Originally posted by: jonjonsanfru
One of the few Doonesbury Strips I like.
The whole "Reefer Madness" Dupont story is that the male hemp plant was competition to the cotton industry. To combat this they started "Reefer Madness." They made criminal associations to the female strain, including insanity/violence/it caused black people to be less intelligent... etc, hence the term Reefer Madness. By criminalizing the female strain, the male strain was also made illegal. At the time cotton was a labor intensive operation, requiring a large labor force... in order to be competitive, that labor source needed to be cheap (slaves). Picking the cotton from the plants, removing the seeds, spooling needs lots of hands. The Hemp plant on the other hand only needed to be pulled from the ground and shucked of its leaves, everything else was usable fiber. Then a quick dip in some chemicals to seperate the fibers, walla insta product. Not to mention the actual durability of the Hemp plant, its resistance to disease, hardiness, and its ability to grow almost anywhere... this was a major problem for Plantation owners who had established a cushy lifestyle on the backs of slaves.
So just like today, they used of propaganda, misdirection and $$ to get rid of the competition. This is the source of criminalized marijuana. Today any fiber manufacturer, whether cotton/paper/some consumer level petroleum based products, has a lot to fear from Hemp becoming a viable cash crop. Look at all the hippy granola crap out there made from Hemp, imagine if a large corporation did that on a large scale... they would decimate their competition because their base product is cheaper to produce. Right now it is a relatively expensive license to produce hemp products and you are severly limited on your production.
"Follow the rich white guy" and you'll find your reason
The political agenda and its offshoots stems from corporations like so many other policies. I'm not a hippy, and I'm not against money... just pointing it out. Minus the effects legalizing mary jane would have on the afformentioned industries, I'm with the - Everything in moderation - crowd. Smoking pot is pretty low on the list of things that will harm you in relative terms... like so many have pointed out, tobacco and alchohol have far worse side effects... i feel that argument is to tu quoque though. Life has risks, its not the governments job to tell you what you can and can't do when the only person you are directly affecting is yourself. Just like lowering the drinking age... there would a surge, then normalization... ever been to Europe? Also you would be eliminating a large portion of drug dealers business... also the gateway aspect is more like, a drug dealer gets you in with weed then steps you up to something more addictive... if you know a guy who sells pot, you prolly also know a guy who sells X, coke, speed, etc.
Sure there are some a$$hats that will abuse it and indirectly have detrimental effects on other people (spouses, children, pets, whatever), but if it wasn't pot it could be anything... video games, beanie babies, ebay, drinking, etc... anything can be addictive to the right person. Self control and moderation go miles to keeping you healthy. Its just something recreational for most people, do you like the sensation a good book gives you? a good movie? a good beer? a good cigar? a tasty steak? I like hanging out with friends and relaxing over a bowl in addition to those things. Everything is relative, just waking up and walking out into the world is a hazard to your life... why obsess about it?
*** This post is not all inclusive, or superlative... just trying to touch on a few things that are being discussed, if you want to have more dialogue and discussion (funtastic arguing) PM me ***
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