Read this article about the history of marijuana prohibition.

[whiskeytown]

This is astounding - living proof that people as stupid as the politicans we have today existed years ago.

I put it in my bong thread, but it's so informative I REALLY believe it should be read/discussed on it's own merits.

Some interesting stuff? - things like the Drug Czar needing more money to go after marijuana users - specifically musicians and "not good musicians, Jazz Musicians"

also interesting is why it became such a stiff penalty for using. It seems a few nutjobs decided to kill someone and eventually use a "not guilty by reason of insanity" plea - like "I smoked a doobie and turned into a bat for 15 minutes" - and that's the PROSECUTION'S EXPERT testifying to that.

So like all criminals, a few milked something for a defense and ruined it for the rest of us.

I'm feeling a new personal crusade coming on - we've really got to decriminalize this stuff. But that's a wasted effort - cause whenever you get it on the polls, no one shows up to vote till Wed. - LOL

RB

[CardSharpCook]

reading is for nerds. But yeah, the history of weed in America is pretty incredible/sad/upsetting.

[whiskeytown]

read it anyways....put the pipe down for an hr.

Incredible stuff - I like the beginning, where it points out that the addiction rate in the 1900's was much higher, mostly women of middle class, and how it was almost all accidental - no one knew what opium could do to you at that time.

RB

[Dr. Strangelove]

Excellent read.

[Xelent]

Watch the movie Grass. It is a documentary and slightly biased movie that could have been better made, but was still interesting and funny. The producers are pro-weed and there is a lot of history of weed in it.

[Tailgunner]

[ QUOTE ]
Watch the movie Grass.

[/ QUOTE ]

Good flick. May be biased (what isn't) but it certainly reveals a lot of truth about the original political fearmongering that originated (and continues) the prohibition of the drug. Many people, especially the younger generation, don't realize that before Nancy's big "Just say No" campaign that Reagan was close to legalizing marijuana (as was Carter before him.) I'm sure Clinton would have pushed for it as well, but unfortunately it's still political suicide.

Best part of the film was watching the old anti-marijuana clips... smoke pot and you'll go insane, lol.

Really interesting read on that article too, thanks.

I don't advocate selling to minors, but I believe an informed adult has the right to smoke reefer on private property if they so choose..

Vote Freedom of Choice.

<font color="teal">~TG</font> [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[Tailgunner]

Also a very interesting follow-up is the Marihuana - A Signal of Misunderstanding article by the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse; the results of studies which, to a great extent, directly contradict the common public perceptions of, and indeed arguments against, the smoking and legalization of marijuana.

<font color="teal">~TG</font> [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[whiskeytown]

very cool - I'll check this out too -

RB

[KDawgCometh]

the funny thing is that Anslinger himself for a while didn't even care about marijuana at all, and it didn't make a difference to him whether or not it was legal or illegal. The politicians pressured him and he caved and they made the stamp act.

Decrim doesn't solve anything to be honest. It still wouldn't be legal to buy, just legal to posses, do you see how odd that it is and the problems that it would create. Full legalization/tolerance is best. Making a amsterdam style system where you have to buy it from designated places is best. I've always felt that if you kept it to big cities and restricted theh places to get it to certain areas then legalization could work, and more money would be put into the governement(what a radical concept)

[KingDan]

Great read.

Well, this time the magic word -- come along lawyers out there, where's the magic word? -- Insanity. Marihuana use, said the Government, would produce insanity.

And, sure enough, in the late 30s and early 40s, in five really flamboyant murder trials, the defendant's sole defense was that he -- or, in the most famous of them, she -- was not guilty by reason of insanity for having used marijuana prior to the commission of the crime.

All right, it's time to take you guys back to class here. If you are going to put on an insanity defense, what do you need? You need two things, don't you? Number one, you need an Expert Witness.

Where, oh where, in this story, are we going to find an expert witness? Here it comes -- sure enough -- the guy from Temple University -- the guy with the dogs. I promise you, you are not going to believe this.

In the most famous of these trials, what happened was two women jumped on a Newark, New Jersey bus and shot and killed and robbed the bus driver. They put on the marijuana insanity defense. The defense called the pharmacologist, and of course, you know how to do this now, you put the expert on, you say "Doctor, did you do all of this experimentation and so on?" You qualify your expert. "Did you write all about it?" "Yes, and I did the dogs" and now he is an expert. Now you ask him what? You ask the doctor "What have you done with the drug?" And he said, and I quote, "I've experimented with the dogs, I have written something about it and" -- are you ready -- "I have used the drug myself."

What do you ask him next? "Doctor, when you used the drug, what happened?"

With all the press present at this flamboyant murder trial in Newark New Jersey, in 1938, the pharmacologist said, and I quote, in response to the question "When you used the drug, what happened?", his exact response was: "After two puffs on a marijuana cigarette, I was turned into a bat."

He wasn't done yet. He testified that he flew around the room for fifteen minutes and then found himself at the bottom of a two-hundred-foot high ink well

Well, friends, that sells a lot of papers. What do you think the Newark Star Ledger headlines the next day, October 12, 1938? "Killer Drug Turns Doctor to Bat!"

What else do we need to put on an insanity defense? We need the defendant's testimony -- himself or herself. OK, you put defendant on the stand, what do you ask? "What happened on the night of . ."

"Oh, I used marijuana."

"And then what happened?"

And, if the defendant wants to get off, what is he or she going to say? "It made me crazy."

You know what the women testified? In Newark they testified, and I quote, "After two puffs on a marijuana cigarette my incisor teeth grew six inches long and dripped with blood.

This was the craziest business you ever saw. Every one of these so-called marijuana insanity defenses were successful."