The Top Five Special Interest Groups Lobbying To Keep Marijuana Illegal

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http://pulse.yahoo.com/_2HBUDC2G5TVNHNRWS33W7WGVTQ rusty c

Keep the Cops in business by keeping the prisons full with our lower classes who cannot defend themselves as vigorously as the wealthy classes who do not go to prisons in our society.

AFV

Your assuming that it’s the lower classes who get high. They’re just the ones who can’t afford a good lawyer. So I wouldn’t be surprised if lawyers were against it as well.

No

I don’t see him making that assumption. You just called him wrong and reiterated his point.

Herbman

Even some of the lawyers toke themselves….

Joe

I know a lawyer who tokes…he also has a side website where he reviews porn. True story.

dafuq?

Lawyer here. High now. There is always something to litigate, no lawyer relies on stoners for their employment. Considering a stoners reputation, that would not seem logical at all. all in all, there are a lot of people in positions of power who want to keep the status quo. It is very evident here, in one of the most lenient states as far as marijuana use, that this is on the verge of changing. Radical changes by 2016. Mark my words.
CosmosDan

No, he’s only saying they are far more likley to go to jail for it. That’s true isn’t it.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001217400849 Kevin Egelston

You forgot to add “All Drug Cartels Worldwide”.

http://twitter.com/cbattaglia Chris Battaglia

They have a lobby group?

Jccollier

yea there called senators

Grammarnazi

*they’re

I agree with you, but you’d make us [pot legalization advocates] all look like less of a moronic group if you’d use proper grammar. =D

Clg215

you got the meaning, no need for judgement
cell_dweller

I think you missed Grammarnazi’s point.
Jamesroygeorge

legalization is not correct english. I hate the way you lot have bastardised our language.. I wouldn’t usually mention it but you sir are a pedanticunt.
Barrashee

1) Thank you for the new word.
2) paraphrasing Salman Rushdie in “the History of English” “English is no longer an English language, but groups of English speakers throughout the world have made it their own” and “There were over 100 dialects of English within a 20 mile radius of London, and no two Englishmen could converse without offending each other as to the use of their language”. And thus it remains
kimmie0

You rock! I read a study once, that said American English was closer to “original’ British English, than the English currently used in England. I’m glad we can figure each other out… and OMG – ROTFLMAO at all the grammar/spelling/whatever wars going on in this post – legal or not, I be tinkin some folks could do wit a little of de ganja man
akasha

For real, they wouldn’t be fighting over such stupid nonsense if they were blazed. They would just want to relax:)
Okp Kpkp

I think I’ll turn on my vaporizer and warm it up alittle…
Iford

Interestingly, the state with the most dialects in the US is North Carolina. Isolationism of contributed to this. Di you know there were prisoner of war camps for Germans in NC?
Jon Harding

Languages have always eervolved and borrowed from each other… See? language tried to eervolve just then! What matters is what people are trying to SAY, surely, or whether they use language as a tool for enlightenment and elucidation or confusion and obscurement… Happy days…
Oekoman

According to dictionary.com ‘legalization’ is a word derived from legalize, the verb.
Oekoman

…and ‘pedanticunt’ is neither found at dictionary.com nor dictionary.cambridge.org. Your spelling is no better than your cooking (assuming you are a Brit!)
Oekoman

“English” is spelled with a capital “E” and sentences start with a capital. As far as I know, no sentence ends with two full stops. Just sayin’.
candygrl404

spelling nazi who care’s about grammar. Grow up.
Berg

Spelling Nazi. Who cares about grammar? Grow up.
^
Pronoun ^period. ^ question mark.

Like they said, it makes pot legalization advocates look like a cause for some intelligent people too. Don’t drag us down with you, IDIOT.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmy-Stanley/1496653346 Jimmy Stanley

Berg is a total douche. Spelling Nazi is a troll. You two make actual cannabis activist look like pretentious jack-asses.
http://profile.yahoo.com/PVDWRLP4UA4Q2Q623RTYVIXKFQ En

Dude, YOU’RE a douche. Don’t try and blame others for noting your illiteracy, when it’s in a context with a reason. He said why he did it, and it’s a perfectly valid reason having nothing to do with Godwin.
http://www.facebook.com/paul.tammaro Paul Tammaro

Hey, folks-Debating, amongst ourselves, the minutiae of the verbiage used is as counterproductive to this movement as the Cannabis laws themselves…Cooperation, not critique, is needed to repeal the most inhumane “laws” since slavery.
Nobody thinks of this issue as a Civil Rights issue. It really is; especially since our Civil Rights are violated 800 Thousand times each year.
Legalization of Cannabis has, about, as much to do with Cannabis as the Emancipation Proclamation had to do with Interstate commerce…Nothing.
Hrjstore

“Legalization of Cannabis has, about, as much to do with Cannabis as the Emancipation Proclamation had to do with Interstate commerce…Nothing.” … Au Contraire!!! … For openers: “Legalization” is to bring a thing within LEGAL control under license & privilege; de-criminalization is to REMOVE criminal connotations from an act of rightful consequence and is the condition you’re seeking!!! … As for “the Emancipation Proclamation had to do with Interstate commerce.” concept: IT HAD VERY MUCH to do with interstate commerce! … “Emancipation” is simply the transfer of chattel property from one owner to another (in the case of Lincoln’s proclamation, that was the chattel-slave[s], together with people of any color in the South as “Prize of War”, to Federal Government ownership for which the defacto 13th & pseudo-14th Amendment[s] were created) thus establishing the D.C. Plantation. FDR EXTENDED that chattel –nature to the entire nation, via the Federal Insurance Contribution Act (FICA) a/k/a the Social Security Administration; wherein we are ALL deemed to be slaves as you read this. … Just lite another joint now, and this’ll all go away till the Obama-FEMA Club arrives and introduces you to the New World Order concept of things.
Manifestme

More name calling! Gosh, what lovely people, I must say.
Mattie

really it should be grow OP????
Stevethegreek7

Berg I think your an asshole reading your shit. I think u need to smoke u fag!!
Manifestme

Talking that way to anyone is really effective… NOT.
Manifestme

Name calling… nice. Gosh, THAT makes you seem ‘grown up’.
sylvia67

“grown up” actually… stoner grammar correction strikes back!!! dun dun dun
Neptune612

Being smart is not a crime and knowing english isn’t a bad thing. In order for opponents to have that much less to attack, we need to show that stoners aren’t all a bunch of illiterate burn-outs.
Jon Harding

English!
Manifestme

*who cares, NOT *who care’s…. good grief.
Wcso409

Who would want the word “Nazi” in their vocabulary? Shounds like you all need to be supervised. You are squabling like childern.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001198335637 John Fisher

Regardless of whether any of these things are words or not, the fact remains that a bunch of stoners that don’t even know how to use proper grammar when making arguments supporting the cause makes us all be cast as uneducated pot heads that can be cast aside without decent consideration. I echo exactly what Grammar said: If you used proper grammar you would make all of us look less moronic.
We’re going up against Ivy League educated politicians. They spot that error just like I do and it makes me look down on you regardless of how intelligent your message may be. If you cannot spell, you cannot possibly have enough sense to be educated and have a valid argument. That judgement automatically gets cast upon the entire movement due to the highly stereotypical society. Nothing personal, just understand the point.
http://www.facebook.com/matthew.minard Matthew Minard

I am an English major and I smoke weed.
AlwaysHungry

I am a weed major and I speak English.
http://profile.yahoo.com/PVDWRLP4UA4Q2Q623RTYVIXKFQ En

I believe matthew but you’re a liar, every “weed major” speaks fluent Spanish but very little English. :^D
http://profile.yahoo.com/PFKBO46VFNCLHAJF35SJJ6BESM Jose Manuel

Any REAL “weed major” can speak and write English….many of them, even speak french and mandarin,….and have majors from Harvard and other fancy schools, with a lot US green printed dollars…education is not a problem…….do you know the meaning of monolingual ? …. saludos!
Manifestme

‘french’ should be ‘French’.
http://profile.yahoo.com/PFKBO46VFNCLHAJF35SJJ6BESM Jose Manuel

An mandarin …”Mandarin”…I guess…. or…. Guess?
http://www.facebook.com/iamhopebme Hope Jentis Petzel

isn’t monolingual synonymous with American?
mudplanet

All the research shows that proportionally the majority of drug users in the US are White.
Manifestme

What research? Reveal your sources.
mudplanet

Here’s is but one study commissioned by the NIH. If you take the time to actually read about the issue you’ll find that numerous studies over decades indicate that while, proportionally, the majority of drug abusers are White (especially with cocaine, marijuana and meth) but that non-Whites are way over represented in drug convictions proportionally.

“According to the 2003 NSDUH, 38.2% of White young adults 18 to 25 years of age in the U.S. reported any illicit drug use in the past year, followed by African-American (30.6%) and Hispanic (27.5%) young adults (SAMHSA, 2004a). The same race/ethnicity patterns were observed for the past-year prevalence of marijuana use and marijuana use disorders among individuals 18 to 29 years of age according to data from the 2001–2002 National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC; Compton et al., 2004). Further, the past-year prevalence of DSM-IV marijuana use disorders increased significantly between 1991–1992 and 2001–2002, with the greatest increases observed among Hispanic and African-American young adults. In contrast, the prevalence of DSM-IV marijuana use disorders for White young adults did not change significantly over this same time period (Compton et al., 2004).” Race/Ethnicity and Gender Differences in Drug Use and Abuse Among College Students

I’ve noticed that you believe that things are true simply because you open that hole in that thing you call a face and sounds come out, while everyone else is “required to cite their sources.” learn to google it for yourselfyoustupidracistfuckandgetoveryourself

If you’re challenging my statement, just show some credible evidence that refutes it. This ‘credibility” thing works both ways.
Guest

Yes but there are more white people in America than blacks and hispanics. So proportionally speaking, a larger portion of the black and hispanic populations use drugs compared to the number of drug users that are in the white populations. JUS SAYIN. And you assuming the other user was racist is just stupid. Worry about the problems in the black community (income, crime, gangs), before tackling racism
mudplanet

Whatamaroon, as bugs would say.

Rates of drug use are roughly comparable across race lines, with cocaine use actually higher among Whites, but incarceration for drug use much higher among Blacks and Hispanics, there’s no reason to be concerned that systemic racism is at work here or that anyone who pretends that racism isn’t involved is a racist prick. Jus Sayin
anix

I just want to see how skinny we can make this comment thread.
Trapped

HALP I’M TRAPPED!
sylvia67

You really do not make your case any better by not spelling words correctly… and assuming that hispanics smoke weed more than ethnic groups is racist… FYI, so before you begin criticizing other people, please do us all a favor, and just don’t say anything because your lack of intelligence is offensive.
Blabadeblee

Actually the largest population in America is Hispanic. So that proves mudplanet’s point even further. The system is broken in more ways than one. But the facts are that there are more whites who use drugs, while at the same time, non-whites get harsher sentences when it comes to drug possession.
Ariakas77708

SsSshhhh! We got a good thing goin, keep it in the ghetto, we dont want drug dealers walking across our kentucky bluegrass lawns! Hush hush!
Oxygenator

that is the cash crop of Kentucky
DaveMan50

Bull Shi…
http://www.facebook.com/iamhopebme Hope Jentis Petzel

I know a majorette who speaks English and smokes weed..
Jon Harding

An English Major? What regiment? (do you see what I did there?). I don’t know how the hell I ended up on this page- damn you Koush and your old newas… er, news… More Weed needed, methinks…
Emptynikebox

Sounds about right to me , we need more clean cut educated speaker , all I see is a bunch of stoned out hippies stepping up to the plate for us , not a good look
Jon Harding

Drugs are good- in moderation…
MeanCommentDetective

This would be a run-on sentence: “Regardless of whether any of these things are words or not, the fact remains that a bunch of stoners that don’t even know how to use proper grammar when making arguments supporting the cause makes us all [be] cast as uneducated pot heads that can be cast aside without decent consideration.”

“be cast” LOL! “They spot…” is wrong grammar as well. They “would or could spot” an error because they most likely know the difference between past present, future and indeterminate tenses in linguistics. You do not.

Most likely, our opponents love this divisiveness. A win for the special interest groups!

It’s spelled judgment not judgement. (Unless, of course, you are in the UK, which I seriously doubt.)

Wow. You people are such mean idiots. This is too much fun! I could continue but I won’t humiliate you any longer.

