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Subscribe to RSSWashington State's new law makes it legal for adults to possess up to one ounce of marijuana, but some speculate the federal government will prosecute those who use marijuana on federal land because federal law prohibits marijuana use. NBC's Kristen Dahlgren reports.
The grass is no greener. But, finally, it's legal — at least somewhere in America. It's been a long, strange trip for marijuana.
Washington state and Colorado voted to legalize and regulate its recreational use last month. But before that, the plant, renowned since ancient times for its strong fibers, medical use and mind-altering properties, was a staple crop of the colonies, an "assassin of youth," a counterculture emblem and a widely accepted — if often abused — medicine.
On the occasion of Thursday's "Legalization Day," when Washington's new law takes effect, here's a look back at the cultural and legal status of the "evil weed" in American history.
Cannabis in the colonies
George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp and puzzled over the best ways to process it for clothing and rope. Indeed, cannabis has been grown in America since soon after the British arrived. In 1619 the Crown ordered the colonists at Jamestown to grow hemp to satisfy England's incessant demand for maritime ropes, Wayne State University professor Ernest Abel wrote in "Marihuana: The First Twelve Thousand Years."
Hemp became more important to the colonies as New England's own shipping industry developed, and homespun hemp helped clothe American soldiers during the Revolutionary War. Some colonies offered farmers "bounties" for growing it.
"We have manufactured within our families the most necessary articles of cloathing," Jefferson said in "Notes on the State of Virginia." "Those of wool, flax and hemp are very coarse, unsightly, and unpleasant."
Jefferson went on to invent a device for processing hemp in 1815.
Taste the hashish
Books such as "The Arabian Nights" and Alexandre Dumas' "The Count of Monte Cristo," with its voluptuous descriptions of hashish highs in the exotic Orient, helped spark a cannabis fad among intellectuals in the mid-19th century.
"But what changes occur!" one of Dumas' characters tells an uninitiated acquaintance. "When you return to this mundane sphere from your visionary world, you would seem to leave a Neapolitan spring for a Lapland winter -- to quit paradise for earth -- heaven for hell! Taste the hashish, guest of mine -- taste the hashish."
Midnight party: Pot, gay marriage become legal in Washington state
PhotoBlog: Pot smokers gather under Seattle's Space Needle
After the Civil War, with hospitals often overprescribing opiates for pain, many soldiers returned home hooked on harder drugs.
Jim Seida / NBC News
Dustin, left and Paul, both from Pyuallup and neither of whom would give a last name, smoke marijuana beneath the Space Needle shortly after midnight on Dec. 6.
Those addictions eventually became a public health concern. In 1906, Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act, requiring labeling of ingredients, and states began regulating opiates and other medicines — including cannabis.
Mexican folklore and jazz clubs
By the turn of the 20th century, cannabis smoking remained little known in the United States — but that was changing, thanks largely to The Associated Press, says Isaac Campos, a Latin American history professor at the University of Cincinnati.
In the 1890s, the first English-language newspaper opened in Mexico and, through the wire service, tales of marijuana-induced violence that were common in Mexican papers began to appear north of the border — helping to shape public perceptions that would later form the basis of pot prohibition, Campos says.
By 1910, when the Mexican Revolution pushed immigrants north, articles in the New York Sun, Boston Daily Globe and other papers decried the "evils of ganjah smoking" and suggested that some use it "to key themselves up to the point of killing."
Pot-smoking spread through the 1920s and became especially popular with jazz musicians. Louis Armstrong, a lifelong fan and defender of the drug he called "gage," was arrested in California in 1930 and given a six-month suspended sentence for pot possession.
"It relaxes you, makes you forget all the bad things that happen to a Negro," he once said. In the 1950s, he urged legalization in a letter to President Dwight Eisenhower.
Reefer madness, hemp for victory
After the repeal of alcohol prohibition in 1933, Harry Anslinger, who headed the federal Bureau of Narcotics, turned his attention to pot. He told of sensational crimes reportedly committed by marijuana addicts. "No one knows, when he places a marijuana cigarette to his lips, whether he will become a philosopher, a joyous reveler in a musical heaven, a mad insensate, a calm philosopher, or a murderer," he wrote in a 1937 magazine article called "Marijuana: Assassin of Youth."
The hysteria was captured in the propaganda films of the time — most famously, "Reefer Madness," which depicted young adults descending into violence and insanity after smoking marijuana. The movie found little audience upon its release in 1936 but was rediscovered by pot fans in the 1970s.
Congress banned marijuana with the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. Anslinger continued his campaign into the '40s and '50s, sometimes trying — without luck — to get jazz musicians to inform on each other. "Zoot suited hep cats, with their jive lingo and passion for swift, hot music, provide a fertile field for growth of the marijuana habit, narcotics agents have found here," began a 1943 Washington Post story about increasing pot use in the nation's capital.
