Why was pot made illegal in the first place

[firefox]

My biggest assertion on the laughing grass issue is that Cannabis Prohibition is a fraud. Now if you have studied both sides of the prohibition, it should be clear that it is a fraud. If you have not really studied on it, your need to realize how prohibition came about in the first place.

The bible on anything hemp is Jack Herer's the "The Emperor Wears No Clothes." It should be regarded as a primer and has an online version at http://www.jackherer.com/chapters.html

Pete Guither is probably the best blogger on the drug war and he writes DrugWarRant at salon. His piece titled "Why is Marijuana Illegal" is a good short read on the subject- http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/stories/2003/12/22/whyIsMarijuanaIllegal.html

There is video at pot-tv from the History Channel titled "Hooked"- http://pot.tv/ram/pottvshowse2703.ram It helps answer the question along with the video "Grass"narrated by Woody Harrelson- http://www.crrh.org/hemptv/grass.html CRRH has other videos too- http://www.crrh.org/hemptv/video_docs.html

CannabisNews.com is the best website on the discussion of laughing grass on the Internet. People like Richard Cowan and Pete Guither as well as the most informed group on cannabis comment as articles from newsources are posted. You might here them talk about turning into a bat. It comes from the testimony of a "expert" in the early days of CP(Cannabis Prohibition) It comes from what would be a required read for any wonk at cannabisnews.com. It pretty much says that CP is a fraud and was a fraud when enacted in 1937. This article is a must read in understanding CP and is titled "The Sociology of Prohibition"- http://www.pipes.org/Articles/history.html

[Beaver Tail]

1. Religion

I think that Christianity deemed it a Devils Tool or something like that

Edit Begins here

The core reason, of "marijuana's illegality in America" today is because of mid-evil European Christian Superstitions/beliefs about "cannabis”

The first ban on Marijuana was a "CHRISTIAN" religious ban. Pope Innocent V111 (1484) decreed "cannabis" an unholy herb, Satan’s weed, herb of heathens, weed of the satanic masses etc., etc.

[lenidog]

2. Nothing is further from the truth. It was MONEY

[suziedemocrat]

7. I read Hearst invested in timber/forests/paper and wanted hemp illegal.

He used his newspaper(s) to paint marijuana as a horrible drug. That way people would start using wood pulp instead of hemp for paper. I also heard Dow also wanted hemp illegal for some reason.

That being said - I'm for decriminalization - and legal medicinal use - but not full legality. I don't want all the cigarette companies coming up with new super addictive pot plants and a great advertising campaign with a cartoon Rastafarian singing a catchy reggae tune in their commercials. Look what they have done with tobacco! People should be able to grow their own, etc.

[lenidog]

13. Dow and Dupont wanted it illegal because you can make plastic out

of hemp and they had also just invented fabrics like rayon so they didn't want hemp cloth to compete with it.

[intheflow]

29. I heard it was the plastics industry, too.

Along with the cotton industry.

[Melodybe]

17. Cotton and paper lobbiests.

That is the reason, hemp is cheaper and they couldn't deal so they lobbied and made it legal.

[Dez]

3. politicians will never legalize and reguate

at least not in my lifetime.

I've read Jack Herer's book, and it's all there. Corporations have too tight a grip on our politicians.. It's a crime the way they imprison average citizens, working citizens, med patients, etc. Out politicians have so much blood on their hands, and someday they will be held accountable .. karma will catch up with those greedy bastards.. and I mean the Dems too, they're all guilty of murder of mj med patients.

[STSNC]

4. Corporations??

What do evil corporations have to do with this thread??? I thought we were talking about how pot became illegal?

[lenidog]

5. It was corporations that wanted hemp illegal therefore did it through

making pot illegal

[Dez]

6. You need to see the list

of Lobbyists against legalization.. everyone from the pharmaceutical companies, to alcohol companies.. None of them want it legal, and Du Pont for sure doesn't want it legalized, hemp would be too much competition for their sytnthetic products.

[STSNC]

8. Huh

Don't get me wrong....I'm for the legalization of almost all drugs....but come on...I know Corporations aren't saints, but I don't think they had much to do with the prohibition of Marijuana. You could buy cocaine legally up until 1908. And it wasn't off the street.....COMPANIES produced it for a profit and sold it right next to Laudlum at the local pharmacy.