FYI: What you wrote was very personal. You were mean to someone who made a valid and interesting point.
Don Gaudard

I’m sorry, but your elitism is showing. I started smoking week in 1958 (that is NOT a type). Before I retired, I taught legal writing to law students. So much for your theory!!
Douglas

Well you all most got it right. Any one that does not know how to spell does not know what they are talking about. I know to many bad spellers out there that are a lot more inform on cannabis than you will every be. And I love how you believe the anti cannabis lover’s are reading what we have to say
Bretvovk

im assuming your numerous spelling errors are just a joke. all most. to instead of too… etc
cell_dweller

Corrected version follows:
Well, you almost got it right. Anyone that does not know how to spell does not know what they are talking about. I know too many bad spellers out there that are a lot more informed about cannabis than you will ever be. And I love how you believe the anti-cannabis lovers are reading what we have to say.
http://www.facebook.com/maxwell.tdog Maxwell TDog

truth is truth, and the truth here is, they can’t find near as many researchers who back their claim that marijuana is dangerous.
They made the law to create compliance from minority groups (this in itself is illegal, to our Constitution) and when non-minorities got interested, they began a steady increase in enforcement and punishment.
If “BAD GRAMMAR” worked against marijuana legalization…then Bush junior wouldn’t have gotten a second term (my test of this is that the man couldn’t speak ten sentences without making a major error)
http://www.facebook.com/people/Gary-Lee-Rose/100002338938394 Gary Lee Rose

you’d ain’t a word lol
sylvia67

ummm its actually a combination of the two words you and would… wow……. once again, arrogant close minded assholes just continue to dig their hole deeper and deeper
Neuro555

o Grammarnazi- You obviously don’t know anything about Neuroscience and the spectrum of intelligence. Educate yourself and you might learn that the ability to process data in a linear way; hence your obsession with grammar, is not the highest indicator of IQ.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=527024503 Durwood Mark Collier

I think the point is not that proper grammar is an indicator of I.Q., rather the point is that human and social perception of an individual and their message is often greatly impacted by the presentation of that message. If the presentation is riddled with grammatical errors and typos, it might be perceived by the reader that the speaker put very little effort or thought into their “message.” After all, if the message was important, would they not put the time and effort into making sure it is correctly presented so readers might accurately understand the point being conveyed.
Legalizeit

<–IQ 147, i type as a speak, phonetically…My Grandfather was also the leading professor of Linguistics in this side of the country. I feel it takes a higher IQ to convey the same message with less words/letters… I C U, is much more productive than spelling out, I See You…While conveying the same message. Who's the dummy? Or are we all dummies for arguing over grammar on an article that affects good peoples daily lives.
Barney Mann

“Fewer” words/letters. Also, “people’s” daily lives. 147, you say?
Kid from Norway

In fear of losing it completely, I think we should stop simplifying our language. It’s one of the few things that makes us human, so we should do all we can to keep it! We’re already headed towards a world based on pictures as communication. Let’s put a stop to it.
Jon Harding

Who’s insulting Whose Grandma now? When are we going to catch up with the Future? I mean the present?
cell_dweller

…your grandfather’s accomplishments don’t give you any credibility. Try your reply without that irrelevant detail, and see if it flies.
cell_dweller

I think you missed Grammarnazi’s point.
MeanCommentDetective

Jccollier’s “grammar” was fine. He/she did not use capital letters or punctuation. He simply misspelled. You are the idiot! Get over yourself.
Manifestme

He who throws stones is likely to become bruised.
bailiff

Do you really think anyone cares about proper grammar? Please try to make it back into the real world soon.
Growltigerkat

I’m a copyeditor and even I have heard of typing and grammatical errors when one is fatigued. Grammatical errors are not the property of ‘stoners’ and correct grammar won’t cut any ice with ‘Ivy-educated politicians’ many of whom are populists who slept through school are pig ignorant and just know how to make deals and profiteer. Anyway grass has always been stigmatized because it’s been the choice of groups who for one reason or another have been marginalized and discriminated against. Nowadays the elite smoke it too but have to disclaim they ‘inhale’ in order not to be stigmatized also. If they don’t smoke chances are their kids do and the most of the rhetoric is pure hypocrisy and scare-mongering by people who buy into what these lobbyists churn out.

I was interested by the comment that DuPont was the first to lobby against MJ: more details please.
If anybody was a Nazi Nancy DuPont was. Represented abroad by Alan Dulles et frere, she, Ford, Disney, GM, IBM and a slew of right-wing profiteers financed the militarization of Germany and Hitler’s entire war effort by financing and investing overseas in everything from tanks and munitions to cocoa beans and uranium. It was business as usual for them and the banks though they were undercutting the US military and costing lives. Their heirs still clog up Congress, the Supreme Court, state legislatures and guess what political party. They still own America and persecute the electorate – I could go on but I’ll end by saying some of these Ivy League alumni have even been known to steal a Presidential election or two and make mistakes in grammar as well as the art of war.

Do you really think these ruthless. moronic predators give a toss about how articulate and well-educated their opponents may be? Wake up and smell the weed.
Cscam

Mickey contributed to Nazi Germany’s war effort?? Say it ain’t so!
Lmao

LOL You effectively turned the discussion from marijuana legalization to grammar, and turned everyone against each other. Everyone that got wrapped up in the grammar debate, you’re pretty good examples of why nothing is accomplished in the fight to get marijuana legalized. Look how easily confused and distracted you all are haha. Also you suddenly became “spelling nazi” further down the page hahaha. Awesome troll.
LaRubia

I’m The Grammar B****. How do you do?
http://www.facebook.com/maxwell.tdog Maxwell TDog

i disagree with your assessment.
After all, a great many opponents to marijuana legalization use terms such as:
“You don’t never know what your talking about”
and
“I are against pot smoking because it kills you. It killed a friend of mine who overdosed.”
(that’s one side of the coin)
The other is that, as well as make a living from those who want to legalize marijuana, NORML put several lawyers up to the task of confronting the Supreme Court for Medicinal use (too bad, because at the time, there were about 95 million adult recreational smokers. Today there are between 125 million to 150 million adult recreational smokers) and they produced a gem of lawyerese to astound all who heard it in logic, ease of understanding, and simplicity of truth…and were denied hands down.
For the longest time, I felt that people that called me sophomoric, were actually complimenting me. But that’s because I dropped out of college after my Freshman year.

Gunt21

Usually a Republican!

KOOL2HANDLE

Not this year…RON PAUL 2012 free the weed…. free the people…..
Hrjstore

… You NEED http://www.VoteProof.com !!!
KOOL2HANDLE

I dont think you know what a republican is.
Catchdogdano

Hint…not John McCain
http://www.facebook.com/people/Rand-Allan/1556451159 Rand Allan

I’m not sure even the Republicans know what a Republican is anymore. Since Bush had his trauma with 9/11, the Republican Party leadership has only differentiated themselves from the Democrats in how they want to use govt to control people. The Paulites seem to be the only people in the Republican Party that have a clue as to what is really important to the freedom of the American people. And no, I’m not a Republican. I gave up on them and the Democrats several years ago and put my lot in with the Libertarians. Neither of the Big Two have any respect for the rights of the individual anymore, The constitution to them is just a quaint little document that is useful to wipe their feet on.
SlateRockRocks

This is a sad but true statement , especially the last sentence
SlateRockRocks

Its hard to know what they think, as their new banner waver Mitt Romney, has changed his mind sometimes daily to fit the retoric he is pushing at that moment. With this type of action no matter who the Rep Candidate is, how can we know anything about them, they say certain things but do they realize we Americans are not blind and are not dumb (not all anyway) we need to be America first, and this 2 parties not working together on anything important is killing this country and we need some attention to OUR COUNTRY< OUR important word here….The American People are that, not 2 parties, we are The People !!!!
SamWax

Ahh… not really. Obama has done nothing good for this easier. In fact he fell back on his word, and essentially lied to voters in 2008.
Manifestme

“Obama has done nothing good for this easier”….??? what does that mean?
RepublicOfTexasTV

Hmm,let’s “fact-check” that little blurb…Marijuana, criminalized in 1937, under a Democratic House…Democratic Senate…and a Democrat president. One of the few instances in our history where no roll vote was taken, i.e. it was a secret vote and no one knows for sure how any one particular Congressman voted. This result, facilitated by a racist propaganda war against Asians and Latinos, was bankrolled by major Democrat contributors, such as the Rockefeller, Dupont, and Westinghouse families, who each saw hemp as a threat to their individual empires. They drafted another Democrat, media magnate William Randolph Hearst, to serve as the propaganda wing of the endeavor.

In conclusion: One should always be sure of one’s facts, or one is liable to end up looking like a partisan shill.
Underdog6

You must be SO proud of your current batch of Republican congressmen who refuse to end federal marijuana prohibition. HR 2306, a bill to end federal marijuana prohibition currently has 20 co-sponsors, only two Republicans, Ron Paul and Dana Rhobacher had the courage to join this effort.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr2306

Looks like the Democrats are much more interested in moving this country forward. Why are Republicans so in love with marijuana prohibition?
Johnamre

You’re missing the whole point. He’s not saying Republicans are good. This whole ‘Democrat/ Republican’ thing needs to go out the window anyway, no one should vote a certain because it’s what their party does. You should vote based on your conscious and your values.
All these guys in Washington are on the same side(-a few), they’re all ruled by corporations. We need to go back to a free market and end this corporatism.
Hillbillybuddha

Well said, John. And while we are at it. Let’s end the two party system. I’m not calling for a third party (we already had about 10 “third parties”) let’s try a No party system. Just get rid of all party affiliations.
Hrjstore

… You NEED http://www.VoteProof.com !!!!
Okp Kpkp

Voting based on your conscious and your values is ok, but what about the consensus of the people in your home district or state? Shouldn’t voting that way be a high priority?
Manifestme

Finally, signs of intelligence… the sooner we all realize that Democrats and Republicans are simply the same party the better.
Aka Arlene

To answer your question, we have seen too many folks that we care about robbed of their ambition, work ethic and sense of personal responsibility by use of marijuana.
http://www.facebook.com/pat.pardis Pat Pardis

For every person you say was robbed of their future by cannabis, I will show you 10 who went on to be doctors and lawyers and such. Your emotions are all over your words, you should investigate the facts instead of perpetuating lies.
Iván Eusebio Aguirre Darancou

We are not robbed of our future by the use of cannabis, but by the social stigma and legal problems it implies. Great minds, such as Carl Sagan, espouse the use of cannabis. I know of many other extremely successful people, myself included (and I’m a graduate student, which doesn’t make me successful but at least smart, or that’s what the system says) use cannabis often. Once again, it is no cannabis as much as it is the social and legal stigma it carries. I’ve seen many more people ruin their lives with alcohol and it is seen as sad, but not troublesome.
JD – Radiology

Ummm yeah, you’re wrong… I know personally several very successful people, incuding myself, who have used and/or still use.
Stevens

Your right JD, I have an Engineering degree and a MBA both with honors and was high the entire time I went to school. Now I use Cannabis for medical reasons.
Shane_macdonald

Far too many folks have been robbed of their freedom and their futures by marijuana convictions.Personally, the conviction I got for growing four shitty little plants in my parent’s backyard thirty-three years ago did more damage to my life than all the weed I smoked before the arrest and since.
http://www.facebook.com/people/James-Barbaria/100000246041098 James Barbaria

IF you cannot continue to be responsible and work just because of getting high, then THAT is a personal problem. They have been given too much to enable them to eat everyday. Let them go hungry. Lets’ see how long they go smoking if they are going hungry. Truly pathetic that people cannot get high and keep their responsibilities. I mean give me a break. What a lame excuse. Problem is too many enabling them to survive while smoking. Kick their lazy assies out of your basement and make them go to work. You ALLOW them to be bums. When they start going hungry, I assure you they will go to work. Then if they want to smoke, so what. Robbed of ambition. Laughable. QUIT FEEDING THEM, they will go to work. How long do you feel someone will not have ambition to work when there is no food in front of them? That sense of personal responsibility comes back real soon when there hungry. YOU AKA ARLENE ARE THE PROBLEM. QUIT ENABLING THEM TO SURVIVE without working and you will see an overnight change.
Imajininja

I don’t smoke weed, but Arlene, but really, this is your argument? It’s not the government’s job to protect people from themselves. If someone wants to be a pothead as a career, and they can support it themselves, I fail to see a problem.
Imajininja

Damn. There are some extra buts in there. Proofread fail.
Tijerinadion

In the mean time while so many of you get off on trying to validate your intellectualism, I on the other hand who can’t spell am leaving this post feeling hopelss regarding the many people who will die due to illnesses that may have been cured if Cannabis was recognized as a sound medicine for cancer. What a waste of time this has been. My dyslexic son who can’t spell a word is light years ahead of of you so called genius communicators.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Micheal-Williams/100000702648407 Micheal Williams

You can’t be speaking from a real perspective,just a proppaganda relay.
Ladyblue72

Rockefeller was a Republican, not a Democrat. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockefeller_Republican
Joedirt

Jay Rockefeller is a Democrat.
solo_poke

Fact check; All the industrialists you listed were republicans, furthermore they were worried about having their conglomerates broken up, by FDR.Third point all the same people had business interests in fascist Germany, especially Standard Oil and its partnership with IG Farben. The industrialists are the cause of WW2, including Merimann bros, which was seized by the Feds in 1942 under the “Trading with the enemy Act”, yet within 10 years Prescott Bush was elected to office instead of being in prison.

RE: 1937 Marihuana Tax Act, in 1938 the Virginia Law Review “congress has been hoodwinked”.
greata

I believe that Democrats in 1937 were the “conservatives”, the Confederate forebears of the current Republicans.

Manifestme

“They’re”, not ‘there’.

matthewcarmody

Yeah, it’s the Bush Crime Family, although they prefer heroin and cocaine.

http://www.facebook.com/SWIGGY1957 John N Swegan

You’ve hit the nail on the head. Besides the vested interests listed above, the drug cartels want to keep it illegal because of the high profits. While there are risks involved, as with any business, the fines, incarcerations, and, of course, the confiscating of shipments, the very fact that it’s a “tax-free” industry makes it highly profitable.

The legal profession also enjoys the current status, aside from the profit motivations mentioned above. Lawyers used in defending drug traffickers and even end users reap a lot of profit as the courts get jammed with more cases. How many other judges are out there that are all too happy to incarcerate that are getting kick-backs from the privatized prison system? There were two juvenile justice judges in Pennsylvania that were sentenced to (minimum security) federal prisons last year for incarcerating young people to the privatized prisons in that state: many of them first time offenders and/or misdemeanors.

