Randi: "Pot ain't legal because the drug companies can't patent it."

[Cyrano]

This is a paraphrase of what she said, but, once again, she's nailed the truth.

Since anyone can grow marijuana, the pharmaceutical companies can't patent it. So the DEA will of course go after those on chemotherapy, and everyone else using it to relieve the symptoms/pain of their disease.

Naturally, since our ally Pakistan is the biggest grower of poppies in the world, don't expect the BushCo "crime-stoppers" to go after any drug that's made from poppies.

There are days like this that I believe our country is fucked up beyond repair.

[realisticphish]

1. But what about all the violent crimes?

all the riots caused by pot smokers? the rebellions fueled by weed? the hordes of potheads that fill the streets as they loot stores?

;)

[Pawel K]

3. LOL, reminded me of the South Park hippie episode

[mike_c]

5. marijuana is a dire threat...

...to that last slice of cheesecake in the 'fridge....

[realisticphish]

12. Bill Hicks

has a bit where he advocates mandatory pot smoking...

"fleets of Domino's trucks would pack the highways"

[yella_dawg]

39. I got news for ya'.

If pot was legal, there would be no such thing as "the last slice of cheesecake" in the fridge or elsewhere.

I would personally insure that, throughout America.

Maybe I could do a reality show or something.

[Beaverhausen]

Exactly right. FOLLOW THE MONEY

[flakey_foont]

2. I think that is fairly self evident

to intelligent people............I've felt that way for years...

[formercia]

4. God forbid it goes commercial and competes with cigarettes

Which would you buy?

[mike_c]

7. you know, I'm amazed the junk/fast food manufacturers haven't...

...lobbied for legalizing pot.

[Bluerthanblue]

32. and you don't HAVE

to smoke it to get the benefits-

it' a great deal safer than some of the chemical combos that are being sold, then recalled because of the 'accidential deaths'-

[Walt Starr]

6. She left out a bit

Monsanto hasn't genetically modified it yet so they can patent it, too.

[drdtroit]

13. Actually, Monsanto hasn't been able to morph it into a

highly physically addictive narcotic, damn!

[Bluerthanblue]

30. yeah, and it pisses me off

NO end, that liquor- be it beer- the strongest HARD liquor is not only LEGAL- my state is the sole supplier of the 'hard stuff'- selling it at stores on the INTERSTATES!!!!-

i'm not saying make booze illegal (that didn't work) but to think that alcohol is a 'benign' DRUG to a very large group of those who mis-use it intentionally, and because of a genetic propensity towards alcholism, the damage it does to the liver, unborn, and drunk drivers-
wheres the outrage????? it's a HELL of alot easier to grow a little weed of your own, than it is to make your own alcohol-

i'm outraged at the obvious corporate bias, and mindset-

Freedom?????? 'they' hate us for our 'freedom'- how come we can't say the f word on tv anymore????- ACCKK!!

(sorry to vent all over you
i'm having a rotten day, and your post helped identify one of the fingers on one of my last nerves)

[Walt Starr]

34. OMG, MARIBACCO!!!!!!

I cna see it now, Monsanto engineers Maribacco! All the high of pot with twice the nicotine level of tobacco!

[drdtroit]

45. "Just light one up, you'll never want to put it down"!

"No stems nor seeds that you don't need
Maribacco Gold's some badass weed!" ;-)

[dissent1977]

8. Exactly, and it is not just the drug companies either

It is also the logging industry, the cotton industry, and the petroleum industry. Many people think that hemp is illegal because it too closely resembles marijuana. I think it is the other way around. Hemp has so many different uses that if it were legal it would pose some major competition to some very wealthy people. They could not logically make an argument that hemp is dangerous, so they have to create the illusion that marijuana is an extremely dangerous drug. If they can outlaw marijuana then they can outlaw the growing of hemp. Yes, the war on drugs is all about protecting the wealthy elites in this country.

[MountainLaurel]

15. Someone posted a couple months ago

About the role of Hearst or one of the other yellow journalists of the early 1900s, and his role in developing the U.S.'s current drug use laws. Basically, it all had to do with using cheaper wood pulp for newsprint (guess who owned the paper mills?). But interestingly, as part of his strategy, he demonized blacks, particularly jazz musicians, and Hispanics, raising the usual fears of those brown-skinned men ogling white women.

[dissent1977]

25. Read "The Emperor Wears No Clothes" by Jack Herer

The book tells the whole story about how marijuana became illegal, and yes Hearst played a major role. Fascinating book.