The Department of Agriculture promoted a different message. After Japanese troops cut off access to Asian fiber supplies during World War II, it released "Hemp For Victory," a propaganda film urging farmers to grow hemp and extolling its use in parachutes and rope for the war effort.
Counterculture
As the conformity of the postwar era took hold, getting high on marijuana and other drugs emerged as a symbol of the counterculture, with Jack Kerouac and the rest of the Beat Generation singing pot's praises. It also continued to be popular with actors and musicians. When actor Robert Mitchum was arrested on a marijuana charge in 1948, People magazine recounted, "The press nationwide branded him a dope fiend. Preachers railed against him from pulpits. Mothers warned their daughters to shun his films."
Congress responded to increasing drug use — especially heroin — with stiffer penalties in the '50s. Anslinger began to hype what we now call the "gateway drug" theory: that marijuana had to be controlled because it would eventually lead its users to heroin.
Then came Vietnam. The widespread, open use of marijuana by hippies and war protesters from San Francisco to Woodstock finally exposed the falsity of the claims so many had made about marijuana leading to violence, says University of Virginia professor Richard Bonnie, a scholar of pot's cultural status.
In 1972, Bonnie was the associate director of a commission appointed by President Richard Nixon to study marijuana. The commission said marijuana should be decriminalized and regulated. Nixon rejected that, but a dozen states in the '70s went on to eliminate jail time as a punishment for pot arrests.
'Just say no'
The push to liberalize drug laws hit a wall by the late 1970s. Parents groups became concerned about data showing that more children were using drugs, and at a younger age. The religious right was emerging as a force in national politics. And the first "Cheech and Chong" movie, in 1978, didn't do much to burnish pot's image.
When she became first lady, Nancy Reagan quickly promoted the anti-drug cause. During a visit with schoolchildren in Oakland, Calif., as Reagan later recalled, "A little girl raised her hand and said, 'Mrs. Reagan, what do you do if somebody offers you drugs?' And I said, 'Well, you just say no.' And there it was born."
By 1988, more than 12,000 "Just Say No" clubs and school programs had been formed, according to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library. Between 1978 and 1987, the percentage of high school seniors reporting daily use of marijuana fell from 10 percent to 3 percent.
And marijuana use was so politically toxic that when Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992, he said he "didn't inhale."
Meds of a different sort
Marijuana has been used as medicine since ancient times, as described in Chinese, Indian and Roman texts, but U.S. drug laws in the latter part of the 20th century made no room for it. In the 1970s, many states passed symbolic laws calling for studies of marijuana's efficacy as medicine, although virtually no studies ever took place because of the federal prohibition.
Nevertheless, doctors noted its ability to ease nausea and stimulate appetites of cancer and AIDS patients. And in 1996, California became the first state to allow the medical use of marijuana. Since then, 17 other states and the District of Columbia have followed.
In recent years, medical marijuana dispensaries — readily identifiable by the green crosses on their storefronts — have proliferated in many states, including Washington, Colorado and California. That's prompted a backlash from some who suggest they are fronts for illicit drug dealing and that most of the people they serve aren't really sick. The Justice Department has shut down some it deems the worst offenders.
Legal weed at last
On Nov. 6, Washington and Colorado pleased aging hippies everywhere — and shocked straights of all ages — by voting to become the first states to legalize the fun use of marijuana. Voters handily approved measures to decriminalize the possession of up to an ounce by adults over 21. Colorado's measure also permits home-growing of up to six plants.
Both states are working to set up a regulatory scheme with licensed growers, processors and retail stores. Eventually, activists say, grown-ups will be able to walk into a store, buy some marijuana, and walk out with ganja in hand — but not before paying the taxman. The states expect to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for schools and other government functions.
But it's not so simple. The regulatory schemes conflict with the federal government's longstanding pot prohibition, according to many legal scholars. The Justice Department could sue to block those schemes from taking effect — but hasn't said whether it will do so.
The bizarre journey of cannabis in America continues.
AP researcher Julie Reed Bell contributed to this report from Charlotte, N.C.
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You know, when I hear the stories about MJ's harms, I always laugh out loud. For my "friend," the result was the opposite. After 15 years of consistent imbibing, he more or less stopped drinking alcohol, hits the gym 5-6 days/week, and has a resting pulse rate of 42. College degrees, wonderful family and so forth. LOL, wake up and bring your body back to what it was supposed to be and be strong again.
For those who become stupid and cannot function, perhaps this is not the plant for you. If you cannot control yourself and do stupid things like drive while high, essentially jeopardizing others' rights to safety, stop endangering your brothers through your own stupidity. But for the rest of us, persecution for a plant with so many benefits makes me laugh out loud....again.