War on drugs funding? That money could go to better use. Currently, where I live in Northern Indiana, there are very few mentions of marijuana arrests, other than simple possession. What the local officers are going after are the meth labs. Do they believe that the meth heads will switch to marijuana if it’s legalized?

Since Ronald Reagan declared a “War On Drugs” back in the 80′s, both the number of privatized prisons and the number of people incarcerated have grown sky high.

During the 1920′s and the 1930′s, alcohol was banned, and yet the number of people using it that were incarcerated was minimal. Between the gang wars and the substandard products (such as bathtub gin, moonshine, and anything else that could harm the average citizen) for the safety of our country, Prohibition was repealed. For once, Pat Robinson had the right idea of legalizing it, for taxation purposes, although it would also relieve some of the pressures of overcrowded prisons. More money could be used to determine a more successful for of rehabilitation to current inmates, or the drain on society would be alleviated.

Don Gaudard

Excuse me, but it was NOT Reagan who declared the War On Drugs. Nixon in 1971 or 1972 was the FIRST to declare the War On Drugs. This War has been going on longer than the war in Afghanistan.

Burnusswarthout

actually,it was DuPont who first spoke with congress about getting marijuana out of the way for him to build his business.

Deadheadjason

Actually it was me. I did it. Sorry guys, it just supposed be a prank.
Ariakas77708

Your internet privelages are hereby revoked, now go outside and think about what youve done sir!
http://www.facebook.com/maxwell.tdog Maxwell TDog

no more pot for you,
Deadheadjason . You go home, now.
d=^))
HelenRainier

William Randolph Hearst also was an influence on getting MJ made illegal.
http://www.facebook.com/daniel.poppell.3 Daniel Poppell

and so was Harry Anslinger
HelenRainier

I’ve not heard of him. Will have to go do some research. I’m sure many people don’t realize that at one time, hemp/marijuana was freely grown by American farmers. The whole argument against hemp/mj by the government is so ridiculous as to be uncredible.
http://www.facebook.com/maxwell.tdog Maxwell TDog

twelve presidents have smoked it.
at least three while in office, and all three noted the rejuvenation they felt from recreational use.
Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Abraham Lincoln.
All three enjoyed smoking marijuana in the White House, and in the gardens around the White House.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000111133695 Lisa Johnson

Twelve? I’m aware of BO, GWB, and BC. Who else have you heard/read about?
Karen T.

Don’t forget Anslinger…..the racist.

Ariakas777

True True. Regean did make it a key issue and hammered on it most of his presidency tho, its important to note that. The initial platform WAS initiated by Old Tricky Dick (big surprise huh) and thats VERY important, like you said to identify the length of this failed policy, but if for nothing else but to keep the facts straight also. Good call

http://www.facebook.com/maxwell.tdog Maxwell TDog

Reagan bought a major part of his own demise with his sheer stubbornness to keep the monopoly of steel, petroleum, and lumber free of competition. You see, when the processed marijuana is joined with smoking small amounts, it actually improves memory in Alzheimer patients.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jerry-Glasscock/100000839793110 Jerry Glasscock

It was the Reagans, both Nancy and Ronnie who put the War on Drugs on steriods. Of course the Clinton administration did it’s part to capitalize, taking the “Just Say No” mantra and turning it into the “Get Tough on Crime” propaganda. From there the Bushs morphed it into an all out attack on our civil liberties. Obama campaigned on restoring Civil Liberties but has done nothing but carry on the Bush legacy.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Graham-Organicglassart/100001456398046 Graham Organicglassart

Wait do you know hat lobbying even is? Cartels may bribe, but not openly lobby a politician…

Manifestme

“hat” lobbying?

Asdf

Yea I know seriously.. That’s the number one group.
http://www.facebook.com/cyunvwyatt Wyatt J. Larew

That would be called the US Government buddy they are listed on their 2 times already!

parkimedes

This for-profit prison thing REALLY needs to go. How did it get started in the first place? It must have been during a Republican rule, since they’re for privatization of everything.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000304476552 Chris Vanderwerf

Oh piss off with this left versus right horseshit. We need to be unified as Americans, not separated as parties.

Leon Mayeri

The policy oriented basis of the war on drugs resides in the Reagan administration, but the rapid endorsement of mandatory sentencing laws was a bi-partisan effort. Currently, the Holder/Obama administration is proving they are to the right of the GOP when it comes to enforcing drug laws in states that have enacted Medical Pot environments. During the late eighties, when mandatory minimums became law, the three heavy hitters of the Democratic party rigidly endorsed Mandatory Sentencing and disabled any public input on the subject. Tip O’Neil was saddened at the death of a young basketball player who drank a cocaine cocktail at a party (Len Bias).

David R.

| they are to the right of the GOP when it comes to enforcing drug laws in states that have enacted Medical Pot environments.

You have absolutely not visited Colorado since Obama came into office. Spend ten minutes driving in any town at least ten minutes across, and I guarantee you’ll see more than one shop with a neon green cross.

Brandon R

I’d say you are spot on Obama isn’t right of the GOP. This is non-partisan, this is the rulers (Dems and GOP) telling us what we are allowed to do to ourselves and we are not really owners of our own bodies. Obama didn’t make Colorado what it is, thats the state keeping the Feds in check and reminding them that the states are to be the ones with the power. This is covered under the tenth amendment. Why does the Fed have to be involved in every aspect of life.
http://profile.yahoo.com/BNZIKJQZQECAJ6I7YPM7VIKR7Y Ben Thare

I have a friend who was running one of the largest dispensaries in Colorado Springs. No more after the gov’t shut him down.

parkimedes

Yea, it would be nice if we were unified. But we don’t need to be, certainly not as badly as we need to recognize where our horrible policies are coming from. Over the last 10 years its been pretty clear, Republicans are trying to dismantle our government in just about every aspect except military. They even have a name for it, its “starve the beast”. The idea is without tax revenue, we will be forced to cut programs. Then corporations can step in and privatize the roles the government no longer plays and make the GOP friends who run these corporations rich. We need to be unified in recognizing the evil we’re facing.

Wwhitm7613

Why do you want to get rid of free market capitalism where you can vote with your dollars and replace it with government politicians who will use your dollars to get reelected?

parkimedes

If we had a system to “vote with your dollars” it would not be a Democratic Republic, as the USA was founded, it would be a Capitalist Republic. In fact, when the politics can be purchased by whoever has the most money, its called Fascism. If that’s what you call “free market capitalism”…hell ya I want to get rid of it!
Imajininja

Your definition of facism is wronger than two boys caught naked in the woods with the preacher’s wife. You don’t get to make up your own definitions just because it’s convenient for you.
Manifestme

“wronger”??? NOT a word….
lizken2007

I am not sure how relevant you will see this. But this pertains to the entire thread, no person in particular. More of a question, if you will…how do you suppose we could actually configure our government, and regulate matters of law and socialism? I am merely curious about what your answers would be if you woke up tomorrow, and destiny was back in the hands of the PEOPLE and the government was there ONLY to ADMINISTER our collective democratic wishes. In the smallest of words, what do you think a good formula for that would be to make it work?

Agreed

Chris Vanderwerf – That should become Ron Paul’s slogan.
Manifestme

Telling people to piss off really doesn’t promote unification, do you think?

bugsta

Because when the government runs something it quickly goes bankrupt and runs very inefficiency. They were almost forced to privatise some of the prison systems just so they can stay in business. Otherwise the government would not be able to afford to keep the prison open. Its a lot cheaper to pay a private business to run something then for the government to run it itself.

Simon in BC

This is one of the biggest lies that right wingers try to perpetrate. Organizations can be effective or not regardless of whether they are private or government run. No doubt you are huge supported of the armed forces. Medicare and Medicaid and the entire Social Security program are highly efficient deliverers of their services, much more so that private insurance companies. Meanwhile on the private sector side we have companies like Enron and all the oil companies who reap huge public subsidies while destroying the environment. I could go on and on and on.

Bethpritchett

eh, wrong! My daughter and grand daughter get Medicaid and my mom too. nothing works as it should. outsource companies skimp on providers and services offered. medications are limited. even mental health for special needs is tossed in with drug rehab patients. can’t get any options and people get fed up and just stop trying. its a huge waste of time and money. competitive companies are trying to keep the competition from taking their clients so they offer better services, more providers, less waste. I’ve torked in govt offives. just like DMV, they don’t care. Their GS or union jobs are safe anyway.

Scott

That only happened when they let private insurance companies talke over Medicaid. When it was pure pay per service, it was the easiest, best insurance plan in the country. It was private industry that screwed up that program.
Imajininja

Really now… do you actually believe that bullshit? I mean, private companies suck, but really, you actually believe that crap?

http://profile.yahoo.com/7OKUQ3QPWSYQPNL6RPE5CIWDIA Nick

“Medicare and Medicaid and the entire Social Security program are highly efficient deliverers of their services” – Were you stoned when you wrote this, or have you actually never dealt with these entities? I also spent 20 years in the armed forces: they are enormously inefficient, wasteful organizations. I’m not for privatizing the military and am against privatized correctional institutions, but trying to use bulls__t to support the position does nothing but weaken it.

dali

I just chose a spot to insert my comment ( sorry Nick )…umm What was the question?….you guys are paying alot of attention to irrelevent BS here….quit chewing each other out for grammer…its stupid and NON productive…Big interest doesnt/cant controll it as a product to be taxed….Hell man,, its a weed. grows everywhere very well…I feel we just bypass all the BS and plant starts everywhere….problem solved. I quit smoking dope YEARS ago but i recall & still enjoy the benefits…Im not a wasto. And i could care less if you approve of my typing skills. I just feel its time we progressed past the legalization issue and just started planting the stuff everywhere…then…people that want it have it…people that dont can walk past it…No value…free pot….Dow Chemical goes ape and blows us all up….or….they wont.
Gifforama

it is a fact that medicare and Medicaids overhead is about 15% less than the standard private insurance company

lizken2007

Unethical as balls. But, you are so very right.
Earl Callahan

Except for Medicare

http://twitter.com/SaschaMatuszak Sascha Matuszak

Here is a primer http://matadornetwork.com/pulse/how-the-us-prison-system-has-become-a-big-business/
Jiao

Hey u idiot, the people r all in the same boat wake the fuck up
Wwhitm7613

Why do you want to get rid of free market capitalism where you can vote with your dollars and replace it with government politicians who will use your dollars to get reelected?

TRr

paper manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies
jana harmon

Upholding the right to the planets herbs for healing…whole foods. Marijuana has never caused any harm, or ill effects, it has only increased awareness of it’s need medicinally. Why it is rated as illegal with cocaine etc. is a falsehood and propaganda of the government. The government has always lied. The Police are trained to lie. It is a sick mind that lies and places falsehoods over the people. Perhaps the prisons should be full of lairs….the government be charged with false propagandanating the public from the use of marijuana in it’s benefit to all medicinally. I think that Health Canada in it’s legalization for medicinal purposes is proof that the herb is healing…so is the growth hormone. Proof that we are being held captive by this stupid, lame game of a government.
Phpstolle

how about the oil companies, with only 6% of the farmland you replace cotton,trees for paper pup, and above all fuel to run all the cars in the country.
Sfasfa

legalize tax and regulate marijuana. Stop the senseless arresting and ruining of people lives. Happy high people do not commit crimes!
Phpstolle

* paper pulp… mistake :/
Michaelmaye34

Why do these groups of people have more priority, then millions of people. Doesn’t everyone deserve the right to benefit off of legalizing cannabis , and getting rid of all the corruption handed down with death sentences, Are we a nation of demise, this shit has to stop, and people need to wake up, the old saying comes to mind, whats good for the goose , is good for the gander. Lets change the tides, and put Americans back into America, land of the free, and home of the brave, our right’s should prevail without stupidity. And these groups shouldn’t have the authority, to tell us how we live, because without us, they wouldn’t exist , greed, and shameful tactics.

lizken2007

Hell yes.
Dan King

Stop voting for corporate-sponsored political party candidates. Corporations know your vote can be bought, so politicians know it makes more sense to go where the money is rather than where the votes are. We can change all that by not voting for a corporate sponsored candidate. Vote for someone you agree with rather than one of the two candidates that have sold the most of their soul. Rather than lesser of two evils, vote your conscious. Gary Johnson2012!

Martinmand1r

They all have a little devil in em’

Daveholio

Michael, the answer to your question is simple. Money. Those corporations have far more money to spend than the people do. Corporate influence on our political and electoral process is nothing less than a cancer destroying our society in the name of greed.

Liz M

Sadly, most educated people KNOW that cannabis and hemp could eventually save some of the economy, offer well being to medical and psychiatric conditions, offer a safer alternative to alcohol (I am a mother of teenage girls, I would MUCH rather if my kids are going to experiment that they toke up instead of guzzle down), it is also a much GREENER manufacturing decision for MANY products because the male plant (hemp) has so many uses, and consumes a fraction of our natural resources to produce things like paper (save a tree!), rope, etc. Raw cannabis and the seeds are also one of the most nutritious plants on earth. It could assist in our hunger crisis…the list goes on and on…

Just because the government tells you something is wrong, does not mean that it is wrong. The above article does accurately describe the true hidden agenda’s of the multi-billion dollar mega corps (that includes Capitol Hill). For them, it would be such a debilitating loss of cash. I wish someone would step up and do the right thing, but I worry that there is too much money involved. It is a monopoly of the super rich…and they plan to remain super rich. I hope the power of the people overturns all the greed, and the independent thinkers of the world prevail one day.

