Hey Freak!

Why is pot illegal, anyway? No, seriously... why?

it's nancy Regan's fault...you know, drug wars and shit?

personally, I hate the stuff...makes you hungry, horney and sleepy...not necessarily in that order, and duh. don't forget the duh factor.

but when it helps people medically, then some of these asswad politicians need to get a clue.

Honestly I don't get the whole drugs are illegal thing anyway (for personal consumption and the selling of such to ADULTS)...it's sorta like the seatbelt law. Monitoring our own stupidity is just plain fucking wrong. If I'm gonna be stupid, there really shouldn't be a law against it.

and now NY is selling cigarettes that go out on their own cuz god forbid we might set our own asses on fire.

Enough already!

if I can respond to your question with another question, "why do you think they call it dope?"

hehe.

It's illegal because it's an easily grown drug that the government can't control for themselves, that's the bottom line. It's like...alcohol isn't illegal, but moonshine is. Anyone can grow a pot plant at home and I think that fact in and of itself, the impossibility of regulation, makes it easier to just make illegal in all circumstances.

Then again, I'm stoned.

-z

Dude, everyone knows pot is a gateway drug.

It opens the door to Doritos, Super Mario Kart, South Park enjoyment, and casual patchouli acceptance.

I have no problem with pot, really, but I think the smell is ghastly.

Because there are no pot industry lobbyists lining politicians' pockets. That's pretty much why.

My thoughts...

I figure we could wipe out the national
deficit in less a year if we legalized pot and taxed it.

The world would be such a better place if people got high every weekend instead of drunk. I have no desire whatsoever to kick anyone's ass if I am stoned. I don't even care about driving anywhere. Also, PMS is much more manageable if I can get high and I am therefore a much more loving and easy to get along with woman. We'd all get along a lot better.

Unfortunately, I think my last answer is the reason it's still illegal. The effects of nationwide, legalized marijuana use would probably severly undermine the capitalist system whereby we wouldn't be motivated to go work our asses off for someone else so they can get richer because we'd be too busy fondling our remote controls and indulging in some heavy-duty slacking. The pizza and dorito industry would benefit greatly however.

because it kills.

oh wait. you're talking about weed right? never mind then. different kind of pot.

Eh, that stuff always makes me puke. Every time.
But on the news this morning, they were talking about it being illegal for medicinal uses and showed some granny blazing up a fatty. Duuude!

Mmmmm pot.

Seriously man that is such bullshit. I feel REALLY bad for those who have been having to use it for medicinal purposes.

I would rather smoke bowl than drink a beer any day.

Because no one is willing to admit the war on drugs is a huge failure. Stupid politicians.

Well, judging from the way I feel when I've taken a wee bit too much percocet and then hop behind the wheel, I can understand it from that point of view.

Makes me a lot less productive at work, as well.

But then, so does alcohol and that's still legal.

OK, I'm just going to shut up now.

Why is pot illegal? To be specific, a film made in the early part of the 20th century called 'REEFER MADNESS'. Pot was legal back then, but the same pruitans who wanted to make alcohol illegal, and suceeded, didn't like a controlled substance being used. But thanks to that little exploitation propaganda film, pot was seen as a hallucinogenic drug that made people go crazy and commit crimes.

When in reality pot leads to the munchies and deep, creative thoughts on how to make a really cool bong.

because this one time, I was watching harold and kumar... and there was this PSA... and the guy blazed up... and he shot himself

seriously though, I have no idea why it's illegal. At least here in Canada, our Libral government is trying to make personal possession pot a fine... so basically a slap on the wrist.

A common misconception is that Canada is legalizing it (did I spell legalize right?), not true... it'll be decriminalized.

It's great to learn!
Cuz Knowledge is power!

BECAUSE! ... The government hasn't figured out a way to tax it satisfactorily yet. We almost had it legalized up here with our last Liberal government but then GWB and the Republicans put enough pressure on them that they put it on the back burner for a while. Even now it is almost just a Provincial Offence to have it. (I think that is your misdemeanor) If you decide to sell it then they still get serious with you. Maybe one day soon it will be legal up here.

man...don't EVEN get me started...bwahaahaa!!!

personally, i think the tax factor is a big part of it...

Maine...you rock!

but, i think it's fucked up that alcohol is legal, and grass is not. i've never known anyone to blaze up and then proceed to crash into a busload of nuns...

just my 2¢...

p.s. a friend with weed is a friend indeed!

p.s.s. dave matthews show this sunday-woohoo!!