Every time there's been a study about pot, another myth has been debunked. Now, if Obama wants to 'seal' his legacy, call off the DOJ and let the states go about their business.
Washington state calculates that just the savings from not prosecuting/incarcerating casual users will save $100 million per year. They haven't even figured out the income from taxing it...
True stories Only
Last night I had a dream of a friendly gathering within a retreat and suddenly saw a young female who I was interested in over 20 years ago, her name was Libya. I completely forgot about this young lady until seeing her in my dream.
Then all of a sudden I see Hilary Clinton who arrived and enjoyed herself along with the rest of us.
I couldn't figure out after not dreaming for years why did I have this dream and why was it sooo vivid???
Today, I went to look for wood for the fireplace with dad and found an odd piece of wood.
It was also, odd how it all came about, because we were looking for wood on an isolated street where hardly any cars were coming. Out of the blue a man who looked as though he was able but homeless told us to go to the curve up the street where we could find oak instead of the slow burning pine that we first gathered.
When we used the chain saw to cut the wood, dead in the center there was a red marking that looked as if the tree was bleeding from the inside.
When we looked at it more in detail, more and more it began appearing to look like a Phoenix "Fire Bird" to us.
To me it was symbolic!!!
Because also today, I talked to my mother about what I thought man's purpose in life really is and how we all have been side tracked by various distractions. Taking us away from our true purpose.
I explained to her how from paying attention all of my life and trying to reveal the true meaning of life where I currently was in my beliefs.
I explained to her that the universe/s were composed within a vast body similar to how are cells are within our body. Same principle but we are smaller.
Within the universe and all it's composed of, acts similar to how our bodies work cells and all.
Then I mentioned the ways viruses tried to enter our cells by fooling the things that fed good proteins to the cells within us. I told her that a virus has entered into our world and is corrupting us similar to how a virus mutate the cells within us.
I then began seeing many viruses out here and how they have changed our thought process which is turning the entire planet sick.
Next thing you know, during the same day we found what we have never found ever in many lives....
"THE PHOENIX"
Does this represent a higher level of thought and is this a true sign.......
I really think soooooo.....
PEEL LAYER.....
@Peel_Layer, I think you've had one too many experiences with pot. Maybe put the bong down for a minute or two and come back to earth.
Other than that it was a very informative article, interested to see how it plays out between the Feds and States.
Huh???
@Peel_Layer, I think you've had one too many experiences with pot. Put the bong down for a minute or two and come back to earth.
This was a very informative article, interested to see how it plays out between the Feds and States. I'm hopeful Feds will back off and let States handle their own business, but I doubt it. They'll feel too unimportant if they don't stick their noses in this.
Marijuana's legal status in this country still has a long road to travel, but its eventual legality is inevitable.
Agreed!
Crazy Steve - you hit the nail on the head. The Federal government keeps blowing smoke up the publics @$$ and they believe the BS being spouted.
Eventually they will drop the persecution of pot smokers because it's simply too expensive (and stupid). Too bad we can't get a refund on all the money that's been wasted over this unwarranted government intrusion into citizens lives.
In my experience, pot smokers can be as rude and thoughtless as any other group. Go ahead - legalize it, but keep your damn smoke out of my face and keep your dope-brained selves from behind the wheel of a car. Oh, I know, the usual pro-pot mantra: "But no one has EVER DIED as a result of smoking pot, that's just more government misinformation, blah blah blah!" Sorry, but pot most certainly DOES affect reflexes, and that can lead, ta! da! to accidents. Drinkers of alcohol do stupid things too, but will at least admit that alcohol use affects the mind and reflexes. Some pot smokers talk like 14 year olds or stoners from the 60's who are in denial, and would practically have us believe that pot is God's gift to humankind, brought down to earth by angels, that it cures cancer, ends wars, and bestows immortality.
When pot users embrace a balanced approach to pot use and related issues, and demonstrate that they understand that it can be abused, like anything, and that they exist in the context of a larger society that can be affected by them, then more non users will feel better, and legalization will move forward. Lighting up anywhere and everywhere because it's all about "you" and metaphorically blowing smoke into the faces of those who are uncomfortable with pot, doesn't cut it.
Frankly, every person I've ever known who smoked pot also went on to other drugs. I also knew someone who smoked pot who cursed the day she ever took it. She is now hooked and hasn't gone a day without smoking it in the last 10 years. She said that all the positive stuff they claim that pot does is not worth the addiction.
Legalize it tax it and move on, America has bigger problems than this. Probation did not work, this is the same only worse because Mexico is paying the price now.
Lunky - I
agree with you that probation doesn't work but I think you were probably referring to Prohibition.
Please, put down the joint (yes, my age is showing) and back away from the table.
