Prohibition: A Lesson Not Learned
My first experience with cannabis occurred in the U.S. Navy when I was a 22 year old hospital corpsman. One day one of my Mexican friends, who smoked the dried weed, recommended that I try it. All my life I had read bad things about narcotics (sleep inducing drugs) from government sources and news articles but since my friend appeared perfectly normal, I became curious to know more about it. For the next six months I read articles both pro and con and observed the behavior of other corpsmen that I knew smoked pot. I decided to try it just once to see what the fuss was about. On a Friday night a small group of us got together and smoked a $10 baggie (one ounce) of Mexican ditch weed. When the event ended I was disappointed because nothing happened! A week later I tried once again to experience the effect and this time I discovered it was more fun and less toxic than alcohol - with no hangover.
As the months passed, I began to smoke regularly and thought nothing of it. Before long, guess what? I forgot that marijuana was illegal. My nonchalant attitude soon led me from buy a pound for $80 and sell half to other smokers at $10 an ounce. This allowed me to enjoy my pot for free.
The bong that
the maintenance crew found in the air conditioner and turned over to security
was the beginning of my downfall. Eventually they nailed me for selling an
ounce to a snitch which led to my arrest and court-martial. After they
established my guilt, I took a ride to the
Three weeks into my 60 day sentence, I threatened to commit suicide and the CO (Commanding Officer) of the hospital ordered my release. Afterwards, the navy awarded me an honorable discharge for my four years of satisfactory service, which was nice of them. On the long drive home to Massachusetts, however, I had time to think about my experience with the Federal marijuana laws and decided that: (1) Smoking the dried blossoms and leaves of the cannabis plant for fun was not a crime, and (2) I would have to become more discreet with my pursuit of pleasure.
As a
civilian, I realized that selling pot was a bad idea but I continued to grow my
own and smoke for six more years. Finally, at age 30, I grew bored with the
effect and decided to move on to better things. I became a health food addict,
started a repair business, and replaced pot smoking with Zen meditation. For
the next thirty years I forgot about pot - but I never forgot the confusion,
pain and anger I felt while doing hard labor under the hot
When Richard Milhous Nixon, launched his drug war in 1970, I did not pay much attention to his hard-line speeches against people like me. I did not know that he liked to puff on cigars and drink rum cokes and dry martinis while he partied with his political friends. I vaguely remember that he dismissed the findings of his own Schafer Commission when they recommended the immediate decriminalization of marijuana.
I understand now that Nixon played the hard-core prohibitionist to get votes. He ran on a platform of law and order and promised the American people to get tough on lawbreakers, meaning pot smokers. Every politician after Nixon knew that words like "tough on crime" and "tough on drugs" in the campaign speech got you elected every time.
Those who
supported Nixon's drug policy tried and failed for thirty-seven years to get
rid of cannabis; instead it has made cannabis the second most popular drug in
Before the war began, Cannabis was a well known extract and tincture containing 80% alcohol. It was sold over the counter in drug stores across the country and registered in the U.S. Pharmacopeia as a medicine. Men, women and children took this extract of the “Devil’s Weed” for a variety of ailments.
The Mexican version of the cannabis weed called
“marijuana” arrived in
Before long, other state representatives in Congress took notice of the crackdown on Mexicans and began to pass laws against marijuana. Eventually, the movement to stop the Mexican immigration and halt the spread of marijuana reached the Federal level.
Conspiracy Theory
In 1937, Henry J. Anslinger, chief of The Narcotics Bureau had suffered a setback in manpower after the repeal of the 1920 Volstead Act. With the sudden drop in the number of bootleggers, Harry had fewer criminal to pursue, a shrinking crew of agents, and fear that his department could lose funding from Congress. What he needed were more criminals to justify his budget.
While
Anslinger searched for more reasons to arrest people, American newspaper baron,
William Randolph Hearst, looked for ways to increase his fortune in the
newspaper business. Hearst had already purchased 800,000 acres of prime
forestland in
The industrial hemp industry, which was in decline at the time, would have provided him with more pulp per acre than trees, but the hemp stalks were broken down by hand, a time-consuming and costly job. When George Schleicher introduced the ill-fated Decorticator in 1917 which would speed up the process and save trees, Hearst realized he had to act fast to protect his investment.
