cannabisnews.com: The Marijuana State? The Marijuana State? Posted by FoM on May 30, 2000 at 07:37:30 PT Letter To The Editor By Robert Sharpe Source: International Herald Tribune Is it any surprise that poverty-stricken Kentuckians are growing pot? Marijuana laws create financial incentives that make an easily grown weed literally worth its weight in gold. Marijuana prohibition is no more effective than alcohol prohibition was at preventing use. And, like Prohibition in the early 1900s, the societal harm caused by the unintended consequences is tremendous. The manner in which drug laws finance organized crime receives a great deal of press coverage, yet it is the threat these laws pose to children that necessitates marijuana legalization. While a liquor store will refuse to sell alcohol to a minor to avoid losing its license, a drug dealer will sell to anyone with cash. Keep in mind that marijuana is the most popular illicit drug and, because of its black market status, provides the contacts that introduce youth to harder drugs. Current drug policy is effectively a gateway drug policy.Adults are not spared either. Imagine how many lives would be ruined if every alcohol drinker were thrown in jail and given a permanent criminal record. I fail to see why marijuana smokers should be singled out for draconian punishment. After all, the plant does not cause hangovers or overdose deaths. It is arguably a safer drug than alcohol. As far as I can tell the only reason for not legalizing, taxing and regulating the sale of marijuana to adults is that doing so would derail the drug war gravy train.Robert SharpeWashingtonNote:Regarding ''Kentucky Swaps Moonshine for Marijuana'' (American Topics, May 17):Related Articles:Marijuana Legalization http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread5766.shtmlPot: The Cash Crop Kinghttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread5740.shtmlMarijuana Thrives in Appalachias Depressed Economyhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread5729.shtml END SNIP --> Snipped Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #14 posted by Nick Caldwell on June 11, 2000 at 06:46:55 PT: door to door piss test What are they going to do to try to stop drug use send DEA agents go door to door to collect urine samples to achieve their goal of a drug free america.Its not far off at the rate our rights are being stripped away.america home of the brave/hipocrites [ Post Comment ] Comment #13 posted by Ta-ta on June 09, 2000 at 16:32:43 PT: Marijuana To me, WEED is like a close family member... [ Post Comment ] Comment #12 posted by Ta-ta on June 09, 2000 at 16:32:40 PT: Marijuana To me, WEED is like a close family member... [ Post Comment ] Comment #11 posted by Rainbow on May 30, 2000 at 18:17:49 PT Rhetorical Congressman and kaptSome of my post was rhetorical in nature.Yes the searches have already started.Yes they want to keep us down through poverty and sickness. Heck what is the purpose of government but to keep people down. Funny they ought to let us have MJ then we would be mellow enough but alert.I realize that the peace Dividend was a phony idea. The government needed to find another evil to combat.Just like the kids in the Youth 2000 movement. They mentioned that they want other races in too. But is it really a guize to get some strength in the asian community. In Rochester they fight among themselves and the europeans egg them on. This is just another gang but becoming more deadly.Nothing like having a commonality like kinship to build a good gang - wasn't it West Side Story that dramatized it?PeaceRainbowAnd yes I agree I really enjoy Kapt's posts. [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by kaptinemo on May 30, 2000 at 17:39:16 PT: Evidently, I left some doubts as to my intent Sure, I spoke in generalities. If you would like some specifics, I invite you to read Daniel Bell's thesis on The Post-Industrial Society for a beginner. Then Leonard Lewin's The Report From Iron Mountain. Just those two books alone should dispel any doubts you might have as to the ultimate directions the US is taking vis-a-vis work, society, and social control of growing disenfranchised populations. In short, something has to be used to keep increasingly marginalized, under- and unemployed people in line. What better than a War on Drugs, which is little more than a war on the de facto underclass? It locks many of 'those people' up. It maintains a Cold War overheated economy that can't afford a sudden stop in spending. If it did stop, the whole system would fly apart like an overstressed flywheel, with disastrous results. And does so while maintaining a tidy profit for both trafficker and politician and their respective allies. All this while participating in the greatest 'peaceful' transfer of wealth in the history of any society. (I've worked in a factory making $7.50 an hour, because I had to. Then I managed to get an IT job at over twice the former salary. That's a huge gulf to span, and it's no accident that it exists; most of the production jobs have gone overseas. All part of this transfer of wealth.)The Peace Dividend was mentioned. That would be predicated upon the disappearance of anything that would constitute a threat. Since the SovUnion *did* disappear, in order for the economy to continue, a new threat had to be built. Enter the DrugWar. I know, all basic stuff to everyone who reads this service. But the reality is facing us all the time. Decisions had to have been made; we didn't just blindly schlep sideways into this mess. Right at the beginning, there were sober, cautious voices warning of the dangers to come. In 1914. Why did no one listen? When you see the decision makers, their connections to intelligence organizations, and *their* connections to organized crime, if you don't begin to be just a little bit suspicious, then you must either be Forrest Gump or have stopped breathing. [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by CongressmanSuet on May 30, 2000 at 16:47:20 PT: "Maybe they have a plan on letting us use the bad stuff". Ah, now we are getting to the core of the situation. If less people got cancer from smoking, whole wings of hospitals would be un-used. Cirhosis is a decent business, the amount of money that is made is incredible. Further along these lines, I believe there will never be a cure for cancer, its just too profitable. Same for HIV, think of all the money that is spent on AIDS patients? . But I gotta add, Rainbow, Kap's post are very analytical, Ive learned alot from the guy. And as much of a bummer his last post was, you can bet your last shekel, its true, and based on valid data. I dont think the house-to-house search you speak of is far in coming... [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by rainbow on May 30, 2000 at 14:22:04 PT I agree