So here's the thing guys, I have a dissertation/speech to write. It's a persuasive, and of course my topic of choice...? Legalization/decriminalization. The thing is, is that I would like it to be an educated topic. You wouldn't believe how many kids do this same topic and just ruin any and all progress that true activists make. I'm not going to walk up there and do the, "Weed's good and like stuff because its medicine for people who like need it...peace man" I want to take this seriously and show the very valid points as to why this prohibition on cannabis is ridiculous. Some of the points that I want to bring up are... 1. How Cannabis used to be the World's largest cash crop. 2. The first marijuana laws in the US were that famers had to grow it. 3. How Cannabis is one of if not the most robust fiber on the face of the Earth. 4. How the prohibition came to be. 5. What we've done to fight this prohibition. 6. Fighting the propoganda thats been put out by the government to quite simply trick the public as to truth behind this plant and its flowers. 7. Its true medicinal values 8. How it's a schedule I drug whereas it's apparent "less dangerous" counterpart Cocaine is only schedule II. 9. How apparently Pharmaceuticals sees the value and developed our good friend Marinol. 10. Where we are at in this "Civil" war now. Now, I'm not asking you guys to write this for me, but please, give me your insight as to other points that you would like to hear in this. Or elaborate and let me know what kinda of details that should be put into these points other than the ones in the decriminalization thread, because if anyone has good information of fighting our Prohibition, who better to go to than the best bunch of activists there is at Grasscity! Thanks ahead of time guys. Major
Look into difference of hemp and cannabis. I would also heavily emphasize watching a few documentaries prior to writing, the most important thing you can do is emphasize the reason's marijuana was originally made illegal. (There are quite a few beyond the obvious ones), reasons it is illegal today, and the actual medical facts about the drug. How much time do you have for this thing?
Yeah thats a very valid point, I'll definintely keep it in mind. I have watched quite a few documentaries, The Union being my favorite and most influential in my opinion but I didn't want to sound like I was ripping it off completely. And I planned to find some of those reasons, but I what ones would you consider, "not so obvious"? The true medicinal facts of the drug, I feel that I have down pretty well also. I have quite a bit of time on this, a month or so. Thanks for the help though man!
Well a large portion of Anslinger's argument for prohibition was blatant lies based in racially charged smear campaigns. (Gotta love the 30s ) But aside from that, there was a fear that marijuana was going to replace opiates in the medical field, and that industrial hemp would be used as a substitute for logging to create paper, and and a multitude of other fiber-based products. A lot of people try and blame Anslinger of just being a racist, but there were just as many fiscal implications as ethical ones.
For some reinforcement on the medical aspects check out The Forbidden Medicine by Lester grinspoon. It might also teach about marijuanas ability to cure illnesses you didn't know about, like addiction I would also strongly suggest you find an online version of Marihuana:reconsidered by grinspoon and check out the last two or three chapters about legalization. It has some amazing points that have never once crossed my mind...and it was written 40 yes ago Also I'm not sure if you had this in the original post, by the fact that the federal government supplied marijuana to around 15 people for medical purposes. Look up irv rosenfeld and Robert randall, who were/are still in the program. Robert Randall risked going fully blind in his early 20s from glaucoma when traditional medications didnt work. Long story short marijuana allowed him to see until he died at the age of 53
I taped this poster in Niagara Falls Ontario 25 times, I have 60 others I taped that are a month old. I will make more photocopies when I get paid. I tape these on bus stations, street corners, stop signs, government buildings. The photocopies I made, the printer did not print the very bottom part on the hemp industry. SHould have resized.
Rami - Aight, I have most of that, I was unaware of the fear of the replacement of opiates in the medical field so I will definitely have to put that in. Thanks for the help bro! Macka - Thanks man, I totally forgot about Grinspoon! I read an excerpt from one of his medical journals once and was blown away. I'll definitely check the book out! And yeah I forgot about that too but yeah I've read about that whole thing, how the government supplied them 300 joints a month. Crazy shit for a "drug" that has "no medicianal value whatsoever" Sickleg - Yeah brother I know, but I meant when it was legally produced and distributed worldwide We'll get it back there soon enough though! Hank - Nice poster bro, if you don't mind I might make a few copies, to distribute. Would that be alright? Thanks for all the help guys, if there's anything else or anything you'd really like me to really elaborate on, let me know. Happy Tokin, Major
Op the worst part is the js they give them are very low quality, which causes him to smoke much more. Government trying to get them lung problems and kill them? I think so. But also the fact that edibles and concentrates are a felony on the first offense. Edibles cause no physycal harm like smoking does, excepth for having to eat fat to eat edibles all day. Look up "should I smoke dope" it was a 1 he show on BBC comparing marijuana and alcohol. On it there was like a 75 yr old grandma facing federal charges for growing plants(not selling) and cooked the bud into food. On the show she had a couple big boxes of chocolates she made about the size of a quarter and ate 5 a day to be pain free.
Chaddd- Alright, thanks for the suggestion, I will add in those ass well Macka- Well put man, that never really occured to me, but when I heard 300 J's a month, I was like, whatttt? 10 J's a day? That seemed like a high number to me, never occured to me that it was just schwag that they were feeding them probably to get a statistic out of it. Also, will do brother, I'm checkin the show out now. Thanks for the help again guys, if you feel the need to add anything, feel free to do so, Major
I know it's bull shit. The least they could do is give gem confiscated medical marijuana. But irv rosenfeld said that after a test (after like 20 years) he was perfectly healthy.
