Ladies and gentlemen, this is the ONE and ONLY Quiet Mouse here to talk to you today about an issue that is killing American society and leading us down the rabbit hole of sacrificing the loss of more and more freedoms for a false sense of security. Let's start this off with a few myths and facts about Cannabis, labeled as Marijuana by the government.
Myth: Marijuana Can Cause Permanent Mental Illness. Among adolescents, even occasional marijuana use may cause psychological damage. During intoxication, marijuana users become irrational and often behave erratically.
Fact: There is no convincing scientific evidence that marijuana causes psychological damage or mental illness in either teenagers or adults. In rare instances some marijuana users experience psychological distress following marijuana ingestion, which may include feelings of panic, anxiety, and paranoia. Such experiences can be frightening, but the effects are temporary. With very large doses, marijuana can cause temporary toxic psychosis. This occurs rarely, and almost always when marijuana is eaten rather than smoked. Over all Marijuana does not cause profound changes in people's behavior.
Myth: Marijuana is Highly Addictive. Long term marijuana users experience physical dependence and withdrawal, and often need professional drug treatment to break their marijuana habits.
Fact: Most people who smoke marijuana smoke it only occasionally. A small minority of Americans - less than 1 percent - smoke marijuana on a daily basis. An even smaller minority develop a dependence on marijuana. Some people who smoke marijuana heavily and frequently stop without difficulty. Others seek help from drug treatment professionals. Marijuana does not cause physical dependence. If people experience withdrawal symptoms at all, they are remarkably mild compared to tobacco and alcohol dependence, or stronger drugs like cocaine or heroin.
Fact: When today's youth use marijuana, they are using the same drug used by youth in the 1960s and 1970s. A small number of low-THC samples seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration are used to calculate a dramatic increase in potency. However, these samples were not representative of the marijuana generally available to users during this era. Potency data from the early 1980s to the present are more reliable, and they show no increase in the average THC content of marijuana. Even if marijuana potency were to increase, it would not necessarily make the drug more dangerous. Marijuana that varies quite substantially in potency produces similar psychoactive effects.
Myth: Marijuana Offenses Are Not Severely Punished. Few marijuana law violators are arrested and hardly anyone goes to prison. This lenient treatment is responsible for marijuana continued availability and use.
Fact: Marijuana arrests in the United States doubled between 1991 and 1995. In 1995, more than one-half-million people were arrested for marijuana offenses. Eighty-six percent of them were arrested for marijuana possession. Tens of thousands of people are now in prison for marijuana offenses. An even greater number are punished with probation, fines, and civil sanctions, including having their property seized, their driver's license revoked, and their employment terminated. Despite these civil and criminal sanctions, marijuana continues to be readily available and widely used.
Myth: Marijuana is More Damaging to the Lungs Than Tobacco.Marijuana smokers are at a high risk of developing lung cancer, bronchitis, and emphysema.
Fact: Moderate smoking of marijuana appears to pose minimal danger to the lungs. Like tobacco smoke, marijuana smoke contains a number of irritants and carcinogens. But marijuana users typically smoke much less often than tobacco smokers, and over time, inhale much less smoke. As a result, the risk of serious lung damage should be lower in marijuana smokers. There have been no reports of lung cancer related solely to marijuana, and in a large study presented to the American Thoracic Society in 2006, even heavy users of smoked marijuana were found not to have any increased risk of lung cancer. Unlike heavy tobacco smokers, heavy marijuana smokers exhibit no obstruction of the lung's small airway. That indicates that people will not develop emphysema from smoking marijuana.
Myth: Marijuana is a Gateway Drug. Even if marijuana itself causes minimal harm, it is a dangerous substance because it leads to the use of "harder drugs" like heroin, LSD, and cocaine.
Fact: Marijuana does not cause people to use hard drugs. What the gateway theory presents as a causal explanation is a statistic association between common and uncommon drugs, an association that changes over time as different drugs increase and decrease in prevalence. Marijuana is the most popular illegal drug in the United States today. Therefore, people who have used less popular drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and LSD, are likely to have also used marijuana. Most marijuana users never use any other illegal drug. Indeed, for the large majority of people, marijuana is a terminus rather than a gateway drug.