Yeah, now tell us how many drunks you also know. One person having a bad experience does not equate to a substance, any substance, being bad for everybody.
Some people shouldn't drink alcohol because it causes them to behave adversely. Are we going to criminalize alcohol again?
If the person you knew really wanted to beat their addiction they would take steps to do so, just like an alcoholic does.
Judging by your screen name you've got some issues too.
Pot is not addictive.
It also does not have nearly the effect on reflexes as does alcohol.
And yes, pot smokers are as obnoxious occasionally as anyone else.....except alcoholics...they're worse!
One thing the author is confusing, which I am not surprised about given the current lack of real journalistic skills, is the difference between marijuana and hemp. They are two different plants. Hemp is a hugely beneficial crop as is stated in the various references, and can even be used as a food source. Marijuana's main and limited use is as a recreational drug. See for further explanations of the differences including chemical makeup.
how ironic, they celebrate the law by breaking the law. I don't think the smokers read the whole thing. Under I-502 you CANNOT smoke in public, like drinking alcohol in public is illegal. So, while we celebrate I-502 legalizing marijuana, we break I-502 guidelines by smoking in public, go figure potheads. http://420college.net
Jim from California, you can make it seem like Im crazy, I am a little crazy....
but you can not debunk what is real and what is true....
Look at the bleeding tree on my profile.
do you want a closer look?????
I see that this is your first day creating a profile....
So allow me to be the first to peel your Layer.....
LOL....
You actually responded to what I wrote more than you did the article.
I don't smoke anymore.
I am a little crazy but everyone is it's those like you who don't admit who we all are afraid of.
I can't help if this was my experience and I really can't help you didn't understand my story.
Once you find a blood like substance or anything of meaning in your life I hope you are able to express it to others.
But, you are so crazy that you may not be able to admit the truth.
Then again you did tell the truth by saying that you are from CALI.
WHAT A STUPID NAME FOR A PROFILE!!!!
Just Peeled Your Layer.....
LMAO....
Playa....
You sound like you could use a smoke to mellow you out my friend. Most people I know, generally more mature adults, don't "smoke" pot but rather use a vaporizor - it produces no smoke so you can stop whining about that one. Vaporizors also eliminate most health concerns involving the inhalation of smoke. Of course I agree that using pot and driving is a bad idea just like taking Percocet, Vicodin, Codene, alcohol or many other drugs. That's common sense and I don't worry much about pot users because driving is about the last thing most people want to do stoned on pot.
Again, vaporizors don't create annoying smoke so you can calm down. :)
You speak in terms that suggests you think pot smokers are a monolith of rude punks. To the contrary, many pot smokers are doctors, lawyers, judges, cops, scientists, entertainers and just about any other profession. It is a mistake to attribute Refer Madness inspired stereotypes to people that use marijuana.
The effects of alcohol on society and your body far outweigh any comparison to those who smoke weed. Alcohol causes disease, ruins lives, kills innocent people every single day all over the country and is perfectly legal for anyone over the age of 21 to use in paces they have to drive to to get.
Legalize weed, increase tax revenues, regulate it like alcohol, quit wasting law enforcement manpower, and take the profits and violence out of the hands of the mexican cartels.
It's been around forever, it grows naturally, and it doesn't make you violent. Leave the stoners alone and lets work together and solve societies bigger problems like the decay of public education. Priorities people!
The worst thing about weed, the part I hate the most, is the buying of it. I hate it when I've no one to depend on, when I have to go to some seedy neighborhood hoping to find some, when I meet people who know somebody who knows somebody and in the meantime they're trying to get me hooked on that oxy crap, or crack, or freaking heroin!
Aaaaargh! Please, let this nightmare end!!!
Whether or not the feds get into the pot thing or let it go to the states, they'll have the same problem as they do now with alcohol. People driving while under the influence - BAD. People smoking out in public... personally, I think if you can't drink in public neither should you be able to smoke pot.
However, the consequences of not arresting, prosecuting, and the amount of taxes each state will receive/save from pot is just going to be overwhelming! Imagine all the schools that will benefit from this! Why can't the feds see this? The bad things (driving) are going to happen, so arrest them for a DUI, but the positives outweigh this whole situation and will be better able to get out of this debt each state is in. If they allow alcohol, they should allow full use of pot, and I'm all for taxing it. It's totally worth it.
As it is now, I will only be getting mine by a doctor for medical reasons to hopefully prevent the feds from coming down on me. I'm a disabled vet and don't need jail time for something so stupid as having 1oz of pot. That's absurd. When the feds can keep their noses out of this it may be simpler to just go and get it w/o a doc's note, but I have a feeling that's going to take some time. Long, long time.
