So why do you think marijuana IS or was illegal?

[ddoubleez]

While we have a thread on why you think marijuana should or should not be legal, maybe we could look into why it was prohibited in the first place...

[fmb]

When I was a kid, my dad was a cop; for awhile, he worked undercover in narcotics. I remember digging through many of his criminal justice academy coursebooks. In one of the books was a picture of a cannibus leaf. Under the picture was a caption that described the drug as a narcotic. I think the original document was used by some anti-pot group in the 1920's to push the groups point of view.

My question is why does the government NOT want you to have an alternative reality? A place where government can't pursue you, hinder you, or a place where government doesn't matter. Hell, even LSD got two thumbs up from the religious leaders that tried the drug during an experiment. Seventy-five percent of the religious leaders said LSD made them feel closer to God and enhanced the religious experience.

Go figure.

[watzizname]

Because an opium dealer, angry that his product was being singled out by (afaik) the International Opium Convention, decided to make up a load of shit along the lines of how cannabis was so much worse than any other drug.
He said that it would create all kinds of hell in our society, and turn anyone that uses it, insane.

Laws were passed pretty much on the spot, by people who had no idea what it was, but knew that they wanted nothing whatsoever to do with it..

I think that's how it went, in my part of the world..

[Krasch]

As reaspnable an explanation as any. Sounds plausible to me.

[Juan.Camaney]

In the states it was part of a smear campaign by a newspaper giant Billy Randolph Hearst. That along with Harry Asslinger (Anslinger) running the FBN (Fed Beaur of Narcotics) linking marijuana to violence, then using marijuana as an excuse to spy on blacks during the civil rights movement.

If you want my personal opinion, I think its just "the man" trying to keep something safe and recreational away from the lower classes. It rivals drugs perscribed by doctors that cost upwards of 50 bucks a pop (oxy) and the people just can't have that. Mariujuana is the people's drug!

[ddoubleez]

In the states it was part of a smear campaign by a newspaper giant Billy Randolph Hearst. That along with Harry Asslinger (Anslinger) running the FBN (Fed Beaur of Narcotics) linking marijuana to violence, then using marijuana as an excuse to spy on blacks during the civil rights movement.

If you want my personal opinion, I think its just "the man" trying to keep something safe and recreational away from the lower classes. It rivals drugs perscribed by doctors that cost upwards of 50 bucks a pop (oxy) and the people just can't have that. Mariujuana is the people's drug!

True... You know your history!

Hearst also had a larger stock in lumber, which was competing with hemp at the time. Dupont had just come up with pulp extraction using acid, hearst and dupont had the same banker. They also developed nylon that competed with hemp for fiber and rope. Hemp was also the fiber of the poor, until rayon, another dupont patent....

We were also in a recession, and it was an easy reason to lock up mexicans that were competing with white americans for jobs... The jazz culture also started creeping into white house holds that praised the effects of marijuana... Prejudice seems to be a great contributor to the prohibition.... Hearst seemed to have it out for mexicans, because of the spanish american war, maybe..

[Juan.Camaney]

Well you know what Pancho Villa did to that mother fucker lol

for those that don't he pretty much seized about 800K acres of prime timberland