Why is Marijuana illegal?
I know the story about the cotton and textile industries buying off politicians to get hemp off the market. I believe it is true.
But…
What’s the actual reason that the Government tells us it is illegal?
I don’t smoke Pot. I did in my younger days, but it’s not in my life currently. And my concern isn’t even for all the great uses of Hemp products we could benefit from.
I’ll be honest. It really pisses me off that a government thinks they can tell me what kind of seed that I can or cannot plant into my own land. What gives them the right to do that? Why can’t I grow that plant if I want to?
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57 Answers
Because too many people stand to lose if it is legalized.
And the white women will smoke it, listen to jazz, and have sex with black men.
I think you potheads will be greatly disappointed when it does become legal. Do you seriously have a problem with finding weed ever? Do you have problem with secretly smoking in your back yard or in your room? When it becomes legal it’s only going to be because the government found away to make money off it. They are going to tax the shit out of it and probably add a bunch crap to make it bad for you. You should hope that is stays illegal.
Because we still can’t convince the government that if we legalize it and then tax it, they’ll make tons of money. You would think with all those potential dollar signs floating around and all the greed associated with the government, they’d jump right on that money train.
Off topic @simone54. Why can’t I plant that seed into my own land if I want to, regardless of whether I smoke it, sell it, rope it, or just look at it as a beautiful aromatic plant?
It’s only a slippery slope from legalizing marijuana to legalizing fellating a donkey while shooting heroin into your eyeball. Those are not American values!
@mrentropy – Aw I’ll bet you are from the south now ain’t ya! There’s something about the way u southerners talk that’s a complete giveaway. hahahahhahahahahha
@JessicaisinLove I’m in the south, but I’m not from the south. I was going to word it a bit differently, but I didn’t think too many people would hear the irony :)
Aside from Reefer Madness… does anyone know what the law actually says about not being able to even plant the seed?
Why is a natural plant illegal to grow?
Even GAWD says it’s OK…
Genesis 1:29 KJV
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
@RealEyesRealizeRealLies
You are not allowed to plant the seed according to federal law. If you do, you can be charged with possession. I think just four states of the 50 allow people to grow marijuana, but they have strict laws regulating this (like you have to be a non-profit, you have to operate a dispensary, you are only allowed to sell to medical marijuana patients, you pay taxes, etc). Nine other states make some provision for legalizing possession of the plant in small quantities for medicinal purposes but at the same time uphold that growing and selling are illegal across the board. No, it doesn’t make any sense.
Just yesterday we were discussing the discrepancy between federal and state laws. In the four states that have sanctioned MMPs, even people possessing marijuana for medical purposes reinforced by a doctor’s recommendation can be imprisoned and fined by the feds because the federal law does not acknowledge the plant’s medicinal value and purely considers it a narcotic. There was one case where a dispensary operator was ratted out by a county sheriff to the feds, and now faces life imprisonment. According to federal law, it is possible to face the death penalty under certain circumstances – over a plant!
I was looking at Supreme Court cases yesterday, and it looked like most of them were challenging the constitutionality of the 9th and 10th amendments on the grounds that they had committed a victimless crime. I don’t think anyone has been successful from this angle yet. Everything I’ve read has implied we have to rely on Congress to change the law.
The general anarchy and lack of ambition to make the big bucks induced by this pot makes this a bad drug to allow the slaves.
It also induces euphoria and we cannot have the slaves being too happy.
@davidbetterman Sure. Is that the reason the Gov gives for not allowing it to be grown?
it was made illegal because of a stereotype. Mexicans used to use it and Americans at the time did not like the fact that they used it so they banned it because it was associated with the Mexians
@simone54 Why? Why does someone have the right to tell me what kind of seed I can or cannot plant into my own land?
@mass_pike4 That’s not the real reason, however it is one of the reasons we are spoon fed from birth to believe. The real reason is that the cotton and textiles industries were threatened by hemp products and so they demonized MJ and bought off politicians.
