you want, go take your body somewhere else you can do it.
    • Tsuyoi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3That's the definition of "tyranny of the masses" and was one of the primary reasons the US isn't a democracy. Read up on John Adams sometime.
  • ZakColeman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2-Racism
    -Fear
    -Protection of Corporate Profits
    -Yellow Journalism
    -Ignorant, Incompetent, and/or Corrupt Legislators
    -Personal Career Advancement and Greed

    These are the actual reasons marijuana is illegal.
  • Lanze, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2All this talk about pot makes me want to go roll a fat joint right now.

    On another note, the only people who think marijuana is bad are the ignorant people or the young ass kids on here who haven't smoked yet and listen to their parents.
  • MephistoX, on 10/12/2007, -21/+2Oh stop being hippies.

    Pot is illegal because if it was legal, everyone would be smoking it.
    And what good would that be for everyone?
    Drinking and driving would be replaced by smoking weed and driving.

    Don't ever think for a second that pot isn't as dangerous as alcohol - in fact, it's more dangerous.
    Just think about it for a second.

    And to all of you that say that smoking cigarettes should be illegal if smoking marijuana is illegal, I totally agree with you. But just because a dangerous substance like cigarettes IS legal, doesn't mean we should let other dangerous substances like pot be legal too.
    • Nickatnite101, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2Stop being a conformist...I do what i want. Stupid conformists...always getting in my rebelious ways
    • EricCiccone, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4If you pulled your head out of your ass and read the news story, or any report on the benefits of smoking pot, and yes, even studies that show pot is not harmful nor can it kill anyone directly or indirectly, you'd realize how ignorant your post is.
    • gwinerreniwg, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Oh stop being ignorant.
    • gotamd, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5I wouldn't smoke pot. I don't smoke cigarettes, and they're legal. I don't drink alcohol in excess, and that's legal (which means, to me, a serving or less a few times a month...and only socially). I'm over 21, so age requirements don't affect me anymore either. Why would I start smoking marijuana if it was legal (hint: I wouldn't)? It's a choice, and there are widely recognized benefits to marijuana smoking for some people with health problems outside of the hardcore abolitionists. Even if something isn't healthy, such as smoking or drinking, it should still be up to people to decide whether they do it or not.
    • tanside, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Ok here my two cents on your blatantly stupid comments, but thanks for saying what too many people believe.

      Stop being hippies = Stereotype. and FU i'm not a hippy, not that there's anything wrong with that.

      Good one here = "Pot is illegal because if it was legal, everyone would be smoking it.", um, somehow i doubt that, but wow thats a funny thought. =P

      Even better = "Drinking and driving would be replaced by smoking weed and driving.", FTW how's this bad? driving drunk is WAY! worse.

      Another one = Don't ever think for a second that pot isn't as dangerous as alcohol - in fact, it's more dangerous. Just think about it for a second.
      Where are you getting your facts? even if i think about it for a second it still stupid you'd even say that.

      I'm not saying there aren't things wrong with Marijuana, i'm just saying the facts are laid out in many medical journals, and the experiences of REAL people throughout the world. Ignorance is the only reason Marijuana is illegal, and people who have never been around it, or have never tried it need to shut up.
    • diggenerate, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7marijuana is no where near as "dangerous" a drug as alcohol.
    • milkmage, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10@Mephisto
      oh... my.. god.. how can you be such a dumbass?
      "Pot is illegal because if it was legal, everyone would be smoking it."
      alcohol and cigarettes are legal yet you MUST know people who don't drink or smoke
      "Drinking and driving would be replaced by smoking weed and driving."
      That law is already on the books. It's called driving under the influence (doesn't matter if it's booze, weed or Oxycontin)
      "Just think about it for a second."
      I did - nothing happend. Never heard of a beligerent stoner, but I know several beligerent drinkers. We all know tons of people that did something stupid while drunk, but I have yet to meet anyone that regrets anything they did while high (except maybe eat all the Doritios)

      dangerous substance? um alcohol is a POISON (your brain loves it, your body hates it) - ever heard of acute alcohol POISONING? There is no ***** way you can smoke weed until you die of a THC overdose.

      dangerous substance? why then is there a LEGAL alternative called Marinol (synthetic THC)- perscribed to cancer and AIDS patients:
      http://www.webmd.com/drugs/drug-9308-Marinol.aspx?drugid=9308&drugname=Marinol

      The active ingredient in MARINOL is dronabinol

      Dronabinol is a synthetic version of a naturally occurring compound known as
      delta-9-THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol)

      Delta-9-THC stimulates appetite and reduces nausea and vomiting by binding to special receptors found in your nervous system

      Delta-9-THC is also one of many components in marijuana. In fact, delta-9-THC is the main ingredient responsible for most of marijuana’s effects

      read before you type - better yet - just read.


