Let me explain the purpose of Marijuana laws

[ThomWV]

No rational person willing to examine the facts thinks that marijuana smoking is harmful to anyone, either the smoker or those around them. That doesn't mean that laws against it don't serve a purpose though. As frivolous a concern as marijuana laws address you can be certain they will be ignored by people who care less for the law than their neighbors. So it singles out this less desirable class, those who will not blindly obey any idiotic law, and allows us to get them out of society. See, it makes sense when you realize that all pot laws are for it a way to identify the weak among us and get them off the streets.

Hail to the Chief.

[katandmoon]

1. Oh please.

[mdmc]

2. Hail! Hail! Hail!

:patriot:

[NashVegas]

3. That's Pretty Close

I doubt it was the original intent, but it has been one of the side effects - marginalize those subversives who are stupid enough to get caught.

[panader0]

4. I am not weak!

[Nightjock]

5. Interesting....

I shall ponder that thought some more...( later on tonight when I fire up my "Phelps" device.)
For now...you get a rec.

[remember2000forever]

6. Prisons R Us nt.

[crikkett]

7. What? Marijuana laws were enacted to benefit lumber and chemical industries

and they're still in force because of prejudice and fear. And to benefit the lumber, chemical, alcohol and now pharmaceutical industries, to raise money for police departments and keep prison industries stocked with workers.

The world as we know it would end should marijuana be legalized.

[msongs]

8. they are a welfare/jobs protection bill for the police industral complex nt

[cbc5g]

9. Well more specifically it was to identify and lock up blacks and hispanics

The war on cannabis was founded on racism. They could get all those colored people who weren't fully obedient to the state.


For all those who hate teh Mormon church for prop 8..well they fucked over marijuana users too and were the main voice of hatred and lies against marijuana.

[Fly by night]

15. ... and entertainers (Harry Anslinger quote when he lobbied for pot prohibition in the 30s)

Harry Anslinger was the first Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics.

"There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US," Anslinger warned when he lobbied Congress for pot prohibition in the 1930's, "and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others."

Anslinger's racist attacks prompted Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia to appoint the first commission in America to investigate cannabis. After a five-year study, the Commission concluded marijuana did not represent a threat to public safety, findings confirmed by every subsequent investigation.

[Sandrine for you]

10. It's a side effect of the the law. But at the beginning,

It was not the "weak" who experiment these drug. In fact mostly a liberal elite. And it was some fondamentalist bigot who make fasle assertion and mythes about it. Same for the "Fée Verte", who make now a comeback...

[snot]

11. i just thot it was the best way to maintain a monopoly.

[walldude]

12. The weak among us?? LMFAO

This is quite probably the single most stupid post I have ever read on DU.

Pot laws are there because many people make billions of dollars off the war on drugs. Period. That's it. If there was no money to be made in the war on drugs there would be no war on drugs. And if anyone is weak it's the people who write and believe this laughable bullshit.

[Cerridwen]

13. I'm pretty sure I saw Thom's tongue planted firmly in his cheek

when he wrote that.

I could be mistaken but I think he was going for a wee bit o' sarcasm.

[ThomWV]

22. Aw shucks, you weren't supposed to notice that ....

;~)

[lame54]

25. he's not very good at it

[Gold Metal Flake]

14. Hail. Heil. Whatever.

[vssmith]

16. The purpose of the laws is to keep the price high.

[1]

17. your argument is compelling...

"No rational person willing to examine the facts thinks that marijuana smoking is harmful to anyone, either the smoker or those around them."

i don't smoke anymore. but i have always been struck by the fact if you tried to smoke a pound of marijuana, you would just fall asleep at some point (hopefully not setting your place on fire.) if you tried to drink a gallon of vodka, you could and probably would die of alcohol poisoning.

why don't we just get the laws changed? how hard could that be?

[SammyWinstonJack]

18. !

:evilgrin:

[GeorgeGist]

19. The Alcohol and Pharmaceutical industry ...

doesn't want the competition.

[potisok]

20. Right on the mark

A good way to round up folks who are willing to break a law, that many less free thinkers to hassle with when you place even more repressive laws on the books. I am not sure I agree with weak except we as a people have not stopped the stupidity.

[Baikonour]

21. Or perhaps the cotton industry and the tobacco industry don't want hefty comeptition.

Occam's Razor. It's always right.

[lame54]

23. It's unconscionable that WE...

put pot smokers in prison along side violent offenders.

it's cruel and it ruins many lives

what are the health benefits of prison abuse and rape?

[EstimatedProphet]

24. The purpose of marijuana laws is to enrich police agencies through the RICO Act

Get rid of RICO and we might have a chance at repealing the laws, but as long as DEA and other agencies can seize all the property of anyone found with so much as a seed, they will fight to keep it tooth and nail.

[jacksonian]

26. in other words, we could get the same results by banning cornflakes

or any other stupid thing. Right?

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

27. That's A Ridiculous Theory.

Fact is, as many professionals and more desirables smoke pot as much as anyone else. They're just not dumb enough to light one up while they're driving around in their hoopdee with the stereo blasting.