Because people like to control other people.

I feel like I'm going out on a limb here after reading all the other responses, but I know readers of this blog usually respect others opinions so I feel safe saying this:
The problem with pot is not pot, it's self control. I'm sure we've all had friends who either drank too much or smoked too much and then done something really stupid, maybe even put someone else in danger. That's the problem. It's too late to outlaw alcohol (again), the genie is out of the bottle. (Plus I really enjoy a good drink) But if we make pot legal and it gets out of control there is no way to make it illegal again. I think if the death rates from drunk driving and smoking (cigarettes) went down to an acceptable level then it would show that we have gained some self control and can be allowed to do whatever the hell we want. We continually prove to the government that we cannot control what we already have, so why should we have access to anything else.
Oh, wait a second... this was about medical marijuana, ...nevermind, I'm all for that.

If you have some time, go to http://www.jackherer.com and read the text to his book "The Emperor Wears No Clothes". When you read it, you'll find out some interesting things that you probably didn't know before, like how the federal government in 1942 (five years after pot became illega) put out a film called "Hemp for Victory" to get farmers to grow more pot so that the hemp could be used for the war effort during World War II and used for ropes and twine.

ahh, Mike stole my thunder. But, seriously, hemp is part of the reason pot is illegal. Hemp (could and should be) crazy competition with cotton. It's easier on the soil and apparently quicker to grow or somesuch, and the cotton lobby (the touch, the feel, of cotton, the fabric of our lives) didn't like that

another issue with pot is the inability to regulate it, but I don't think that's the whole crux of the issue. The Netherlands manages to do a fairly decent job of regulation on a small scale, and a similar system could be implemented here (maybe even using only gov't grown pot). You have to admit, it would make a great base for extra "sin taxes." I bet ppl would be a lot happier if you regulated and taxed pot instead of taxing soda.

Final issue -- ooh, drugs are bad. Sparked in part by LSD, Hunter S. Thompson, etc etc. It's true that pot is bad for you (for example, if you smoked as much pot as ppl smoke cigarettes, it does worse lung damage b/c it's not as filtered).

That said . . . I don't understand pot for recreational use (who likes to feel paranoid or extra sleepy, or who likes to sleep 13 hours and feel like s/he hasn't slept?). But for medical use, I think there's a definite potential market, and the drug companies should lobby the US gov't to let them selectively sell pot thru certain doctors at a markup and with kickbacks to the gov't. yes, a shady deal . . . but it's the only way I see it happening.

Perhaps the government makes more money on it having it be on the black market than they could were it legallized? Really, that's my theory.

When in danger or in doubt, look it up on Straight Dope and check it out:

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_131.html


with the important sentences:

"...since we know perfectly well that cannabis smoking doesn't cause insanity or any of the other horrors that federal narcotics authorities feared when they clamped down in the late 1930s."

"The "industrial hemp" variety, which is useless for recreational purposes, is tall and spindly, where the stuff prized for high-potency smoke is short and bushy. "

Initially, and I am guessing being the brain that you are mikey you have probably researched this already, Andrew Melon who once was the President of Gulf Oil and Secretary of Treasury, and the folks over at DuPont lobbied relentlously to get a law passed to ban hemp. Incidently, in order to not raise a red flag with hemp farmers, they re-worded the law to use the slang "marijuana" instead of the word hemp.

Also Randolph Heart had a hand in it because he knew that the paper produced with hemp would have sunk his timber company, Hearst Paper Manufacturing Division aka Kimberly Clark.

A lesser threat to Hemp came from the alcohol industry:
The whole "Reefer Madness" production was funded by much of the alcohol industry, due to the fact that at the time marijuana was used as a cheaper alternative to alcohol. That alarmed those involved in the production of alcohol, as well as the mob who at the time controlled most of the alcohol production in America.

Basically it goes back to rich industry barons and mobsters trying to protect their empires.

Randolph Hearst, not Heart.

I think that pot remains illegal so that we can continue funding a useless crusade against it. The government can continue jailing people for possession therefore, getting "criminals" off the streets. Think about the number of law enforcement men and women who would need to be cut if they made pot legal.
Also, think of all the time and money spent on making pot look like a hardcore drug. The government couldn't stand to look like hypocrites.
Sigh, it's really a shame that it is still illegal, but the population of stoners out there (and there are MILLIONS) are too high to get involved in getting it legalized.
Pass me the bong dude.

because the alcohol industry would lose much too much money. Them's the big boys and they want to stay that way!

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