Marijuana : The Debate

     There is no doubt in my mind that the majority of my readers have at the very least heard something on the news about the ongoing debate for the legalization of Marijuana both for medicinal use (patients requiring a prescription card to make it legal) or for legalization and taxation (personal use being legalized, no prescription necessary). That is what the topic is here on my blog today. 

     First and foremost I would like to say that I am an occasional Marijuana smoker. Years ago, before I was married and had a daughter, I smoked frequently. I didn't discover Marijuana until I was 18 years of age, but from my first toke I knew it was something I was happy to have discovered. Marijuana is a drug, I won't try to deny that. But it's a drug in the same sense that Caffeine is a drug. Upon ingestion the chemicals alter your brain patterns hence it's called a drug. I would never group Marijuana in the same group as drugs like Cocaine, Heroin, or Meth.

     I honestly think that those who are against legalization are simply undereducated and ignorant to the FACTS. And I'm talking facts, not government propaganda. So let's get into those facts a little bit shall we?

     The first question that comes to mind is; why is Marijuana illegal in the first place? 

                                                   An early example of government endorsed propaganda

Under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, marijuana is classified as a Schedule I drug on the basis that is has "a high potential for abuse." What does this mean?

It means that the perception is that people get on marijuana, they get hooked and become "potheads," and it begins to dominate their lives. This unquestionably happens in some cases. But it also happens in the case of alcohol--and alcohol is perfectly legal.

In order to fight this argument for prohibition, legalization advocates need to make the argument that marijuana is not as addictive as government sources claim.Which now in 2010 it turns out Marijuana is actually not addictive. 

They also use to like to say that Marijuana has no accepted medical use. Again, let's travel forward to the present...Marijuana has been proven beneficial to people for a wide array of medical conditions. From Cancer to Glaucoma, even to things like depression and other mental health issues. They are prescribing Marijuana for women to help with cramps and other unwanted symptoms during their menstrual cycle. Marijuana is being prescribed to children with A.D.D. as an alternative to the highly addicting and dangerous drugs like Ritalin and Adderall.  Now in 2010 we have more than proven that Marijuana has medicinal benefits. 

It is associated with unfashionable lifestyles. 

 

                            

Marijuana is often thought of as a drug for hippies and losers. Since it's hard to feel enthusiastic about the prospects of enabling people to become hippies and losers, imposing criminal sanctions for marijuana possession functions as a form of communal "tough love." 

Seriously? The government is going to give us tough love because they don't want us to fall into a certain social group? Yeah, sounds stupid don't it?  Again, flash forward and not all Marijuana smokers are dirty hippie pot heads. Click the link for a list of 200 highly successful celebrities/famous people who smoke Marijuana:                                Famous Pot Smokers

Looking at everyone who smokes Marijuana as a loser just trying to get high is the same as looking at everyone who drinks a beer as someone who beats his wife. 

One of the biggest things that effected the legal status of Hemp and Marijuana in the early days had to do with a billion dollar business not wanting to lost their number one status.  

William Randolph Hearst (Citizen Kane) and the Hearst Paper Manufacturing Division of Kimberly Clark owned vast acreage of timberlands. The Hearst Company supplied most paper products. Patty Hearst's grandfather, a destroyer of nature for his own personal profit, stood to lose billions because of hemp.

In 1937, Dupont patented the processes to make plastics from oil and coal. Dupont's Annual Report urged stockholders to invest in its new petrochemical division. Synthetics such as plastics, cellophane, celluloid, methanol, nylon, rayon, Dacron, etc., could now be made from oil. Natural hemp industrialization would have ruined over 80% of Dupont's business. 

Andrew Mellon became Hoover's Secretary of the Treasury and Dupont's primary investor. He appointed his future nephew-in-law, Harry J. Anslinger, to head the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

Secret meetings were held by these financial tycoons. Hemp was declared dangerous and a threat to their billion dollar enterprises. For their dynasties to remain intact, hemp had to go. These men took an obscure Mexican slang word: 'marihuana' and pushed it into the consciousness of America. 

Basically these guys started an anti-Marijuana movement in America by filling the public and media with outright lies and misinformation in an attempt to keep their business number one. 

Now we have an idea as to why Marijuana is illegal. Now let's discuss why it should be legalized and let's start with what I believe made it illegal in the first place...Hemp. 

The many benefits of Hemp

    One could not begin to list every single benefit that Hemp could have on this planet. Anyone who believes in recycling, going green, and straight out caring for our environment for our own as well as future generations lives must learn about the possibilities of Hemp.

     Hemp has a lot of history to it as well.  Presidents Washington and Jefferson both grew hemp. Americans were legally bound to grow hemp during the Colonial Era and Early Republic. The federal government subsidized hemp during the Second World War and U.S. farmers grew about a million acres of hemp as part of that program.

     Here is a great website that will tell you everything you need to know about how beneficial Hemp actually is:            Hemp Facts

   

     With it being 2010 and having learned all that we have learned about Marijuana it amazes me that such a wonderful, beneficial plant is still holding onto it's illegal status here in The United States. I could go into detail about how pot is not the "gateway drug" that it has been claimed to be. I could go on and on about how our prisons are filled to the brim with non-violent offenders with Marijuana related charges. But I won't do that. It's 2010 and if your reading this blog your on the internet. The internet put all the information in the entire world right at your fingertips. Google can be your best friend. 

     I have a friend who is probably the biggest anti-Marijuana person that I have ever met before in my life. I won't name her out of respect for her opinion but she is a younger woman right around my age. Her boyfriend, and father of their baby, would love more than anything to be able to enjoy a toke of Marijuana every now and again more than anything else yet she threatens leaving him if he does. Think about that for a minute if you will...she threatens ripping apart their family and forcing her child to grow up in a broken home simply because her significant other wants to smoke a totally harmless drug. She also believes in God...I only mention that because I don't understand how anyone who believes in God could be so against a plant that HE made simply because of this verse from their holy book:   Genesis 1:29 :   Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food." . Enough said on that. This woman is totally uneducated when it comes to Marijuana. Her mind is riddled with propaganda fed to her by her parents, the government, and D.A.R.E.. Her own ignorance fuels it. I am only bringing this woman up because she told me the other day that she would be the first in line to vote NO for medicinal Marijuana if it ever came to Ohio. There are many, many, many, people like her and it's those who are holding this wonderful plant back. 

     As I said in the beginning I believe the undereducated people are who are holding this country back when it comes to legalization I of Marijuana. This is 2010, if your reading this blog then you are on a computer connected to the world wide web. An abundance of information is at your fingertips. Use it. Google can be your friend.  I consider people like the woman above to be unintentional terrorists because they are unknowingly holding back progress and freedom. I say unintentional because it's not like they are trying to hold freedom back, but nonetheless by being ignorant to the facts they are doing just that. 

     I am going to end this on that note. Educate yourself people. And when the initiative to legalize does come to my state of Ohio...I'll see you all in line!