While Hearst thought of ways to get rid of industrial hemp, the Pharmaceutical Industry lobbied Congress to get rid of patent medicines. Many of these concoctions contained cannabis extracts and opium and sold well across the drug store counter.
The third player in the loop was the Cotton Industry. Since hemp fiber makes exceptionally strong clothing, it competed with cotton, which was softer but less durable.
The fourth player was the Chemical Industry (Monsanto), which supplied the fertilizers and insecticides for the cotton industry. If hemp mechanization created a new market, it could hurt these two industries because hemp is a hardy weed. It needs little fertilizer, resists insects, and stops erosion.
The fifth player that wanted cannabis out of the picture was the Alcohol Industry. After Prohibition failed, beer, wine and liquor had made a comeback and marijuana was increasing in popularity among a small number of users- mostly minorities.
The, sixth industry, DuPont, had invested much money in petroleum-based materials such as nylon and plastic and wanted no competition from hemp fiber.
The conspiracy theory proposes that these six industries had a mutual interest in the removal of cannabis/hemp from the marketplace.
When first approached by his uncle-in-law, financier Andrew Mellon, industrialists Hearst, and Dupont, Harry Anslinger had little interest in cannabis. His happiness came from narcotic and alcohol busts and the pursuit of violent criminals. However, after the repeal of the Volstead Act, many former prohibition agents transferred to his department and created a need for more job security. Under pressure from these wealthy and powerful men of industry, he agreed to look into the problem.
What Harry found in his investigation was a task far
beyond the means of his small department. He discovered the hemp weed grew on
farmland all over the country. It was impossible to wipe out the plant, which
farmers had grown since 1619 for its fiber and seed. He also discovered
cannabis came in two versions - industrial hemp and cannabis sativa/indica. The
active ingredient of the medicinal strain (sativa/indica) was a common
ingredient in medicines sold in drug stores and pharmacies across
With this in mind, Harry knew he could never get rid of the plant with an honest approach. The solution was to launch a campaign of fear and misinformation - to educate Americans about the dangers of the "killer weed."
90 Million Criminals in Ninety Seconds
In 1937, most Americans had never heard the word "marihuana" or understood that hemp and marihuana were different strains of the same plant. A small percentage knew about hemp but the word, "marihuana" was a Mexican word and carried a different meaning.
When Harry presented his Marihuana Tax Act before the Ways and Means committee, he had kept the existence of the bill as quiet as possible. He knew that farmers, physicians, and companies that used cannabis products would fight the bill if given a chance to organize against it. His strongest opponent, the American Medical Association, knew nothing about Harry's bill until two days before it reached the committee.
When the Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn received
the approved bill and called for a debate, a representative from
This same representative again asked if the AMA supported the bill. A member of the committee, a future Supreme Court Justice - stood and announced that the AMA lawyer, Dr. Woodward, had approved it "one hundred percent!" This bald faced lie satisfied the Republicans and ended further questions. With no challenge from the industries that sold products derived from the cannabis plant, the Speaker called for a vote.
Thus, on a hot, humid, Friday afternoon in August with not many people left on the floor, an ignorant Congress voted on the bill.
When the speaker tallied the votes, the bill passed.
In addition to other restrictions, the new law bill required hemp farmers to pay a one-dollar per acre tax and purchase a license from the Treasury Department with severe penalties if they failed to comply. Harry had used the Treasury Department to turn the bill into a tax issue because he couldn't find any support in the Justice Department. When the farmers approached the Treasury Department later to inquire about a license, the agency turned them away. It was all a trick to remove the plant from American soil and punish those who manufactured it or used it.
The new Marijuana Tax Act made it illegal for anyone to grow, prescribe or use cannabis without a license or without paying a tax.
With the hemp industry in
Dirty Harry Hates Jazz
Before he became the Federal expert on marijuana, Harry noticed some of the criminals he had arrested for violent crimes, smoked hand rolled cigarettes that contained the leaves and flower buds of the cannabis plant. He began to search the Hearst newspapers for stories that linked reefer to violent crime.
