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Weed Rant
Topic Started: Feb 21 2009, 04:12 PM (156 Views)
BlenderCat
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For the last 70 something-odd years, the U.S Supreme Court has been upholding one of the most ill-conceived, hypocritical laws in the law books. The 1937 nation-wide prohibition on Cannabis Sativa, otherwise known as Marijuana has sent countless thousands of otherwise law-abiding citizens into our already overcrowded state and federal prisons teeming with murderers and serial-rapists, has helped to fund some of the most powerful, deadly regimes in recent history, and has wasted billions of U.S. tax payer's dollars on a so called "war" that is every bit as impractical as it is absolutely unwinnable.

You see, for me the question isn't so much "why should we legalize this substance?" but "what reasons do the opponents of decriminalization give for perpetuating its illegality?” and most importantly, "do they hold up to reason?" But before I get into that I'd like to briefly go over the reasons it was outlawed in the first place. At the end of the 19th century, Marijuana was largely unknown in the states. Beginning in the early 1900’s Mexican farm workers began immigrating to the U.S. to look for work. They brought with them Marijuana, which translates into English as "Marry Jane." What followed was an unprecedented campaign based on fear, deception, and racism directed at the Mexican community and vicious enough to make Joseph McCarthy himself envious. Certain middle-class, white Americans, resentful of the those who they thought were trying to steal their jobs, began circulating rumors about drug-crazed Mexicans, high on "Devil's Weed" as it was now being called, who raped women and children and killed innocent townspeople. As with all systematic campaigns of racism, the accusers played to the public's emotions by using their own ignorance to create a climate of irrational fear, which, in turn bred more fear, and finally hatred. The U.S. government responded with the infamous "Reefer Madness" campaigns, which portrayed Marijuana users as something akin to wild savage animals. Fear soon turned into panic. The end result was that this relatively benign plant was now as a schedule 1 controlled substance, placing it above cocaine and along side heroin as one of the most dangerously addictive narcotics known to man.

This pretty much brings us to where we are today, with our own government using half-truths to keep us from reclaiming our personal freedoms. This pattern can be seen from the government-sponsored "DARE" programs, which entice school-aged children to snoop around the house for dope and turn in their own parents to the authorities, to the D.E.A.'s own website on which can be found numerous so called "facts" pertaining to marijuana, but are in actuality nothing more than myths concocted by the website's owners masquerading as the truth. Let's look at some of these "facts" and try to decide for ourselves whether or not they have any basis in reality.

#1 Marijuana is the source of much violent crime within the U.S

By far the largest source of marijuana-related violent crime is being committed by the drug cartels in South America, not by the guy sitting on his front porch smoking a doobie. You remember the medelline cartel? You know the ones the Reagan administration helped to create with its "War on Drugs"? Where do you think all that money came from? That's right, from the American people. The American taste for weed is apparently not going away. The only problem is, with all the stiff prison sentences being handed out over here to anyone caught growing even a little bit of weed, most people aren't willing to risk it. (On a personal note, a friend of mine got caught doing just that. His name is Rick. He goes in for sentencing sometime in December, so he probably won't get to see his wife and his two sons this Christmas, or the Christmases for many years to come. But I digress...). By playing a little game known as "supply and demand," People like the medelline cartel end up selling their product for something like a 17,000 percent increase in profits. I'm no businessperson, but with profit margins like that, it's no wonder those people are as powerful as they are.

#2 Marijuana kills brain cells

An absolute lie. THC, the active ingredient in marijuana is a fat, which means it can bond to the neural synapses in the brain for, at the absolute maximum 40 days. This is one of the reasons that drug tests are so discriminatory against marijuana smokers. Can you imagine getting fired from you job because you drank a beer 2 weeks ago? Well that's exactly what can happen if you smoked a joint within the same time frame. When more powerful, addictive drugs such as cocaine leave you body within 72 hours, TCH can linger in your fat cells for up to 4 weeks.

#3 Marijuana leads to harder drugs.

This has to be one of the most cliched tag lines of the anti-marijuana lobbyists. In fact, it's gotten to be such a reflexive response to any suggestion deemed to be sympathetic to the cause of legalization, that most of its proponents don't even pause to try to understand what the proposition actually entails. What they really mean is that most people who are currently using harder drugs such as cocaine and heroin first got their start by trying marijuana. Well, yes that's true. Most hard drug users didn't just pick up a needle and stick it in their arm, or pick up a crack pipe and start hitting it without first trying a lesser substance. They probably also drank alcohol and smoked cigarettes, but blaming society's ailments on these substances doesn't fit the agenda. This is backwards reasoning and it doesn't take a logician to discern the fallacies inherent in the statement.

#4 Marijuana is more likely than cigarettes to cause lung cancer.

Again, absolutely no proof.

#5 Marijuana today is up to 25 times stronger than that grown in the 60's.

This was before my time, so I can't say anything with the presumption of authority, but the next old man I see with long grey hair and a tattered Grateful Dead t-shirt, I'll be sure to ask what he thinks.

