Writer's Block: Prohibited

[fabulous_rachel]

Well, marijuana is the next common vice that was outlawed after alcohol, and it is still currently illegal. I think prohibition of marijuana will be overturned probably at least within the next 50 years or so. Oh and by the way, at the time of prohibition of alcohol marijuana was still legal. I don't think any more common vices are going to become

Comments

[fabulous_rachel]

Ok, obviously I realize that drug prohibition did not go away. I think it will, at least in the case of marijuana, in the somewhat near future. You don't need to lecture me with big words and academic jargon. I've read a few different histories of the use and legal policy of marijuana and also watched a documentary about it.

I don't think the temperance movement has anything to do with marijuana, or even has anything to do with anything really anymore. It was mainly dealing with the issue of alcohol, and I've never heard anyone refer to it being relevant in the modern world. Marijuana was made illegal on the basis of racism and lies. Harry Anslinger proposed the Stamp Tax Act and got it passed by playing into people's fears. He claimed it was a proven fact that marijuana makes people violent and that evil jazz musicians (many who were coincidentally black) were influenced to play the devil's music and rape white women while under the influence of marijuana. He claimed it made people psychotic, violent, and caused them to commit crimes. Clearly this is false, I'd know better than most, marijuana pretty makes you passive and happy, not violent. Then when people realized the stamp tax act was bullshit in the sixties, the act was overturned and for a brief period of time marijuana was again legal. It was again made illegal in the seventies, and still is today, but states are using their individual law making powers to change those laws. In certain states (and also unofficially in certain cities) certain amounts of marijuana possession is no longer criminal. Anything from and 1/8 to an ounce is now decriminalized in numerous states and medical marijuana is now legal in Michigan and California. Clearly things are changing, because yes, state governments can have a great deal of law making power when not regulated federally. There is no federal act against marijuana usage, because otherwise states would not be able to be passing these laws and policies. And I'm pretty sure that has nothing to do with the temperance movement, which was based in hostility against ethnic minorities and non-Christians. Christians claimed that drinking caused these "evil foreigners" to behave the ways they did and therefore should be outlawed.

[panincarnated]

Actually, there is federal regulation of Marijuana, under the aegis of the interstate commerce act, and the DEA often makes arrests of individuals participating in Medical Marijuana programs that are legal under state law, but not under federal law.