Posted on 07/23/2004 7:55:29 AM PDT by cryptical
Marijuana Prohibition: Who Does It Protect?
By Henry Koch
Is marijuana illegal in the United States to protect Americans or to protect a handful of well-connected industries that believe ending prohibition would affect their profits?
Every study, whether privately or government sponsored, has declared the penalties against cannabis far out of line with the substance. Every study has illustrated how tobacco and alcohol do far more damage to individuals and society than marijuana. The draconian laws against this naturally occurring herb have ruined millions of lives. These laws have done far more damage during the current 66-year period of prohibition than the plant has done since its first recorded use and cultivation nearly 6,000 years ago.
Yet today, a cadre of individuals and industries is spending billions of dollars to keep marijuana illegal. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Office of National Drug Control Policy contribute to these private efforts by refusing to acknowledge the validity of reports whose results run contrary to current drug policy. The DEA and the ONDCP even reject studies commissioned by the Congress and other U.S. government agencies.
When the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 was passed there was no scientific evidence as to the effects marijuana had on consumers. (The psychoactive component of cannabis, THC, was not isolated until 1965.) The congressional hearings leading to the passage of the Tax Act were held in secret and considered no scientific evidence. Harry Anslinger, director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics from 1930 to 1962, presented popular fabrications about marijuana as fact to the congressional committees investigating the substance.
Here are a few of Anslinger's more memorable quotes about marijuana:
"Reefer makes darkies think they're as good as white men."
"Marijuana is taken by ... musicians. And I'm not speaking about good musicians, but the jazz type."
"Marijuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing."
Industries that have a high interest in keeping marijuana illegal include the tobacco industry, the alcoholic beverage industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the petrochemical industry, the pulp and paper industry, the prison-building industry, the prison guard unions and organizations, and law enforcement organizations.
The tobacco and alcohol industries realize that when people smoke marijuana, they use less tobacco and alcohol. Nicotine and alcohol are both highly addictive. Current research has not shown marijuana to cause physical dependency.
The pharmaceutical industry knows of the medical benefits of the Cannabis sativa plant and does not want individuals cultivating their own medications.
The petrochemical industry knows that industrial hemp and its myriad products could replace 98 percent of our hydrocarbon-based petroleum. Instead of pumping an exhaustible resource out of the ground, we could produce enough hemp seed to provide nearly all the petrochemical raw materials we need.
The pulp and paper industry knows that hemp can provide more fiber for pulp per acre than trees. Plus, hemp fiber can be converted to pulp without the pollutants created by the sulfuric acid process currently used to turn trees into paper. Converting to hemp for fiber would cost millions up front but would save billions in the long run, with the added bonus of greatly improving the environment.
The American prison system is the largest in the world, with more than 2.1 million prisoners at the end of 2003. This has made the prison-building industry one of the fastest growing industries in the country. The major growth of prison population in the United States is due mainly to the war on drugs. Marijuana arrests account for almost 80 percent of all drug arrests. Having the largest prison system also requires the largest prison guard industry, and this industry depends on the current drug policy for its members' job security.
Many law enforcement organizations receive more funding from the war on drugs budget than they do from their respective municipal budgets. If the laws against marijuana were changed to eliminate arrest for possession, almost every law enforcement organization in the United States would be required to eliminate personnel.
Prohibition has never worked, and it isn't working for marijuana. According to a nationwide poll conducted by Time magazine and CNN in October 2000, 80 percent of Americans support the medicinal use of marijuana and 72 percent say that adults who use marijuana recreationally should be fined, but not jailed. Only 19 percent of respondents favored jailing recreational pot smokers. In addition, 40 percent of respondents also said that they favored the legalization of small amounts of marijuana.
Who is marijuana prohibition really protecting? Is it the American public and our way of life or is it protecting the interests of the giants of industry who have friends in high government positions?
Henry Koch is president of the Midlands chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). For more information on Midlands NORML, visit www.midlands-norml.org.
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You hang out with some pretty fu@&ed up people.
Hey, did you know that Ronald Reagan called libertarianism the heart and soul of conservatism?
Kinda like Chihuahuas and Great Danes.
YES.
Marijuana laws protect a very lucrative business for lawyers and cops.. [Cops aren't paid by the bust. Lawyers are..no matter what side they're on]
What would you expect from a pro-drug, anti-Bush, pro-Kerry outfit!
Perhaps you missed the part of history decades ago where we were able to develope better products than those made with hemp!
I don't dispute what you say but are there federal grants to "fight the war on drugs"? Also a bust is a bust and I'd think a list of busts would be a plus as a cop goes up the ladder. Also a list of busts helps justify police budgets as they fight with other special interest groups in small towns (firefighters, schools, etc.). When you work in an upper middle class town there's not a lot of real crime so I'd expect one to focus on DWIs and kids smoking pot.
Ronald Reagan was not for legalization of drugs, same-sex marriage, opening the borders and reducing our military options.
To: Labyrinthos
That is certainly not my experiendce after self medicating with reefer since the late 1970's. I used to "self-medicate" with reefers but I grew out of that phase.
16 posted on 07/21/2004 8:44:33 AM CDT by cinFLA [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]
Once again the Lamp of the Panhandle illuminates the thread with his encyclopedic erudition!
We're not worthy.
"You bet they do and pot busts are easy money for lawyers and for Gov't bureaucrats who don't have to raise taxes to bring in the revenue."
But the reality is that at least where I live the public defender office gets most of the marijuana cases, big and small. We get about nine out of ten of the big marijuana mule cases and probably close to that percentage of the smaller pot cases. The taxpayors are footing the bill for this.
He wasn't for smoking bans either.
"Reefer makes darkies think they're as good as white men."
Are there no fines assessed?
Ronald Reagan - Father of the modern day War on Drugs
"It was during the presidency of Ronald Reagan that narcotics law enforcement morphed into drug war overdrive with a series of ever more draconian drug laws and an attitude of repressive "zero tolerance" emanating from the White House."
stopthedrugwar.org
The "user" status of a poster is irrelevant to this discussion.
Calling them a "criminal" is also irrelevant. Are all bad laws to be obeyed? Would you convict someone arrested for handgun possession [knowing they violated "the law" but also knowing they violated nothing per the Constitution??] Where do you draw the line on resistance to improper and corrupt government authority?
People on FR whould all have the intelligence enough to debate this issue for the facts, rather than emotion.
If you want to start calling people who violate prohibition criminals, call us all criminals, because not one of us has lifted a hand to protect any of the 44 million murdered innocent Americans by abortion. In fact we pay taxes to support it. That makes us all murderers, and criminals.
The other 81% wanted them tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail.
Just what one would expect to see on a pro-drug, anti-Bush, pro-Kerry, anti-war site.
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