#6 Thousands of people are taken to the emergency room every year from marijuana-related causes.

While it may be true that they tested positive for marijuana remember that TCH can stay in your system for up to 4 weeks. Moreover the amount of weed researchers suggest needs to be ingested to overdose is about 1,000 times more than even the biggest pot-head would be able to smoke in one sitting. That's correct. Nobody has, as of yet, EVER overdosed from weed.

#7 Marijuana is addictive.

While I don't deny the fact that smoking marijuana may be psychologically reinforcing, it is in no way nearly as addictive as tobacco, which former surgeon general C. Everet Koop once described as more addictive than crack cocaine, or alcohol, which destroys thousands of families every year.

I've chosen to spend most my time trying to logically rebuke some of claims given against the cause of legalization. In this I hope I've succeeded or at the very least to have gotten you to question some of the government rhetoric that usually goes hand and hand against the type of proposition I've been so bold as to make.

I don't want to leave the impression however that there are no immediate benefits inherent in the plant itself. On the contrary, there have been hundreds of studies linking TCH, the active ingredient in marijuana to the virtual elimination of the debilitating symptoms associated with chemotherapy. Some doctors have even gone so far as to allow their cancer patients to smoke marijuana in hospital room. Legalizing marijuana today could help out thousands of cancer patients across the country with their symptoms without the stigma attached to an "illegal drug" or the high prices that often go along with it. Studies have also shown that marijuana may help relieve the pressure caused by ocular fluid behind the eyeball, which plagues sufferers of glaucoma.

Marijuana is not the only substance in Cannabis Sativa. The stalks are made of a strong, durable substance known as hemp, which for centuries has been known for its papermaking abilities.

I am not sure how the marijuana situation will go. At present it seems like a deadlock. I am confident however that I will live to see the day when this unjust law will finally be repealed. Perhaps we could learn something from Amsterdam where hashish, the resinous substance on tops of the marijuana plant is tolerated in small coffee shops known as "hash bars" all over downtown Amsterdam. Officials report that crime has actually gone down as a result of this official act, and that fewer people seem to smoke it than before. "It takes some of the mystique out of it,” one of them says.

In short, marijuana is a drug. But so is tobacco, which is the leading drug-related cause of death in the United States, and alcohol, which is the second. For these 2 drugs to be condoned in the United States despite all the evidence of their detriment to society, and to one's own physical health is, I believe, the height of hypocrisy.
Edited by BlenderCat, Feb 21 2009, 04:38 PM.
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NeonXCupcake
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Resident Pain In The Ass
Right on, mah brutha.

I'm all for the smoking of the reefer.
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Masquerading Doll
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Interesting, at least.
I agree, with most of what you've said.
Nice, Jason.
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Gibson
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Head Greeter/Mod
Well honestly I don't think it's going to do anything but i'm going to print this out and leave it at some interesting places like Wal-mart, The coffe shop (if i'm allowed back) The court house next month, and maybe a police station. Idk it will change some peoples thoughts and opinions perhaps.


Hell maybe I can leave my phone number for questions and start
Selling some dope.


Eh lots of good points here tommy.
Don't have to much fun and forget
about the poor man out there taking
benedryl getting high.
Edited by Gibson, Feb 22 2009, 08:11 AM.
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ShiloFish
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Shilo Of The Fishingness
Jesus christ Jason...You need to become a journalist or something. Start your own paper. Your freaking amazing. I want to do you. I'm just saying...
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YesterdaysDreams
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At some point I was told and never did any reasearch on it so I am not sure it is true that thc actually cures glaucoma. My grandmother has glaucoma and was given a prescription for the thc pill she straight out refused to fill out the prescription saying that she did not want to become a "pothead hippy". This was the absolute height of hypocrisy in my eyes since here was a woman that popped quaaludes and valium like fucking M&M's whenever she was the slightest bit upset. She definitely didnt hesitate to run to the drugstore with those scripts.
My belief is that the government is making money off from the illegal selling of marijuana. Where does all the pot go that is confiscated? Sure ocassionally we see some highly medialized show of burning but lets be realistic where is the rest of it? So here is a story a friend of ours was busted with 12 pounds weed but when he went to court the charge was for 9 pounds.. now this worked out for the friend since it was a lower felony charge but what happened to the other 3 pounds? To bring this to an end when the government can forsee a better cash flow from legalization then *poof* guess what folks it is going to be legalized but I guarentee it will be done in such a way that the everyday consumer will still be paying inflated prices, and will not be allowed to grow their own supply.
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BlenderCat
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I have a nextdoor neighbor who swears up and down that she was once legally blind but started smoking weed and was "cured." Of course, this is only anecdotal evidence, but I'm inclined to believe her. As for the story about your grandmother, that's really sad that she would refuse to take Marinol because if the stigma that some people attach to anything having to do with Marijuana.

As for the government, they already own some of the largest Marijuana fields in the United States. And cops at all levels definitely do use confiscated drugs for their own personal use. That kind of goes without saying.
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