A funny thing happened to him during the early years of his anti-marihuana campaign. No matter how many letters he wrote, he had difficulty persuading police departments across the country to enforce his new Federal law. It appears they had their own priorities and their limited budgets that did not include filling their jails with Harry’s marijuana smokers. In frustration, Harry decided to create the conditions that would force the issue. He began to write his own stories in the Hearst newspapers that sensationalized violent crime and moral decay under the influence of marijuana.
The lurid tales of drug addiction, violence, and murder captured the public's attention and popularized this new "killer drug", marihuana. A string of low budget films played in the theatres including, "Reefer Madness," in which the actors smoked joints, went mad and killed each other. A flood of radio announcements warned parents against a stranger offering a marijuana cigarette to their child. Harry personally traveled the country giving talks to parents groups.
Within a few years, the public knew that one puff from a marijuana cigarette led to addiction, psychosis, violent crime, moral decay, and death. Americans who read the sensational stories in the Hearst publications or listened to the public safety announcements on the radio accepted Harry’s ravings as truth.
The UN Banishes Cannabis from the Earth
Harry's twenty five year media blitz against cannabis was an enormous success. The police organized sting operations and herded thousands of African and Mexican Americans into jails and prisons. Some of those caught included celebrities like Louis Armstrong and Robert Mitchum. In the wake of these successful crackdowns, Harry lobbied for and received more tax money from Congress to expand his Bureau of Narcotics.
Harry's campaign to destroy the "devil's weed" became a common news headline and made him a powerful figure in the government. It also made cannabis the new “forbidden fruit” in the illegal drug market. The passage of tough new laws increased its value and attracted more dealers into the market, which in turn triggered Congress to pass more tough new laws. Harry campaign to stamp out cannabis became a gold mine for growers and smugglers.
The black market in cannabis attracted entrepreneurs
from all over the world who wanted to ship their product to eager American
consumers. As the shipments increased, the Government hired planes and pilots
to spray poison on cannabis fields in
Harry achieved final victory in 1961, when he pressured United Nations delegates into signing the Uniform Narcotics Act. The new law made it illegal for anyone on the planet to grow or possess cannabis/hemp/marijuana in any form.
After thirty-three years of unrelenting effort, Harry took his place in history as the first global Drug Czar. The campaign was an official success on paper but in reality the production of cannabis continued, unabated
The Policy of Harm Reduction
For decades, the US Government allowed the tobacco industry to glorify its product on television and in magazines with no warnings of addiction, lung cancer and heart attacks. When the dangers became officially recognized, the Government did not arrest smokers but responded with truthful warnings, which reduced cigarette smoking by fifty percent. Patches and gums also appeared in the marketplace to help people quit.
On the heels of its success against tobacco smoke, prohibitionists placed the spotlight of public awareness on smoked marijuana.
The carcinogens in cannabis smoke became the newest reason to put people in jail. Federal narcotics agents and local police could arrest you, confiscate your bank account and property, send your children to social services, and lock you up in prison - to prevent lung cancer.
Recent studies have again confirmed that smoked marijuana poses little if any risk of lung cancer. In fact, increasing the potency of cannabis reduces the amount of smoke needed to reach the desired amount of pleasure.
The next attack involved the potency of the drug. Prohibitionists argue that today's marijuana (skunk) is too dangerous for people to smoke. Irresponsible marijuana smokers are no different from irresponsible alcohol drinkers who cannot titrate (regulate) their degree of intoxication. Responsible consumers of marijuana seek relaxation, not drunkenness.
We have
reached a low point in our history where our lawmakers pass a steady stream of
criminally invasive measures against people they are supposed to serve and
protect. Somewhere in the past, I remember hearing that a person’s home was a
castle - a sanctuary - and that home invasions, phone tapping, interception of
mail required a warrant. Congress routinely approves of poisons sprayed on food
crops, farm animals, and people in
In the recent past, I watched a public service message on television that warned against the danger of drug use but did not specify which drug to avoid or why it was dangerous. In the ad, a teenage girl raises a frying pan over her head and brings it down with extreme force on a chicken egg. Afterwards, she holds up the bottom of the pan so I can see the gooey mess drip off the bottom. The message: "This is your brain on drugs."