[firefox]

33. Hearst gave us the word "marijuana"

It was taken from some Mexican cigarettes that would translate to "Mary Jane." He had forest and paper interest to protect and he would villify cannabis to no end.

Hemp was used for paper and clothes. People's old hemp clothes would be recycled into newpaper. That is were the expression "rag" for newspapers came from.

[merwin]

22. I'm wondering... Could cannabis be modified so that it only produces hemp?

Seems like that would be very profitable for the persons who accomplish it.

[dissent1977]

27. Hemp and marijuana are two different plants from the same family

As it is hemp has virtually no THC, the psychoactive ingrediant in marijuana. There is absolutely no need to modify hemp, and I would warn against doing so. Genetic engineering could open up a pandoras box that could have a disasterous impact on the environment.

[merwin]

37. Genetic engineering is done every day. Pretty much any food that you

buy at your local grocery store that doesn't say the word 'organic' on it is genetically motified.

There's different thoughts on the benefits of genetic modification. I'm personally for it. However, I do understand why people are against it.

Even nature does genetic modifications from time to time.

[dissent1977]

38. I realize it is done every day, but there is simply no reason to expand it

Hemp is a perfectly fine plant as it is, there is no need to "improve" it. There is so little THC that even if you are opposed to marijuana as a drug, you would have to be insane to be opposed to hemp. It is kind of like being opposed to corn. Unfortunately, we have a lot of insane people in this country.

On edit: One additional point, if they required genetic engineering on hemp in order to make it less like marijuana it would allow a company such as Monsanto to patent all hemp production. The last thing we want is a corporate monopoly on a plant.

[merwin]

43. You're right about that. I didn't think about it that way. But, it would

get them to actually use it instead of less renewable sources (thinking on the bright side here)

[DiverDave]

9. Speaking of the tobacco company's selling pot

I read this book a long time ago.

http://www.spiralnature.com/reviews/book/corleye.html

Sorta funny, but it would go something like that.

[Johonny]

10. Doesn't sound true to me.

Just doesn't ring true to me. It seems to me it is illegal because a small fraction of Americans convinced a large fraction of Americans that marijuana ussage was extremely harmful to society. As long as Americans accept the BS around the pot subject it will remain illegal. I seems to me the American people have no one to blame but themselves for the legal statis of pot.

[Beaverhausen]

11. Someone posted a poll yesterday where americans supported the use...

... of medical marijuana so I disagree that a "large faction" thinks it is harmful

Most americans know better and I would guess most have seen the good it does for extremely ill people.

edit- I can't seem to get the "search" function to work or I'd post a link to that poll.

[Cyrano]

14. Johonny: You're absolutely right. A portion of people think it's harmful.

But who do you think bought and paid for the PR that convinced people of this bullshit?

Way back when, there was a quasi-documentary movie called "Reefer Madness," that today is one of the most ridiculous, funny films ever made. (I'm sure it's available somewhere online.)

Anytime something that's so obviously ridiculous as to be laughable, and the government passes a law against it, ask one question. "Who profits?" That one question makes comprehensible so much of what (on the surface) seems to be insane.

[Johonny]

20. Who?

Once again who did push this through? I simply find the "it was company x that told me how to think" argument a little thin. If it's really just a money issue than it would be legal. Because clearly there is a strong demand and high profit to be made from selling it. Sure you could grow it in your own home. You can grow a lot of stuff in your own home. But most people instead go to the store and buy the items they want. There is no reason to believe pot if legal would not be a wonderful money making industry. An industry most likely controlled by the very companies the thread is accusing of keeping it illegal.

Pot is an issue like prostitution. It's funny the number of people I know that have used, use these products and yet continually vote against them. As if that vote makes them moral? What are our morals if we condemn our own activities and then turn those activities into secret shameful acts that in turn generate a seedy criminal hierarchy. Why would anyone vote for such a thing? And yet they do. One can only hope the medical angle will eventually end our insane, wasteful, pointless drug war.

[dissent1977]

28. Read up on William Randolph Hearst

Hearst was one of the major players in getting marijuana criminalized, and the story of how he did it is fascinating. And yes, it was primarily motivated by money (although he did use racism and fear to sell his profit making plan to the public). Because Hearst owned a large portion of the American media at the time he was able to spin the facts to make it appear as if all those who smoked marijuana would become serial killers. And of course because he owned the media no one was given a chance to tell the truth. If you want to learn more read "The Emperor Wears no Clothes" by Jack Herer, it is a fascinating read.

[firefox]

36. Jackherer.com

Jack Herer is the Emperor of Hemp. He is the one that revived the history of hemp for us all after the prohibitionist sought to bury that history. The opening page of http://www.jackherer.com/ will totally amaze you as he praises the miracle of hemp.