    • prammy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@MephistoX

      Smoking is not the only way to consume THC. You can eat it too. Smoking it just brings the intoxicating effect much faster, though it has other health problems which are also caused by inhaling ANY sort of smoke.

      Forget just the health benefits. There are other benefits to making it legal.

      1. Hemp can be used to make paper and thus help save trees. Hemp produces more paper than an equivalent number of trees.
      2. Hemp seed is very nutritious and has no THC in it. It can be eaten like oats and provides essential vitamins and nutrients
      3. Hemp seed oil can be used to make lubricants and fuels. Wouldnt it be ironic if a fuel alternative could be made from hemp oil? People are doing research into hemp biodiesel.
      4. Hemp rope can replace plastics. The manufacture of plastics causes a lot of pollution which can be reduced by switching to hemp ropes.

      Hemp is illegal because people wanted to make profits on their investments. It did not matter to them that their investments caused pollution, deforestation and possibly contributed to global warming by reducing the number of trees available to recycle the CO2 formed. It does not matter to some people such as yourselves that it helps terminally ill patients because according to you it is immoral.

      Personally I think it is immoral that you would force your beliefs on other people. What people do with their bodies is their business. Not yours.
  • WaterDragon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2The article is slightly inaccurate, or exaggerated. the Hemp that was grown for cloth and rope and paper is significantly different from the kind considered marijuana today, or even the milder varieties from the seventies.
    Industrial hemp has little or no resin in it....no THC....the part that produces the pharmacological effects.

    It is as different from marijuana-hemp as....the corn grown for pig feed is from golden sweet corn that people eat.

    If you doubt this, get an old piece of rope...the light brown, whitish kind that feels a little like straw.....not nylon rope.
    That is hemp rope...you often find it around boats. Try smoking some of that....and you will immediately notice the difference! You may as well be smoking a sheet of printer paper.

    But people are fond of confusing the two things in articles like this one.
    I recall, years ago, some research that found that if you have 1 acre of land, and grow hemp, ferment it into methane, and convert to gasoline, using a catalyst, you can get 20 gallons per week, every year, from 1 acre of hemp.
    And if it's that stronger kind, you might get a few gallons less, as you will be consuming the product

  • billessig, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1Wrong place. Digg down.
  • SupaDawg, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3Welcome to democracy, where the majority rules. Truth is that the majority of people don't smoke pot or have no interest in it. This is the same reason cigarette smokers are slowly having their rights taken away (No smoking in public/no smoking in bars...)

    If a democracy is to work as intended decisions are to be made in the interest of the majority. Smoking weed is one of those decisions.

    As far as attacking alcohol. When used responsibly Alcohol has nothing but positive benefits. It's an anti-carcinogen & lowers stress levels. As with Pot it's fine when used in moderation.

    So I say keep up your fight. The other beautiful side of the democracy is even the smallest person can bitch about something they dislike, but i highly doubt you'll be alive to see the law change.
    • WaterDragon, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5The US is supposed to be a Constitutional Republic, not a democracy. Read the constitution sometime and try to find the word democracy in it. It is not even there!

      The difference is that in a constitutional republic, the rights of everyone are protected, including the minorities, while in a true democracy, majority rules, so, worst case, 51% get to dictate what the other 49% must do.
      A true democracy could really suck for so many people.

      People who throw around the word 'Democracy', the way we hear it every day, in the news, and from the fools in the White House, have NO IDEA what they are talking about.
    • gotamd, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5The sad thing is that you're right. Many smart people have described democracy not as a good system of government, but as the least bad system. We need to get people back into the mindset of protecting the personal choices of others.

      They came first for the Communists,
      and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

      Then they came for the Jews,
      and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

      Then they came for the trade unionists,
      and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

      Then they came for the Catholics,
      and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.

      Then they came for me,
      and by that time no one was left to speak up.
    • EricCiccone, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1well, in 2001, 23% of adults smoke, according to WebMD is a continuation of a steady drop

      Now, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, 21 million Americans used marijuana and or hash in 2002, or 7% of adults in this country smoke pot, which is rising.

