i'm so sick and tired of problems in the world.
i'm tired of hypocrisy, hate, intolerance, ignorance. etc etc.
i was having a talk with my friends mom today about a certain political issue. Now i am a left sided political thinker and she is right sided. Now i have discovered that most of these extreme right sided people don't have much of an argument for what they say. they have a strict mind set and aren't necessarily sure of why its there.
we were talking about the legalization of marijuana.
i was giving her a little bit of a history lesson about why its illegal in the first place. and if you are thinking that its illegal because its supposedly dangerous, you are wrong.
first of all, its not that dangerous. second the main reason why the government maid it illegal in the first place was to try and deport mexicans during the great depression or make them leave the country so the government could spend less money. then, the press instilled fear into the peoples heart after releasing propaganda movies like Reefer Madness, which don't even actually portray the real effects of marijuana.
then the man in charge of the press decided to allow a scientist to do a study of marijuana, and he supplied the scientist with marijuana hoping that the tests would go in his favor, well that didn't really work out. The scientist released statements saying that marijuana had no large effect on the human psyche and that it didn't seem to dangerous. well the man in charge of the press didn't like these results, so they were never published.
if you think all of this is made up, watch the history channel show "Hooked : Illegal Drugs" or the movie "Grass" which cover the history of marijuana in the U.S.
So the way the government made it illegal was that they decided to impose a stamp for people to cultivate marijuana. Without this govt stamp, you couldn't grow or have marijuana, but in order to get the stamp you had to have the marijuana in hand. well because of this govt swindle people were arrested on the spot when they applied for these stamps.
in the sixties when the hippie movement started to pick up, we had a little policy battle going and our dear friend Timothy Leary decided to speak out against these govt stamps. well the courts realized that it was unjust and they decided to repeal the law. so marijuana was legal for a short period of time. and things were at peace. but with large opposition to the war, the evil president of the time, Nixon, wanted a way to silent his opposition. And with the help of a man called Jay Edgar Hoover they devised a plan to lower opposition to the current regime. they realized that the majority of the people that opposed the war were hippies and that they all shared a common practice, Marijuana, and so they decided to make it illegal in an effort to silent opposition. and guess what category they put weed in? the same category as opiates and LSD.
Later that century, a man named Ronald Reagan decided to implement mandatory minimal sentencing and the rest is history.
about 50 percent of the prison population are in there for drug charges. most of them being non violent (possession, intent to sell, sale, production). i understand that hard drugs need to be punished because you can become addicted very easily or you can over dose, but marijuana, really? our prisons are extremely overcrowded and the fact that we can do something about it and wont is shocking.
the prison system is only making these people worse. prisons are known for being colleges for criminals. when you go into prison as a criminal, you come out a better one.
lets just think for a moment...
you can sign up for the military and go and kill some one in another country or die yourself, but you cant smoke weed?
you can get 100 dollars worth of alcohol and kill yourself, but with 100 dollars worth of weed you can only fall asleep.
it just doesn't make sense.
freedom of religion i also a factor.
what about rastafarians? they cant partake in their rituals because the government doesnt allow a natural plant that has a history of use dating back 5000 years ago?
what about hindus? the belief on marijuana is that Shiva brought the holy herb down from the heavens for people to use for supreme relaxation.
why the fuss, the people that are doing it aren't hurting anyone else?
the fact is, if you don't want to do it, don't. but don't take away another persons right.