Happy 420, everyone. Over and Out.

lizken2007

I am also Liz M…had to figure out to make a profile on here, so I first commented as a guest proceeding my account. Were you guys also aware that Phillip Morris (among other tobacco companies) has purchased and secured ridiculous amounts of land in Humbolt County, Cali (AKA Green Triangle, it is the Cannabis growing capital in the US) in anticipation of when pot is legal? So basically, these greedbags are currently lobbying against the bill, paying politicians for thumbs down on MJ…but they are also prepared to open up shop as soon as those thumbs go in the air? Meantime, the land is not being used, to we are also looking at many miles of territory that could be profitable to someone else. They are cock blocking the would-be production as we speak that could be growing NOW….I mean, talk about your cake and eating it, too! I mean, where are they required to draw the line on this double standard/conflict of interest?

SamWax

Not surprising at all. But I would rather Phillip Morris be doing it than the cartels.

http://www.facebook.com/nichols.delilah Delilah Nichols

Really? I find this statement extremely surprising because Phillip Morris has lied to the public for years about the tobacco that they have marketed to the public. I find it rather frightening that this company that has already taken one plant and genetically modified it to be more poisonous and addictive than it was to begin with, and it makes me worry that they will do the same to this medicinal plant. None of those that you mentioned should be able to participate in the market of canabis once it is legalized, that’s like building a special access door for the fox to get into the henhouse.

http://www.facebook.com/daisy.kowalczykowski Daisy Kowalczykowski

Thanks for stating the benefits of raw and processed cannabis… it doesn’t always get smoked people :/
I’m Belgian btw, how’s my English grammar? :p

lizken2007

It is fine, Daisy… Well spoken. …edibles are quite the healthier alternative, yes?

http://www.facebook.com/nichols.delilah Delilah Nichols

Yes, they are MUCH healthier. In fact, only 15% of this plant is what gets people “high.” The other 85% of the plant (when eaten), has so many health benefits that’s it is very difficult to imagine why it is illegal. But, then again, it’s not that surprsing considering how much money that the pharmeceutical companies stand to lose because this natural medicine could replace many of their chemical based (and therefore artificial) “medicines.”

Liz M

I cannot hit the like button enough times on the above statement. I wish people would do more research to cannabis, especially the ones who are trying to vote against this with a biased and uneducated opinion, It is sickening.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000226680253 Tony Sofia

while your argument sounds sane…it is misinformed….hemp is a completely different plant than pot…it is not male plants…similar but different…if you knew more you would not come across as a person that is talking out of their ass.

lizken2007

Thank you, Tony. I made a mistake with the gender. It is a matter in how it is harvested.
Manifestme

Interestingly, saying “.if you knew more you would not come across as a person that is talking out of their ass” doesn’t help you come across as reasonable OR intelligent.

Pmancino2001

Giant pharmaceutical corps that make billions have to much to loose; if marijuana were made federally legal.

PS: Alcohol and especially cigarettes kill more than any other drugs.

lizken2007

It is all about the money…another way to stuff the jowls of the rich, greedy sociopaths.
lora

Pot of Dreams
Inspired by Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams

If you plant it, she will come!
Outlawing POT is just plain dumb!
We may not know who father was.
But Mother is waiting, like she usually does.

Love and Awe, Lora B
Legalizethegreen

if its green…let it be.Focus efforts on drugs that kill
Skt052000

Surprised there was no specific mention of Phillip-Morris and Anheuser Busch. They pump more money into anti-drug commercials than anyone else.
Helen

money is not real

http://profile.yahoo.com/OGB5ZLXHEA5IYIKCW3D67KWH2M M

Neither is anything you can buy with it.
Martinmand1r

.., but the herb is !!! Happy 420

http://www.facebook.com/caseycaseyjoyjoy Casey Joyce

you also forgot to add the textile/cotton industry
Wosiwarrior

If it was only because of the above lobbies, cannabis would be legal elsewhere in the world other than the US where parts of these lobbies don’t exist. This is just one point of view, only complaining again rather than acting; nothing which could bring the discussion about the legalization any further…

Daveholio

Sorry that is wrong. While the influence of the lobbies is limited to here, the U.S. Government has enormous influence around the world and uses that influence to pressure other countries into doing its’ will. One of the most recent examples is when Obama went down to that Latin American conference to put down any and all talk of rethinking drug laws and to shore up support for the Drug War.

KOOL2HANDLE

We need to take charge of our lives. Stop letting big brother dictate every little thing we do. People need to stop being dubble standerd. Getting drunk on the week end and going down and voten against a class of people that would not harm a fly, because they would rather smoke a joint insted of. getting drunk out of their minds…Its just not right…familys are being destroyed over a plant that harms no one.
http://twitter.com/poishe Sam Dollman

Go figure — all 5 of these idiot, stupid, worthless groups profit by keeping marijuana illegal

Yes, the beer & alcohol companies are against the legalization of Marijuana because they are so concerned our health.
http://twitter.com/judemcdonald judith

sounds right. Time too legalize the non gateway drug that big Pharma does not want us to use.
http://netwrok.us/videos/ Viral Videos

Prisons for profit are a crime against humanity!

Also, end the nanny laws!
Pingback: The Top Five Special Interest Groups Lobbying To Keep Marijuana Illegal - Money, Productivity, Finance... - Sasmuk
Sciencefreak

These people are every bit as evil as those who opposed the end of slavery because they manufactured shackles and chains and whips. Read the book Marijuana Gateway to Health!

dali

People….just start planting the stuff everywhere if you enjoy it…Hell, I saw a 5 mile stretch of Huge ditch weed while on the train thru Mississippi…It was everywhere…This is a weed…Plant it….if you want to use it fine if you dont fine…The big companies and the goverment have a huge problem…It pretty hard to regulate something you cant controll…remember prohibition?…Those bootleggers did thier own thing…

http://twitter.com/sleeplessinva sleeplessinva

The “trickle down” economy of keeping marijuana illegal is far too lucrative than if it was made legal. The logistics of running a cartel, is big business. You need fire power, so you need guns. Who makes the guns ($$$)? Who makes the bullets ($$$)? Who make the armor vests ($$$)? Of course with increase crime, you need to increase the law enforcement. They need guns, too ($$$). They need ammunition, and they need armor ($$$+$$$). On top of which, they need even better gear so they can fight crime because you can’t under equip your law enforcement ($$$). That is just wrong. Think of all that police and law enforcement electronic communications equipment ($$$). Of course you can’t fight crime with out a nice fancy police station ($$$) with state of the art forensic technology ($$$). Those people on CSI and NCIS gotta have their toys.

Of course now that you’ve caught the criminals, you’ve got to put them through the justice system. To properly do that, they need representation, aka, lawyers ($$$). Lawyers aren’t cheap because they spent a boat load of money on their law degree at the best law school ($$$). Of course, prosecution doesn’t come cheap either. They went to law school, too ($$$). Law school is expensive.

After the justice system, comes the prison system. Prisons aren’t cheap, considering that most prisons now are privately own, contracted facilities to the state ($$$). Maintenance, security, room and board for the prisoners cost money ($$$). Of course, you have to equip the guards with weapons and protection, which means more money ($$$).

Just from the perspective of the gun and ammunition manufacturer, they are playing all sides of the game: the drug dealers, the runners, the law enforcement, and the correctional facilities. At nearly every level of the this scenario, there is A TON of money to be made.

I could continue and outline what happens to the users of marijuana but it’s pretty clear that at the end of the day, all you will see is just a bunch of dollar signs $$$.

I’m not saying that legalizing marijuana will make this problem go away, but certainly by making it illegal, there is a lot of money to be made, and if you’re in the business of making money, you’re stupid not to continue to keep it illegal. It’s just good business sense.
wd

all the enemy’s of this country. FREEDOM OF CHOICE. not a police state,
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_75XI574PVHK62VLVC4PW3JIOSU Stop

This country is pathetic. Or is it the people?
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001155612956 Stephen Blumstein

You missed one: organized crime will lose untold billions in profit, so illegal suits them fine.

.Therefore, the state should decriminalize and sell pot the same way booze sales through

bootlegging were decriminalized in the states on December 5, 1933. No longer will twice

as much pot be traded for crack and heroin, and like the domino theory, that underground

activity will be decimated too. Great way to exit from this recession, pay our bills, arrest

organized crime drug slave masters who will be virtually penniless in no time, and to

keep the global drug cartels in check from buying more American guns, and funding terrorism.

Case closed.

http://www.facebook.com/nichols.delilah Delilah Nichols

This paragraph couldn’t be more true. I noticed no one trying to argue with it either. Too bad more people can’t just open their eyes and see the truth right there in front of them, flashing a giant neon sign, and screaming the confession of a liar to blind eyes and deaf ears. So sad. Perhaps one day the truth will become so apparent that no one can deny it anymore, until then, I will keep fighting my fight to educate about marijuana, and to legalize this amazing medicine.

dewdrop

I believe we need to continue to place it on the ballot in the states. The people have better sense than Washington.
girl monday

I predict that marijuana will remain illegal until (and only until) Big Pharma figures out a way to control/monopolize the industry. Then, like magic, it’ll be fine, ‘cuz if the pharmaceutical companies control something, it MUST be perfectly harmless……right?
SamWax

All the more reason peace officers of any kind should not be allowed to unionize. The mere idea that police can unionize is incredibly dangerous, and a threat to national security.

Kevin Schmidt

Really? Got facts, or just an overly activate tin foil hat imagination?

Clg215

thanks for the great article!
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3MLLOZ55LRTHYJFV7AOZXIOHBM Georgann

forgot the #1 winner in the WOD The Bankers

the street dealer is the low end of the food chain and the Banker at the top
Earl Callahan

A large part of of this lobbying effort on behalf of anti-pot people are all the corporations who would not want to see industrial hemp which is lumped illegally by the DEA into the same efforts become an industry which could revolutionize food, fuel, paper, clothing, building materials industries. The prohibition of pot is truly a prohibition of hemp. And so it goes…
Doter4u

for those of you who think that this tragedy of law is a partisan problem, let me assure you, it is not. BOTH houses are corrupt in their own ways, they are simply competing for your support so that they may maintain control of MONEY. they have donors and lobbyists begging them to take their money, to protect them from what WE THE PEOPLE need. do not think that any single politician can provoke full scale change, this must be a grass roots effort for LIBERTY within this nation, nothing more, and nothing less. A PLAGUE ON BOTH THEIR HOUSES.
Wynne Linden

So now…how about an article on how we can fix this? My daughter is facing a too much time in jail over this while a driver with 6 DUI’s continues to go on living her life in freedom.
Pingback: Look who’s getting rich from the war on drugs, and why | American Vision News
A_c_m

The headline should have been, “The top five groups that benefit most from the prohibition of marijuana .”
Danna

No ethics up there, just what to do to keep mine.
Adirondackjdaye

a large part of it has to do with oil and plastics. if pot were to be decriminalized, that would free up hemp to be grown.
That would go a long way towards saving our planet and putting many Americans to work. Hemp can be used for fuel, building material, a much better replacement for cotton and paper pulp, a food source and drugs. It can be grown in every state and would have a beneficially huge impact on our energy crisis.
Gwrtxag

There is simply too much money involved in keeping drugs illegal.Our crooked legal system gets their cut for sure.Can’t happen any other way.
Pingback: The Top Five Special Interest Groups Lobbying To Keep Marijuana Illegal » Philosophers stone | Philosophers stone
Rick King

Please cite your research. The Police and Corrections unions did not support legalization for a variety of reasons non of which has anything to do with grant money or keeping people in jail. In fact you would be hard pressed to find ANYONE doing jail time for a simple possession conviction.

Kevin Schmidt

Please stop quibbling. The jails and prisons are full of non violent citizens wrongly convicted of marijuana possession.
js121

WHAT? fact check time 850,000 are in jail for simple possession with very lengthy terms. Way off base on this one, Rick. Our police make a lot of money off conviscating goods and it’s public record.

