Bah! News like this makes me sick!

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Originally Posted by Howard Newell

I remain convinced that drugs are illegal for a GOOD reason.

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I read that hemp was made illegal in the USA because somebody invented a machine that made the stuff more competitive than cotton and of course all the big money at the time was in cotton. The book was on American history and I cant find it right now. A quick search of goggle brings up allot of conflicting ideas. I'll try and dig the book out and reference it.
Anyway my point is that lot of shit happens for the wrong reasons and common sense is not as common as its made out to be.

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Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

... On those rare occasions when I did toke, I made sure I took enough time for the effects of it to wear off (and then some) before I sat down behind the wheel. ...

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And a good thing too because you don't have to be intoxicated to drive like a wild man. ;)

X

up until very recently, the only use for hemp other than smoking was for rope. now they are finding all sorts of "miracle" uses for the stuff. BTW, hemp shirts for me itch worse than wool...

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Originally Posted by MaduroMan_wcp

BTW, hemp shirts for me itch worse than wool...

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They're getting MUCH better, like silk! I kid you not.

X

http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/stori...naIllegal.html

Try here for some facts about he many uses for hemp and a good recent history.

BTW Just in case you think my motives are biased I DON'T USE THE STUFF.

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Originally Posted by MaduroMan_wcp

up until very recently, the only use for hemp other than smoking was for rope. now they are finding all sorts of "miracle" uses for the stuff. BTW, hemp shirts for me itch worse than wool...

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Rope, canvas, sails, tents, luggage bags, and on and on and on. Many U.S. battle ships were outfitted with pure hemp sails and anchor & mooring ropes. check out the historical links the other chaps are offering.

Let me preface this with two statements:
1. I've never gotten high, or drunk for that matter. It's against my beliefs to do so.
2. I haven't had a chance to read this entire thread yet, so I may be repeating someone...

That said, I was a political science major in college and I did a lot of research on this subject. (The result was a 90-page paper, if anyone wants to read it.)

I tend to be sympathetic to prohibitionist arguments, and I tried really hard to find a reason why marijuana should be illegal.

What I found was that the U.S. ban, passed in the 1930s, was fueled by anti-Mexican sentiment and newspaper-driven hysteria. Whether or not the drug is harmful was scarcely considered.

I tried to find studies that show that marijuana is either addictive or harmful to your health, and I wasn't able to find any. Marijuana is listed as a Class 1 narcotic, if I remember correctly, along with heroin and cocaine.

I came away from my research with a very cynical view of U.S. policymaking. In my opinion, making marijuana illegal while alcohol and tobacco are legal is hipocrasy.

Just my $0.02,
Josh

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Originally Posted by Howard Newell

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...032300284.html

Alcohol and tobacco worse than marijuana and Ecstasy? What is this world coming to :rant:? It seems to me the study is flawed by stating that tobacco and alcohol are more harmful than the afore mentioned drugs. I think part of this has to do with alcohol and tobacco being a lot more commonplace than illicit drugs. If marijuana or ecstasy were legalized and became widely used, as much as tobacco and alcohol, I fear they would have a far more negative impact on society than anything else:cen!

Sorry, just my rant for today, but I remain convinced that drugs are illegal for a GOOD reason.

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The findings were summed up as:

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/image..._graph_416.gif

I believe they used 19 indices for judging a drug's harm, which included things like pharmacological addictivness, dependency, physical damage to consumer, social effects on families and community, etc.

The argument is so complex I honestly believe it can never be resolved with a common or standard view/ranking. What I hope is that the various states and governments will eventually look at the issues more objectively than in the past. But with decisions based on economics (e.g. hemp) and politics (war on drugs has overtones of previous McCarthy-type witch hunts), that hope is pretty slim.

An interesting sidenote to this is the growing abuse of prescription drugs, many of which are probably just as harmful when abused as many of the drugs on that list.

Reading about the hemp lobby was interesting; I didn't come across too much of that in my research on U.S. policy. The discussion in Congress did touch on hemp use for rope as well as using the seeds in bird feed. But I thought they made some exemptions for that... I'll have to dig through my files again. Most of the testimony focused on the "horrible crimes" committed by riffraff in a marijuana-induced rage...

The debate on the floor of the U.S. Senate lasted 12 minutes. (This is the Senate, hollowed hall of free and open debate.) The bill passed after a senator incorrectly stated that it had the endorsement of the American Medical Association, which in fact opposed the bill.

Sheesh.

Josh

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Originally Posted by JoshEarl

riffraff in a marijuana-induced rage...

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If my memory of college serves me right (through the alcohol-induced haze, that is), I don't seem to remember 'rage' being the principal characteristics of 'stoners'. In fact, quite the opposite -- apathy! ;)

Anyone seen the old b/w film Reefer Madness? Now there's an interesting lesson in the use of state propaganda.