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| Taxes and marijuana
Posted: 6/2/2008 9:40:27 PM | Have known more people who have died from alcohol than any other drug, never has anyone I know, or even heard of, died from marijuana.
It should not be illegal, but it will never be legal because it steps on too many corporations toes.
Hemp oil would cut into big oil's profits
Hemp would cut into cotton's profits
Marijuana would cut into big pharma's profits
Marijuana would cut into alcohol's profits
Hemp would cut into paper and wood chip's profits
Prisons make money off housing inmates
So you see, these are powerful lobbies. They will keep buying off politicians, prisons will not want to let go of their 'clients' who taxpayers pay to house.
It should be legal, and a mandatory dietary supplement for the human race. But, I's learned to take a broad general view of things, and in government, if something doesn't work, it's all the reason to keep doing it. | |
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| Taxes and marijuana
Posted: 6/3/2008 3:07:21 AM | The possession and use of this drug has effectively been de-criminalised here in the UK and many other European countries. There are now many bars where this drug is discreetly used and in my experience tend to be relaxed and friendly places and it's use is widely tollerated even by those of us who do not use it.
As many people have stated, there are lots of uses for hemp and the one I most stongly advocate us using it for is as an alternative to plastic. The environmental damage being done to the oceans by plastics is truely frightening with many precious and irreplaceable corals and other marine eco systems being destroyed daily.
Some of the worst examples of this can be seen on the Island of Medway in the Pacific. Millions upon millions of tonnes of plastic waste floating towards this island will undoubtedly see this beautiful paradise turned into a lifeless wasteland soon. This problem is not confined to the pacific either, it has been estimated recently that there are 110 items of plastic pollution for every 100 metres of British coastline. This number is increasing daily. Using plastics made from hemp would be a massive help to those who are trying to do something about this ecological disaster.
The criminalisation of this, and other drugs, only goes to put money into the hands of criminals and terrorist. Drugs and drug money turn parts of our cities and towns into places more frightening and dangerous than some war zones as rival gangs compete for the riches drugs bring.
The money generated, together with the billions of pounds / dollars spent trying to combat it's use could have done a great amount of good in our societies had we been less concerned with what other people did for recreation and been more realistic about drugs. Nothing we have every done has stopped the market in illegal drugs and basic economic supply / demand shows that we never will.
If this product and the money it generates can be used to the benefit of everyone then not to do so seems to me to be foolish and stubborn. 75,000 people each year die here in the UK from smoking related illnesses and significantly more die from alcohol related illnesses. The cost to our health services is astronomical and yet we find those drugs acceptable in our society. It seems logical to me that the use of marijuana, heroin, cocaine or any other illegal substance should be made available to those who wish to use them through carefully controlled outlets.
If someone I know and love became addicted to any of these drugs then personally I would prefer that the drugs they used were not mixed with rat poisons and other substances, that their usage was able to be monitored, that the money they spent went towards providing education and support and that the criminals in our societies had their primary source of income removed from them.
If someone wants to get high thats their personal choice. No-one makes them do it and we gain nothing from criminalising them and forcing them to turn to crime to pay for their addictions. Our current strategies are lose / lose. We need to try and get to a win/win and then we all benefit. | |
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