Circa 1930's several magnates and tycoons from different manufacturing and industrial companies faced a possibly massive decline on their profits because the hemp industry interfered with their businesses. Coincidentally cannabis was outlawed in the United States of America shortly after these moguls' businesses were in risk. Luckily, for them, these guys had the money to make some friends with enough power to change canabis' legal status. Let's analyze how these people's businesses expanded and what was their effect on the planet. It all started with Harry Anslinger, an ambitious man who saw the Bureau of Narcotics as an excellent career opportunity, but he decided that cocaine and opiates were not enough to bolster his agency, so he decided to bring cannabis into the "hard drugs" division. Anslinger rapidly made up arguments about how cannabis made people violent and was a drug used by blacks. Because of the great racist activity of the era these lies rapidly spread into the population's mind. William Randolph Hearst, owner of Hearst Paper Manufacturing Division of Kimberly Clark, felt that the paper industry he owned was threatened by the potential production of hemp paper. Being the greedy character that personifies him he used all of his 28 newspapers and 18 magazines to spread lies about everything that could ruin his business. He began talking about Mexicans and giving them a bad name; how would he not, when he lost 800,000 acres of timberland to Pancho Villa. He slowly yet steadily made the connection of Mexicans and cannabis, a reference that led to the creation of the "marijuana" slang. In 1937 Dupont patented a way to process plastic out of oil and coal. With the synthetics he could now easily make he just needed stockholders to invest in this new petrochemical industry, but to succeed in this task he needed to get the hemp industry out of the way. With help from Dupont and some pharmaceutical companies, Hearst and Anslinger started the Reefer Madness propaganda, with the outlawing of cannabis as a subsequent result. The conceivably catastrophic side-effects of this ban are often overlooked because they are not direct results of the prohibition. Listed here are the 2 major problems that may have been indirectly caused by the embargo on cannabis: As you should know by now Global Warming has been taking a resounding leap in progress for about 80 years. This unexpected growth is mostly attributed to human activity, there are currently about 395 ppm CO2 in the air, while this is not a lot(although it would be about 300 ppm without human emissions), what really triggers the alarm is the incredible rate at which the CO2 concentration increases. The worst part of it all is that Global Warming and the CO2 concentration(which are growing mostly because of fossil fuel usage) may lead to the extinction of species, cause coastal floods among other extreme atmospheric conditions, among other things. Trees make a vital part of the environment and it's preservation: they are important for the climate of the Earth, they act as a CO2 filter and they serve as habitat for many species. But recently the rate of Deforestation has surpassed the rate of reforestation, and this can be threatening to the biodiversity and the climate of the Earth. More distressing than all of this is the fact that deforestation directly contributes to Global Warming, and the combination of these will slowly deteriorate the Earth's condition. Temperatures are rising, water that comes from rain will evaporate too quickly, the ozone is being destroyed, polar caps are slowly melting(which will eventually lead to floods), species will become extinct because of the lack of resources and habitats. All of this because some guys wanted to make some money off paper made from wood and petroleum derivatives. From my point of view it can be interpreted, as exaggerated as it may seem, that the forbiddance of cannabis may indirectly lead to the obliteration of all living forms on Earth. Just a random thought I had.
Whoa. I hate not being able to buy my ganj at the corner store too. I dont know if keeping her illegal will kill the planet though. For one deforestation will still occur to make room for growing and cultivating hemp. Man is just a greedy bitch.
Interesting random thought, haha. I think a lot more goes into it than this, but it's interesting nonetheless. Cultivating marijuana itself cannot save the world nor destroy it, but it certainly can help.
You get exactly my point, I posted this somewhere else and people were misunderstanding what I said. They thought I meant that legalization could save the world from destruction. But you got it just right: had cannabis never been legalized, the Earth, and probably society as well, would be much more healthier.