Rezzorite

This is sad sad sad.
Jerry Adams

You forgot monsanto, GM, Standard Oil, Paper manufacturers, Dow Chemical, Du Pont. Those are the companies that you have to look for.

js121

All members of ALEC. too

http://www.facebook.com/neworleansreggae Keb Radics

The only thing I don’t get is why don’t Pharma companies just invest in the industry like they do in other things. The profit potential for them is very high and the costs very low compared to what they do now.
http://www.facebook.com/andys184 Andy Symonette

Our government will not allow cures because of population control.
DEA would be out of a job and all that is, is a cover up and to get money for the shadow government to pay for their underground cities and other secret stuff hiding from us.
vagabonder

It is about time that BOTH sides agree on something. Now lets all work together and get this passed, and get a whole bunch of people out of jail for something so silly.
Pingback: The Top Five Special Interest Groups Lobbying To Keep Marijuana Illegal – Florida Tenth Amendment Center
moxaman

I am soooo sick and tired of moneyed interests running this country contrary to the will of the People. It is way past time weed is at least decriminilized and medical marijuana made legal. The government blatantly lies to us telling us there is no medical use for it yet they hold a patent for cannabis extracts. It is completely harmless when ingested or vaporized and has shown scientifically to shrink cancerous tumors. I’m sick beyond belief. Our government is nothing but a bunch of low life criminals in business suits.

js121

ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) – 360+ Global Corporations (every major corporation in America…banks, pharma,tobacco, energy, oil, health insurers, etc) and 2000+ republican politicians ALL members of ALEC. ALEC corporations draft our laws and VOTE on them (they are people) with these republican politicians. They boilerplate the laws and pass them to ALEC republican governors for immediate implementation. You can check it yourself alecexposed dot org We are trying to stop them. They have taken over Michigan and 20 other states. ALL of Michigan’s laws are ALEC laws and the information is out there for everyone to expose. If we ever want our lives back and medical marijuana….we MUST get ALEC out of our politics and lives.

http://www.facebook.com/GraziTheMan Nick Graziano

For those who are concerned about the negative perception that the general public has allowed to fall upon the peaceful and benevolent consumption of Cannabis to the point that you are correcting grammar with the obnoxiously misplaced sense of righteousness of an adolescent teachers aid: You are just as bad of an ambassador as the person who manages to type out 2 intelligible words out of an attempted 10. In the end, this whole collection of comments appears to the outsider as a massive cluster fuck of morons who all are on the same side of the debate, yet are arguing amongst themselves.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmy-Stanley/1496653346 Jimmy Stanley

a message, in improper grammar, going out to all of you grammar tough guys, ivy-leaguers, so called activist. quit wasting your time arguing about nothing. this is an internet comment section.
Steve Dykstra

All of you fools yappin’ about pointless BS need to smoke a joint and chill the F out.
Sdd13

i thinc drogs ar bed cuz peepol teld me dat.
http://www.facebook.com/people/James-Barbaria/100000246041098 James Barbaria

This is what happens when the biggest drug dealers in your country are part of your government. Meaning the CIA…biggest drug dealers on the planet….all for black ops funding. I mean they were created by the war criminal ss officers from germany in operation paperclip taking all pointers of creation from the communist manifesto….The Nazis did not lose the war, they just moved here…
http://www.facebook.com/BeLoveJoy Ben Lovejoy

Add to the list, the fossil fuel and plastics industries, the cotton industry, wood pulp paper producers, Olive and other food oil makers, The skin care industry and of course judges and stinking lawyers.

Bigbob7

Its time for a revolt, boycott alcohol, cigs, anything big pharma, move to a medi state and write elected officials.GROW A PAIR PEOPLE OR SUFFER THE FUTURE!!!!

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http://www.facebook.com/people/Jeremy-Lynes/1142864372 Jeremy Lynes

Did I stumble onto an English Major Forum?
Anyway, my comment about pot is that I think Beer and Alcohol Companies might favor legalization, since the price may drop so much and sales will not increase enough to prevent a surplus of consumer spending, a share of which they may see.
Like Terrence McKenna said, pot breaks down cultural conditioning of a ill adjusted society. That is a major obstacle.
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Russbeecher77

You realize once it’s legalized and sold in stores like cigs the chemical potency will be regulated by the government and mass growth will go to large corporation, Phillip Morris selling marijuana smokes… And there’s still the point of responsibility , just like with alcohol are pot heads ” not pot smokers” be able to stay clean during working ? I’m sorry but injuries do happen just like going to work drunk.

Kevin Schmidt

Once it’s legalized, people will grow it in their gardens and/or in their homes (much more than they already do). It’s not hard at all to grow, harvest and prepare for smoking, unlike tobacco.

Also, the effects of pot smoking are not “just like going… drunk”. Please stop mindlessly parroting the 1930′s propaganda.

js121

You are SOOOOO wrong!! Once it is legalized You will NOT be able to grow it. They are working as we speak to close that door. You look at the Connecticut legalization law….NOWHERE in it does it say that we can grow it. It closes the door – it’s only for pharmaceutical’s profit. Right now, Prarieplant systems has a license to grow in upper michigan. PPS is the ONLY company that is allowed to grow in Canada and is sold ONLY through Health Canada. Watch what you wish for….

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da’ Hoosier

Most Americans agree to legalize pot, including the to be Libertarian candidate for President of the United States, Gary Johnson, who is now a teetotler and tri-athlete.

js121

Why do people think that it’s so great for Liberterians to want legalization? Legalization will close the door on people being able to grow for medicinal purposes. You need to understand that. We don’t want to legalize it if it means we can’t give our kids Simpson Oil at $3000. Legalization is what the Pharma industry WANTS — we want it decriminalized and the ability to provide our own medicine. Stop taking things at face value and dig into the ramifications.

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Karlo

It’s good to point this out. Wherever there’s illogical policy, there’s bound to be money entering some interest-group’s pocket.
Ajordan1969

These lobbies are archaic and should be banned. It is a crime when the average prison term for personnel use marijuana bust are almost 3 times longer than terms served for rape. What message are we sending?

js121

Wackenhut – Corrections Company – largest private prison in the US is a member of ALEC and is behind longer terms. They are making a Fortune off Tilapia fish farms in their prisons. They have impacted our laws on immigration, marijuana, prison terms, etc.. By the way….studies are showing that states that go to their privatized prisons are costing the state MORE $$; but, hey, 2000+ republican politicians that are members are there to ensure their ALEC corporations make money – not about us.

Mariajim1384

this is because they have not finished racking in all the money, so that we all have none.
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http://www.facebook.com/paul.tammaro Paul Tammaro

Truth is the enemy of tyranny. Especially when that truth “connects-the dots” regarding WHO the enemy really is.
US Patent # 6,630,507-” Cannabinoids as Antioxidants and Neuroprotectants” issued in 2003 is EMPIRICAL evidence of the “Medical Utility” of Cannabis. The very SAME government who has fingers in both ears, even as they have allowed medical Cannabis outside their doors, and even they don’t want to hear it
The unvarnished truth about the amazingly well-funded Prohibitionist movement is this; the “Partnership for a Drug free America” is funded, in part by-
Anheuser Bush,The National Beverage Council (alcohol), Purdue Pharma (Oxycontin),Bristol Meyers-Squibb, Lorilard, Phillip Morris,(Cigarettes) Blue Cross ,Procter & Gamble-Bayer, Endo Pharmaceuticals, Exxon Mobil, Chevron Texaco, The Pheonix Police Department, Merck & Co, La Roche, Glaxo SmithKline, Johnson & Johnson and more than can fit here.
My point is that for Seventy Five years, “We The People” have been; lied to, arrested and our FREE speech suppressed, all because of a Non Toxic plant that has been PROVEN to kill Cancer cells.(www.cannabisscience.com)

Prohibition does not, now-nor has it ever worked. Regardless that Americans have lost all respect for Law and Law Enforcement is an unfortunate side-effect on this ridiculous and unconstitutional war.

Our society must change soon, or we will ALL perish.
The “War” on Cannabis is a war on Americans and on those patients who want to use this plant.
Morphine?…Sure!~ Cannabis?..Hands behind your back,……

js121

And, Everyone you just mentioned are Corporate members of the organization ALEC. alecexposed dot org prwatch dot org sourcewatch dot org EVERYONE of them and they already have control of 21 states in the US.

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Darsco3

i don’t smoke weed, tried it when i was younger it made me lazy, wanted to lay around all day and eat doritos. but if you are an adult and you want to smoke it in your own home i don’t see how that is the govt’s business.

js121

That’s not the point. Yes, it is a social thing; but, it’s use to save our children’s lives and help our parents undergo Chemo is Proven. Medicinal marijuana is MORE effective as an edible or oil. THC is good for fun; but, the other ingredients are effective against pain, etc.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Danger-Peanuts/100001911922847 Danger Peanuts

Its all a coersive, extortive, etc., game that THEY own and play with the SHEEPLE! Very sad and God is watching them oppress His people from a plant He gave them for their needs! Genesis 1:29 and others state this! Go to; http://www.edrivera.com & http://www.constitutionpreservation.org & http://www.barefootsworls & http://www.marcstevens.net & http://www.fortuneabovefortune.com & http://www.hemphasis.net & http://www.gerson.com & http://www.phoenixtears.ca & http://www.leap.cc & http://www.pa4mmj.org to see the REAL “truth” they hide from us and lie to us through “public schools”! Get on your public servants/ politicians now! Start amending and nullifying their perverted bills, statute (color of law), etc.!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Danger-Peanuts/100001911922847 Danger Peanuts

http://www.barefootsworld.net
http://www.facebook.com/people/Danger-Peanuts/100001911922847 Danger Peanuts

And please start calling it by it’s correct mature name of CANNABIS as the “M” word is a nasty slang word DuPont and hearst wrangled up to degrade this Holy Plant!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Danger-Peanuts/100001911922847 Danger Peanuts

Oh and help us get peanuts into schedule one category as it also has no medicinal value! And it IS dangerous! It should be a felony to own, grow, plant peanuts! LOL!
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http://profile.yahoo.com/JGER7H5ECI4EV3NJNK3MVMBQD4 john

There is always going to be a divide on an issue like this. War on drugs had funded law enforcement for decades, much like the brand new war on terror will fund homeland security including law enforcement. The negative image portraying pot-heads is not entirely false since just the same as any other group, there are some who fit those flip-flops. Until our leaders own up to their vices that image will continue to be the poster people see, no matter the merits medical or fiscal. The argument of abusing the medicinal use (under guises like some back pain or a little anxiety) also is not far off base either. Please note, I am all for legalizing weed (actually everything since it should be your choice to poison yourself quickly or slowly not the gov’ts), and used it myself in a medical capacity to great success. I believe if the “movement” is going to succeed, then every shallow and deep image and stereotype associated needs to addressed, and closet stoners/users must be revealed as part of a public reality check.
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Alexa44

Wow, many more people care about this issue than I thought. Whether you agree or disagree with drug legalization, our current policy is without merit. It costs too much for the results (the proliferation of cheap guns, the steady demand for illicit drugs and increasing demand for narcotic prescription drugs, the increase of profitability for drug cartels, smugglers, and other black matket dwellers). It doesn’t address the economic problems that it creates (artificial inflation and hazard inflation) nor does it address it’s inability to curve use, abuse or addiction.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-McKinney/100002816246039 Michael McKinney

The War on Drugs causes underground criminal groups that can do business by buying and selling drugs. It is a government made business because no mater how much time or money is spent there never will never be an end to the drug use. If it makes you feel good you will do it. Or at least you have a choice to choose if wish to do the drugs or not. Law enforcement are bragging how they brought down a big drug operation yet within a week operation is replaced and back in business as usual. Did they stop the problem? No. By the time they get done patting each other on the back, the drugs are being moved again as usual. If the drugs were made legal there would not be as much competition in drug sales because it would be legal and you would be able to buy it locally. The drug could be produced by FDA which would be a much cleaner form of the drugs and profits would be legal for the government like alcohol and tobacco. As it is, it is just a big criminal enterprise that that needs to be stopped. These crimes by our government and law enforcement cause more damage because of wrongful deaths of many innocent victims and incarceration of 100′s of thousands of or American people. Besides, everyone has a drug of choice, something that makes them feel good. Be honest with yourself. How would you like your choice of what ever it is that make you feel good be against the law resulting in prison time. Cigarettes, alcohol or your favorite dr. prescribed oxycontin…..

Love our Humans

I agree with everything you said, except involving the FDA with it. FDA/Monsanto/Pharma… they are as corrupt and powerful as you could imagine. Let’s just keep them out of it please.

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Pray4Me1985

Sᴄᴏᴛᴛʏ ᴡɪʟʟ ᴋɴᴏᴡ,
Sᴄᴏᴛᴛʏ ʜᴀs ᴛᴏ ᴋɴᴏᴡ,
Sᴄᴏᴛᴛʏ’s ɢᴏᴛᴛᴀ ᴋɴᴏᴡ,
Gᴏɴɴᴀ ᴛᴇʟʟ Sᴄᴏᴛᴛʏ,
Gᴏɴɴᴀ ᴛᴇʟʟ ʜɪᴍ ᴍʏsᴇʟғ.
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http://www.facebook.com/people/Dan-Zaremba/100002066114581 Dan Zaremba

Before marijuana was illegal in this country, the cotton farmers saw Hemp (in all its forms, THC-laden and otherwise) as a competitor to their crop. I can’t recall the politcian’s name who the cotton farmers “encouraged” to make marijuana illegal, but they were the first group to eliminate this threat to their business.
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Aussieosho

We spend Billions on stopping drugs coming across the US boarder we wast all that money, we could be earning from Taxing it and giveing it to the Mexican Cartels to buy guns, then they kill 1000′s fighting each other so we are really killing more people by our Laws then the drugs. We also are taking Police man power away from stopping violent crimes. So if we legalized Pot and Tax it use the money to education kids. As I can buy alcohol and become a drunk but I choses not to so I chose not to buy drugs your life your choice same as smoking cigarets. The government is not our mother you want to jump off a bridge do it your life your choice thats why I love Ron Paul ♥ Oh in Australia it cost $15 dollars a pack of cigarets and the government uses the money to pay for health. Why don’t we ???

js121

Don’t kid yourself. Police LOVE it being illegal. We have one county here that “commits” to bringing in a certain amount of money off conviscation of property and fines, lol. They make MORE money off drugs than traffic tickets or policeman balls, lol.

Js91355

This thread is proof enough why it should stay illegal….

js121

Yup – especially for the kids who have brain cancer CURED and for those with HIV and for those on CHEMO. Yup….keep it illegal so they can all suffer without it. Couldn’t agree more….who cares about people suffering in the USA. 60 years since Hearst got this prohibition for his paper/pulp industry protection….that’s good enough reason to keep it illegal. Yup…make everyone pay for 60 years of lies…yup…Simpson Oil cures at a cost of $3000; but, hey….let big pharma profit….don’t let the parents grow it to save their kids life. WHAT? no scientific evidence? lol. They have been researching this since the 60′s and so far? It’s benefits far outweigh pills that PhRMA shoves down our throats…..Yup….play right into pharma’s hands…keep people from living a quality life – for whatever time they have left on this earth….make them sick to death with chemo…yup….

