Legalization of Marijuana

[DanaC]

Damn right it should be legal. What really, really pisses me off, is that bloody America, put pressure onto my bloody country and loads of others, to ensure that pot, and indeed all drugs, would be considered beyond the pale.

There is no reason, whatsoever, for pot to be illegal. End of story. I keep hearing this bullshit from the anti-pot brigade about how it causes psychosis in some vulnerable youngsters (majijuana makes you mad, remember?) and how the pot now is soooo much stronger than it once was, and these days it really is a dangerous drug. No. It's. Not.

Like any substance which affects one's state of mind, it has to be treated with a degree of respect. If you sit in your house and smoke twenty five joints a day of prime skunk, chances are you won't be mentally healthful as if you didn't. Okay. That's fine, advise people not to do that and then stay the fuck out of their lives!

Right now, the whole thing just fuels a worldwide smuggling and guns operation that keeps millions in misery and danger. Legalise all drugs. Operate responsible control over them, as a government. We control alcohol manufacture to avoid people going blind from moonshine...we could control heroin, or cocaine, to minimise the dangers of those drugs too.

Back before your lot persuaded my lot to slam dunk the whole drugs thing, there were people in this country happily combining mild drug addictions with ordinary life. Having a drug habit didn't mean you had to steal stereos, because the drugs were simple to get. The quality of the drugs was such that rarely did people end up with a bad dose. Those people who indulged generally held down jobs, and didn't end up losing their homes and self respect with quite the same ferocity that todays addicts do.

Legalise al drugs. Nobody should be able to say to any of us...it is illegal for you to swallow/inhale/inject that substance into your body.

[xoxoxoBruce]

But, but, but....

"
Rev. Robert James Devine, Assassin of Youth: Marihuana 1943
. . . THE DOPE begins its DEADLY WORK of arousing SEXUAL PASSIONS . . . with no restraint as to COLOR or RACE!"

Federal Bureau of Narcotics Chief Harry J. Anslinger 1948
"MARIHUANA leads to PACIFISM and COMMUNIST BRAINWASHING!"

Newsweek August 14, 1937
"A California man DECAPITATED HIS BEST FRIEND while under the violent spell of the smoke!"

The Keynote Jan/Feb 1941
"Some of the so-called ‘jazz hounds’ who think that their talents show off best when ‘high’ should take a trip to Eloise Hospital and see the WRECKED HUMAN BEINGS there, GIBBERING IDIOTS . . . Now they CAN’T THINK AT ALL!"

The American Scholar (Phi Beta Kappa) Winter 1938/9
"Children of addicts are said to be inferior; in parts some of India, where hashish has long been used to excess, whole communities are IMBECILIC AND MORALLY DEGRADED!"

Earle Albert Rowell & Robert Rowell, On the Trail of Marihuana the Weed of Madness 1939
"Under [MARIHUANA’S] influence, PRISON INMATES FALL DESPERATELY IN LOVE WITH EACH OTHER, just as they would with women outside prison walls!"

Harry J. Anslinger The American Magazine 1938
"If the hideous MONSTER FRANKENSTEIN came face to face with the MONSTER MARIHUANA, he would DROP DEAD OF FRIGHT!"

Harry J. Anslinger 1929
"REEFER makes DARKIES think they’re as good as white men."

The Christian Century June 29, 1938
"In some districts inhabited by Latin Americans, Filipinos, Spaniards and Negroes, HALF THE CRIMES are attributed to the marijuana craze!"

Scientific American May 1938
"Marijuana is ‘a more dangerous drug than heroin or cocaine . . . ’ The drug is adhering to its old word traditions of MURDER, ASSAULT, RAPE, PHYSICAL DEMORALIZATION, and MENTAL BREAKDOWN!"

Earle Albert Rowell & Robert Rowell, On the Trail of Marihuana the Weed of Madness 1939
"MARIHUANA is sometimes used as a means to WHITE SLAVERY . . . the sheriff raided the disreputable houses of the city and found the missing girls ‘working’ there . . . their stories revealed MARIHUANA as the bait and cause of their downfall!"

Col. Levi G. Nutt, head of the Narcotics Division of the US Treasury Dept, quoted in Hearst newspapers nationwide Dec 8 circa 1929
"I’d rather see MY CHILDREN up against a wall and see them SHOT DOWN BEFORE MY EYES than to know that any one of them was going to be A DRUG SLAVE!"

New York Times Sep. 16, 1934
"Users of marijuana become STIMULATED as they inhale the drug and are LIKELY TO DO ANYTHING. Most crimes of violence in this section, especially in country districts are laid to users of that drug."

Annie Laurie’s column, Hearst newspapers nationwide, date unknown
"Was it marijuana, the new Mexican drug, that nerved the murderous arm of Clara Phillips when she hammered out her victim’s life in Los Angeles? . . . THREE-FOURTHS OF THE CRIMES of violence in this country today are committed by DOPE SLAVES - that is a matter of cold record."