Estimates show that marijuana is America’s number one cash crop. However, marijuana remains untaxed. This is a new source of income for our nation, an income we desperately need.
Over 500 of the nation’s top economic professors have shared their opinion in supporting the removal of prohibition and imposing the taxation and regulation of marijuana as a way to slow the federal deficit.
Ending marijuana prohibition would save the US $7.7 BILLION annually. That is nearly as much as Congress’ proposed Budget Control Act. Think of the jobs it would create, the court time I would save and the jail space it would free up for actual criminals.
Sign the petition in the video description.
If it were regulated and taxed like alcohol, it would be a revenue cash cow for states. The Fed should legalize it and the states allow it. I think within 5 years more states will follow.
It's about time. Hopefully, the feds will just stay out of the issue.
Ganja brings out the true, repressed essence of people, often in an uncontrolled way. If the person is essentially silly, shiftless and gluttonous, that's what will come out. If the person is musical and rhythmic, or generous and holistic, that will too. So will fear and paranoia, and in some cases so will sociopathic tendencies.
That's what I believe is the true reason why government is so loathe to legalize it. Not because the weed is in and of itself bad, but because it would bring out the true, frightful nature of many people in this country.
Excuse me, but alcohol is the king of sociopathic drugs. Alcohol turns perfectly normal people into violent jackasses. Pot usually mellows out people. I've never seen anyone get violent on pot.
And you base your beliefs on what? Due to my job I have not smoked for over 15 years, but prior to that I smoked daily from the second day in country, Viet Nam 1969. I've gotten 2 BS and a MS during that time, traveled up the corperate ladder, started a new career, and looking forward to retiring and moving back to the Left Coast
Apparently the Corporate ladder did little for your spelling abilities. (corperate)
So how is being musical and rhythmic, or generous and holistic frightful?
How can anyone argue with such a well-reasoned generalization? LOL
You're kidding, right? It brings out one's "true nature?" I've seen the true nature of many folks here who claim to be Christian and highly moral. For the most part, these moral people advocate KILLING EVERYONE THEY DETEST. And they seem to detest most people.
Cases in point: Cop buys boots for "homeless" guy, who turns out to have a place to stay after all? He should have shot the bum instead came the popular reply.
Cadet says he quit West Point because TPTB were unconstitutionally shoving religion down his throat? Someone should shoot him, many of you said.
Bob Costas wants us to take yet another look at gun control? Most of the gun nuts screamed and howled about how he should also be shot to death, and saw no irony, much less horror, in their positions.
I've seen the true nature of a lot of Americans who don't smoke pot. Please. I'm begging you: light one up before someone gets hurt. You really need to mellow out!
I guess those machete swinging, head chopping, pot smoking, Mexican drug cartel guys don't count?
50,000+ Mexican bodies say you're wrong.
The millions of pot smoking Americans who don't get violent say you are wrong.
Most Hispanics I've ever known, that participate in illegal consumption, prefer cocaine for personal use. I used to work with this guy about a decade ago that would tell me "mija, mota es no bueno, coca es bueno".
Jomo - that's crap. Pot does not bring out sociopathic tendencies in people. It makes them mellow. And hungry. Personally, I have a problem keeping weight on and I need the pot to help make me eat. I'm 44 yrs old and weigh 85lbs. Pitiful, and I'm sick quite often from it. I also live with my mother and 14 yr old daughter - who I do NOT smoke around, but my mother has told me I don't really act any different but eating more - because I asked her.
And let me just say, I am not always a nice person. I have no soliciting signs up around my house yet idiots still come ring my bell so I yell at them. If I'm stoned I either don't answer or am very polite. Yet with what you said I should be the opposite... Hmmm... seems like someone doesn't know what they're talking about. I have no tolerance for stupidity, but there you go - get me stoned and I'll blow you off unlike now where you just have no idea what you're talking about. Get a clue buddy.
While we all know this would save money in court costs and imprisonment of people and generate millions in tax dollars, the Feds have to fight this because it's a cash cow for them to make someone who smokes a joint a 'criminal'. Think of the jobs this will cost the DEA, the prison system, the courts, etc...our government can't have that, they have to keep people criminals so they can keep that money coming in and the confiscation of private property.
The Feds don't think like the average person, who realizes that this will save America a sh!tload of money on those costs while generating millions in tax revenue...your government isn't for you and by you.
Yeah they want to make US citizens criminals and then let illegal aliens do whatever they want and not pay taxes. Most politicians live a sheltered life and have absolutely no understanding of the issues they pass judgement on.
It's a proud day that we have finally legalized cannabis for recreational use! Thank you voters of Washington and Colorado!!