After I stopped laughing, I watched the girl smash everything within reach and I wondered how much of my tax money went to waste on that. A more effective ad would show teenagers addicted to heroin or crystal meth with rotting teeth and ugly infections from dirty needles. That kind of exposure would discourage me from experimenting with “hard” drugs like crack and heroin but not necessarily with “soft” drugs like pot, mushrooms, and peyote.
Prohibitionists have made many mistakes trying to
create a drug free
Another error is the belief that arrest is a "deterrent" to stop people from smoking marijuana. When you consider the number of arrests over the last 75 years, marijuana would have disappeared long ago; instead, the lies and scare tactics have only increased the drug's popularity. The fear of arrest does not work, because users do not believe it can happen to them. A drug bust comes as a complete surprise. The usual pot smoker cannot see anything wrong with smoking and does not understand why the Government should care; it is only when your front door flies off the hinges and a DEA agent slams you to the floor with a gun to your head, that you discover your error in your thinking.
The majority of Americans support a “live and let live” policy unless someone breaks the social contract by damaging property or causing injury to others. In that case, you can expect consequences. When someone becomes a public nuisance or inflicts self-injury, intervention may become necessary - but aside from that, our homes are supposed to be a place of privacy the police cannot enter without a warrant that is based on probable cause and signed by a judge. This is Constitutional Law established by our Founding Fathers.
The term "harm reduction" is another term
used by prohibitionists to override
If the Government is so committed to harm reduction, why not declare a war on fat? Ban all fatty food ads on television. Arrest fat people and put them on a prison diet to prevent diabetes - a deadly disease.
Some of us still believe we have the right to choose what we do with our own bodies. On the other hand, religious people believe that our bodies belong to God and Prohibitionists believe that our bodies belong to them – to test for drugs.
I have always believed that I am my body - which means my body belongs to me. The government must ask permission to inspect me and the answer is always no. Prohibition is Christian Fundamentalism and violates the separation between church and state.
Under Federal scheduling, the DEA has criminalized anyone in possession of drugs not prescribed by a doctor and manufactured by the pharmaceutical companies. This is a well-intentioned program, but in reality, far more people die from legal alcohol, tobacco, and prescription drugs than the illegal drugs sold by street vendors. Strangely, the substance the DEA hates and fears the most – the THC molecule – as far as I know has not killed anyone.
On paper, the DEA, FDA, and other Federal agencies keep a tight rein on cannabis. Under the law, cannabis is right where it belongs in Schedule 1, next to heroin. The reason: cannabis is a dangerous mind-altering substance with no medical value and a high probability of abuse. The Temperance Society preached the same warning about alcohol - a dangerous, mind-altering drug that causes violence, criminality, and death.
On the other hand, licensed pharmaceutical companies deliver truckloads of Ritalin for kids who have difficulty paying attention in class. The short-term effects for kids allergic to Ritalin can include nervousness and insomnia, loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting, dizziness, palpitations, headaches, changes in heart rate and blood pressure, skin rashes and itching, abdominal pain, weight loss, and digestive problems, toxic psychosis, psychotic episodes, drug dependence syndrome and severe depressions upon withdrawal.
This new, synthetic, children's drug is in Schedule II - less dangerous than cannabis. On the other hand, cannabis has a long history of medical and recreational use that dates back thousands of years.
A Failed Drug War without End
A century of persecution has had little impact on the world’s most valuable plant. Here's why:
Cannabis is a weed. Anyone can grow it indoors in a closet with compact fluorescent or LED (low wattage) lights or outdoors in a pot or garden. New strains appear on the market – some as small as twelve inches high with a 60 day life cycle. These are much harder for anti-drug warriors to discover and destroy than the twelve to twenty footers Mexican drug gangs farm in our state and national forests.