Myth: Marijuana Causes Crime. Marijuana users commit more property offenses than nonusers. Under the influence of marijuana, people become irrational, aggressive, and violent.
Fact: Every serious scholar and government commission examining the relationship between marijuana use and crime has reached the same conclusion: marijuana does not cause crime. The vast majority of marijuana users do not commit crimes other than the crime of possessing marijuana. Among marijuana users who do commit crimes, marijuana plays no causal role. Almost all human and animal studies show that marijuana decreases rather than increases aggression.
Myth: Marijuana's Harms Have Been Proved Scientifically. In the 1960s and 1970s, many people believed that marijuana was harmless. Today we know that marijuana is much more dangerous than previously believed.
Fact: In 1972, after reviewing the scientific evidence, the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse concluded that while marijuana was not entirely safe, its dangers had been grossly overstated. Since then, researchers have conducted thousands of studies of humans, animals, and cell cultures. None reveal any findings dramatically different from those described by the National Commission in 1972. In 1995, based on thirty years of scientific research editors of the British medical journal Lancet concluded that "the smoking of cannabis, even long term, is not harmful to health."
Few public policies have compromised public health and undermined our fundamental civil liberties for so long and to such a degree as the war on drugs. The United States is now the world's largest jailer (especially with a FOR-PROFIT prison system), imprisoning nearly half a million people for drug offenses alone. That's more people than Western Europe, with a bigger population, incarcerates for all offenses. Roughly 1.5 million people are arrested each year for drug law violations - 40% of them just for marijuana possession. People suffering from cancer, AIDS and other debilitating illnesses are regularly denied access to their medicine or even arrested and prosecuted for using medical marijuana. We can do better!!
So why is Cannabis (marijuana) illegal in the first place? Let's look to drugwarrant.com for some answers.
Many people assume that marijuana was made illegal through some kind of process involving scientific, medical, and government hearings; that it was to protect the citizens from what was determined to be a dangerous drug.
The actual story shows a much different picture. Those who voted on the legal fate of this plant never had the facts, but were dependent on information supplied by those who had a specific agenda to deceive lawmakers. You’ll see below that the very first federal vote to prohibit marijuana was based entirely on a documented lie on the floor of the Senate.
You’ll also see that the history of marijuana’s criminalization is filled with:
- Racism
- Fear
- Protection of Corporate Profits
- Yellow Journalism
- Ignorant, Incompetent, and/or Corrupt Legislators
- Personal Career Advancement and Greed
These are the actual reasons marijuana is illegal.
Background
For most of human history, marijuana has been completely legal. It’s not a recently discovered plant, nor is it a long-standing law. Marijuana has been illegal for less than 1% of the time that it’s been in use. Its known uses go back further than 7,000 B.C. and it was legal as recently as when Ronald Reagan was a boy.
The marijuana (hemp) plant, of course, has an incredible number of uses. The earliest known woven fabric was apparently of hemp, and over the centuries the plant was used for food, incense, cloth, rope, and much more. This adds to some of the confusion over its introduction in the United States, as the plant was well known from the early 1600′s, but did not reach public awareness as a recreational drug until the early 1900′s.
America’s first marijuana law was enacted at Jamestown Colony, Virginia in 1619. It was a law “ordering” all farmers to grow Indian hemp seed. There were several other “must grow” laws over the next 200 years (you could be jailed for not growing hemp during times of shortage in Virginia between 1763 and 1767), and during most of that time, hemp was legal tender (you could even pay your taxes with hemp — try that today!) Hemp was such a critical crop for a number of purposes (including essential war requirements – rope, etc.) that the government went out of its way to encourage growth.
The United States Census of 1850 counted 8,327 hemp “plantations” (minimum 2,000-acre farm) growing cannabis hemp for cloth, canvas and even the cordage used for baling cotton. The illegalization of this plant led to the increase of tobacco farmers in the American south.
Yellow Journalism
Harry Anslinger, the antagonist of the "DRUG WAR", and starter of the Bureau of Narcotics got some additional help from William Randolf Hearst, owner of a huge chain of newspapers. Hearst had lots of reasons to help. First, he hated Mexicans. Second, he had invested heavily in the timber industry to support his newspaper chain and didn’t want to see the development of hemp paper in competition. Third, he had lost 800,000 acres of timberland to Pancho Villa, so he hated Mexicans. Fourth, telling lurid lies about Mexicans (and the devil marijuana weed causing violence) sold newspapers, making him rich.