This is a long way from my days in college following NORML, then voting for California Prop 215. Now we have legal weed, amazing. Let's see what the feds decide to do about marijuana being on Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. We MUST get marijuana removed from that list, as it clearly does not belong there. When that is done, the DEA will stand down and listen to our citizens and not the private prison lobbyists.
Join our conversation:
Dead on. I live in Mormonville and the entire state was practically salivating at the chance to crank up the incarceration rate (from its already highest average rate in the ironically "free" world). Mormons are a feeding ground for private prison industries (one large company north of SL, e.g.) as well as for federal "special services" employees, so the election was an opportunity to give BIG money and BIG mandate for moral fanaticism that has long characterized the sect and area. A lot of them are now bitter that they didn't get better return on their Romney investment LOooOOooOoL
The study in 1972 that Nixon rejected included an attempt to kill a dog by overdose of MJ. They gave the dog the equivalent of 2Kgm of pot (4.4 pounds) the dog was of medium size around 35 lbs. This dog went into a peaceful sleep, not to be confused with a coma, for slightly over 2 days. Upon awaking he eat everything in sight.
What this story leaves out is that Wm. R. Hearst, the newspaper and movie mogal at the time owned about 75-80% of all timber contracts on public land. Making him the largest maker of paper. Congress passed a law mandating that all government documents be printed on Hemp Paper because of the strenght and long life.
He then went to Harry Anslinger, a friend, and asked what could be done. The solution was to produce "Reefer Madness" and bombard the country with lies in the Hearst newspapers. Congress had no choice do to public demand than to change the law regarding paper fo rgovernment docs and pass the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937.
As always, money was behind the scene. Today we could reduce our prison system by 40-65% but then all those private companies that want to run the prisons in this country would be out in the cold.
Money talks. Surpised the paper company link wasn't in the article. From what I've read previously it was a big contributing factor.
I am in college and a frequent smoker, I am 33. Just think if I was able to smoke MJ back in high school or after. With my ADHD it does help me focus, and I have been getting remarkable grades going for health care administration with smoking during class, before, and def. after. Now, just think all these kids that are in school and have this disability and not able to use it!
Also, the reason why all the states are being bankrupt is for all the damn security agencies we have. We started the FBI because of Prohibition on alcohol, from the gangstas running the speakeasies. The department of Homeland was created from 9/11, but we still have the department intact when we gotten all the terrorist! Same thing goes with the ATF, Boarder Patrol, state, local, county police! Now just think if we all were taught self defense classes in high school, would we need all these security thinking that they are going to PREVENT a criminal from acting? My best motto, "when you have a gun to your head from a person robbing you inside your home, do you really think the police is going to Help or even know of the situation"?
Chris:
In college at 33? I believe you; but just how many Remedial English classes will your local community college allow you to take before giving up entirely on you?
I entered university at 42, and as a daily pot-smoker. Four years later I received my degree, cum laude. For those of us with adult ADD/ADHD or any other sort of focusing problem, a small amount can be a significant help to us. And when your use is daily, you don't really experience much of a "high." You simply level out and feel like what you imagine other people would call "normal." You can focus; you can think; you can grasp one of the thousands of thoughts speeding through your brain and make some use of it. It is, if I may be a bit hyperbolic, something of a blessing.
I took no remedial English classes. I took no remedial classes of any sort, in spite of having been out of school for twenty-four years. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Eric, many people the world over go back to school as adults. Some people are there to get a degree for the first time, some second time, and so on and so forth. Why would you insult someone for trying to educate themselves at any age? Isn't that what makes the people of this country more productive, education? You may be well read but you certainly aren't well bred.
Education doesn't have anything to do with productivity. You can be equally as productive if you're pool cleaner or a doctor.
Even most pool cleaners have at least a high school diploma, and that's an education of some sort. Education might not be the only or even major motivator to productivity, but a lack of education certainly isn't good breeding for productivity.
If I comment in the affirmative on the ludicrousness, wasteful expense and futility of the War on Pot , will I end up in a Homeland Security database watch list ? Will I show up on the screens of the DEA puppetmasters and have Wyoming state DCI goons dispatched with their canine companions to stake out my old Volvo ? Will G-Man Harry Anslinger come seething at my door trying to break it down as best an undying wraith can ? Anslinger ( a contemporary of J. Edgar Hoover and twice as relentless and duplicitous ) must have been the reincarnation of a Salem Witch Trial magister , or the out of wedlock offspring of Molly Hatchet and a Spanish prison warden. American policies about MJ at the turn of the 20th century were solidly based in racial bigotry and class warfare. Yet they persist a century later. Anslinger lives. Pot is in the same category of dangerous drugs as heroin and meth ? Defense rests. Motion to dsimiss, your Honor. If there is any Reefer Madness to be found, it's all in the camp of jackboot law enforcement egged on by frothing moralists, neither of whom percieve reality. They defer to their own delusions.
