Why is marijuana illegal when alcohol is clearly much more hazardous to your health, and judgement?
78588
Blame it on the Mormons and the Jazz musicians!  Anti-Marijuana legislation began because of several reasons, but the one's that were crucial were the Mormon church elders in Utah, and the racists everywhere else. Marijuana was villianized for no logical reasons, just purely ignorant and fearful ones.  \nIt's health benefits are indisputable, in fact I think it could really help a lot of the mentally ill (social anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia etc).  People who smoke marijuana are generally not a danger to others, or themselves.  I don't believe marijuana is a gateway drug at all!  If our government were smart (haha) they would legalize, regulate it, and tax it.\nSince this is not likely to happen anytime soon (it's too damn simple), we get stuck smoking in our closets, while the drunkards go barhopping legally.
853053
A little known and forgotten fact: Marijuana wasn't illegal until the 1930's during Prohibition when booze was made illegal.\n\nBooze kills brain cells, where grass only puts them to sleep for awhile and relaxes the person.\n\nI say if she isn't pushing this onto others, then it should be her choice.  Only advise her that if she has too much in her possession,and gets caught is is still illegal.
222593
I don't smoke and don't use it, but marijuana is so much less dangerous than tobacco and alcohol, that it's just crazy not to have it legalized. I'd much rather see people smoking pot than people drunk from alcohol. They're much less dangerous, both to themselves and to society, and they cause much less damage to their bodies. It's harder to get addicted to marijuana than to regular cigarettes or alcohol, too. \nBesides, the hemp plant is so incredibly useful: You can use it to make fabrics, and medication, skin care, fuel, paper and tons of other products. All this at a much lower cost than producing the same producta from wood, cotton or petrolium. \nOne man in Germany built a car entirely out of Hemp, that runs on Hemp too. Imagine what that would do for the invironment!\nThe growers of cotton and wood had a huge campain against Hemp plants, fearing that the cheap easy to grow plant would take away thier income. That's why it was banned. It's all politics.
49636
Why is it so important for so many people to intrude into the lives of others?  A better question to ask other than "Why should it be leagalized?" is "Why is it illegal?"  Why has the government decided that some drugs (alchohol, nicotiene, caffiene) should be legal for unregulated consumption, and a basically harmless soft drug like marijuana with debatable medicinal benifits is demonized and thrown into the same catagory as herion and cocaine which like alchohol have ruined millions of lives and killed millions of people?\n\nWhy are you so concerned with what people do with their personal time?
810403
it is illegal because it has to many uses and is far cheaper than what is currently available and so the big company's never want it to become legal but here is the real info.\nWhy is Marijuana Illegal\n\nMany people assume that marijuana was made illegal through some kind of process involving scientific, medical, and government hearings; that it was to protect the citizens from what was determined to be a dangerous drug.\n\nThe actual story shows a much different picture. Those who voted on the legal fate of this plant never had the facts, but were dependent on information supplied by those who had a specific agenda to deceive lawmakers. You'll see below that the very first federal vote to prohibit marijuana was based entirely on a documented lie on the floor of the Senate.\n\nYou'll also see that the history of marijuana's criminalization is filled with:\n\n    * Racism\n    * Fear\n    * Protection of Corporate Profits\n    * Yellow Journalism\n    * Ignorant, Incompetent, and/or Corrupt Legislators\n    * Personal Career Advancement and Greed\n\nThese are the actual reasons marijuana is illegal.\n\nA picture named leaf.gif Background\n\nFor most of human history, marijuana has been completely legal. It's not a recently discovered plant, nor is it a long-standing law. Marijuana has been illegal for less than 1% of the time that it's been in use. Its known uses go back further than 7,000 B.C. and it was legal as recently as when Ronald Reagan was a boy.\n\nThe marijuana (hemp) plant, of course, has an incredible number of uses. The earliest known woven fabric was apparently of hemp, and over the centuries the plant was used for food, incense, cloth, rope, and much more. This adds to some of the confusion over its introduction in the United States, as the plant was well known from the early 1600's, but did not reach public awareness as a recreational drug until the early 1900's.\n\nAmerica's first marijuana law was enacted at Jamestown Colony, Virginia in 1619. It was a law "ordering" all farmers to grow Indian hempseed. There were several other "must grow" laws over the next 200 years (you could be jailed for not growing hemp during times of shortage in Virginia between 1763 and 1767), and during most of that time, hemp was legal tender (you could even pay your taxes with hemp -- try that today!) Hemp was such a critical crop for a number of purposes (including essential war requirements - rope, etc.) that the government went out of its way to encourage growth.\n\nThe United States Census of 1850 counted 8,327 hemp "plantations" (minimum 2,000-acre farm) growing cannabis hemp for cloth, canvas and even the cordage used for baling cotton.\n\nThe Mexican Connection\n\nIn the early 1900s, the western states developed significant tensions regarding the influx of Mexican-Americans. The revolution in Mexico in 1910 spilled over the border, with General Pershing's army clashing with bandit Pancho Villa. Later in that decade, bad feelings developed between the small farmer and the large farms that used cheaper Mexican labor. Then, the depression came and increased tensions, as jobs and welfare resources became scarce.\n\nOne of the "differences" seized upon during this time was the fact that many Mexicans smoked marijuana and had brought the plant with them.\n\nHowever, the first state law outlawing marijuana did so not because of Mexicans using the drug. Oddly enough, it was because of Mormons using it. Mormons who traveled to Mexico in 1910 came back to Salt Lake City with marijuana. The church was not pleased and ruled against use of the drug. Since the state of Utah automatically enshrined church doctrine into law, the first state marijuana prohibition was established in 1915. (Today, Senator Orrin Hatch serves as the prohibition arm of this heavily church-influenced state.)\n\nOther states quickly followed suit with marijuana prohibition laws, inclu
798840
Although I don't support it, the war on drugs is not over, it continues to this day.\nI do think they need to change the definition of illegal substances. Pot is not any more harmful than beer. throwing people in jail for having a small quantity of pot is ludicris. It overcrowds the jails and bogs down the system, it also destroys lives. A person caught with a few grams of pot is considered a criminal like a person caught with a pound of heroin. It's a joke (the war on drugs).
