cannabisnews.com: Criminalized Marijuana Makes No Sense At All
Criminalized Marijuana Makes No Sense At All
Posted by CN Staff on December 27, 2002 at 10:11:16 PT
Letter to the Editor by Peter Sawrie
Source: Halifax Daily News
I find it kind of appalling that we are even having to deal with the subject of decriminalizing marijuana. The real question should be: why is marijuana illegal in the first place? Marijuana is a natural herb, and has proven health benefits for people with asthma, as well as other illnesses. Why doesn't the government make alcohol illegal and marijuana legal? Think about this and give me one logical explanation why alcohol should be legal versus marijuana.
There isn't a reasonable explanation except for this: the government can more easily control the sale and distribution of alcohol than marijuana. Why is this so important? Because the government makes billions every year through the taxation of alcohol, and therefore wants to protect it as the drug of choice.But the fact remains that alcohol is much more damaging to the human body, and to society as a whole, than marijuana. I want to point out a fact about marijuana, which again will tend to condemn the government's stance on the legalization of alcohol over marijuana. Anyone who has been around both a marijuana user and an alcohol user will be able to tell you that marijuana tends to make its users more mellow, while alcohol tends to make its users more violent.But if marijuana and alcohol both do damage to our bodies and to society, when abused, why not make both illegal? The answer is simple: governments are not supposed to be in the business of creating laws to deter potential bad actions, but to set up, and enforce, laws to govern the actions of those who transgress the rights and freedoms of others.Smoking marijuana or drinking alcohol do not constitute transgressions of the rights and freedoms of others. But it may be argued that people with any type of corruption may be more susceptible to committing an offence than people without the influence of marijuana and alcohol. But my argument would then be: a person who has a nagging wife is more susceptible to being a wife beater than a person without a nagging wife. So should we make nagging wives illegal?There are millions of possible scenarios that can make people transgress against others. It is not for the government legislate all of these possibilities, but to institute and enforce laws that deal with those who commit offences against others, and thereby deter others from committing the same offences.Some of the immediate benefits of marijuana legalization are that you no longer call users of marijuana criminals, and the government can sell and tax the distribution of marijuana.The illegal drug trade would shrink, as marijuana constitutes by far, the biggest percentage of all illegal substances. There would be fewer guns on the streets because guns are used to protect the sellers and their illegal products.Maybe I'm wrong, but I think that the people who believe marijuana should remain illegal are people who haven't given the argument much contemplative thought.Rather, that they have been told that it is illegal and should be illegal because of this or that. But could it be that this herb, which God placed here for a reason, actually has some benevolent purposes.Like most other things in this world, when used in moderation, it may actually do us good.Source: Halifax Daily NewsAuthor: Peter Sawrie, HalifaxPublished: Friday, December 27, 2002Copyright: 2002 The Daily News Website: http://www.canada.com/halifax/dailynews/Contact: http://www.canada.com/halifax/info/contactus.htmlRelated Articles & Web Site:Cannabis News Canadian Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htmDecriminalize Marijuana Nowhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14996.shtml Decriminalization of Cannabis Makes Sensehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14992.shtmlCanada Has It Right on Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14979.shtml
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Comment #9 posted by The GCW on December 27, 2002 at 19:43:13 PT
Urantia helps know TRUTH.
Religion is now confronted by the challenge of a new age of scientific minds and materialistic tendencies. In this gigantic struggle between the secular and the spiritual, the religion of Jesus will eventually triumph.5. THE MODERN PROBLEM The twentieth century has brought new problems for Christianity and all other religions to solve. The higher a civilization climbs, the more necessitous becomes the duty to "seek first the realities of heaven" in all of man's efforts to stabilize society and facilitate the solution of its material problems. Truth often becomes confusing and even misleading when it is dismembered, segregated, isolated, and too much analyzed. Living truth teaches the truth seeker aright only when it is embraced in wholeness and as a living spiritual reality, not as a fact of material science or an inspiration of intervening art. Religion is the revelation to man of his divine and eternal destiny. Religion is a purely personal and spiritual experience and must forever be distinguished from man's other high forms of thought, such as: 1. Man's logical attitude toward the things of material reality. 2. Man's aesthetic appreciation of beauty contrasted with ugliness. 3. Man's ethical recognition of social obligations and political duty. 4. Even man's sense of human morality is not, in and of itself, religious. Religion is designed to find those values in the universe which call forth faith, trust, and assurance; religion culminates in worship. Religion discovers for the soul those supreme values which are in contrast with the relative values discovered by the mind. Such superhuman insight can be had only through genuine religious experience. A lasting social system without a morality predicated on spiritual realities can no more be maintained than could the solar system without gravity.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Do not try to satisfy the curiosity or gratify all the latent adventure surging within the soul in one short life in the flesh. Be patient! be not tempted to indulge in a lawless plunge into cheap and sordid adventure. Harness your energies and bridle your passions; be calm while you await the majestic unfolding of an endless career of progressive adventure and thrilling discovery. In confusion over man's origin, do not lose sight of his eternal destiny. Forget not that Jesus loved even little children, and that he forever made clear the great worth of human personality. As you view the world, remember that the black patches of evil which you see are shown against a white background of ultimate good. You do not view merely white patches of good which show up miserably against a black background of evil. When there is so much good truth to publish and proclaim, why should men dwell so much upon the evil in the world just because it appears to be a fact? The beauties of the spiritual values of truth are more pleasurable and uplifting than is the phenomenon of evil. In religion, Jesus advocated and followed the method of experience, even as modern science pursues the technique of experiment. We find God through the leadings of spiritual insight, but we approach this insight of the soul through the love of the beautiful, the pursuit of truth, loyalty to duty, and the worship of divine goodness. But of all these values, love is the true guide to real insight.http://www.urantia.org/papers/paper195.htmlUrantia along with the (New American Standard) Bible will help take it where You find it.