@RealEyesRealizeRealLies Why? This was perhaps the first question I ever asked on Fluther. I have no idea. It makes absolutely no sense. Anyone with a fragment of a brain can see the law is wholly illogical on a number of counts. The penalties are absurdly stiff. I just watched a show on TV yesterday about it – they were spending something like $10B on enforcement and admitted they were swamped. I also read that more people are arrested (imprisoned?) for marijuana in our nation than a number of other heinous crimes (rape, murder, assault) combined.
I guess we cant grow poppies either?? I’d like to grow and have before, but the neighbors would catch on quick.That is an awesome question. Rope, gasoline, clothing are great uses for hemp, but our country is still in prohibition, coming out slowly. personal growing would lose government control. Like they have total control, anyhow?
@RealEyesRealizeRealLies: I have heard that reason as well. My reason sounds just as logical. I believe it was a combination of both with the textile/cotton industries being threatened by hemp as the main reason
@lilikoi @jazmina88 agreed agreed agreed…
But does anyone know the ”official” reason that the Gov says Why it is illegal?
Of course. Become it is a classified as a narcotic by most state and federal governments.
because it impairs. and ya so does alcohol but it was made legal, you know why no need to go there. We need to have a prohibition for marijuana, but it wont work until perhaps much later in life if ever when more and more younger people join congress
@davidbetterman Makes sense. Why is it classified as a narcotic in rope form? Why classified as narcotic as plant beauty? It is indeed a very beautiful plant and I’d love to have one growing in my garden.
It isn’t a narcotic in any form other than what can get you high. So only the THC is really illegal.
@RealEyesRealizeRealLies I’m guessing it is based on outdated research. Way back in the day, perhaps we didn’t know that it is not addictive, that increased dosage is not required to recreate the first high over and over again, etc. Back during the heat of the “war on drugs”, it was probably profitable for them to fight it. They had to have a war on something…
There is no current official government position on marijuana that I know of. Do they need to have a uniform opinion? No one is demanding an answer of them.
@davidbetterman No, actually the plant itself is illegal, as is any part of the plant, and any plant concentrate like hash (which actually carries stiffer penalties in my state). Perhaps you meant it is illegal because it contains THC…
Just go to where it’s legal.
@davidbetterman
How can a naturally occurring chemical be illegal? The same reason Ayahuasca is illegal because it contains dimethyltryptamine? Our brains make DMT every night. We’re all holding.
@lilikoi yeah I get it. They pass laws on what they don’t know about things. Not right. It’s a cover up for the other threatened industries I do believe.
@Bugabear Uproot my life just because I want to plant a natural seed into my own land? No thank you.
That never plays well with the cops. They have hydroponics for that reason. If you play it cool, the cops are never a problem but until they legalize it, you got to keep that on the down low. Play it straight, man.
@RealEyesRealizeRealLies Who said anything about planting? Oh yeah this guy did. Thats a good point though. If you really want to plant just have a small one in your back closet. As long as you dont get greedy everything should be fine. Also there are lots of naturally occurring chemicals that are illegal like Sassafras or Ricin. Besides if you really want a legal high, try Salvia. Sure it’s bad for your heart but what isnt these days?
I have no idea. It really shouldn’t be. It’s not rational That’s the short answer, because I don’t have the mental energy for the long answer. See my answer in Inquire. I was smarter over there, last week
Thanks guys. I’m not really interested in playing it cool or growing in my back closet. I want to know why I can’t freely plant anything I want to on my land. They don’t have the right to “assume” I’m going to do anything with it at all except grow it.
Innocent until proven guilty was the last I heard.
Yet we allow guns and alcohol
You accepted the rules when you bought the land. It iis not your land. you don’t own it. You are merely renting it. Don’t forget to pay the rent (property taxes) or it will soon revert back to the owner.
@Bugabear BTW… Missouri is #1 in Meth Labs, #1 in Puppy Mills, and tied for first with Hawaii for Weed. Welcome to the Buckle to the Bible Belt.
I’ve heard that originally, the owners of tobacco companies wanted marijuana to be illegal because it was too easy for people to grow it themselves in their own back yards. It would be a lot cheaper than buying tobacco, which needs a lot of care and attention and manual labor to grow. They worked with the government to demonize the weed and make it illegal.
