Give a look at the reviews here - Grass (1999) - IMDb You can get those that need to learn some history to watch it here - [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sknoKWsVlAA"]YouTube - Grass: The History Of Marijuana[/ame] I know this is an old tidbit, but it has just about everything in it about the lies that have caused this little green herb to be thought so poorly of... granny-stormcrow says that if the truth won't do, then somethings wrong...and this film shows how the feds changed their 'truth' to suit their needs and when. Please educate the ignorant and brainwashed, the more that know, the closer we get to decriminalization.
Decriminalization would sound more appealing to a government, draws less attention to the matter than legalizing by simply editing or reforming laws against it, rather than completely removing/adding laws to legalize the substance. Of course it would be nice to have it legalized, but decriminalization is a little more within our reach, and works just as well for users as legalization. It's really only dealers and commercial growers that still fall under illegal terms if it gets decriminalized...
Fuck that. Legalize. If we get weed decriminalized, a few years later we're going to be pushing for legalization and the government will say "We just decriminalized it, now you want it completely legal? Go away you stupid addict." There are two steps to winning full legalization: 1. Federal rescheduling/legalization of medical. 2. Full legalization for recreational use. Decriminalization is useless. It's an unnecessary step towards victory that just wastes our time. We first have to show the medicinal value of weed. Then once it becomes a widely accepted MEDICINE, we go for full legalization.
I understand what you're saying, but don't you think we've been doing that all these years? All those studies that people do to prove its benefits, to disprove the myths? Baby steps my friend. Thats how apartheid was taken down - one step at a time (I studied it in history, so I'd know). Although the blacks wouldn't settle for anything less than freedom (Legalization), there had to be smaller steps taken before hand (Decriminalization), like individual attacks (protests etc.) and movements against individual laws rather than the whole apartheid system (The legality of herb). Go for gold, but you gotta beat bronze and silver to get there first...
I've actually been doing some reading, and realized that legalizing is what we should be going for now, but not because of what DVOTA said, but rather because even if it gets decriminalized, there still remains the misconception that it's not safe and therefore should not be legal (although it isn't criminal), which is still a very big misconception. I think what DVOTA was trying to say, which I get now, is that it should be legalized not because we like it and don't want to be criminals, but rather because we need to disprove and correct the lies that the government both believes and is feeding the uninformed/misinformed public, who are willing to believe anything that their government tells them, since "the government can't be wrong!". But to cripple and injure second and third place would be terrible, what did they ever do to us? Besides get in the way of our goals...
I agree, legalizing would remove the social taboo a lot more than decriminalization. Fine, we don't have to injure second and third, we'll just get them so high they can't compete.
What more do we need to show? I could write an entire thread about the medicinal value of weed, as many others already have. In my personal situation, it controls pain, spasms, seizures, nausea and more. However, the pharmacy would lose over a grand a month by my not needing all those meds. IMO, I think legalization leaves too much control in the hands of the government. If we could be sure that the government would only put the same type of regulations that are on alcohol and tobacco, maybe I'd be more confident that legalization would be better.