make marijuana legal

[loylty gets u nothing]

Ref: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/...=mostpop_story

 

 

 

 

Make Marijuana Legal

Guest Column: The Drug Policy Alliance's Founder On Why Marijuana Should Never Have Been Made Illegal In The First Place

May 12, 2009

 

(CBS) This column was written by Ethan Nadelmann, founder executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance

 

Marijuana should never have been made illegal in the first place.

 

Ask why it was made illegal - by many state governments and eventually the federal government during the first four decades of the past century - and the answer cannot be found in expert medical testimony or any objective assessment of the costs and benefits of prohibiting marijuana.

 

In many western states, it was simply a matter of prejudice against Mexican-Americans and Mexican migrants, with whom marijuana was popularly associated. Rancid tabloid journalism also played a role, as did Reefer Madness-like propaganda and legislative testimony.

 

We know the result. Marijuana became dramatically more popular after its prohibition than it ever was before. Over one hundred million Americans have tried it, including the three most recent occupants of the Oval Office. Billions, perhaps tens of billions, of dollars are spent and earned illegally on it each year. Marijuana is routinely described as the first, second or third most lucrative agricultural crop in many states. And taxpayers are obliged to spend billions of their own dollars each year in support of futile efforts to enforce an unenforceable prohibition.

 

Clearly marijuana prohibition is unique among American criminal laws. No other law is both enforced so widely and harshly yet deemed unnecessary by such a substantial portion of the populace. Police made roughly 800,000 arrests last year for possession of marijuana, typically tiny amounts. That’s almost the same number as are arrested each year for cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, Ecstasy and all other drugs. Meanwhile recent polls show that over 40% of Americans think that marijuana should be taxed and regulated like alcohol; and it’s closer to 50% among Democrats, independents, adults under age 30, and voters in a growing number of western states.

 

This is an issue on which politicians can be counted on to follow, not lead, public opinion. But some at last are saying publicly that legalizing marijuana needs to be on the table. For California Governor Schwarzenegger, it’s the prospect of new tax revenue and costs savings when the state’s budget deficit has never been larger. For Arizona Attorney General Terry Goodard and the City Council of El Paso, Texas, it’s the realization that legalizing marijuana would help reduce the violence and profits of Mexican drug gangs.

[Radic]

that link did not dowit for me

 

try diss one

 

make marijuanna legal CBS

 

obamma speeks

 

i am not in favour of cannabis legalization

 

A CBS News poll last month found that 58 percent of those surveyed oppose legalizing marijuana use, even if it can be taxed and generate revenue for states. The federal government continues to fight an aggressive war on marijuana and other drugs, the trafficking of which has led to an increase in gang-related violence on the U.S.-Mexico border. And despite the pop-culture inroads, widely-aired anti-pot ads from the non-profit Partnership For A Drug Free America continue to portray use of the drug in a negative light.

 

the struggle goes on

free cannabis

forward ever

[mull]

And of course the Partnership for a Drug Free America.. (free means monopoly through taxless and donated tv propaganda time)

 

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1a7_1240582766

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partnership_f...ug-Free_America

[hawaiiankorn]

Shame on Obama for laughing about this issue on camera. Being from Hawaii, Obama is completely acting ignorant in his response to this question, as it is for certain that he understands how big of a cash crop ganja is. The big island of hawaii has so few jobs its pathetic, yet ganja continues to be grown and sold in mass quantities by many people who sell and trade in a deep deep black market, risking years in prison to make money. I cant find a decent job but i could easily sell pounds and hundreds of clones...somethings wrong Mr. President. The thing is people are willing to buy Hawaiian ganja from around the world, yet the president acts as if he can't see how this could help the economy in the islands, as if tourism is booming right now, what a joke. Wake up America! LEGALIZE IT AND WE WILL ADVERTISE IT!

[Monmon]

TBH i had respect for Obama until i saw that. Marijuana, if taxed, could allow any economy to reap rewards beyond belief. Not to mention the uses of hemp over timber and other cellulose fiber and the study's that have determined that marijuana can be converted into methane and become a renewable resource beyond that of fossil fuels . Unfortunately for us, until it becomes legalised in America, we have no hope of having it legalised here. I don't even think Australia knows exactly why its illegal, they are just following in the steps of their big brother. So the government of our country is nothing but a giant puppet that gets dangled whenever America comes up with ideology they want to suppress people with.

 

Thus i love this site, all of you provide the counter-weight for our puppet country so that one day the strings will snap from the stress.....orrrrr we may rip in half. Eitherway you get the analogy

 

After all, why is alcohol still legal if weed isn't? Id say that would be one of the largest paradoxes of them all. When was the last time you heard of any violent related crimes involving stoners? perhaps if they were playing musical sofa's or 7/11 forgot to lock up at night.

 

 

 

 

Poo Happens