      I think we are going to come to a point where more people smoke pot than cigarettes, and then we will have legalization.
    • gotamd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1EricCiccone: Or they'll *both* be illegal.
    • gotamd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1WaterDragon: You're taking the use of the word "democracy" too literally here. Yes, we are a constitutional republic. However, our adherence to the Constitution has also been less than strict, so I'm not sure you could even say that. We're headed towards being more of a democratic republic. You know all the countries that call themselves "democratic republics" are great places to live...
    • 35263526, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1WaterDragon, just because the word itself doesn't appear in the U.S. constitution does not mean that the U.S. was not intended to be a democratic nation. The constitution lays out the governmental system, which is undeniably democratic, and unfortumately, any form of democracy is going to lead to situations where 51% of the population bully the remaining 49%. Of course, it's better than non-democratic governments, where 0.001% of the population control the rest, but it's still not free. A truly free society would be individualist anarchist; where personal freedoms are respected above all else. The U.S. does not meet that criteria.

      Cleisthenes didn't call his reforms democratia either, but they were certainly democratic.
    • bonked, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@35263526 " WaterDragon, just because the word itself doesn't appear in the U.S. constitution does not mean that the U.S. was not intended to be a democratic nation."

      This is exactly what pisses me off about most of the people who toss around the word Democracy. You act like the only document we can go read is the Constitution itself and then try to judge from there. (Like those people who say that they are unsure what was meant by the 2nd amendment but choose to ignore the thousands of other documents available written by the men who wrote the amendment as to exactly why they added it.) The founding fathers specifically called democracy "Tyranny of the masses." and further stated "why would one through off the tyranny of one and replace it with the tyranny of another."

      We were never intended to be a democracy and in the last 20 years the dumbing down of the populace by those in power has rather effectively controlled the mindset in this country, now that we have an educational system that teaches to a test and only focuses on the "three 'r's - reading, writing, and arithmetic" completely delegating History to the wayside, we see the majority of a country thinking nothing of hearing the word anymore - and even less of acting like we do live in one.
  • gotamd, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I'm impressed by the amount of well-presented research laid out here. IMO, there really isn't much of a reason for marijuana to be illegal.
  • EochaidRiata, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Penn and Teller: *****! War on Drugs, full episode

    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3653114296815352489
  • WaterDragon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Last time I checked, only Cannabis Sativa was illegal in the US, not Cannabis Indica...but that may have been changed, or the distinction may no longer exist, as it is apparently all hybrids now, or genetically engineered and cloned plants.
    • tanside, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1i'm sure the cops are gonna ask whether its Sativa, or Indica. not what your saying isn't true, i have no clue, but the reality is it wouldn't matter.
  • jamesrdorn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The government makes a good chunk of change on products that take an extremely long time to make (beer/wine) or something that cannot be grown locally (tobacco).

    The reason why Marijuana is illegal is the simple fact that it can basically grow anywhere (it's a weed for crying out loud). People would never drink or smoke tobacco if they could get high, and the government makes no tax $$$ on it.

    Dig me down, but there is no other reason.
  • starfisch, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3The moral of the story is...

    ...the government should never have the right to tell us what not to do to our own bodies.

    all drugs should be legal, that shouldn't even be a question

    if you're stupid enough to try with the risks, it's your own damn fault
    • CorpT, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1What about people who drink and drive?

      I am all in favor of making most if not all drugs legal, but there are limits. I don't want to be on the road with someone who is drunk, high or hopped up on goofballs. Whatever they want to do in the privacy of their own home is fine by me. Start involving others and you start losing me. You can't yell 'fire' in a theater and you can't drive drunk or high.
    • galore, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"What about people who drink and drive?"

      How is this combination of activities relevant to this discussion?

      It is perfectly possible to legalize pot and have laws against driving under the influence. Just like with alcohol.
    • NikoKun, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2logical restrictions on the drugs can be in play... saying if you do the drugs... that you should be responsible enough to know not to drive... Just like with Alchohol... Its legal, yet there is a restriction on it saying u can't drive while using it... no one said, "remove the DUI Law" Marijuana can be legal, but still have rules saying dont do it if it incapasitates you.

      having and using a drug like this shouldn't be illegal, but just like driving drunk, you'd can get in trouble for using it when it might cause u to harm someone else.
  • Pigeon, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8It's incredible how many people actually think that because a person takes some type of drug they are 'lesser' members of society and will cause them 'all sorts of problems'.