Each new generation of young people are eager to try out the forbidden fruit, because the authorities have turned it into an exciting, dangerous, and profitable game. Cannabis triggers arguments over personal freedom, religion, cultural and racial differences, political power, money, and the right to pursue happiness. It pits individuals against the state and the state against the Federal government. It turns peace officers into terrorists and terrorists into drug dealers. It pits governments against one another and against International Law. It reveals that one person’s truth is another person's lie.
The fantasy of a drug free
The new Corporate America is well on its way to becoming a police state. Our Government has violated the sovereignty of many countries abroad and incurred the hostility of much of the world. We have the most citizens in prison per capita and the greatest loss of privacy, thanks to the Patriot Act and the War against Drugs. The confiscation laws have increased greed and corruption among public officials and law enforcement.
Former DEA head, Karen Tandy recently announced that her agency, the DEA, had almost achieved self-sufficiency thanks to the confiscation laws. According to Tandy, if her agents tear your house apart and find a single seed, then you, and all your property belongs to them.
Before Congress approved confiscation, which targeted only drug dealers, the privacy of the home was sacrosanct. Congress thought confiscation was a wonderful idea because it reduced the financial burden on the Treasury - a cost-saving measure to taxpayers that sacrificed our inalienable rights.
Some people believe that only those involved with illegal drugs need worry about these tough new measures. This is not true. Anyone "associated" in any way with cannabis - be it through a family member, a friend, a car stop, a wrong address on a package delivery or a telephone conversation, everyone is a suspect. No one is safe.
The financial rewards and excitement of home invasions are so addictive to DEA agents and local police, they sometimes "testi-lie" in court to protect "their" newly acquired property. Law enforcement officers collect points for each arrest, which add up to promotions. If you are the mistaken target of one of their 50,000 already completed home invasions, you cannot prosecute them for violations of your civil rights. Further, do not look for an apology from them for tearing your house apart.
Another enlightened policy from the far right is to treat teen offenders as adults and send them to a "drug free environment" in federal prison. Federal prisons are 80% full of drug offenders who have access to drugs smuggled in by prison staff. Beatings, rapes, and stabbings take place in the prison environment. This a good place for a teenager who sells a $5.00 joint to an undercover officer.
The escalating cost of building more prisons and filling them with pot smokers gives tax dollars to law enforcement and the prison industry instead of supporting education and treatment centers. Each cell delivers $20,000 - $40,000 tax dollars a year
DEA chief Karen Tandy, and Drug Czar John Walters,
believes that an estimated twenty million pot smokers in the
It's About Money and Power
DEA statistics show that 93 years of persecuting people for manufacturing, distributing and using substances outlawed by Congress has damaged democracy and strengthened organized crime. Taxpayers lose interest in wars that cost too much and go on for too long. Congress made the same mistake with alcohol by focusing on the expected benefits and disregarding the collateral damage. With the best of intentions, it passed an unenforceable law, which spawned an unstoppable crime wave
The man most responsible for the Federal government’s failure to manage cannabis was Henry J. Anslinger, a tough railroad cop and former prohibition agent whose racism far outweighed his respect for the Fourth Amendment and the Constitution. The Fourth Amendment guarantees, "The right of the people to be secure in their houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures." The Constitution guarantees us the “inalienable" right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Harry disregarded these rights and lied to Congress so he could arrest those he hated - "Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers in the jazz industry …members of the degenerate races."
Drug lords, police unions, prison lobbyists, the DEA, drug testing companies, the pharmaceutical industry, cotton and chemical conglomerates, HMO's, insurance companies and parent's organizations all want Prohibition to continue
Despite the governments claim that potheads finance
terrorism it is Prohibition that makes marijuana valuable. Without Prohibition
it’s just a weed. The production and
distribution of forbidden substances, is the easiest way to finance a
revolution. The CIA did this in
The Truth about Cannabis
The US Government has provided us with a tool to fight Prohibition. It's called the Internet. Everything the Government does not want to admit about cannabis is online for all to see. The only way the Government will repeal Prohibition is through pressure from grass roots organizations that work through the internet plus a collapse of the economy. When the money stream dries up, politicians will begin talking about taxing marijuana. Many web sites have form letters ready for concerned citizens to sign and send in to lawmakers. Congressional legislators and senators count the number of these letters before they decide an issue.