95932
I could not possibly agree more with you. People are so reluctant to legalize marijuana because it has such a bad reputation. Of course, it gets that reputation because it is illegal and people pass judgment on it based solely on that fact. If you stop looking at the actual legality of it and just think about it morally it is a vice no worse than many others that americans find perfectly acceptable. Anything can be abused. People abuse alcohol, cigarettes, fast food, gambling and countless things which are perfectly legal and socially acceptable, but somehow so many people think smoking weed is just wrong.\nI can hardly see how continuing to make it illegal will benefit anyone. It only allows drug dealers to set the standards of production/regulation etc. all the while evading taxes. Making it illegal probably does not really curtail the use of the drug either. Did prohibition curtail the use of alcohol? nope. did it increase crime? yes.\nLegalize it and regulate it. Everyone wins. The potheads won't have to worry about getting locked up. The government can make some more cash. And we won't continue to whaste our time prosecuting potheads and enforcing rediculous laws that combat marijuana use at the expense of taxpayer's dollars.\n\naside from these reasons, weed just isn't that bad. It is not physically addictive (as is alcohol/tobacco), it does not have the reputation of making people violent/abusive (as does alcohol), it is not as closely associated with recklessness (as is alcohol) and when was the last time you threw up or had a hangover from smoking some weed? never.\n\nLegalize it!!
1133633
As I have experienced both marijuana and alcohol I have the knowledge and first hand experience to make an educated decision.\n\nMarijuana should be legalized.  If not, then alcohol should be illegal.  You are never going to so stoned on marijuana that you will be falling over, can't walk let alone stand up, can't speak or hold a conversation, pass out not remember anything, wake up puking your guts out like on alcohol.\n\nIt has many benifits and medical uses (such as glocoma, arthritis, eating disorders, pain) and would make the government legallizing it lots of money.
1153668
I think it is something that needs to be done.  We have all sorts of highly addictive and dangerous drugs that are legal-vicodin, percoset, oxycotin....It may take longer for it to be legalized for recreational use, but is it really any worse than alcohol?  I know of MANY more lives ruined by alcohol than marijuana.
455222
Heres a link to an article on the "conspiracy"...Otherwise known as the real reason pot is illegal.\n\nhttp://www.world-mysteries.com/marijuana1.htm\n\n\nPeace
434337
Well in a free society, where your freedom ends where mine begins, there is no justification for banning marijuana at all. You know all the arguments. People die from alcohol, while nobody has ever died from marijuana. Marijuana does not normally cause violent mood swings as alcohol often does. There are dozens of good reasons to legalize it.\n\nAlso, if you legalize it, the DEA would be free to spend more resources stopping meth labs, and crack houses, and heroin, which are the drugs that truly damage society. There are millions of people in the USA who are chronic pot smokers. They'll never stop. They pay taxes, they obey the speed limit. They are not criminals, but criminals benefit from selling dope. Why not legalize it and put them out of business?\n\nI know many people who smoke marijuana on some level. Either every day, once a week, or maybe once a year. I know for a fact that the laws have nothing to do with their decision. Their 'pot-intake' would not change if it was legal.
1742
Because alcohol contains only alcohol. The effects upon the brain are well known and documented. Marijuana, on the other hand, has hundreds of chemicals, each possibly interacting with the other(s) in ways not yet researched. For instance, a well-known drug test involves snipping off a bit of your hair. if you smoked pot even six months ago, traces of it remain detectible as part of the hair itself, vs. the kidneys elimination if all traces of alcohol from the body within 48 hours. Also, it is suspected that pot may alter the body's DNA, so long-term chronic effects are still unknown.
310667
Alcohol is more harmful to the human body. Marijuana is illegal because it is a drug and the government can't make any money off of it. If it were legalized, the revenue from it would be the releif that this country has been in need of for too many years. We have many legal drugs that are way more harmful and yet they are used every day. Pot makes you mello. I think it should be legalized, and sold like cigarettes. This would eliminate the drug dealers and make things safer. The gov must be in with the drug dealers... we go to jail and they are at fault for allowing this to happen.  Any body think this is true?
604976
I wonder if the people that say marijuana is so terrible have ever tried it before.  It's by FAR better than alcohol, alcohol turns people mean, makes them puke, and get's them into strangers beds, When have you ever seen a high person doing any of the above???....Exactly!
605014
Marijuana is illegal for political reasons. It has nothing to do with safety.
676456
Yes...Maybe not legal to sell, but to smoke. I would hate the taxing on it, and the potency or effect would be screwed up with all the chemicals that they use for tobacco and $hit. I think just not busting people for smoking it would be nice. Both Alcohol and Tobacco cause more deaths than Marijuana. No one has died from Marijuana unless they had been allergic to it or something, or it was laced. The only deaths from Marijuana are the mental incapability ones, and Alcohol still tops those...So it should be legalized, but in the end that may do more harm then good.
18763
This is why Cannabis is illegal, I guess.