Andrew Mellon and his brother Richard Mellon had started an oil company in Texas in 1901 called Gulf Oil and was looking to drill oil in Kuwait. However Britain was in control of Kuwait's foreign affairs in 1932. Gulf Oil appealed to the US Government and directly to Andrew Mellon, Treasury Secretary of the US (1921-1932). It appears he was not able to help however because he then became the US Ambassador to Britain and travelled to Britain 3 times, each time bringing up the subject of Gulf Oils interest in Kuwait. Two years later in 1934 British Petroleum and Gulf Oil struck a 50-50 deal and in 1938, struck oil.
In the 1920’s and 30’s the DuPont Petrochemical company was making similar advances with oil instead of hemp. They had developed the sulfite and sulfate processes for chemically treating paper pulp from trees, as well as gasoline additives, cellophane, nylon and Dacron (orPET used in plastic). DuPont went on to become a leader in the development of Rayon fibre (synthetic fabrics), paint, synthetic rubber, plastics, insecticides, photographic film and other chemicals
So lets recap a little: Hemp was the primary crop grown by George Washington at Mount Vernon, and a secondary crop grown by Thomas Jefferson at Monticello. For the first 162 years of America's existence, marijuana was totally legal and hemp was a common crop. But during the 1930s, the U.S. government and the media began spreading outrageous lies about marijuana, which led to its prohibition. Some headlines made about marijuana in the 1930s were: "Marijuana: The assassin of youth." "Marijuana: The devil's weed with roots in hell." "Marijuana makes fiends of boys in 30 days." "If the hideous monster Frankenstein came face to face with the monster marijuana, he would drop dead of fright." In 1936, the liquor industry funded the infamous movie titled Reefer Madness. This movie depicts a man going insane from smoking marijuana, and then killing his entire family with an ax. This campaign of lies, as well as other evidence, have led many to believe there may have been a hidden agenda behind Marijuana Prohibition. Marijuana was banned to destroy the hemp industry pure and simple. Hemp can be used to produce more than 25,000 products and hemp will prove, for both farmer and public, the most profitable and desirable crop that can be grown.
The majority of the prohibition of cannabis and hemp throughout the world NOW is due to the pressure of the American government alphabet agencies, including the DEA, FBI, and CIA. The fact is that there is TOO MUCH MONEY now involved in the "WAR ON DRUGS" for them to stop now. Think about this, my friends... THEY, being the people who are in control of this nation (and NO, I am NOT talking about the idiots on capitol hill in Washington DC, but rather the corporate interests backing them), NEED a "WAR" on drugs to keep the supply low enough to create high demands and high profits. THAT is why they want stronger border security. So that THEY can control the trafficking of Mexican immigrants (as cheap labor, again to MAXIMIZE PROFITS) and the illegal drug trade. THEY are getting profits from the government to "fight the war" while ALSO making profits from the over-inflated price of drugs.
Despite the graphic violence, the movie MACHETE shows a good correlation between drug violence and the PROFIT MOTIVES behind corrupt politicians and foreign drug kingpins. Remember my former blog: "Follow the Money to the Rich White Guys"? Any time you want to know how the world turns, look to who is getting the $$CASH$$!!
The same can be said, not only for the DRUG WAR, but also for the other wars in Iraq and Afghanistan... AGAIN, it is ALL about money. In Iraq, there is direct evidence that American corporations have profited off of the OIL market. Then there is the reformed constitution in Iraq where they are NOT allowed to grow their own food any longer, except from American sources like Genetically Modified seeds like Monsanto produces. It is a fact that the nation of Iraq, right in the middle of the fertile crescent, ONCE held the largest natural seed bank in the world... NO LONGER as that was one of the "TARGETS" of American soldier attack. And Afghanistan it is again all about the money, as analysis has shown over a trillion and a half dollars worth of raw minerals that corporate interests want THEIR stake in. Any time there is WAR, someone is behind it making a PROFIT, i.e. IBM during WWII or Haliburton during the Iraqi war.