Much of the country was founded on the tobacco industry in the 19th century and it makes sense to me. I don’t know for sure if it’s true, but it sounds plausible. I don’t smoke the stuff myself, but I think it should be at least decriminalized, if not legalized. I don’t think it’s any worse than alcohol. I don’t drink that either and have no problem with it being legal.
@RealEyesRealizeRealLies According to the Social Contract the citizens surrender some rights in order to live in a safer more orderly society governed by laws. Philosophically, this is where the right of the government to tell you what you can and can’t do on your land comes from.
As far as the reasoning behind why the government thinks this is a good thing for society, I will defer to the many other excellent points others have made demonstrating how foolish our government has been by squandering so many resources trying to fight something that’s relatively on par with alcohol in terms of it’s intoxicating effects.
Because it’s bad for you.
@gorillapaws Found a new favorite?
Because if the gov’t lets YOU grow cannabis, they’ll have to let EVERYONE grow cannabis. Americans will then of course grow, and sell cannabis. The government will then of course tax it. The economy will prosper. Chemo patients will have a healthy appetite. Mexican drug cartels won’t murder so many innocent people. US jails won’t be so absurdly overcrowded. Hemp oil fuel will provide an alternative energy source, hemp fiber will reduce deforestation, and worst of all, lots of depressed people will smile for no darn good reason!! Now do you understand why marijuana must remain illegal?!
Because your country has too many citizens!! And it would be too expensive!
Your government wouldn’t be able to control the use / production of weed.
Here in Holland we’re a small country and it’s possible to regulate and control the number of plantations, distrubution and ussage* of weed.
* => I mean number of people using.
The US-gov. is afraid of the situation getting out of hand & blowing up in their faces.
Our gov. has to pay alot of money to even be able to have a law like this. Because everything surrounding the law has a price on it. You need more police to control citizens, coffeeshops, and plantations. Helicopters with heat-detection(?) are flown all over the country in the winter to spot plantations, little helicopters with camera’s and actual detectors for the smell of weed, so basicly planes with noses, are being developed so they can spot weed hidden in cornfields and such. Energy-bill’s are checked too see if someone has an abnormaly high ussage. Because this could indicate a plantation inside the house with growth-lamps. Etc. etc! =)
@whyigottajoin It would be a lot cheaper if they didn’t need to buy all that stuff. Which they wouldn’t have to do is marijuana were really legal.
I don’t smoke weed and I don’t particularly care if it’s legal or not, but it seems senseless to spend such an enormous amount of money on an herb that grows naturally and doesn’t seem much worse than alcohol to me.
@mrentropy yeah your right its legal but isnt legal, so the gov. can control it. “Gedoogd-beleid” it’s called in dutch, Tolerate-policy. “You can’t smoke weed. wink wink” And when weed is grown naturaly, it has a low THC-percentage, and you have male and female plants, only the female plants produce the actual weed that you smoke. Male only have sticks and leaves. So when you have females, you need to provide the plant with nutrians so the weed gets a higher THC-percentage. Weed grown naturaly doesnt make you stoned.
I dont think the government really knows how to control it…...maybe in the medical prescribed state, they have a bit control…..but legalization, will be hard to enforce without the government getting their cut.
@RealEyesRealizeRealLies You can, but that’s because most people wouldn’t even think to consume hemlock, and the rest know that it’s a poison; there’s no need for a law about it. Pot, not so much.
BTB, where do you think that hemp rope comes from?
The laws governing poppies are much more entertaining, I’m sure.
@mrentropy
Isn’t it just the one species of poppy that you can make into opium?
In California (AFAIK), it is illegal to pick wild California Poppies.
@Nullo growing up in CA that’s what they always told us, might be a myth though, not sure (it’s amazing how much stuff “they” told us wasn’t true).
@Nullo I think so. I was reading an article a while ago that was explaining that the less you knew about the laws governing poppies, the better off you were. I’ll see if I can dig it up again; it was a pretty interesting read.
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