Why the U.S. Gov. and Media Team Up Against Marijuana

Why the U.S. Gov. and Media Team Up Against Marijuana
OpposingViews / camjdavis / 10,13,2010


Choose the correct answer for the following question.

What is the reason that marijuana is illegal in the United States?

a. It causes pulmonary diseases like cancer and emphysema.
b. It's addictive and therefore hurts citizens psychologically.
c. It kills thousands in our country every year.
d. Its a gateway drug that leads to the use of harmful hardcore drugs.
e. Many people die of overdoses.
f. All of the above
g. None of the above

If you picked a, b, c, d, e, or f you are wrong. The correct answer is g. Marijuana is not illegal because of any supposed harmful effects; it is illegal for political reasons.
First, let me convince you that marijuana has negligible harmful effects and would actually benefit our society.

If you answered "A" to the question at the beginning of this article, here is what I have to say to you. No study has conclusively found a causal relationship between marijuana use and cancer. The only study that has ever found a supposed correlation had a confounding variable and its conclusions therefore have no scientific value. A recent study, however, concluded that no causal relationship between marijuana and cancer exists at all.

If you answered "B" to the question at the beginning of this article, here is what I have to say to you. Marijuana does not pose an addiction problem. Marijuana rates behind alcohol, tobacco and coffee in addictiveness. It, in all actuality, is completely non-addictive. Expert's identify the users as "dependent", but never as addicted. What does that mean? Marijuana users, when deprived of the drug, will experience no withdrawals and can continue on with a completely normal life. No chemical dependency exists.

If you answered "C" to the question at the beginning of this article, here is what I have to say to you. Tobacco kills 440,000 Americans each year. Alcohol kills 80,000 Americans a year. In the entire 10,000 year history of marijuana use, 0 people have died because of the drug.

If you answered "D" to the question at the beginning of this article, here is what I have to say to you. The claim that marijuana is a gateway drug is empirically disproven. If you look at the facts, this simply just isn't true. Marijuana users almost always never try any drug that is more hardcore. Don't believe me? Check it out here.

Opposing Views: Marijuana is a 'Terminus,' not a Gateway

If you answered "E" to the question at the beginning of this article, here is what I have to say to you. It is physically impossible to die of an overdose from marijuana. It's impossible to ingest marijuana quickly enough. People die from overdoses on coffee and aspirin, but one literally cannot die from overdose of marijuana.

If you answered "F" to the question at the beginning of this article, well......see the above.
If you answered "G" to the question at the beginning of this article, and you know the real reason why marijuana is illegal, I commend you. If you guessed "G" and don't know the real reason, don't worry. Here it is.

Marijuana became illegal largely because of one man: William Randolph Hearst. Hearst ran a smear campaign in the early twentieth century against marijuana, presenting one-sided information to the government, which successfully convinced the government to make the possession of marijuana illegal. Hearst did this not because he sincerely felt that society would benefit from the absence of marijuana use, but because he wanted to protect his interests in the timber industry, which was at the time competing with hemp. You can read more about this campaign here.

Why is Marijuana Illegal? - Drug WarRant

Why has marijuana stayed illegal? The media and the government have taken Hearst's spot and begun to attack marijuana. This is because they, just like Hearst are protecting their interests. The government realizes that if marijuana is legalized, it will lose much of its revenue. It will lose tax revenue from the enormous alcohol industry's income taxes as well as the excise taxes that consumers pay. The government, with the aid of the media, however, pretends the real reason that marijuana is illegal is to protect citizens from a harmful substance.

Marijuana legalization would benefit our society because while it has no physiological harms, it would take some of the dangerous alcohol and tobacco users and convert them to safer marijuana users. Alcohol users pose a threat to our society. They kill thousands every year. Tobacco use is much more harmful than marijuana use. Therefore, since drug users simply need a release from the stresses of everyday life, marijuana legalization would hopefully convert some of the more dangerous alcohol and tobacco users to safer marijuana users.

Doubt the validity of my claims and statistics?
Here is my source. It features a Professor Emeritus from Harvard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77NxraijTAw

 

I loved the bottom link at the end,it really says it all.

 

The one difference is that while their are some that are against it,are they motivated enough to go vote against it?
I think between the college crowds and the stoners,that there are more motivated people
that will show up and vote.

I still predict a 70% or better win Nov 2. If the win goes big enouh,like 75% or better,then
support in other states will double overnight.
And our purpose has not ended just with a win in CA,it is just the beginning of the end.

America does not have a marijuana problem,we can find marijuana in any town in America.