That's just it though; they have no unbiased studies that prove any negatives, at least not that I've been able to find. There were many complex issues that led to cannabis being criminalized in the first place. First, it was associated with blacks and mexicans, and fears of immigration led to an anti-cannabis movement. Secondly, Utah was the first place to ever criminalize pot in the US, because a church group came back from Mexico with cannabis talking about how great it was for worshiping God. This was something the Mormon's couldn't handle. Several border states quickly followed suit because of anti immigrant concerns.
Next we had a low level federal guy, Anslinger, who wanted an issue to ride to the top. He siezed on Medical pot, and started making sensationalist lies about how it led to rape and turned good white kids into lazy mexican-types. Plus, the paper industry had just found out how much competition it could get from hemp paper, so they started running a lot of anti-cannabis propaganda in the newspapers that they owned. Since cannabis was also a major ingrediant in at least %40 percent of all medicines at the time, the American Medical Associate and the American Nurses Association were never even consulted at hearings to federally criminalize it. When they heard the news, the issued some scathing statements that were largely ignored.
Ever since then, we have been scientifically disproving all of their lies about cannabis, one by one. In the meantime, they have been unable to come up with any real reason why it should be illegal, hence the recent attempts to tie cannabis sales to terrorist funding. Once cannabis stopped being available for medical purposes, it lead it an explosion in the production and prescription of dangerous and highly addictive pharmeseuticals that would otherwise have to compete with the more natural, safer, and more versatile cannabis plant. Now, those pharmeceutical companies are incredibly wealthy and powerful, and they are the ones who essentially bribe politicians and members of the FDA into continuing to ignore the scientific evidence.
In the 60's, one of Nixon's advisors (I forget which) told him that if they started a full=fledged war on drugs, it would give them an excuse to put a federal law enforcement presence in every town in American, something that was unheard of at the time. So they started the war on drugs, and now we have one of the highest percentages of our population in prison out of any major country. Thanks to cannabis laws in particular, we are now imprision a greater percentage of African Americans than were imprisioned in South Africa under the Aphartheid government that we claim to hate so much. Additionally, it has created an enviroment where honest, law abiding citizens fear their governemnt and law enforcement officials, which laws the fundation for all of the crazy stuff they've been doing to our civil liberties and privacy rights. Over the decades, we just gotten used to the idea that the feds can do this, and they know that if they relegalize cannabis, even for medical purposes, they lose a lot of power over us, and a lot of their wealthy supports like pharmeceutical companies, the paper industry, and big oil (hemp can also be used to make biodiesal fuel) will lose a lot of money. Also, they would have to release hundreds of thousands if not millions of minority voters from jail, and restore the voting rights for many others, which would lead to a substanial shakeup in the power structure after all of those disenfranchized voters had their rights restored.
So, in summary, it started with religion, was followed up by racism, and became a national issue because of the desire for money and power. And it remains illegal solely because of all the power structure would lose if they restored this right to everyday Amerians.
If it were to become legal would it not make sense for everyone to stay in jail because at the time it WAS illegal and they would still have to serve the time right?
Next we had a low level federal guy, Anslinger, who wanted an issue to ride to the top. He siezed on Medical pot, and started making sensationalist lies about how it led to rape and turned good white kids into lazy mexican-types. Plus, the paper industry had just found out how much competition it could get from hemp paper, so they started running a lot of anti-cannabis propaganda in the newspapers that they owned. Since cannabis was also a major ingrediant in at least %40 percent of all medicines at the time, the American Medical Associate and the American Nurses Association were never even consulted at hearings to federally criminalize it. When they heard the news, the issued some scathing statements that were largely ignored.
Ever since then, we have been scientifically disproving all of their lies about cannabis, one by one. In the meantime, they have been unable to come up with any real reason why it should be illegal, hence the recent attempts to tie cannabis sales to terrorist funding. Once cannabis stopped being available for medical purposes, it lead it an explosion in the production and prescription of dangerous and highly addictive pharmeseuticals that would otherwise have to compete with the more natural, safer, and more versatile cannabis plant. Now, those pharmeceutical companies are incredibly wealthy and powerful, and they are the ones who essentially bribe politicians and members of the FDA into continuing to ignore the scientific evidence.
In the 60's, one of Nixon's advisors (I forget which) told him that if they started a full=fledged war on drugs, it would give them an excuse to put a federal law enforcement presence in every town in American, something that was unheard of at the time. So they started the war on drugs, and now we have one of the highest percentages of our population in prison out of any major country. Thanks to cannabis laws in particular, we are now imprision a greater percentage of African Americans than were imprisioned in South Africa under the Aphartheid government that we claim to hate so much. Additionally, it has created an enviroment where honest, law abiding citizens fear their governemnt and law enforcement officials, which laws the fundation for all of the crazy stuff they've been doing to our civil liberties and privacy rights. Over the decades, we just gotten used to the idea that the feds can do this, and they know that if they relegalize cannabis, even for medical purposes, they lose a lot of power over us, and a lot of their wealthy supports like pharmeceutical companies, the paper industry, and big oil (hemp can also be used to make biodiesal fuel) will lose a lot of money. Also, they would have to release hundreds of thousands if not millions of minority voters from jail, and restore the voting rights for many others, which would lead to a substanial shakeup in the power structure after all of those disenfranchized voters had their rights restored.
So, in summary, it started with religion, was followed up by racism, and became a national issue because of the desire for money and power. And it remains illegal solely because of all the power structure would lose if they restored this right to everyday Amerians.
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That's insane...but I guess it makes sense.
If it were to become legal would it not make sense for everyone to stay in jail because at the time it WAS illegal and they would still have to serve the time right?
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