somewhat KaptI think you are giving "them" way too much credit. They are more worried about the short term loss of money ie the gravytrain.If they are worried about stress relievers they would stop the anti-depressants (but wait they are bad for our health) or the alcohol (but wait that's bad too) or tobacco (but wait thats bad too).Humm maybe they have a plan by letting us use the bad stuff. I agree with you re: truly afraid of is something quite different: that cannabis users would be far less likely to put up with the BS that passes for what we are told are the necessary evils of society. The regimentation. people in power do not understand why we do not respect them, ha it's there attitude dude.Anyway I am waiting for general death to play out his fantasies on me one late night. I am sure that as soon as the anti-meth bill is law there will be a lot of searches on the citizens of our freedomless country and we are them.The CIA, FBI, Postal Sevice, SS FDA, NIDA, Naval Intell, Coast Guard, Army, Air Force and all the rest on the payroll will be utilized to start a house by house search. Heck it will be legal so why not.Put some strings out to see if they secretly search your house. Maybe we can find some tricks like glow in the dark powder that activates when they step on it. There has to be something to tell them me know they came in. Hopefully my dogs will live through the incursion. We are soon to live in the USSR. I wonder if this is our peace dividend from the Cold War.PeaceRainbow [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by Dan Hillman on May 30, 2000 at 14:08:22 PT Contrarian again I know workaholics who use cannabis non-stop. Further, there are people who's job it is to *invent* societal lies that get their ideas from using cannabis (film and TV writers and producers spring to mind). This is not to deny that many folks use it as a stress-buster. Conclusion: one can't generalize about what cannabis does. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by kaptinemo on May 30, 2000 at 13:56:28 PT: An opinion borne out by their own propaganda You might recall the first incarnation of Anslinger's Reefer Madness hypothesis: that cannabis turns you into a bloodthirsty zombie. But when the Cold War rumbled into view, Anslinger reversed himself: he spoke out against it because he claimed it was prone to making people *passive*. They wouldn't be up to fighting Soviet aggression! Yeah, right. Nope, what the antis are truly afraid of is something quite different: that cannabis users would be far less likely to put up with the BS that passes for what we are told are the necessary evils of society. The regimentation. The sameness of thought, of dress, appearance, the whole sad patina of faux respectability that is the hall mark of Korporate Amerika.Well, we know the truth, and so do the antis. Cannabis is a great stress reliever. And the very basis of our industrialized society is the artificial production of stress. Factory quotas, project deadlines, 'windows of opportunity', etc. are all signs of a society controlled by those who see humans as having value only as industrial units. Those elements in control of society know that the whole rat race they see as 'success' would implode, and take their power with it, if cannabis were to be made legal again. No more docile, compliant workers urinating in union, on command, to appease their boss's desire for a 'clean' workforce that kow-tows to his Altar of Profits and the God of the Bottom Line.That's what they fear... the day the sheep look up, and start asking "Why?" [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by FoM on May 30, 2000 at 12:28:06 PT Their Fears fivepounder I agree with you. Marijuana is a calming anti-arguing substance. It doesn't fit into making people working robots like they want. We are not an assett to the economy because we don't get as caught up in "things" as many folks do. That is anti production. Smoking marijuana doesn't stop a person from working but it does divert a person to follow their dreams rather then what they want us too.Just my opinion!Peace, FoM! [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by fivepounder on May 30, 2000 at 12:13:05 PT Their fears It goes back to the 60's. They saw all these people who not only would no longer buy their BS but saw right through their lies. And whether true or not, the one thing their eyes saw that unified us, but even more important, opened our eyes was marijuana. They nearly lost it. And the one thing that nullifies their propaganda is pot. Its that simple. The way people feel on cannabis is a direct theat to their thinking. While the violence that alcohol brings is just fine. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Army on May 30, 2000 at 10:06:08 PT Your Tax Dollars At Work: FM 44-8 Army Manual "helicoptors ... my 10 oclock wake-up buzz that the Federal Gov. likes to provide on a regular basis"FM 44-8, Small Unit Self-Defense Against Air Attackhttp://call.army.mil/call/newsltrs/2-88/chpt4.htmSUPERSEDED by FM 44-8, Combined Arms for Air Defense, 1 Jun 99 ==>http://155.217.58.58/cgi-bin/atdl.dll/fm/44-8/ch5.htm#s1p2http://155.217.58.58/cgi-bin/atdl.dll/fm/44-8/toc.htm [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by CongressmanSuet on May 30, 2000 at 09:01:40 PT The "Drug War Gravytrain"... Exactly, but where is the outrage? Sure, enlightened people [such as you find here] will understand the obscenity of coupling "hard drugs" with the relatively benign, incredibly useful medicine, Cannabis, but "they" still manage to keep the Weed/heroin/cocaine concept going full tilt. Because, if they omit Cannabis from the mix, what will they do with all those helicoptors, ninja outfits, thermal imaging devices, odor detection devices? Wait, how about sending it all to those poor, jumping jacking, idle drug warriors in S.A? Nah, being a nazinarcowarrior is just too much fun! They get off on it, love gearing up for it, and hell, if shoving some elderly man or woman to the ground doesnt make an ego-compromised cop happy, what would? I live in one of those "High Intensity" areas, and would miss my 10 oclock wake-up buzz that the Federal Gov. likes to provide on a regular basis. Heck, they might even have to stop the drug -checkpoint that is set up once a month on the main road to the largest town around here, the one with almost 3000 people. I know 2 people who were searched, rather dismanteled, when "probable cause" was created out of thin air. Neither imbibes, but both have long hair. This is truly an "Orwellian" nightmare. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by CD1 on May 30, 2000 at 08:18:52 PT Hear, Hear I whole heartedly agree. For too long, marijuana prohibition is proving itself to be far more damaging than the drug itself. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: