legalization of cannabis and hemp

"Which is why we need to protect them from themselves." Should you sit in judgment of all and decide who is capable of self-governance and who needs a guiding light from above? Your statement here suggests that somehow you know what is good for me better than I do for myself. "Is it not cruel to allow a mentally ill person to mutilate themselves?" Yes, of course it is. This is due to the fact that they cannot physically function because of a mental disability. You are comparing the mentally disabled to normal and properly functioning human beings. No, not everyone makes the right decision all the time, this is only natural, for none of us are "God" and failure has been the stepping stone for success since the dawn of time. But to rationalize control over what a person can do by comparing normally functioning persons to the mentally handicapped is ludicrous. There is absolutely a difference between preventing a handicapped person from harm they are absolutely unable to do themselves and preventing a totally rational person from making the choice based on facts and their own knowledge to participate in something that is potentially harmful to them. Of course democracy is a far cry from true freedom. It is yet another system of control that allows for misuse. I had brought up the point of the dystopian novels to demonstrate the fact that the government is in more control than people give them credit for. Say that this proposition to legalize cannabis is put on November's ballot and it is more than likely going to be voted into law. Who doesn't believe that certain parties would not bribe, threaten and otherwise coerce the governor to veto the new bill? This is the real reason that it is illegal today. The first laws against the cannabis drugs were passed with little public attention. Concern about marijuana was related primarily to the fear that marijuana use would spread, even among whites, as a substitute for the opiates. In 1925 United States supported regulation of Indian hemp, Cannabis for use as a drug, in the International Opium Convention. W.W. WILLOUGHBY: OPIUM AS AN INTERNATIONAL PROBLEM, BALTIMORE, THE JOHNS HOPKINS PRESS, 1925 Indeed, Anslinger did not himself consider marijuana a serious threat to American society until in the fourth year of his tenure (1934), at which point an anti-marijuana campaign, aimed at alarming the public, became his primary focus as part of the government's broader push to outlaw all drugs. ROOSEVELT ASKS NARCOTIC WAR AID, 1935 By using the mass media as his forum (receiving much support from William Randolph Hearst), Anslinger propelled the anti-marijuana sentiment from the state level to a national movement. Writing for The American Magazine, the best examples were contained in his "Gore File", a collection of quotes from police reports, by later opponents described as police-blotter-type narratives of heinous cases, most with no substantiation, linking graphically depicted offenses with the drug. Anslinger used sometimes the very brief and concise language in many police reports when he wrote about drug crimes: "An entire family was murdered by a youthful addict in Florida. When officers arrived at the home, they found the youth staggering about in a human slaughterhouse. With an axe he had killed his father, mother, two brothers, and a sister. He seemed to be in a daze… He had no recollection of having committed the multiple crime. The officers knew him ordinarily as a sane, rather quiet young man; now he was pitifully crazed. They sought the reason. The boy said that he had been in the habit of smoking something which youthful friends called "muggles," a childish name for marijuana." Victor Licata Research by Uncle Mike Anslinger has been accused responsible for racial themes in articles against marijuana in the 1930s. "There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others." "Colored students at the Univ. of Minn. partying with (white) female students, smoking [marijuana] and getting their sympathy with stories of racial persecution. Result: pregnancy" Gray, Michael (1998). Drug Crazy: How We Got Into this Mess and How We Can Get Out. Random House. Inciardi, James A. (1986). The War on Drugs: Heroin, cocaine, crime, and public policy. Palo Alto: Mayfield Publishing Company. pp. 231. The decision of the United States Congress to pass the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was based on hearings, reports and in part on testimony derived from articles in newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst, who had significant financial interests in the timber industry, which manufactured his newsprint. "Additional Statement of H.J. Anslinger, Commissioner of Narcotics" The La Guardia Committee was the first in depth study into the effects of smoking marijuana. It systematically contradicted claims made by the U.S. Treasury Department that smoking marijuana results in insanity, deteriorates physical and mental health, assists in criminal behavior and juvenile deliquency, is physically addictive, and is a "gateway" drug to more dangerous drugs. The report was prepared by the New York Academy of Medicine, on behalf of a commission appointed in 1939 by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia who was a strong opponent of the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act . Released in 1944, the report infuriated Harry Anslinger who was campaigning against marijuana and he condemned it as unscientific. Anslinger went on an offensive against what he saw as a "degenerate Hollywood" that was promoting marijuana use. HARRY J. ANSLINGER: The Murderers THE STORY OF THE NARCOTIC GANGS, 1962 These are the findings of the La Guardia Committee: * 1 Marijuana is used extensively in the Borough of Manhattan but the problem is not as acute as it is reported to be in other sections of the United States. * 2 The introduction of marijuana into this area is recent as compared to other localities. * 3 The cost of marijuana is low and therefore within the purchasing power of most persons. * 4 The distribution and use of marijuana is centered in Harlem. * 5 The majority of marijuana smokers are Blacks and Latin-Americans. * 6 The consensus among marijuana smokers is that the use of the drug creates a definite feeling of adequacy. * 7 The practice of smoking marijuana does not lead to addiction in the medical sense of the word. * 8 The sale and distribution of marijuana is not under the control of any single organized group. * 9 The use of marijuana does not lead to morphine or heroin or cocaine addiction and no effort is made to create a market for these narcotics by stimulating the practice of marijuana smoking. * 10 Marijuana is not the determining factor in the commission of major crimes. * 11 Marijuana smoking is not widespread among school children. * 12 Juvenile delinquency is not associated with the practice of smoking marijuana. * 13 The publicity concerning the catastrophic effects of marijuana smoking in New York City is unfounded. No I do not dispute the fact that there is a danger, as there is inherent danger in leaving one's bed in the morning. No I do not dispute that prohibition will naturally reduce the consumers of a substance. What I do dispute is the legitimacy of the government to continue the unfair prohibition of a substance proved to be less detrimental than legal substances. It always boils down to the fact that a plethora of unhealthy and harmful substances are legal and this one should not be illegal based on the current reasoning which is based not on truth. If you would like your revamp of society and our constitution, take it up with congress and let me know how it goes.