He has an online edition of "The Emperor Wears No Clothes" that is the primer for understanding cannabis and its prohibition- http://www.jackherer.com/chapters.html I have extreme praise for the title of his book, because it is just as easy to see that hemp should have never been illegal as it is to say that a man is naked.

He is honored and shown in this hour-long video that can be seen online at pot-tv called "The Emperor of Hemp"- http://tinyurl.com/7gfs2 It is my second favorite online video of anything cannabis besides the movie "Grass" narrated by Woody Harrelson. It is one of the many videos available for free online viewing by CRRH.org. Here is that link to "Grass"- http://www.crrh.org/hemptv/grass.html

We have all been played on Cannabis Prohibition. It is as plain as the naked truth.

[leftofthedial]

17. that's the story they told us

[southernleftylady]

16. goverment cant tax it... people would start planting it everywhere ;)

[realFedUp]

18. Maybe if we all had our own victory gardens...

That was a ridiculous decision...just
reminds more Supreme Injustice.

[Seeker30]

19. Many reasons and it all comes down to money

One main reason is the drug companies, lumber companies, etc. but I think even a bigger reason is law enforcement has become such a huge money making industry in this country. Most prisons are now ran by private corporations, the drug classes when people get in trouble, the fines, forfeiture laws, and the fact that half the cops would be unemployed. Its a huge racket.

[dissent1977]

29. Sorry to get off topic..

But that is a horribly evil Ann Coulter animation you have there. I think I'm going to :puke:

[meow2u3]

41. That's another reason weed is illegal

There has to be an excuse to fill up the corporate concentration camps, formerly known as privatized prisons, with nonviolent people who dare defy the very rich people who snort coke with impunity.

[H2O Man]

21. I think it goes beyond that.

Surely that is a major reason. (I don't think that the idea that a few people have convinced the masses that pot is dangerous has merit; it used to be true, but that issue has long since faded away.)

Besides the economic reasons, I think that pot is being kept illegal, because it is associated with a type of thinking that is less likely to produce a member of the herd. Our society is run, in many ways, like an institution .... and all institutions would prefer to deal with a band of merry fools than a single sad wise man. Hence, alcohol is supported in much the same way that tobacco is. But pot must be discouraged, even with the threat of jail.

[ComerPerro]

23. I like comedian Greg Proops' explaination

"Well, of course marijuana should be illegal.

If it were legal, people would smoke it"

[sweetheart]

24. Not true, its so they can throw liberals in prison

The cannabis laws are designed to off-foot the political opposition, as
by the very politics of liberalism, people are more inclined to exerciese
their natural freedoms and rights. Nixon and his advisors understood
this and the drugs war is a political war to repress liberal voters
and persons who dissent with the war-machine.

The "drug company" argument is a false straw man to make it sound nice
and rational, without telling the deeper truth.

[dissent1977]

31. You are partially right but it is more complicated than that

There is no doubt that you are right that the government has used the drug laws to imprison minorities as well as political dissidents (particularly counter-culture groups). I can assure you also though, that money is a big factor. The drug companies, lumber, cotton, and petroleum interests, the alcohol industry, and yes the prison industry all stand to lose a lot of profit if pot is legalized. You better believe that money plays a role in the drug laws.

[Horse with no Name]

26. One of the best anti-nausea meds for cancer is Zofran

costs about $50 a day (for 2 pills).
Need I say more?

Edited to add this tidbit:
GlaxoSmithKline's Zofran($1.35 billion sales in 2004)

[killbotfactory]

35. But with genetic modification....

Boom. Seedless pot with a patent. When will bio companies get in on that gravy train?

[amazona]

40. NOT SO -- they can and do easily patent plant varieties

The ability to create new plant varieties are endless. Just look at all the patented ROSES alone. There must be thousands. Even the last geranium plant I bought came with a nasty-gram saying that I couldn't plant the seed because it was under patent.

There's something else going on. It isn't lack of ability to patent. The day marijuana is legal is the day you will find several companies announcing their patent filings for varieties they have quietly developed off the books. Or they will go the route of buying the rights to the most respected marijuana varieties from people who have been quietly growing the crop illegally all this time.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[eridani]

42. If that ever happens, I'd invest in Burpee Seeds, not--

--Phillip Morris. Very few potheads are heavy smokers, so just about anyone with a window box or a closet can server their own needs.

[HR_Pufnstuf]

44. Jimmy Kimmel

"The govt outlawed medical marijuana today. Its officially only for PARTYING now"