Could it be?

[droidamus2]

I have one idea of why marijuana is illegal what does everybody else think. The government goes on and on about how we have this big drug epidemic in the United States with 19.7 million drug abusers (used illegal drugs in the last month). The same government survey says of that number 14.6 million are marijuana users, 54.5 do only pot and 25.8 don't do pot but do other drugs. So, if you subtract out the pot users from the equation you have 5.1 million 'abusers'. Still a large number but not near as impressive as almost 20 million 'drug addicts'. My point is that the 'anti-drug cadre' in this country uses pot being illegal to pad their numbers. Of course this isn't the only reason it's illegal. I would think if you legalized pot at least some of the almost 20% that do pot and other drugs would never be exposed to those who sell those other drugs and may have stayed with just smoking pot.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Yes

also realize marijuana is relatively easy to grow in most parts of the country, so corporations can't be sure they would be the only ones producing the crop. Realize also that marijuana was made illegal only after a big chemical company (Dow, I think) invented nylon, and wanted to get their main rival, hemp, off the market. Plus it gave the T-Men left over from Prohibition something to do.

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

2. Government cares not

for those harassed, incarcerated or otherwise socially destroyed in their wars. They have grown accustomed to revenue flows from property forfeitures and confiscations. Generous grants from Big Tobacco among others keep the police hungry for easy busts of "easily re-saleable" product. The artificial enemies of natural things will never leave us.

The Church too plays a role: many psychoactive plants are direct connections to spiritual states, eliminating the need for a middle-man in one's communication with the Universe. It is often in their best interests to discredit other forms of ritual or worship, especially those spring from the ground unbidden and offer themselves to us as an evolving species.

[Asgaya Dihi]

3. I doubt abuse has much to do with it.

When pot first became illegal abuse wasn't really an issue, it spread into our communities after the fact through experimentation and jazz among other things such as backlash to the old refer madness movies. It was just a convenient target, a perfect storm type of thing.

We had Hearst with his natural prejudice which was reinforced when Pancho Villa camped on some of his land, Dupont and others who had found ways to do things with synthetics that might be threatened by natural hemp oils and fibers, we had alcohol prohibition just ending and the depression to consider with large numbers of law enforcement facing the loss of employment and needing a reason to be there. It was mostly self interest and prejudice.

Nothing has really changed over time, today we've got private prisons, drug testing and treatment, law enforcement, pharmaceutical interests and a number of others who would be hurt by a change in the status quo. That's what drives it. What real problems we do have from pot are dwarfed by other things we don't seem to care as much about, the potential for problem isn't what drives it. In part, the following is.

http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/corrections/index.html

That's an hour long audio documentary with supporting articles and links from American RadioWorks. First segment talks about some of the financial interests, in particular The American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC for short which is an angle worth looking into more. The laws are shaped by those with profit motives, not by those with social motives backed by research and results. That's why the system looks like it does today. I'd love to let science and results into the issue, when that happens legalization and regulation wins.

The other supporting players such as MADD mean well no doubt but they are just being used and to a large extent fed drug war lies to repeat. Them I don't blame so much, they don't know better. Blame the ones that do and look to the bottom line anyway.

[nostalgicaboutmyfutr]

4. good point....

would seem like much less of a problem if suddenly you lose 75% of those impacted....

How many more would be added if we flipped this and suddenly made Alcohol illegal.....

I am surprised that they (gubmint) don't stress more the connection of drug production (heroin) to the war on terror...

[No Coercion]

5. Bureaucratic survival instinct

Hey all, I'm new to the site and since the War on Drugs is a big concern of mine, this seemed like a good place for my first post!

I like your number-padding theory as part of the reason for pot prohibition. But more generally, the continuation of drug prohibition overall (despite the decades of evidence that it's failed in every respect) is probably largely due to the bureaucratic survival instinct. The larger and more entrenched a particular bureaucracy, the harder it fights (sometimes to extraordinary lengths) to make sure it doesn't lose its reason for existing. Just think about all those nauseating TV and radio ads we're bombarded with by the Office for National Drug Control Policy. It's like something straight out of the movie "V for Vendetta." But maybe that's just me. I'm all riled up now, so I'll probably go and write a blog post about it tonight.

[nostalgicaboutmyfutr]

6. Welcome to DU !

There are a lot of great topics and forums to read....it is addictive!

[bamacrat]

7. Without a doubt.

That is one of the many stupid reasons it is still illegal. Another is the role the Dupont family played in cementing the petrochemical age over the industrialization of hemp. Hemp can make virtually everything petroleum can. Good post, welcome to DU.

:hi: :smoke:

[jemappellesuzie]

8. prohibiton

anybody?

[againes654]

9. 47-50 million

people without insurance, but they worry about the so called "drug war". I wonder do they count the number of people addicted to prescription drugs. Of course not, the prescription drug companies pay them. Sorry I forgot.:sarcasm:

[Pius Verum-i]

10. truth

Dupont... dupont lobbies so damn hard against marijuana, and marijuana laws are used to control hemp...
btw dupont has patents on synthetic rope, cotton production chemicals, and numerous other hemp inferior products...
they helpped write legislation, along with pharamceutical companies.. even funded "reefer madness"
they spin the propaganda, that allows such control.

the cia is THE BIGGEST drug dealer in the world... end of story... they want you high, they just want you to be paranoid, dejected, and controllable... most early marijuana legislation was made to control mexican immigrants, who had smoked cannabis for centuries. later it was written to control blacks. they still make money off drugs... it is just better for the machine to keep them available, but illegal

alot of people profit from the "war"

and people, who are only exposed to the drug marijuana, not the plant, fabric, fuel, medicine, ect, don't take the loss of freedom serious, because they know how reckless the drug can be.

i mean, we all damn well know it has far more beneficial purposes as an intaked substance than alcohol, and is dramaticlly safer. but honestly the country doesn't mind the rape...

i do... i should be able to grow this damn flower...

[Dubiosus]

11. Great Documentary on this issue

Just check out

http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=DtTlrvpjhDw