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Hockeygirl_130

they should just make it legal. there are way to many people who smoke pot. and if every really thinks about it its not the worst drug out there. i mean look at the people who do meth that drug does much more harm then pot. pot is a relaxer and to help people eat and sleep and its not addictive in all reality ya it does have harm to ur lungs but it does help people function.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Kathy-Legislative-Coordinator-FlDecides/100003453554057 Kathy Legislative Coordinator

This is why all citizens need to be our own lobby group. We all need to contact every representative at all levels and educate them and request they make it a priority to end the war on cannabis. We must be heard loud enough. Only contribute to cannabis friendly politicians and let them all know that. Anyone who believes the war on cannabis should end needs to be vocal about it. Educate the politicians, it is our responsibility to do so. Write or email them regularly, say once a month, sign petitions. Many non-users also believe the war on cannabis should end, they must speak up also. The waste of dollars and lives must end. The arresting of patients must end. It is your dollars wasted on arresting people for a joint. Speak out! Donate to organizations working to end prohibition. Get Invovled.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-McKinney/100002816246039 Michael McKinney

And vote Ron Paul for president. He wants to stop government from telling you what you can and what you can’t put into your bodies. Besides Ron Paul, over half of the US supports marijuana and it shouldn’t matter what or representatives think. They work for us. If they don’t listen to the people then they should be voted out. As it is the politicians only hear what they want to hear and the rest is done by bribes. There were more than enough signatures to have marijuana legalized and there is more and more people who want to stop the drug wars. It is just the people who have been making a living on violating our civil liberties and incarcerating us that do not want to stop the drugs war. They don’t stop to think how many innocent people are killed by using a god given plant that has more good than all the chemicals the FDA feels is better for you.

js121

Ron Paul is a Liberterian. ALEC already has liberterians in their organization. ALEC’s 300+ Corporations will NEVER let us grow our own medicine. They have 2000+ republican politicians as members (public records, public pays their membership dues). As long as we have ALEC, we will not be free to do ANYTHING – let alone grow. Look at your state laws and see which ones are ALEC boilerplated. These corporations draft the laws and VOTE on them before they are passed on the Republican ALEC governors for immediate implementation. The head of the snake is ALEC….not Obama….Obama is not a member. We must fight ALEC before we get anywhere.

Joe

I’ll add another major lobbying group who do not want marijuana legal or a lessening of the criminal penalties-the Mexican drug cartels. Mexican pot sold in the US has accounted for billions of dollars of profits for the drug cartels. The Justice Department is also against legalizing pot for a number of reasons. One important one would be the devastating effect on the Mexican cartels which would have direct negative effects on the overall Mexican economy which is already struggling to survive.

defhigh

Or the American drug cartels who grow it here, or the “medical” pot growers and sellers who have a monopoly on the legal market in states like CO and CA etc..

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=516565726 Kevin Herrington

While I am sure the beer and Tobacco companies are worried. Philip Morris(Marlboro) has purchased some nice farmland in the Emerald Triangle in California, so I don’t think they are all that worried about it

defhigh

Prove it. I’ve heard this stupid rumor since I was in middle school… “yea man Marlboro has huuuge fields of pot all ready to go when it becomes legal maaan” – BS. If that’s true why to they spend millions of dollars putting politicians and judges in their pockets to keep it illegal? They don’t want it legal because anyone can grow pot in their back yard with just a little water and sunshine.

defhigh

Add paper and lumber industry. Pot was originally made illegal by W.R. Hearst because it threatened his lumber and paper industry.

js121

You got that right. All these years because of Hearst’s greed and protecting his industry. Hemp is Canada’s #1 cash crop. Products range from rope to creams; but……ONLY 1 company is allowed to grow it – Prarie Plant Systems. PPS is already applying for the license to grow in upper michigan. They are protecting the ALEC industrialists who are members of ALEC……from medical marijuana patients that want to grow their own medicine.

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Tupac

So, basically everyone who stands to lose money by it becoming legal..

wonderful.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GIT6AVIOLAQHQVEQBVYF57FA6A Kristine

Connecticut is IN for medicinal MJ! Governor Malloy rocks and I thank all those that voted it in. It JUST happened!
Many people need alternative choices for whatever they suffer with chronically and terminally.

Soon all the states will pass it, just like gay marriage. Now we have to pray the “FEDS” do not poke their noses into our state that cares about people in pain, nausea, anxiety, or anything else covered on “the list”.

js121

What part of this law do you like? The fact that it will be the state who decides who will farm it? The fact that PhRMA will encapsulate it? or the fact that it will be sold out of pharmacies? I take it that you don’t have a serious health issue for which Simpson Oil would cure you? If you did, you would realize what the pharmaceutical industry is going to charge us….THOUSANDS for dollars for this Oil – Guess some of can afford to pay for medicine from pharma; but, some of us can’t. Where in this law does it say that medicine can be grown by patients?

814

wow. what an interesting article (confirming every suspicion i’ve ever held about the subject, btw.) kudos to most of the contributors as well. the place that profit plays in our current laws cannot be understated, and is not readily realized and understood by many folks out there. thanks for such an informative post. in addition, grammarnazi and meancommentdetective, in my most humble of opinions you both need to get a life and a serious grip. when i was in grad school i heard a lecture on ebonics presented by dr. ron william, then affiliated with george washington u. his credentials far exceed my own. during a question and answer session that followed, i raised my hand and asked why he was in support of ebonics and yet had used standard english when presenting. i never forgot his response and neither should you. he explained that because he was addressing primarily a white middle class audience, he spoke to them in an appropriate manner, given the setting, etc. while i am in absolute agreement that having hairy highdog is not the best choice for a spokesperson for the those advocating a more rationale approach to this issue, i could not possibly disagree more with your obessive nitpicking within this social context. people who share on facebook and their news feeds do so in an informal manner because that it appropriate for this setting. conversational word usage is to be expected and condoned; in addition spelling errors are generally tolerated. we’re not writing a dissertation here. it is not intended as a forum to make yourself feel superior, cloud the issue at hand, and polarize others by being a smug know-it-all who gets his jollies at the expense of those who contribute. while i am absolutely cognizant of proper usage of a preposition within a sentence, my suggestion to you is to ‘grow the f up!’
814

hey, republicreport.org…how does one access comments 81-186? help!
FruitLoopsAreKindOfMyThing

I hate when people trying stating that “stoners” are idiots. My boyfriend’s IQ is 141 and he loves smoking weed.
KevlarSloth

Please don’t call it pot. Cannabis is proper. “Pot” is derogatory. Stay positive internet.
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blascco

The Tobacco Industry lobby is huge. They don’t want the pot industry messing with their market share.

js121

And? guess who is Very big in the organization ALEC?? Reynolds and the rest of the tobacco industry. Pharma – ALL of them. Prisons….Yup, old Wackenhut, now Correction Company of America – largest private prison system. Who makes our Laws? ALEC drafts the laws and vote on them WITH republican members of ALEC. If we want to win this war…we must fight ALEC….Not Obama like everyone thinks….ALEC, folks, has already taken over 21 states….You want our democracy back? You want MM? ALEC won’t give us anything – just check the ALEC laws in your state…all public information. sourcewatch dot org prwatch dot org alecexposed dot org It’s just a matter of exposing who is behind what’s happening all over America. They’ve been doing this since 1972 — slowly taking over our government. Wake Up America!!

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Cuandoman

Wait, so if I was against legalization, I should just use bad grammar?

Yo dawg, I likes da sticky.
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Wcso409

Why can’t you smoke pot! Why don’t we just legalize everthing and tax the hell out of it and just let the indulgers die off. Don’t cite the old argument of Alcohol because it falls into the same catagory. ESCAPISM!! This subject flies in my head like a swarm of Hornets! I can not even mount a coherent argument!
William Conde

FLEX YOUR POLITICAL MUSCLE, POT SMOKERS UNITE “BOYCOTT OBAMA IN 2012 ELECTION”
William Conde

To declare war on your own people is called TREASON, check it out.
FLEX YOUR POLITICAL MUSCLE, POT SMOKERS UNITE “BOYCOTT OBAMA IN 2012 ELECTION”
William Conde

I see you have removed my comment for
POT SMOKERS UNITE BOYCOTT OBAMA IN 2012 ELECTION

js121

Please realize that PhRMA is a member of the organzation ALEC. The ones who are really keeping MM from us is ALEC – Not Obama. Obama is NOT in any position to change this law at this time. Give him 4 more years and see the difference. It would be political suicide to try during this election process. Reality Check. Electing Romney will seal our fate as he is the “crown” of ALEC.

Lilbob369

God please help them see the light!!!!!! God please make this all go away!!!!! God thanks you for the gift that is Marijuana!!!!!
God thank you for this life!!!!!
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Pascharay

what about big tobacco?
Pascharay

lot of ax grinding out there. in the end there has not been one case of a marijuana overdose recorded in the USA. psychotic behavior. sure. eating a mustard pickle and leftover general tsao’s chicken sandwich, sure, but OD. never. On the other hand over 400,000 smokers kick the can each year and the DEA isn’t banging down the doors of JR Reynolds or Phillip Morris.
Ktjack

“part in parcel” makes no sense. The correct idiom is “part and parcel”.
Michael Gormly

The tail is clearly wagging the dog.
Finrod

Surely the single biggest, most powerful and likley most wealthy lobby group supporting the status quo is organised crime.
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Tsjkc_5

I’m telling you to throw away all Pham. meds. and go strictly MARIJUANA, the most NATURAL herb to heal the worst pain.
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Rfr88

I suggest that you contact http://LEAP.CC , to see what many top cops believe. Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.
The_Inventor

I have been learning, from the video game Assassin’s Creed 2, about the groups that have control of this world (see Wikipedia ‘conspiracy groups’). Truly, it is all about the money, and the power and influence, that is obtained from the spending of that money. Drug companies, drug cartels, and the like, make the most money directly, while the others make the money indirectly, from all of us, whether one is, or one is not, a user of the herb. Most police, not all, see the average citizen as a potential criminal, and not as an average person, because they know that they can get away with the murder or death of the average citizen, no matter the cause of the confrontation, or just for being confronted at all, by an average citizen, they feel the need to put a bullet into that average citizen. While it is true that there many people out there who have trouble with their ability to maintain a minimum of self-discipline, while not under the influence of mood/mind drugs, on a daily basis, it can be said that the use of said mood/mind altering drugs can lessen that minimum of self-discipline. When it comes to the herb itself, it can be said that, that when used in moderation, it has the potential to lessen the violent tendancies in that are in the nature of the average human being, and is the original peace giving plant since the begining of time keeping. Lets face the facts of reality. Anything can be abused. Politicians abuse their power, and the populace, all of the time. They always start out with pretty words and slogans, to generate an interest in their campaigns and their so-called issues, then when elected fall off of their wagons, like the turn-coats they are, and we collectively fall for it each and every time. Obama is just another example what has come before, and what will come again, in the near future, with the current election just ahead. Those who are in ‘power’ seek control, of us, who are not in power. Before you eat you next meal, consider the contributions and efforts of the individuals who worked hard to get it there, so you could eat it, and the energy and time it took to cook it. Life here, in the USA, and elsewhere, where food and drugs are easily available, is made possible by all who cooperate together, without conflict, for the benefit of themselves, and for the benefit of those that consume the goods and services that they provide.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=558091615 Jesse Painter

If marijuana was legal, the Law Enforcement agencies would actually have to go fight real crime…
They are way too lazy for this..
For you, to tell me that marijuana is bad.. It not only insults real education, but makes us all look stupid as a whole..
kjb199

I would be willing to add two more corrupt entities to this list: The Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Central Imbeciles (I mean “Intelligence”) Agency.
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badneolib

First and foremost, plunder is groundless and only leads to further ‘breaking’, whether you like it or not.
Next, we all realize that our sovereignty is at stake, without question.
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Tairyland

It’s always been about the money….Just get arrested and find out how much the county your living in makes off your arrest!
Poopsie37

Such an important topic and the majority of you are debating proper grammar. Hmm can someone pass the chips and dip? This is very entertaining.
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http://richardmccord.com Richard M. McCord II

It’s sad when our law enforcement, prison employees, and prison owners want more crime. Rapists and murderers roam the streets, but our judicial system would rather go after someone for violent crimes against a bag of potato chips.

http://richardmccord.com/marijuana/
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#CannabisResourc

Much-needed analysis, and should begin a discussion of how to move forward against these intrenched interests.
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Linda Ronan

Howard Wooldridge with COP is the only true advocate for ending this drug war issue! He will not waste your funding for this cause. Believe me DC knows who he is but he is only ONE person doing the right thing for this cause. I give COP $200 every year because he is actually making a difference with educating DC and has integrity unlike many others whom are not walking the talk. He is very well known as the cowboy with the big hat in DC and he is making progress with a few honest legislators and the younger staff of other so called elected leaders. MPP, NORML. and LEAP have left me with a bad taste after my experience working with these groups. My belief is that they also like the factual BIG FIVE above also just want to keep their money flowing into their own pockets. This war will never end in my life time if we do not have more people like Howard in DC. Most of the leaders in this country have a character like the narcissistic; I believe most of them are old white men who live in the past and they have the power and money and use it mostly for themselves and their family’s benefit. Ted Stevens is a great example of how politics work in the US. Also what comes with this is the creation of very little or absolutely NO JUSTICE in the legal system! I pay my taxes, vote and volunteer in my community and I smoke pot, I do not drink or use other drugs. I believe everyone has someone connected in their circle of family, friends and acquaintances that is associated with marijuana use. And they are people who are professionals and blue collar workers. Please consider joining COP for only $30 if you want someone who makes a difference.
indigena2

There is a most crucial additional lobbying group opposing marijuana legalization that the article neglected. That is the medical marijuana industry. Were pot legalized, they would cease to exist in very short order. The anti-legalization effort in Washington state is being spearheaded by a doctor trying to protect his ability to make $300 an hour writing prescriptions. He fronts for the industry protecting their livelihoods.
Mikelennox57

What in the world does “proper grammar” have to do with it anyway? Let’s face it. It is currently illegal, it will remain illegal, and no matter how much the pro marijuana advocates want it legalized,unfortunately it won’t happen in our lifetime. I have terminal cancer, and marijuana works much better than any anti-nausea medication I’ve come across yet. But my oncologist refuses to prescribe it for me. So I have to take my chances and obtain my “medicine” any way I can. It really sucks, but if I get busted, hopefully one of the main antagonists “law enforcement officers” will have the decency to look the other way when they realize my prognosis and need for the product.
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William Gallagher

Consider the money made by drug testing too, all the remedies sold, the society created to keep people jumping from job to job…urinalysis makes certain people a lot of money. Huizenga got his start that way and the bush family is in it along with many otheres….even NORML and high times capitalize on this by selling “Remedies” for urinalysis.
David C.