It is difficult for many to see the potential benefits of the legalization or decriminalization of the cannabis/ hemp plant. The propaganda machine for many years now has vilified these plants under the guise of public health protection, but the MONEY motivation is all the same. The TRUTH is that THEY are NOT interested in the money that could be saved in costs if the prohibition were lifted. THEY are already making too much PROFIT off of the illegal trade. The demand has NOT gone away due to this prohibition. Concentrated and harsher laws only lead to a higher demand and increased inflation. The revenue from legalization and taxation, although useful for balancing budgets and funding the system that is ALREADY strapped for cash is NOTHING compared to what THEY are making now. It is shameful that the taxable revenue could pay for the education system to be reformed, roads to receive necessary repairs, and the police could ACTUALLY enforce laws on the REAL society problems like Methamphetamine, serial killers, rapists, and white collar fraud, which is becoming more and more prevalent with pyramid and Ponzi schemes.
The decriminalization of cannabis in countries like Portugal and Holland has actually led to a DECREASE in the use of hard drugs like cocaine, meth, and heroin due to the user actually being able to LEGALLY go to a "Hash Bar" to smoke marijuana rather than seek it out illegally from a person who is selling MORE than just the cannabis they desire. Teenage use in these two countries has gone down as well as there is not the stigma of doing something "illegal" to produce a stimulation to the user. "Following decriminalization, Portugal had the lowest rate of lifetime marijuana use in people over 15 in the E.U. ... The U.S. has long championed a hard-line drug policy, supporting only international agreements that enforce drug prohibition and imposing on its citizens some of the world's harshest penalties for drug possession and sales. Yet American has the highest rates of cocaine and marijuana use in the world, and while most of the E.U. (including Holland) has more liberal drug laws than the U.S., it also has less drug use." The Netherlands, with a less criminally punitive approach to cannabis use than the U.S., has experienced lower levels of use, particularly among younger adults. Clearly, by itself, a punitive policy towards possession and use accounts for limited variation in national rates of illegal drug use."
So ultimately it is up to YOU as a citizen, either of the United States, or any other nation to decide which SIDE you want to stand on. Are you going to believe the stereotypical dogma preached by the PROFIT-DRIVEN propaganda machine? Or are you going to use more common sense and approach the issue with a real sense of KNOWLEDGE? I urge any and all to do some REAL research and find out for yourself. As for the case of the United States, think of this... Cannabis has killed NO ONE, where as alcohol and tobacco kill thousands if not millions of people EVERY year. As we face a NEW world of globalization, over-population, and the DEMAND for a "GREENER" planet... what is more GREEN and sustainable than the hemp/ Cannabis plant? It IS the solution to ending the petrochemical dependence we have created based on Middle Eastern, Russian, and other countries (Kenya, Venezuela, and others) oil drilling. As a nation and as a planet we MUST seek alternatives to the ever-dwindling resource of petroleum... IT has destroyed entire generations of workers, children, and national economies. The plastic industry is killing the environment as many TEXAS-SIZED rafts of plastic bottles and trash pile up on the surface of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and that isn't even taking into consideration all the aquifers and fresh water sources that are being sucked dry to make all this bottled H2O. Think of the unprecedented numbers of sink-holes popping up all over the world!!
We could be making plastics from plants that are recyclable and more environmentally friendly. We could have clothing from hemp that does NOT require the heavy pesticide, fungicide, and herbicide petrochemicals that are used for COTTON. WAKE UP AND THINK!! There is no where for us to go! We, as humans are facing global extinction within the next hundred years if we do not act quickly to turn around the damage and destruction we have unadulteratedly committed on this planet, OUR MOTHER EARTH!!
Re-use. Recycle. Stop the senseless violence and criminalization of our children, families, and future generations.
This has been the Quiet Mouse hoping to wake up more people from this Matrix of illusion and propaganda. Think for YOURSELF. Don't let ANYONE make YOUR decisions for YOU!!
Recycle. Peace. Love. Respect. TRUTH.
Thanks to marijuana.com, drugwarrant.com, dope-seeds.com, drugpolicy.org, and others for contributing information to this blog
You're arguments are spot on. The major reason,I think, for continuing to criminalize pot is because, as a species, humans are really really stupid. Really stupid.
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