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Comment #8 posted by The GCW on December 27, 2002 at 19:06:29 PT
BINGO BULLS-EYE PURE TRUTH.
"""But could it be that this herb, which God placed here for a reason, actually has some benevolent purposes."""I do not come here to tell lies. I come as Your friend. This statement above holds true in a manner that is just off most radar screens, but is the biggest factor in cannabis prohibition.CANNABIS IS HERE FOR BIBLICAL REASON.There is Biblically more to this plant than the government wants Us to know. (It seems) What ever happened before the Bible,,, was so important to keep from happening again, and so on the very 1st page of the Bible it tells Us ALL THE GREEN PLANTS ARE GOOD, TO AVOID WHAT IS COMING UP, AGAIN. The entire Bible attempt to clarify and reafirm that statement that the green plants are good, so to avoid what happened before. It does that from the very 1st page through the very last page.Did You open a present? What do You think Christ would like? I think He would like some of Your time. Some of the time behind the vapors, are good times to spend with Him. When You go there, ask Him what He thinks about what they are doing to people using kaneh bosm. And come tell Us what He says, so We can join His words together.I am convinced Christ God Our Father will expose to us the answer to this problem, for prohibitionists are not above Him.The Green Collar Worker
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Comment #7 posted by knox42897 on December 27, 2002 at 13:38:46 PT:
The Reason I Love Cnews.
Think about this and give me one logical explanation why alcohol should be legal versus marijuana. There isn't a reasonable explanation except for this: the government can more easily control the sale and distribution of alcohol than marijuana. Smoking marijuana or drinking alcohol do not constitute transgressions of the rights and freedoms of others. But it may be argued that people with any type of corruption may be more susceptible to committing an offence than people without the influence of marijuana and alcohol. But my argument would then be: a person who has a nagging wife is more susceptible to being a wife beater than a person without a nagging wife. So should we make nagging wives illegal?I love Cnews because of the posts that shoot down these stupid arguments. For the people that take time to reply and shoot down opinionated facts, I salute you. Hopefully we can educate reports to make the prohib's arguements seem like the dilusional, paranoid, schizophrenic nazi's they are. On another note, I am all for outlawing nagging wives, punishable by forceable lesbian sex and forced medical marijuana gardening.
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on December 27, 2002 at 12:58:57 PT
knox42897
I know writers are for sure. I've been told by more then one personally.
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Comment #5 posted by knox42897 on December 27, 2002 at 12:49:47 PT:
Moderation
Like most other things in this world, when used in moderation, it may actually do us good.I wonder if he read my post on medical cocaine and my comment about moderation?I seriously think politicians and "news" reporters are reading Cnews.
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Comment #4 posted by p4me on December 27, 2002 at 12:03:40 PT
Ah, the power of pills
There was an article at the Guardian on 12/21 about the US killing the deal on sending cheaper medicines to poor countries- http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,864071,00.html The second and thirteenth paragraphs are copied below.Faced with furious opposition from all the other 140 members of the World Trade Organisation, the US refused to relax global patent laws which keep the price of drugs beyond reach of most developing countries. "The joke in Geneva this morning is that they couldn't make a decision because the CEOs of Merck and Pfizer were still in bed," said Jamie Love, director of the Consumer Project on Technology, a US lobby group. "George Bush is arguing that diseases his own children receive treatment for are off limits to poor children in poor countries." 1
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Comment #3 posted by Sandino on December 27, 2002 at 12:00:12 PT:
TRUTH
"Here's freedom to those who would read;Here's freedom to those who would write;None ever feared that the truth should be heard,But those who the TRUTH would indict."...Author Unknown (circa 1914)"Be who you are and say what you feel,because those who mind don't matterand those who matter don't mind."...Dr Seuss
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Comment #2 posted by p4me on December 27, 2002 at 11:18:49 PT
ACLU calls for end to Texas drug task forces
This article says that Texas could save $200 million over the next two years by ending the drug task forces that led to Tulia-type embarrassments and innocent people's meltdowns: http://www.aclu.org/DrugPolicy/DrugPolicy.cfm?ID=11487&c=185 It includes the following paragraph."The $200 million dream of the task force has been a nightmare for the African American residents of Texas," said Boyd. "People have lost their jobs, families have been broken up and children have been virtually orphaned as a result of the massive racial profiling and corrupt practices of the task forces." 1
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Comment #1 posted by p4me on December 27, 2002 at 10:56:15 PT
The author is not alone in his beliefs
I find it kind of appalling that we are even having to deal with the subject of decriminalizing marijuana. The real question should be: why is marijuana illegal in the first place? I can only agree with that and wonder how someone could disagree. Prohibition is crazy and the politicians support it even after decades of failure. Cedro's website has an article up that talks about the failure of alcohol prohibition. It went on to say tht Anslinger and others wanted the substance police to be seen as fighting real threats to America instead of alcohol that got everyone thinking in terms of prohibition. It was demonize, demonize, demonize. It is still demonize, demonize, demonize. It is time to demonize cannabis prohibition and adopt a personal stance of zero-intolerance for government's lies. It is past time to get real.1
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