Why is marijuana illegal in United States?

[MrFun]

[alva]

As always, follow the money.

[SlowwHand]

A question that's been asked for 50 years. Run out of Gay stuff?

[Berzerker]

in the mid 1930s various interests from William Randolph Hearst to Dupont (invented nylon in '37) used their influence with politicians to get a prohibitive tax imposed on hemp. The tax was repealed and hemp was subsidized for WWII but "peacetime" restarted the war on pot. It was Hearst who popularized the term "marijuana" attaching the plant to Mexicans for the racist appeal - the drug war was always based largely on race. With the end of Prohibition we had a bunch of federal bureaucrats in need of a new war.

Now if that wasn't nasty enough, the American Medical Association opposed the tax in '37 and testified to that effect. They were cut off, ignored, and misrepresented; and from 1937-1939 ~3,000 doctors were prosecuted (and convicted?) by the Feds. The AMA reversed themselves in 1939 and only 3 doctors were prosecuted over the next 13 years. The AMA was corrupted long ago, thats what happens when politicians get to make our decisions for us.

I believe the tax was eventually ruled unconstitutional in the 60s (yes, the courts let that BS go on for decades) since Congress didn't even bother trying to sell the stamps to people willing to pay the tax, so they just replaced the tax with a narcotics classification or some other arbitrary nonsense to keep it illegal. They just make it up as they go and the courts dump all over the Constitution...

They amended the Constitution for their war on booze, and even that war let people drink the stuff I think - just couldn't produce it. But they never amended the Constitution for pot or any other drug. One of the reasons for the bogus tax in '37 was that pot grew in many states and therefore didn't constitute interstate commerce...yet... FDR made sure to redefine that to his liking, now damn near everything falls under the power of Congress to "regulate commerce among the states".

[DinoDoc]

Large numbers of Americans failed to find Cheech and Chong funny.

[Felch]

Ask Obama.

[Sava]

I like weed.

[MrFun]

in the mid 1930s various interests from William Randolph Hearst to Dupont (invented nylon in '37) used their influence with politicians to get a prohibitive tax imposed on hemp. The tax was repealed and hemp was subsidized for WWII but "peacetime" restarted the war on pot. It was Hearst who popularized the term "marijuana" attaching the plant to Mexicans for the racist appeal - the drug war was always based largely on race. With the end of Prohibition we had a bunch of federal bureaucrats in need of a new war.

Now if that wasn't nasty enough, the American Medical Association opposed the tax in '37 and testified to that effect. They were cut off, ignored, and misrepresented; and from 1937-1939 ~3,000 doctors were prosecuted (and convicted?) by the Feds. The AMA reversed themselves in 1939 and only 3 doctors were prosecuted over the next 13 years. The AMA was corrupted long ago, thats what happens when politicians get to make our decisions for us.

I believe the tax was eventually ruled unconstitutional in the 60s (yes, the courts let that BS go on for decades) since Congress didn't even bother trying to sell the stamps to people willing to pay the tax, so they just replaced the tax with a narcotics classification or some other arbitrary nonsense to keep it illegal. They just make it up as they go and the courts dump all over the Constitution...

They amended the Constitution for their war on booze, and even that war let people drink the stuff I think - just couldn't produce it. But they never amended the Constitution for pot or any other drug. One of the reasons for the bogus tax in '37 was that pot grew in many states and therefore didn't constitute interstate commerce...yet... FDR made sure to redefine that to his liking, now damn near everything falls under the power of Congress to "regulate commerce among the states".

Interesting. I thought maybe marijuana is made illegal, because legalizing it would empower ordinary people economically at expense of powerful pharmaceutical industry, because hemp or marijuana serves many purposes, such as for food, fiber, fuel, and medicine. Given the myriad uses of hemp or marijuana, if it could be made legal, ordinary people could become licensed to produce and sell the stuff out of reach of the tentacles of the pharmaceutical industry.

[DinoDoc]

I like weed.

Well here's an obvious poster boy for the drug's negative effects.

[Felch]

Why should ordinary people need a license to produce and sell stuff?

[MrFun]

Okay, then forget requiring a license.

[DinoDoc]

They do for booze. How else is the state going to tax it?

[giblets]

The drug war makes it easier to lock up black people in prisons.

[Felch]

They do for booze. How else is the state going to tax it?

Liquor licenses are a great boon for the monopolists who hold them. But they're not good for consumers and they're not something that a free society should embrace.

[MrFun]

They do for booze. How else is the state going to tax it?

good point