Obama would have won reelection won the greatest landslide in history had he run on two platform planks: I will close Guantanamo and have public trials; and I will decriminalize MJ and regulate it just like alcohol to help pay down the national debt and eliminate a whole lot of crime and social dysfunctionality . Potheads do not crash cars nor beat their wives, and they show up for work, smiling. Terrorists are best dealt with in bright sunshine.
I live in Wyoming. My state's top cops have gone on a news blitz here lately stating in no uncertain terms they will be doubling down on anyone who tries to smuggle MJ back to Wyoming from next door in progressive Colorado where cannabis is regulated and available and citizens there voted to decriminalize it wholesale. Conversely , regressive redstate Wyoming will likely be the very last state in the Union to acquiesce on cannabis. The very last . Yes, we really are that conservative moralistic and boneheaded here.QED.
Meanwhile, my conservative Republican Governor's slightly older brother just opened his new Wyoming Whiskey bourbon distillery last weekend. ( Think Billy Beer and the Carters, only substitute hard liquor and Republicans ). We drink ourselves to death in Wyoming, but by god we don't tolerate none of that there Devil Weed....
Harry Anslinger's ghost lives here. He's grinning these days.
Almost and accurate article Gene....and nothing has changed today - special interest groups (from law enforcement to alcohol to lumber) still rules our country:
In 1930's, in one of the big scams perpetrated on the American people (similar to alcohol prohibition), hemp was made virtually illegal through the enactment of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. Industrialists like Randolph Hearst and Andrew Mellon made sure it was so heavily taxed by the government that it would be too costly to use in industry and medicine.
Hemp's threat to empires
Randolph Hearst owned several newspapers and lumber companies that made the paper for his media empire (his newspapers invented the term “reefer madness”) and hemp was a threat to his lumber holdings. Hearst knew that four times as much paper can be grown from an acre of hemp as from an acre of trees at 1/4 the cost, and 1/5 of the pollution. It's no wonder Hearst wanted it banned.
Another influential person, Andrew Mellon, feared that it would replace oil as a fuel along with it threatening his investment in DuPont's new product, nylon. Mellon also owned Gulf Oil and was Secretary of the Treasury at the same time – no conflict of interest there.
These men and others like them, led to hemp being so heavily taxed it was thought to be illegal. Mellon even appointed his future nephew-in-law, Harry Anslinger, to head the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs - a new position for all those out of work federal agents after prohibition was repealed – to further Mellon's battle against hemp.
Absent the cronyism of Mellon, DuPont and Hearst then and today the influence from law enforcement, lumber, alcohol and the medical special interests has on government policies, hemp would probably be legal to grow in the U.S. today. If the truth about hemp and the small amount of THC (0.5-1%) in hemp (the active ingredient in marijuana that gets a person “high”) makes it virtually useless to smoke and not the scourge on America as purported by the U.S. Government and the anti-hemp proponents.
In 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the marijuana tax law was unconstitutional because it violated the 5th Amendment of self incrimination. In 1970, Congress was quick to act and repealed the The Marijuana Tax Act and passed the Controlled Substance Act making it (both hemp and marijuana) “officially” illegal and law enforcement still had its money and power to continue its war on marijuana. When California lessen it to a simple misdemeanor in the 70's it saved the state $10's of millions of dollars in law enforcement costs.
Finally, in the late 1990s, Canadian officials became wise to this long-standing misinformation campaign and realized the amazing benefits of this weed and approved it for production and industrial usage. China, our number #1 economic competitor, also understands the advantages of hemp (and the profits associated with it) and is the #1 supplier of it to the world.
It's still a drug. And drugs have effects. And lungs weren't designed to inhale smoke. Also some studies seem to indicate that it has detrimental effects on the endocrine system.
Zack,
And many studies have shown that marijuana helps people cope with dozens of diseases and illnesses.
one does not have to smoke cannabis. You can eat it and vaporize it, please educate yourself before spewing rhetoric. Your studies you mention are propaganda.
Yes, as are penicillin, aspirin, caffeine, and alcohol.
I would certainly hope so. Otherwise, they're known as placebos.
...but an overwhelming body of research has found marijuana to be safe, and for many medical problems, beneficial.
Zack- but we are supposed to consume tons of acetamenaphine, tylenol, and pain meds? Do you have any idea what those do to your liver, kidneys, endocrine system... smoked cannabis has medicinal effects... deal with it.