This seems to hit a sweet spot back at home. So, we wrote about it on our facebook landing page, and asked the question… “Do you think it’s ok for someone who just smoked “Medical Marijuana” to be driving on the road?” It’s followed up with a link(which I wont bore you with here), that goes into more details PRO and CON on this. I would love to hear your reply in here, or you can check out the question and comments on our facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/SafetyFirstSystems
Thanks – Dave C-
Avelyne Vianueva

Oh good Lord above!!! Tax it – and I guarantee our country will get out of debt!! Not to mention the crime will go way down. I’m sorry the different “Special Interest Groups” are depending on this continuing to stay illegal – but, honestly – have you ever heard of an accident due to someone being stoned – on pot? Or, a stoner killing someone – on pot, that is. Seriously – people would be so laid back, and happy. Now, we would have to worry about our obesity problem – but still – that is a whole lot better than the crime and killings, etc.!!!!!!
http://www.facebook.com/CapeCodLocal Richard Meehan

Asshole, every damned one of those folks profiting at the price of other people and their families. May you ALL (As well as those you “support”) rot in hell for your evil earthly actions this time around!!
Lbruncke

For Lis Bruncke

Do things go better with coke?
Or is it healthier to have a toke?
Coke comes in oil.
Pot grows in soil,
Cleaning the air for US folk!

Do things go better with coke?
White crystal to snort and poke.
One line or two?
I give mine to you,
For I would rather have a toke!

On the Extradition of Marc Emery (Prince of Pot, Knight of Right and Truth Activist) to the US!

To a foreign joint Marc Emery must go,
For selling seeds so his brothers could sew.
What a bad DEA!
We must get them to play
To Tell the Truth, so our kids will know!

On meeting Jodie Emery (Princess of Pot, Green Politician, and Truth Activist) at a Green Party!

Jodie looks for what is fair and just!
Stand up for our future we must!
Pot is a plant!
Liars recant!
Green leaders be those we can trust!

For young girls and women who have suffered from too many UTI’s and/or yeast infections

I cry for the girls, who have to prance,
While they listen to non-scientific rants!
Do tampons feed yeast?
Who dines at this feast?
Stop the ignorance and give women a chance!
iShitLobbyists

Amazing how perverted the system is. You lobbyists all need to die a slow and painful death. This will make up for all the TERROR, that’s right TERROR you inflict on people who no doubt have higher standards in living than you maggots ever will!
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http://www.facebook.com/people/Justin-Flontek/100003898558870 Justin Flontek

That figures. Not one of these groups has an unbiased interest in keeping weed illegal. Infact, they all benefit from it remaining illegal. Go F yourselves. I’ll light up when I want to!
Steven smoketastic eyre

i bet a good bunch of them sling that shit, and prolly do alotta blow, politicians and law enforcement have theyre hands in everything wether they know it or not, your just inflating prices on the street for marijuana and allowing the big dogs too make more money while busting the people who work theyre asses makin minumun wage alot of which actually work hard for society and who are nice. good people.
alotta of the drug dealers out theyre who sling only sling cause they cant do anything else and have no ways or means too make it by
kinda like a hooker but without the sex part and more of the part of getting high
its the drug dealers who dont smoke pot that u ussually gotta watch out for. or the *THUGS* like all these stupid rap artists out there
CKH

The current president is known to have been very accomplished at pot smoking. And everyone knows he is a very good role model to follow.
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http://www.facebook.com/EvanRowe Evan Rowe

For the guy who wrote “You forgot to add all drug cartels worldwide”. This one’s for you.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=838609509712&set=a.531956664472.2071711.205105403&type=1&theater
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Snakeyes22

and its such a pointless war cos they never going to win the war against drugs they should grow up and just accept it instead of wasting more money for nothing
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http://twitter.com/DopamineProject DopamineProject.org

Money and power addicts do what they do to trigger the same dopamine that junkies trigger with heroin.

In a sane society, the money and power addicts would be in jail and/or treatment centers for their unconscionable crimes against the environment and humanity. In insane societies cannabis users get arrested while money and power addicts are free to flaunt their dopamine triggers and get away with murder in the blind pursuits of money and power (i.e. dopamine).
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Richfurlong66

How about the Chinese hemp industry?
Dark Cyberian Knight

I’ve known some medical researchers want more access to the restricted canabonoids because they believe there are good medicines to be derived.

While far less physically harmful than say tobacco inhaling smoke still probably wouldn’t be healthy.
I can see legitimate reason medically to oppose unregulated smoking marijuana.

I’d still prefer the government leave it up to us.

As far as the police go there is that “we can’t be wrong” authoritarian ideology that’s awfully hard for them to shake. Its a lot easier to blame people than deal with the underlying issues.
W1z11

God made marijuana…man makes booze, pills, meth, etc….who ya gonna trust?
http://www.facebook.com/cyunvwyatt Wyatt J. Larew

The 5 most corrupt business in America= Police, Pharmacy, tobacco, alcohol, Prison, Shocking huh like I said the cops sell all the drugs
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http://www.facebook.com/iamhopebme Hope Jentis Petzel

Well, if your job was totally dependent on the war on drugs, and you didn’t have the skills or the intelligence to find another job where you would be grossly overpaid, perhaps you would lobby against it too. But we are comparing apples to oranges. Free thinking adults who are truly able to think for themselves know and understand the truth. Especially the pharmaceutical companies who started the entire thing with………….Well, read on:

Gateway Drug?
Cannibis cannot be the “Gateway drug” they speak of. It wasn’t the first one to connect those pathways. There was another drug that got there first. It was administered to us by our parents and prescribed to us by our pediatricians. It followed on the heels of what people were still referring to as “THE MIRACLE DRUG”. Yes, pennicillin truly was a miracle drug in it’s day. So why should we not trust our Dr’s when they gave us something that produced instant results and allowed Mom to sleep for what may be the first time in several nights. But the medication prescribed was not for Mom. It was given to baby when their screams from emerging teeth kept us awake for days. It produced instant quiet and let us breathe easy for the first time in who-knows-how-long.

Well, from WWII until somewhere in the late ’70′s, nearly every baby born was prescribed PARAGORIC as an infant to relieve teething pain. Doctors never gave it a second thought. And best of all, it worked. So Moms never hesitated to use it. So here we are, giving all babies, (before their brains are even fully formed,)a prescription that triggered their brain to release that dopamine. And that connection never really left us. Then, years or decades later, the first time we ever consciously got high, that feeling of dopamine, releasing itself, flooded our subconscious with all the feel-good memories that were suppressed for decades. Bingo! Our brains were ALREADY programmed to respond. So, long before we ever thought of smoking that first hit, we were already programmed to respond to ANY drug. No matter what it was. That’s why people, who never even tried Cannabis, can so easily become addicted to prescription pain relievers. The gateway has been there since infancy. So Cannabis or not, most of us have been pre-programmed to love that dopamine release. So, please stop blaming the Cannabis. Let the blame lie with the real culprit. PARAGORIC, otherwise known as TINCTURE OF OPIUM. Yes, that’s right we were all giving our babies pure opium before we were even aware of what the results might be. So, if you are looking for a “gateway”, there it is.

The Cause
by:Hope

Why do you suppose we spend half our lives
in an attempt to feel euphoric?
Could it be because, as infants,
they fed us paragoric?

“Oh, is your baby teething?
(This’ll help you cope with ‘em)
Absolutely harmless as can be!
(It’s merely tincture of Opium!)”
Myrights

I say these 5 groups are******
http://www.facebook.com/derek.s.macpherson Derek Stewart Macpherson

Top five interest groups not mentioned here, but which have historically been instrumental in keeping marijuana illegal: Or should I say hemp? Because it isn’t the fact that you can use it to get stoned that worries these interest groups, it’s the many other uses of hemp they have a problem with.

1. The petro-chemical industry. When companies like DuPont first funded the ‘Reefer Madness’ propaganda campaigns they had started to develop all sorts of useful synthetic fibres like nylon, which were almost, but not quite, as good as hemp. Getting hemp out of the way opened up markets for these new products.

2. The forestry industry. Hemp produces twice as much fibre per acre as plantation pine, and you can get two crops a year instead of one every 30 years. So that makes it 60 times more productive. If hemp was legal farmers could supply pulp to the paper industry extremely cheaply, not to mention the potential as a bio-fuel.

3. The paper industry. They have a cosy relationship with their current suppliers and get cheap raw materials, because you can avoid the costs of planting and tending a crop if instead you just go and destroy a forest that took millenia to grow. Also they’d rather not have to re-tool.

4. The cotton industry. In many ways hemp cloth is superior to cotton as a textile. It’s harder-wearing and these days can be refined to be just as soft. As a crop, it is nowhere near so damaging to the environment, requiring far less water and far less pesticides (pesticides which are sold to farmers by the petro-chemical industry. See how this is starting to fit together?)

5. The textile industry. They know hemp is superior to cotton, but they have no desire for an expensive re-tooling operation either. They’d much rather save money by dismantling and exporting their obsolete equipment to developing countries where cheap labour will allow them to get years more use out of it.

And the one and only lobby group that has bucked the trend and got hemp re-legalised in a jurisdiction where it had been outlawed – The US Navy. In the Second World War. They successfully argued that they needed the rope.
http://www.facebook.com/derek.s.macpherson Derek Stewart Macpherson

Incidentally, here in Australia, where police are not funded for particular purposes, they are just given a budget and they have to decide how to spend it, most of them oppose marijuana prohibition. This is true in many countries. The way they see it, a victimless crime is draining their precious resources. They’d sooner not bother enforcing it and spend the money elsewhere, and this is in fact what often happens.
I_rule

@kevin, you forgot the governments ARE the cartels.
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http://www.facebook.com/maxwell.tdog Maxwell TDog

you skipped by the largest three groups, and that is a curious thing. Steel industry, petroleum industry, and lumber companies. And, as well, road construction crews and companies, automobile manufacturers (except Ford, who HAS a cannabis body car in UK Ford) and synthetics.
Briefly, petroleum wants to continue to sell over 70 million barrels of oil a day (that’s just the top ten oil producers), gas usage is increased with weight, and cannabis auto bodies are lightweight as well as more durable than steel. (Sure, you remember seeing a Corvette and its fiberglass body ruined because fiberglass breaks down under pressure strikes. A small rock can total a Corvette, if it hits the right spot. On the other hand, Henry Ford invited a batch of reporters over to show them his new car made with a cannabis composite body, and took a six pound ax to the trunk several times, and left not a broken strand or hole behind.
(The world thought Kuwait burning 5 million barrels of oil a day was bad (it was) but today, the US burns near fifteen million barrels a day.)
Me

I smoke cannabis pure in a pipe, and I can tell you this: It tastes so much better without tobacco, I’m rid of my tobacco-addiction for about a month, (to fight with a big monster is nothing compared to it), and now I really feel what cannabis does to you… it’s a great, relaxed feeling.
Cannabis is not addictive!! As soon as you stopped tobacco you’ll find out! So don’t let them fool you. Cannabis is a medicine, and I really believe that a lot of people that are suffering right now, can be helped with medicinal cannabis, vaporized, smoked, in biscuits, tea or in capsules. There’s so much growing evidence that a lot of people ease their pain and have a much better quality of life because of cannabis, there are also testimonials of people who cured their cancer with the oil. I just found out that the US-government owns the patent on cannabis-cannabinoids, that is the main reason why there is so little research been done on the cancertopic. As long as the government owns the rights from this plant, researcher can’t do experiments on humans!http://www.dailypaul.com/153097/us-government-owns-the-patent-on-cannabis-cures

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=4ypbNYYMPXg
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Far Savage