We need a comprehensive survey undertaken to determine by what extent the profits of gas stations, supermarkets, pharmacies and liquor stores will increase by if they were allowed to legally sell marijuana to adults. When these large, reputable corporations see what they're missing out on they may feel very motivated to demand that adult marijuana sales be legalized! Marijuana has repeatedly been proven to NOT cause cancer, heart disease, brain damage, liver disease, emphysema, or any other significant health issue, and its addiction potential is about on par with coffee. In all respects, marijuana is far safer than beer and wine and should, at the very least, be controlled by exactly the same laws that we use for alcohol. Our current marijuana prohibition empowers drug dealers and the Mexican drug cartels by preventing any form of legal competition to their activities. Instead of protecting children from marijuana, these laws create an environment of zero legal supply amidst massive and unrelenting demand and effectively serve to make our children LESS safe. It is *because* of the failings of the prohibition that our children now have easier access to marijuana than to alcohol! Our communities need legal adult marijuana sales for exactly the same reason that they need legal alcohol and tobacco sales - to keep unscrupulous black-market criminals away from our neighborhoods and our children. Parents work hard to keep drugs away from their children and they need effective, logic-based laws to help them with this. In order to greatly improve the safety of our children we need legal adult marijuana sales in gas stations and supermarkets at prices too low for drug dealers to match - just as beer and wine are sold today. Our laws must be based on logic, fact and reason, and NOT on ideological positions and unprovable assumptions!
Macka - Haha no kidding, give the man a little dank . And perfect point right there, showing that its not hurting him, only helping. Marijuana isn't hurting us, the only negative thing about marijuana is its prohibition and the negative side effects of it. Amsterdamage - Brother, I don't think you could've done a better job summing up my first few pages without seeing them. You really put in a TON of good points and I will happily voice your opinion along with the rest of our communities. My only argument to your point, is do you really feel that strongly for true "legalization" where we buy it at gas stations like people buy packs of cigarettes? The only reason I ask is because I've always felt that if we let cannabis become that commercial it would literally become the next tobacco; grown in huge scale with radioactive fertilizers and additives thus rendering a beautiful natural flower into another death stick? Thanks again guys, loving writing this thing. Major
I did one last semester and two essays and I gave a two min speech to a 30 ppl class and a 25 min one to an 80 person class. If absolutely loved it and it was epic if I do say so. I wore my grateful dead shirt and glasses and went through a presentation strongly pointing out how useless it is that hemp is illegal too. answered questions like"can you smoke hemp?" "no it's toxic and has trace amounts of Thc." anyway the teacher was black and really into civil rights and martin luther king so I made sure to mention that the NAACP was a major backer of prop 19. He was convinced we should legalize hemp by the end and I'm sure other people were, but he was the only one commenting during it. I also got 20 pts extra credit for this. Holy shit. That was long I haven't even started the part to help you more. Also for long term health studies check out the Jamaican ganja study. It ran several mental and physical tests on Jamaicans who had been smoking like 7-8 monstrous joints a day for over 20 years. Look it up. But yes learn about hemp and write or talk about it. In 1938 I think "popular mechanics" came out with an article about hemp titled "new billion dollar crop". They knew of 25,000 thousand uses ranging from dynamite to cellophane. Think about it i can go to trader joes and get hemp cereal for breakfast, wear hemp clothes(which last longer than cotton or polyester) use hemp drywall in my house. It's absolutely insane that is illegal and meanwhile the us is 13 trillion dollars in debt, and politicians won't even talk about it. What do they think is going to happen? An eagle will shit a golden egg into their lap that is worth 13 trillion dollars? Cannabis opens the bronchial airways to the lungs, which is great for asthma. Check out the free online version of the emperor wears no clothes by jack herer. Sorry it was so long but it's good dat IMO.
I've given that a lot of though and I believe that it'll end up more like what beer and wine are today where we'll be able to buy cannabis from the same outlets that currently sell alcohol AND we'll be able to grow our own at home, just like we're allowed to make our own homebrew today. There are plenty of niche breweries around that produce a more organic alternative to the commercial beers, and I see exactly the same thing happening with cannabis. If it doesn't then there should be nothing to stop you or I from going into business for ourselves producing the product we'd like to see on the market.
Macka - Yeah, mine's got a max time of 40 minutes so I hope I can utilize all that time well. Thats a slick of throwing that in there though btw haha but hell its the truth, and if we can utilize it, then lets get more support with it. I'm checking out the Jamaiican Ganja study now, very interested in what it'll say. The portion of Popular Mechanics article I've heard about and read, it's already in the paper, but thanks for the suggestion. Also, I've really always meant to check out The Emperor Wears No Clothes, I just haven't gotten to it, but I'll get through it before my presentation. Thanks once again man, really happy with all your information Amsterdamage - Yeah thats a very good point, I never really looked at it in the aspect of possibly becoming more like the fine alcohol industry along with the Micro Brew and Home Brew parts. I hope that if legalization were to occur, it would be more like that people only making the plant better and not harming people with it such as the tobacco industry. Thanks for the rebutle my man Thanks for the help guys, keep it coming
Mention the Netherlands where it's tolerated and how use has gone down, along with use of other drugs.
Simply click the first link in my sig and read what cannabis can do medically! I suggest just reading the titles first- then go back and read the articles! Cannabis is really amazing stuff! Granny
Keep It Rolling - Yes sir, sir I will be sure to put that in. Thanks for the input! Storm Crow - I have actually read your articles a few times, mostly just skimming over, but now I'll go over it with a fine tooth comb You've put out some good stuff Granny, keep doin' what you're doin'. Thanks for the help Granny Lovin' the help brothers, and now sisters Major