So Zack, who are you Guzman's pool boy? Or do you just call him Chapito? Unlike you I don't need the govt. to tell me what I can or cannot do with my own body. Phony a$$ trailer trash conservatives like you crying about less govt.unless it is in the bedroom or controlling our bodies. I am a 55 year old white male that makes 6 figures, I smoked in the 70s and also at my 30 year reunion. So what? Other than people like Zack the people that want to keep pot illegal are private companies that run our prisons, (we have more than 1 million people in prison than China does with almost 4 times the population), the DEA and Justice Department to justify their existance, and the Mexican Cartels. I live in WI and they have busted cartel growing operations up north here which destroy land and are a public danger. The DEA and Justice would much rather bust potheads than go after the really dangerous people, they would have to get off their fat a$$es and actually work. So Zack close your trailer door and shut up.
Alcohol is a drug. It is legal. Tobacco is inhaled and known to cause lung cancer. It is legal.
Both are legal because prohibitting these items was not successful
The Feds can't respond, but cause WE THE PEOPLE never gave them the right in the first place to prohibit a substance. When did the constitution become optional?
There's a good reason they had to amend the constitution to prohibit alcohol. The Federal gov't does not have the right to prohibit a substance. When you read more of the details of how this form of prohibition was passed, i would call it rather sneaky.
legalize it...tax it and stop fighting it and the deficit would be eliminated it's not worse or better than cigarettes or alcohol.
HEY MSN , it wasn't just aged hippies who voted to legalize cannabis, I voted to legalize it as well, I am not a hippy or aging, also alot of republicans in Boulder of whom I know voted to legalize the benign herb. Now we will have shops for recreational cannabis... The Federal Guberment are idiots and over zealous about allowing the medicinal and recreational use of cannabis, not to mention HEMP is still considered the same as meth , heroine, and cocaine by the feds.. It 's time to stop being so gullible.
BTY: Marijuana is a made up word. Made up for scare tactics by Henry Anslinger, it means nothing. Propaganda at it's best... it's called cannabis to those savvy enough to think for themselves.
Um....Tintala? ALL words are "made-up" words.
I think it can be called a million different names and they're all right, no need to be stuck up about what you call your smoke.
Hopefully Obama will have the nads to call off the feds, and states will do what they can to establish sanity. I'm not a user; I experiemented a few times and its just not for me. It just doesn't taste anything like a well crafted beer. Still, it should be legalized, taxed, and regulated appropriately. Getting this past the idiots (talking to you, teabaggers and religeous right), won't be easy, but might be a rallying point to get those idiots out of office. Probably not, they'll be stoned.
I believe there is better things to come with the legalization of MJ. I'm for it. & Obama would go down in history as one great chief. I voted for him his first term but dispised him. After words, not voting this round for him.I was for Ron Paul. I see if the legalization for all of America would begin soon. We could start healing. Tax it make it LEGAL. so I can pay off all my depts. And live a better life. with more income.Obama could get the ball a rolling on this. America would be much better.
Why is it when October comes msn Spews all the crap about Oktober fest and beer?? What a bunch of malarkey! Cannabis is safer than beer.. sorry msn. I am about to stop reading msn , they try to sway us to the right ....
It is sad this reporter didn't go into any of the information showing that some cannabinoids in cannabis kill cancer cells. Specifically THC and CBD. This information dates back to the 70's.
You mean KILLS BRAIN CELLS don't you?
Actually it has been shown to help GROW brain cells.
Neuropsychiatry Research Unit, Department of Psychiatry, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Department of Neurology, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, People’s Republic of China.
Department of Biomedical Sciences, Dental School, Program in Neuroscience, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Many more states will follow this lead and the fed will have to get on board eventually.
Kjosee - Controlled drugs are bound by international treaties. The Fed's can't approve until the United Nations approve it
That's wrong Brian. The US is a sovereign nation, the UN treaties were entered voluntarily and the US can pull out of them at any time.
Could you imagine a world where we don't constantly hear the incessant bickering in Washington over the Fiscal Cliff? Legalize it and federally tax it and it becomes a reality overnight.
But what is the point in starting American children on dope???? Where is the positive side to it?
Wait...cigarettes and alcohol are legal, and have been for some time. Are you saying you give those to your children? I am shocked! Shocked, I tell you!
(In case this sarcasm goes over your...ahem...head...who in hell suggested "starting American children on dope?" Straw man, much? Learn to argue cogently. You just look silly now...)
If anything the legalization and regulation of cannabis will help to keep it out of the hands of our nations children, Drug dealers aren't known for keeping legal substances to sell as there is no profit for them if it may be purchased legally in a safe environment.
I think that the government has no business regulating drug use for adults. If someone wants to use drugs, that's their own business.
Half the harm of drugs comes from them being illegal anyways.
Way better than most legal scripts that doctors dole out with big pharma helping them along. Oh and without the liver damage, sexual disfuction, rectal oozing, bone pain, and all the other side effects you hear about on TV. The money we could make from taxings and the money we would save on police and prisions would really add up. It's coming soon.
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