[Beaver Tail]

9. You guys are talking about WHY it is being KEPT illegal

not why it became illegal in the 1st place which was the original question - See post #1

[STSNC]

10. Couldn't tell ya

When was pot officially made illegal????

I know it was legal at some point b/c Washington, Paine and Jefferson grew it and smoked it regularly.

[Beaver Tail]

11. So did Queen Victoria

For Menstrual Cramps

[jwirr]

12. In this age I think you need to look to the WWI era.

In Iowa they grew hemp to make twine string. I suspect that it can be traced back to the other uses it was put to then. My dad talked a little about it but I wasn't interested then.

[Dez]

14. Hemp for Victory

was the slogen back in the days of war. But hemp was too great an opponent, so they outlawed it and cannabis. It's a just a big LIE, and it's just amazing that people can be so brainwashed into the truth about it. It has nothing to do with pot being 'dangerous', as Rick Renzi (R Az told me in an email ... it's all just one big fat LIE!

[Beaver Tail]

15. cannabis is NOT dangerous

when you compare it to tobacco or alchol. Never heard of ANYONE coming home and beating their wife or children while stoned on pot. Can anyone point to any articles showing violence some somone stoned on pot and pot alone?

[Dez]

16. Rick Renzi is a Repug

and he's just saying it's dangerous, cause that's part of the BIG LIE. Every generation since the drug war began have been given a whole new set of lies about cannabis. Now days they are saying it causes psychosis! I wonder what they'll be saying in 20 years!

[dave502d]

No way to tax it because you can grow your own. n/t

[dave502d]

18. No way to tax it because you can grow your own. n/t

[Beaver Tail]

19. You can also make your own Vodka

Just don't get caught or you go to jail

[Dez]

20. Jail for making vodka??

wow, I never heard that one before.

[Beaver Tail]

21. You need to be licensed to make Hard Liquor

Why do you think making moonshine is illegal?

[Dez]

22. I never thought about it before

since I don't drink the stuff..

When they've finished trashing this planet, they will go back to hemp, and then pot will be legal once again.. once the oil fields are depleted, and global warming becomes too dangerous to ignore.. then they will rely on hemp.. not until then, IMO.

[K-W]

23. There are plenty of things one can grow that people still choose to buy.

Heavily taxed cigarettes havent caused any smokers I know to create tobbacco gardens.

[maxsolomon]

27. that's because tobacco farming is regulated

you could grow your own. it isn't hard.

[K-W]

28. I highly doubt that is the thing that stops most people.

I doubt most smokers ever even consider the option of growing tobbacco just like I doubt most pot smokers would even consider the option of growing if pot were readily available at the corner store.

I think history tells us quite plainly that most people are willing to pay for things they could produce themselves because they would rather spend the money than the time and effort.

[K-W]

24. Racism was a big part of it.

Even though hemp was a very common crop in both Europe and the American Colonies, marijuana was not a common habit amongst europeans. It was seen as a drug of inferior races and it was feared that the drug would corrupt white people if allowed to spread.

[Asgaya Dihi]

25. Hard to say

I don't know of any direct proof, but there's a strong suspicion that some of our founding fathers may have been potheads. The prejudice against it may have come later.

Among other clues was an entry in George Washington's diary that said he separated males from females in his hemp garden, "rather too late." There's only one reason to separate them that I know of, and it's not for fiber or seed. He's listed as a possible smoker on the following web page, click on the pictures for the details.

http://www.veryimportantpotheads.com/main2.htm

[K-W]

26. Its possible, it just wasnt a widespread habit.

I didnt mean to imply that no white people used marijuana, that was just the perception of it.

[bamacrat]

30. To control the Mexican population.

[ProgressAlwaysWins]

31. Two reasons, both of which people here have mentioned

The paper industry and racism.

Sad thing is, most of the American people don't know about this, and assume that MJ is illegal because it really is dangerous. It's that kind of unawareness that keeps MJ illegal.

[RagingInMiami]

32. Didn't it have something to do with the "negroes"

And how society feared pot would make them lust after white women?