If you use the Net to do the research, you will discover that cannabis is the most valuable plant on earth. The potential of industrial hemp for food, bio-fuel, clothing, paper, construction, nutrition, and erosion control is well documented. The psychoactive strains, cannabis indica, and cannabis sativa have a history of medical and recreational use that dates back thousands of years. Smoked or vaporized cannabis flowers contain mood-altering chemicals that heighten awareness, produce euphoria, intoxicate, or relax the user. Some people claim to have spiritual experiences.
For those who use marijuana for medical reasons it stimulates appetite, controls nausea, reduces pain, helps with depression glaucoma and ease the muscle spasms of multiple sclerosis.
Under US Federal Law, all of this is felony crime.
Some people may discover they are allergic to THC and experience a bad reaction the first time they try it or even after years of heavy use. Others may panic at the perceptual changes and struggle to end the experience. If this happens to you, apply common sense - stop using cannabis.
Experimenters fall into five groups - the medical user, the one-time experimenter, the occasional user, regular user, and the heavy (chronic) user.
Society appears most tolerant of the medical user, and less so of recreational users. The regular user and the chronics are most likely to get into trouble. I have read that roughly ten percent of heavy users reach the limits of what their body can assimilate and experience an allergic reaction.
What this means is cannabis is not a harmless drug. It is true that pure cannabis, smoked or eaten in a recipe has never killed anyone directly, but it can lead to complications if mixed with other chemicals. The long-term exposure of lung tissue to cannabis smoke is not healthy. This is not a reason to outlaw cannabis but it does justify a warning.
I recently read an article, about a number of young
Israelis who traveled through
Its unfortunate smokers are forced to do business with unregulated street vendors that are free to lace cannabis with other chemicals. If the buyer knew beforehand the purity and potency of the product, these tragedies would all but disappear.
Polls indicate that 75% of Americans who smoke pot lose interest and quit by age thirty. If this is true, Prohibition is pointless.
The Turning of the Tide
The Nixon/Anslinger war on people who use cannabis or any other drug for non medical reasons is a dismal failure. Those who support a drug war policy offer the following reasons why we must purge ourselves of this evil scourge.
It has no medical value. (Cannabis was listed as a medicine in the U.S. Pharmacopeia until 1943 when mounting pressure from Anslinger’s campaign forced it out.)
It weakens the immune system. (The same as a lack of sleep or stress.)
It is physically addictive. (For a small percentage of users and to a much lesser degree than
tobacco or alcohol.)
It has increased tenfold in potency since the 60’s.
(If this is true, it reduces the quantity
of smoke required to achieve the desired effect.)
It has a high potential for abuse. (Anything that stimulates pleasure in the
brain or relieves suffering has a high potential for abuse.)
Long-term use leads to loss of memory and mental illness. (Short-term memory loss occurs while under the influence. The possibility of mental illness exists in approximately 10% of abusers. Some people are allergic to marijuana and should use it.)
It is a gateway to more dangerous drugs. (All drugs are gateways. Many who use heroin are also addicted to tobacco. Did tobacco addiction lead to heroin use?)
It impairs decision-making. (The shock of going to prison and losing everything in a DEA home invasion can also impair decision making. Don't drive or show up for work intoxicated on any substance.)
Heavy users develop anti-motivation syndrome. (Some do and some do not. In any case,
abstinence is always a powerful cure for any drug related problem.)
It can produce irreversible changes in the brain. (Brain scans and imaging technology can
also show permanent changes within the brain from using, tobacco, alcohol,
herbal supplements, prescription drugs, coffee, etc; or from trauma in ones life,
like a jail sentence and confiscation of one's property. Even with this new
information, nobody knows what these changes mean. A century ago,
criminologists claimed they could spot a demented individual by the size and
shape of the skull.)
Marijuana alters one’s perception of space and time
and imparts a dreamlike quality to the world.