    I have one A and two A* A-Levels, I attend university and get good grades, I hold down a job, do overtime etc. and I usually smoke every other day. I use it to relax and have fun, exactly how people who go out and drink alcohol do. Marijuana hasn't made me lazy or stupid or a druggie that's always outside the benefits office to get money for my next fix. The two guys I buy weed from also attend education, have jobs etc. They grow it themselves, they aren't 'criminals' who work for some drug gang that funds crime.

    Around where I live, if you asked the a majority of the mothers if it should be legalized, most would say that it shouldn't because they 'Don't want to make our children think its alright to do or set a bad example etc.'. Which is completely stupid since about 80% of them are _heavy tobacco smokers_, addicted to it and smoke around their kids.

    People who have completely _no idea_ about the drug think that because it is illegal it must be 'bad', and since large proportions of people are like this the government won't legalize it because then all of these chain smoking mothers won't vote for them.

    The point is, moderation is the key. If I want to take a drug that's my choice, as long as I don't hurt or impede others around me. If I got addicted to the drug, got unemployed, homeless, whatever, I shouldn't expect benefits to fund my next fix. Unfortunately the UK seems to promote people taking benefits and they do it for all its worth. In my household three of us work, with two also attending university and my sister at secondary school, yet families on benefits have far nicer houses than ours, cars etc. We earn money and pay our tax, which goes straight to them who in total 'earn' more from benefits a month than we do working.

    If I want to take it, I should be able to, as long as I don't affect other people. I don't even drive, but I would never drive while high or under any type of substance, that's just common sense which it seems 80% don't have. So please, stop saying, "people who drive high and kill", "people would get lazy and not work and get benefits", "people would need to get rehabilitation which costs us taxes" etc. Those people will cost you that anyway, even without the drug.
    • GMorgan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I agree with most of that. The UK is unfortunately screwed up big time. Everything the government says is automatically assumed as truth until proved otherwise, benefits now amount to more than our education and health spending combined, the state mistrusts its population rather than the other way around and taxes are at their highest level in recorded history with the money being wasted on nukes, ID cards and supporting those that refuse to work. It says something that the LDs actually advocate for smallest government out of the three major parties at the moment.
    • Bean945, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Erm, you can't get A* at A level it's graded A - E, so how the heck did you end up with those?
    • galore, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"It's incredible how many people actually think that because a person takes some type of drug they are 'lesser' members of society and will cause them 'all sorts of problems'."

      Well, this is typical human behavior. People love to feel superior and gladly use every accepted method. Another example of riding the moral high horse are those people who feel the need to outlaw gay marriage.
    • TheToecutter, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Nice logic. "Everyone gets high on alcohol and nicotine so it's okay to get high on weed."

      Exact logic I'd expect from a stoner. Derrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
  • jackcall, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Why is it illegal while alcohol isn't? Because alcohol was discovered way before! If alcohol or tobacco was discovered today, it would be labeled a narcotic.
    • NikoKun, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1weed/marijuana has been around for years and years, used by indians, and used in pipes in europe as much as tobaco...

      Its illegal, because some people like to push their illogical beliefs on others, because they think its bad... so they make it illegal, which forms a black market, making it more bad, thus strengthing their belief that its bad...
      putting people in jail for carrying a plant is whats bad... thats whats ruining people's lives.. not the drug...
  • xMikey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Haha, I got here just in time. 420 Diggs on a marijuana article!

    Screenshot: http://i3.tinypic.com/4bdp07b.png
  • porcupus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4If you really want to know why it is illegal you should look into what Dupont did in order to make it so. Hemp was the only competition for a new form of nylon that would be bought by the government. Unfortunately hemp was cheaper and easier to make.

    also for all you people saying how bad the goodness is to smoke, why don't you try eating it? Then tell me how bad it is for you.

    Alcohol is the true killer.
  • grungegbunny, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Despite whatever an individual personally feels regarding Cannabis the logical choice would be allowing
    an individual to make the choice of weather to consume the substance not a government body.
    • thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1Of course... While that person is driving a 2 ton vehicle has no impact on my family.... on government owned roads....
    • GMorgan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Whoever said make it legal on the roads.
    • Nickatnite101, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Government roads that we paid for... Don't get me wrong driving on any mind altering drug is bad but don't forget we own the government dispite what they think.
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