IF they spent more time focusing on our Economy maybe it wouldn’t be what it is today. smh
http://www.facebook.com/maxwell.tdog Maxwell TDog

as odd as it may sound, you are leaving off the MAJOR groups…
-Petroleum and Steel industries, as Motive of Canada, Ford UK, Porsche and Fiat (Europe), as well as development in China and Mexico on vehicles made with cannabis bodies (lightweight and more durable than steel) which would compromise profits in both industries.
-Lumber, and not just for paper. While hemp paper is superior to tree paper (which usually must have some cotton fibers or similar addition) more importantly is that whole houses can be made from cannabis, and without cutting down a single tree.
-Synthetics, one of the first to jump on the boat of idiots against marijuana. And of course, but the fact is, synthetics STILL cannot create a product as good as hemp rope, canvas, and clothing, although they DO still make better nylon stockings.

and just below your remaining groups are spinoffs: Road construction crews will have less work (lighter and smaller vehicles), drug dealers, politicians getting money from these groups, China and India exporters, Canadian exporters, as well as the shipping companies they use. Of course, there are many many more…but the sad part is that they represent staying in the past. These are the groups that refuse to believe that man has landed on the moon, and had they been around in the late 1800s, would have scoffed at that new fangled horseless carriage contraption.
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dallas mccoy

A few words is all it takes.
Illegal, enslaving Legal, not enslaving.
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drmaddogs

“Private prison corporations make millions by incarcerating people” This claim is false,,, as is the dollars involved in the other catagories.
Substitute the word Billions for the word millions. Many Billions, in toto.. for each catagory.
Left out is the intertwining of the financial system, market domination and elimination of competition in commercial products.
With the Fiat system having no competition as a currency, there is little to stop leverage, or overleverage, in commerce. As monsanto sells stock, bonds and the underwriter sells CDSs(insurance against Bond Failure) for Monasanto or any other MJ competator, there exists within the financial community and the MJ competators(Pharma, Alcohol and others), HUGE exposure to risk. Only a few points of revenue loss means a great deal, when highly leveraged.
Think of the ‘Scheme” as being one which cannot allow disruption… from what could be seen as a highly disruptive product.
Cotton lasts 1/2 as long as Hemp fiber. Hemp requires 1/2 the fetilizer, provides 4x the fiber per acre as trees, can be grown in marginal lands. Delta-9 THC and CD1 and 2 have little in health threats so the FDA cannot work hand in hand with Pharma to have a padigm whereby only the biggest most well funded Pharma companies can control the Phycoactive drug markets.
Adm and Monsanto own 80% of the seed market for corn and Soy but Hemp seed provides a food source slightly better than corn or soy.
These financial interests(Wall Street dirivitives and washing drug money(B O of A and Wells fargo, both fined, a Billion the last 5 years= only 5 to 10 % of the laundered monies)) and commercial interests Dupont Dow Pharma grain merchants, pulp growers(a number of other sectors als) do not want disruption in revenues.
And they buy your Representatives and associate with the 6 companies that control 60%+ of main street media.
It isn’t that MJ is the ‘devil weed’, the probem is there is too much money in Prohibition.
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http://www.facebook.com/chris.hardee.75 Chris Hardee

Would have been nice had ole’Clinton said in the middle of “not inhaling” or getting his…, *cigar rolled* — puff-puff-pass (the new law!) The world be such a better place, just think…, people would be sooo much happier, all grocery stores would now stay open 24hrs. =)
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Sara

Don’t sound like anyone of those are concerned with health or well being
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http://www.facebook.com/bob.diserens Bob Diserens

Good, Marijuana should be Illegal because of the effects. It is Illegal federally and just because a liberal state says we allow Marijuana, it should be criminal in all respects.

FellOnEarth

By that logic, alcohol and tobacco should also be outlawed. The idea that something should continue to be illegal simply because the federal government says it should be is a logical fallacy, it’s a circular argument without merit. The whole point of this article is to highlight that there are vested interests in seeing that the our drug policies continue to benefit from failed policy.

The illegality of drugs, and the billions of dollars (maybe up to a trillion by some estimates) spent combating it hasn’t curbed addiction, and it’s created two classes in our society. Those that profit from it being illegal (drug traffickers, dealers, enforcement, pharmaceuticals, prison industry, etc), and those that aren’t served by it’s illegality (the tax payer, the poor, the addicted, and the average citizen).

What people like you don’t seem to get is that it’s incredibly cheaper and more humane to spend money on treatment in leu of enforcement (not to mention the economic prospect of taxation). Ah, but then that would make us too touchy-feely and progressive, what we need are hard measures for hard times, damn our intellect (the general ideology of that loud drunk sitting at the end of the bar).

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Researcher

While discrimination against Mexicans was in fact one of the reasons Marijuana became illegal, there were a couple of more reasons. One was that the banker, Mellon, had Dupont as a client. Dupont was putting out products that were in direct competition with Marijuana. Well, it was a relation of Mellon’s, Harry J. Anslinger. I want to give you some information I copied about the history of Marijuana (aside from the discrimination issue). It is taken out of Social Alternatives Voi 14 No 3 Juiy 1995. It is a review of The Emperor Wears No Clothes.

Anslinger was director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, now the Drug Enforcement Agency, from its inception in 1931 and for the next 31 years. His appointment was made by his uncle-in-law Andrew Mellon, owner and largest stockholder of the Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh, and one of only two bankers for the Du Pont corporation. The Du Pont corporation had in the early thirties developed new synthetic fibres which it claimed could replace natural hemp, and new petrochemical oils to replace the enormous hemp seed oil industry. {In 1935 alone 116 million pounds of hemp seed were used in America just for paint and varnish.) Through the successful lobbying of Herman Oliphant, Chief Council for the Treasury Department, the Du Pont corporation was instrumental in the creation of the Marijuana Tax Act Bill of 1937.

Further, Modern advances in hemp pulp technology, and the invention of a hemp harvesting machine, the decordicator, suddenly made hemp a viable, even preferable in terms of strength, quality and price, alternative to tree-pulp paper. It was all about money.

In 1937, Anslinger testified before congress, saying ‘Marijuana is the most violence causing drug in the history of mankind’. (Never mind that this statement has been consistently refuted by research and statistics, and that marijuana has been shown to have the opposite effect.) Until 1948 Anslinger continued with this tack, reviling the plant and its proponents before doing a 180 degree turn to proclaim ‘that marijuana caused its users to become so peaceful —and pacifistic! —that the Communists could and would use marijuana to weaken our American fighting men’s will to fight’. This theory he presented to the anti-communist Congress of 1948 ‘who now voted to continue the marijuana law —based on the exact opposite reasoning they had used to outlaw cannabis in the first place.’

Herer has provided a meticulously researched and well presented volume on the history of Cannabis Sativa. Although it is unashamedly polemic, and is not always referenced thoroughly. The Emperor Wears No Clothes is a fascinating and readable account. It shows the demise of hemp as a story of government corruption, corporate greed and a fabulously successful propaganda campaign defiling the plant as evil personified. The rhetoric of the drug laws has always been alarmist.
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Conner

Great points for educating the public for the real reasons of prohibition. Please, more articles like this!
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mirc

How many other judges are out there that are all too happy to incarcerate that are getting kick-backs from the privatized prison system? mirc indir
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1035376293 Mark Schmidt

You could also add banks, who make huge profits on drug money laundering and politicians and top law enforcement people who get lots of “gifts” to keep the “war on drugs” focused on the little guy, not on the big money people.
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http://www.facebook.com/iamhopebme Hope Jentis Petzel

Don’t forget about all the peripheral organizations involved with drug testing and rehab!
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http://www.facebook.com/robert.rankin.501 Robert Rankin

and you also forgot tha tmany economist’s favor decriminliztion/ legaliztion of drugs
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EdFan

I predict people will start committing terrorist acts to get marijuana legalized, I’m not advocating such a thing, but I can certainly understand it.
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mb

Can I get some good sources for this article?
Jo Anne Fortuna Casey

The timber, cotton, paper, and oil industries could all lose profits when hemp and marijuana are recognized as viable crops!!!
http://twitter.com/MaoZedung Rainer Wolfcastle

It is the ‘drug recovery’ industry that needs to be watched. They lost much business in CO and WA because legalization and they mean to change the course this ProjectSam.
MikeParent

OK, so it’s the people who sell you a substance which has been known to cause serious “Behavioral Changes”, the People who will arrest you, the people who will ” Care” for you while incarcerated and the people who will sell you substance that can and do kill people daily. Now, that’s a stacked deck.
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Görüntülü Sohbet

They spot that error just like I do and it makes me look down on you regardless of how intelligent your message may be. If you görüntülü sohbetcannot spell, you cannot possibly have enough sense to be educated and have a valid argument.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Melvin-Keelen/100003597499500 Melvin Keelen

That’s why I feel like tobacco and alcohol companies have alot of mexico’s blood on their hands.
Liza Copper

I hate weed! It should be illegal in my opinion. I began to smoke at age 10 to the age 16 I never even wanted to try it I was forced to by my parents yes I was forced to try weed my parents where really young and very ignorant once I turned 16 I moved away far away as I could from my parents they never cared about me I was there only child they would abuse me and my dads friends would have there way with me when I was out of it I would get so high I could not even move or remember events that happened the day before clearly this would happen after my anxiety attacks I was druged with other drugs as well like bars but I hated weed the most because I would suffer axiety attacks and I was so paranoid I would also black out my heart would pound so hard and so fast I would feel like I would cry everytime I had to smoke weed and suffer anxiety attacks while I had these anxiety attacks I would panic I would scream so loud for help I would just want it to go away for my parents and their friends it was entertainment to watch my freak out I would not try to inhale it when we it was give to me but they would hold my mouth until I did and if I would blow it out through my nose I would get hit in the face repeatedly ive been burned stabbed raped and I even have broke some bones from the panic attacks I would have from weed I thank God im still alive I I’m 22 now and Drug Free please kids do not smoke weed or any drugs
CBDkillsCancer

Not accurate…the pharmaceuticals have the most to gain from legalized, or rescheduled, cannabis. Between 1850-1942, cannabis was part of the U.S. Pharmacopoceia of medicines. At least 13 American pharmaceutical companies used cannabis sativa or cannabis indica in a vast array of medicines. GW Pharmaceutical is a perfect example. GW Pharmaceutical makes an oral medicinal spray for patients with MS called SATIVEX. SATIVEX oral spray is made from natural-based cannabis plant material and not synthesized like Marinol or Nabilone. Most recently, GW Pharma, Et Al, filed a U.S. Patent application to use cannabinoid medicines in the actual treatment of cancer…and only drug companies and large corporations have the resources to push a drug through the FDA.
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jvervaeck

It´s worth mentioning that canabinoids also cure cancer!! Rather than allowing everyone to grow their own plants, and potentially make the cures for some of the most devastating illness we can get for a fraction of the cost of what the “health” industry charges, they´ve chosen to allow the number of deaths related to cancers and other conditions to continue rising to make millions and billions of dollars

Cannabis Can Cure Cancer: by Robert Melamede,PhDhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=734js8ipRZU

Scientific Explanation on How and Why Cannabis can Cure Cancerhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=75FQKQOKvVM

http://www.cureyourowncancer.org/make-the-oil.html
http://twitter.com/Pepbio Manu Costa

I would love to receive tin joint by mailing. I can exchange a tin cigarrette for tropical seeds. I have successfully sent soursop seeds to foreign countries by employing a stealth technique I myself created. If you are interested, send me a private message manuminas AT gmail do com Thanks.
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wsayscoupgood

Also gun manufacturing. They make the guns the “Swat” teams cities and feds buy for their big showy raids against stoned out druggies to high to even resist. They get to ride down the street on those big trucks that someone has to buy (us????). It is a multi billion dollar business that if we didn’t have to spend federal money on could be used for oh I don’t know TEACHERS!!!!! Federal aid for college at a very low rate…..hospice care for those who are dying……on and on. Instead we spend billions on stuff that usually just sits around waiting for the “BIG BUST” or a military operation in a big city (Boston recently). Oh and by the way when the rights of the Boston citizenry were sumarrily recinded without judicial approval did any of the GUN NUT militia types who are always going on about …”Well when the government takes our rights away I will defend myself with my gun”! Hmm how many of them were marching to Boston to put down the tryanny of the Federal and local police/military. Wasn’t that exactly what they say they are going to defend America from the government willy nilly taking away your rights? I know what happened in Boston may have been necessary and it may have prevented more death but it was not a constitutional action by any means. But some of the extemests are saying it was a “False Flag” operation. So where were they with their big bad guns???? Just sayin.
wsayscoupgood

And then of course there is the Money Laundering kabal/industry! Starting with the Vatican and HSBC in England:

A “pervasively polluted” culture at HSBC allowed the bank to act as financier to clients moving shadowy funds from the world’s most dangerous and secretive corners, including Mexico, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria, according to a scathing U.S. Senate report issued on Monday.
The report [link to PDF here] which comes ahead of a Senate hearing on Tuesday, said large amounts of Mexican drug money likely passed through the bank.
HSBC’s U.S. division provided money and banking services to some banks in Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh believed to have helped fund al-Qaida and other terrorist groups, according to an Al-Jazeera story on the report.
MrMj

I was born PDD-NOS, and wouldn’t be independent nor doing what I have to do everyday without the miraculous plant called marijuana… Actually, it’s not even that, I have found THC as being psychoactive and detrimental, while the lesser active chemical CBD has allowed significant breakthroughs to take place and further milestones set, which is found primarily within hemp at large concentrations…

Ask yourself why are you barring the only cure and real treatment (side effect-free) from helping autistics everywhere, when it affects nobody else, not communities or education.. Does preserving draconian laws such as ineffective prohibition really mean that much as to prevent someone from functionally joining society? Do you really wish that we, autistics, remain dependent, overly medicated with dangerous chemicals, and most likely hospitalized or a continuous burden for their parents?
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