(This is the one that governments fear
the most; the questioning of authority and a rethinking of the purpose of life.
Smokers prefer peace to war and pleasure to suffering; a mindset that does not
support traditional Christian/Judeo/Capitalist principles.
Keep in mind
that when alcohol Prohibition failed, re-legalization followed. The black
market folded and
The key to re-legalizing cannabis is through statewide medical marijuana initiatives. Many lawmakers who publicly oppose medical marijuana may want legal access to it one day. If legal, synthetic, prescription drugs fail to provide relief then medical pot should be an option. Use whatever works, especially if it's free and you cannot afford the high cost of prescription medicine. Those who can't tolerate smoke can inhale vapor from a plastic bag attached to a vaporizer.
The majority of Americans today are at odds with the Federal Government’s enforcement of Prohibition because it violates the time-honored American spirit of freedom. It is unconstitutional for Congress to abolish freedom of choice and create a police state to keep cannabis away from children. Children are in the presence of alcohol, tobacco, and prescription drugs every day. Responsible adults do not deliberately expose children to substances that could harm them.
The law of supply and demand says that when smokers and drinkers can obtain their drug of choice legally, violent crime lords go out of business. Take away the profit, and smuggling stops. Prisons lose eighty percent of their population and violent criminals serve their full sentence. Bloated law enforcement budgets around the world return to normal. Police can respond quickly to emergencies and real crime when they stop wasting resources on crimes without victims.
The tax revenue from legal alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana helps to pay for drug education and treatment. Americans who insist on smoking pot can relax in their own homes instead of worrying about the police breaking down the front door. A simple rule for prohibitionists to follow is to leave people alone unless they cause trouble.
Prohibition, however, will continue until a national
forum allows people to openly talk about cannabis. This no longer
The United States Government must return to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Our founding fathers created these documents to empower and protect American citizens from Government intrusion but Prohibitionists have taken away these rights. The states have the responsibility to control drugs through regulation, taxation, and treatment instead of allowing the Federal government and the United Nations to create and enforce a different set of rules.
The way to end cannabis prohibition is through the vote. Tell candidates you will not vote for them if they continue with a futile and destructive policy.
The Frog in the Pot
Americans are like the frog that sits in a pot of water that slowly heats over a burner. The change in temperature is so gradual the poor frog does not realize what is happening until it is too late. If that frog suddenly felt the full heat of drug prohibition, it would instantly jump from the pot.
We Americans have lost track of how much privacy we have surrendered to drug warriors over the last thirty-seven years because they are careful never to bring it to our attention. Instead, they promise to get rid of drugs, and the only way to get rid of drugs is to abolish privacy. The belief in a drug free society is pure fantasy but the loss of privacy is real. In the end, we will have plenty of drugs, but no freedom.
Suggested Guidelines for Re-Legalizing Marijuana
Here's how the alcohol model can work for cannabis.
Licensed and taxed distribution through dispensaries.
No advertising.
No driving under the influence.
No Sales to Minors.
No public nuisance.
Five plants or less, in a secure location, for one's own personal use.
In 1970, Congess repealed the unconstitutional 1937 Marijuana Tax Act and replaced it with The Controlled Substances Act, which restated Anslinger’s claim that marijuana is a dangerous substance that causes addiction, criminality, and death. This reshuffling of words made it clear that Congress believes in Prohibition even when it violates democratic principles and corrupts the fabric of government. The fear of a narco-planet dominates discussions in the DEA and United Nations and leads to more violence. This will continue until Congress changes policy as they did in 1933, when they returned control of alcohol to the states.
The Federal Government must butt out of the prohibition business and allow the states to regulate cannabis and other drugs as they did at the turn of the century. The power to regulate drugs was originally reserved to the states by the Constitution and overridden by Congress, the Supreme Court, and a string of Presidents. The excuse they used to intervene in state business was the interstate transportation laws.
Alternative Models
Today, the
Sources:
"The Emperor Wears No Clothes" by Jack Herer
www.norml.org
www.leap.cc
www.dea.gov
.
James Wiley
San Anselmo CA
415-453-8715
Updated May 2009