TIME TO UN-DEMONIZE MARIJUANA

Marijuana has been illegal for the better part of a century now, and
the time has finally come to remove it from the hit list. There are
many reasons why it has been made illegal, all of which have been
based on false propaganda.

Have you ever seen the 1936 movie "Reefer Madness?" It's been a few
years, but if I recall correctly, there are a handful of teenagers
that get together after school, start smoking weed, and end up
throwing wild and crazy parties, where they dance uncontrollably to
the "satanic jazz and swing music." Eventually they all start going
mad, turning into homicidal psychopaths, rapists, and deranged
lunatics. I seem to remember one gal going nuts and throwing herself
out of a whatever-story window. Intended as a scare-movie, this film
unrealistically portrayed the effects of becoming addicted to the
"devil weed."

"Why did they do that?" you wonder out loud as you read this. It's
funny you should ask that.

It turns out that cotton tycoon lobbyists had the right friends
(doesn't it always boil down to that?) in Washington, and in 1937
Congress passes the Marijuana Tax Act, placing a heavy tariff on the
hemp plant. Ironically, it was around the same time the movie came
out.

When the Feds banded together to make it illegal for the first time in
American history, the FBI director at the time, Harry J. Anslinger,
testified against the hemp plant. He was quoted as saying things like
"It is the most violent causing drug in the history of mankind", and
"it causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes." Now,
honestly, have you ever met a violent stoner? The most aggressive a
man can get while high would be to knife a bag of potato chips after
unsuccessfully trying to open it the conventional way.

The whole "gateway drug" thing is bogus, too. The U.S. Government's
own statistic on the issue is this: "over 75 percent of Americans who
use Cannabis never use hard drugs." By the way, are Prozac and Ritalin
considered hard drugs? They should be.

Our history is littered with sad stories of productive members of
society being incarcerated for long-tem sentences, whose crime was
possession of a few ounces of "the weed from Hell." Locking up a guy
who smokes pot with hardened criminals is like throwing him to the
wolves. Once they go through the system, they don't come out the same.
Plus, it's a waste of taxpayer money.

Did you know the first two drafts of the Declaration of Independence
were written on hemp paper, and the first American flag was sewn with
hemp cloth? I'm calling that ironic. I'm going to save you the whole
spiel about how marijuana is medicinal, because we all know it's true.
I'll also not tell you that it is a more ecologically friendly and
self-sustaining plant that can produce a stronger product than it's
rival, King Cotton. The last thing I won't tell you is to vote for it
in a month. Legalizing marijuana for personal use will have no
negative impact on our society, unless you own stock in the cotton
oil, or lumber industries, hence the whole Big Lie that made it
illegal in the first place. Vote YES on Amendment 44, and while you're
at it, vote NO on 43, but we'll talk about that one later.