I don't smoke herb (or drink) anymore, but I completely agree with legalization. Mainly because the arguements for making it illegal are completely spurious.
Hemp was a huge source for paper. Mr. Hearst didn't like it because he owned a newspaper and a lot of land with trees on it ready for pulping. In order for him to reap financial benefits, he was anxious to make hemp illegal.
Hemp was also used for fabric. At about the same time, DuPont was developing synthetic fabrics. Hemp clothing was light, durable and inexpensive. For DuPont to make a dent in the clothing industry, hemp fabric had to go.
Neither one of these companies could close down hemp production on the basis of simply destroying the competition, so they had to take another more acceptable (legal) route.
Since marijuana was used as a drug primarily by blacks, jazz and blues musicians and low lifes in general :D, the government chose to use scare tactics to aid their cause in making hemp illegal. This was all done back in the 1930's as I recall...
Y'know - you don't want to end up like THESE people do you? You wouldn't want your kids hanging out with THESE people would you? As if smoking marijuana might cause you to become a black jazz musician...
How the government made it illegal was an exercise in contradiction. Hemp was NOT actually illegal. But in order to have it, you had to have a "stamp" from the government - be "registered" in other words. In order to get the stamp, you had to prove you had hemp. If you had hemp without the stamp, this was illegal and you were immediately incarcerated. But you couldn't get the stamp without the hemp and you couldn't have the hemp without the stamp.
Our wonderful government in action... Sorta like the Canadian conundrum John...
So you see, it was never made illegal - it was just impossible to have without going to jail for not having the stamp.
Until the 1960's when Timothy Leary challenged the "stamp" legislation and WON! For a brief period, marijuana was actually legal until the US government figured out another way to make it illegal.
It is not the use of the drug or the drug itself which is really controversial. What should be recognized as controversial are the methods and rationale the US Government and other interests employed to make it illegal.
I say LEGALIZE IT and make it Taxable and SAFELY obtainable.
Don't know why I felt the soapbox urge all of a sudden - pardon my crate
Bob
Posted on Nov 28, 2000, 5:15 PM from IP address 165.227.115.238
