A brief history of Marijuana Prohibition in honor of 4/20

[Logic]

3 minutes ago, DC Tom said:

 

"Near-perfect."

 

You partake, I take it?

 

I reserve substantive discussion for those capable of it.  You're not.  As usual, you lack yourself.  

The usual DC Tom response when he's caught talking out of his ass: arrogance and an assumed stance of intellectual superiority. You're like a parody of yourself.

Edited April 20, 2019 by Logic

[The Senator]

2 minutes ago, DC Tom said:

You partake, I take it?

 

Occasionally.  Used to daily in high school, where I graduated with a 4.0, and college, where I graduated with honors.  

 

Slowed down in my 30s and 40s, by 50 it became a rare event.

 

Now, as a cancer patient, I’ve picked up a bit, and can’t wait til it’s legal.  If I still lived in California, I’d have had a 420 card years ago.

.

[Augie]

I’m sure this is going to go very well. 

[BillsFan4]

2 hours ago, Logic said:

In honor of today's date, let's take a moment to discuss the two guys below: Harry J Anslinger on the left and William Randolph Hearst on the right. I promise it'll be interesting and informative, and maybe give you something to do while you poop or avoid your loved ones.

Just look at these guys. First, Anslinger: Harry Anslinger was the head of the Federal Bureau of Drugs and Narcotics in the U.S. during the years of alcohol prohibition. After years of claiming that cannabis was completely harmless, a funny thing happened -- alcohol prohibition ended, leaving Anslinger's department largely without purpose. Deciding they needed a NEW money-making venture and way of keeping their department staffed, they endeavored to demonize and illegalize the cannabis plant. They began creating propaganda calling cannabis "the devil's drug!" and stating "It kills sons and steals daughters!". They even created a new, racist term for the plant: Marijuana. This term allowed the propagandists to play into America's xenophobia by tying the plant to alleged crime committed by Mexican-American and African-American populations. A popular claim of the day was that "black Jazz Musicians" would smoke cannabis, become violent, and then storm from house to house, stealing and raping white women. Really. This is what they claimed. The result of years of this damaging and absurd propaganda? The passage of the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, which effectively illegalized cannabis federally for the first time.

Fast forward just a tad bit to William Randolph Hearst. Hearst developed the largest newspaper publisher in the country in the early 1900s, called Hearst Communications. When a 1938 Popular Mechanics article touted hemp as the next great miracle crop for the United States, touting its industrial uses as a highly efficient means of producing paper and textiles, Hearst panicked. Owing so much of his wealth to publishing, he was highly invested in the traditional pulp paper industry. As such, hemp presented a MAJOR threat to his business interests. His response? To use his own vast stores of wealth to contribute to the propaganda efforts and to influence government officials to ensure that even the industrially useful, non-intoxicating male cannabis plants become illegal.

The end result of these two men's selfishly motivated, dishonest, and corrupt meddling in the subject of cannabis? A complete federal prohibition that lasts to this day. They effectively deprived millions of American citizens of a highly safe and effective medicine, while ALSO depriving American industry of a more efficient means of paper and textile production, thus propagating the environmentally damaging practices of mass deforestation and exploitation of third world labor and resources. If that weren't enough, they also directly contributed to the ruination of millions of American lives due to excessively long incarcerations or death at the hands of the disastrous War On Drugs.

If you've read this far, thank you! I'm just about done. All I really want to say is ***** these guys! ***** them both. They're the absolute worst. It's hard to imagine doing SO MUCH damage to your country in one lifetime and negatively affecting literally MILLIONS of lives. But these guys pulled it off. So in honor of 4/20, let's just all reflect for a moment on these two banner entrants into and lifetime members of the Unfathomably Terrible Jerk Hall of Fame. They really deserved their enshrinement!

 

The DuPont petrochemical company also played a large role in making cannabis/hemp illegal (due to their involvement in the fossil fuel industry, and how well they were connected in government circles).

 

Hemp was a HUGE threat to petroleum based products (like synthetic fibers, gasoline additives and even gasoline) and people can grow it themselves. You can get 3 crops per year in southern climates. 

 

 

 

 

If you haven’t already read it, Jack Herer’s book “The emperor wears no clothes” is a great read on this subject, and the usefulness of hemp (believe it or not I actually had to read it in a class in college many years ago). 

 

 

Interesting side note - they also offer a $100,000 prize to anyone who can disprove the claims made within. 

 

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor_Wears_No_Clothes

 

Quote

The book, backed by H.E.M.P. (United States), Hanf Haus (Germany), Sensi Seeds/Hash, Marihuana & Hemp Museum, Amsterdam, (Netherlands), and T.H.C., the Texas Hemp Campaign (United States), offers $100,000 to anyone who can disprove the claims made within. Quoting from the book's back cover:

 

Edited April 20, 2019 by BillsFan4

[/dev/null]

32 minutes ago, DC Tom said:

I presume the Venn diagram of those who "promote" vs. "partake" is a near-perfect circle.

I beg to differ

 

The set of those who "partake" is a subset of those who "promote"

 

The set of those who "promote" includes another subset of those who "profit" from those who "partake"

[Logic]

2 minutes ago, Augie said:

I’m sure this is going to go very well. 

I'm more than happy to have an adult discussion about this topic with anyone who's interested in doing so. I'd venture to guess that most will just make snarky or sarcastic comments and tired jokes and refuse to engage in any meaningful debate, though. 

[BuffaloBill]

So the part about crazily raping white women is not true?

 

[Augie]

8 minutes ago, Logic said:

I'm more than happy to have an adult discussion about this topic with anyone who's interested in doing so. I'd venture to guess that most will just make snarky or sarcastic comments and tired jokes and refuse to engage in any meaningful debate, though. 

 

I don’t think it’s my place to tell another adult what they can and cannot do in most situations, especially in the privacy of their homes. There are obvious exceptions, of course, but this isn’t one of them. 

 

 

.

Edited April 20, 2019 by Augie

[DC Tom]

15 minutes ago, Logic said:

The usual DC Tom response when he's caught talking out of his ass: arrogance and an assumed stance of intellectual superiority. You're like a parody of yourself.

 

I'm surprised you could even read my post through the haze of smoke...

7 minutes ago, Logic said:

I'm more than happy to have an adult discussion about this topic with anyone who's interested in doing so. I'd venture to guess that most will just make snarky or sarcastic comments and tired jokes and refuse to engage in any meaningful debate, though. 

 

Sober up.  Then we can have an adult discussion.

[Augie]

1 minute ago, BuffaloBill said:

So the part about crazily raping white women is not true?

 

 

I thought that was tequila.....

[BuffaloBill]

Just now, Augie said:

 

I thought that was tequila.....

 

 

You make a good point. 

[RochesterRob]

12 minutes ago, The Senator said:

 

Occasionally.  Used to daily in high school, where I graduated with a 4.0, and college, where I graduated with honors.  

 

Slowed down in my 30s and 40s, by 50 it became a rare event.

 

Now, as a cancer patient, I’ve picked up a bit, and can’t wait til it’s legal.  If I still lived in California, I’d have had a 420 card years ago.

.

  Why wait until its legal unless you live in a neighborhood that is being profiled by law enforcement?  I get pot offered to me frequently and I am one of the most square people that I know and others perceive me the same way.  The way I see it is unless you buy it in an alley behind a dive bar it is not all that risky to buy.

[Marv's Neighbor]

1 hour ago, DC Tom said:

The belief that pot is harmless is belied by the general dopiness of the people who promote it.

Very true, then introduce historical information to people who "can't remember," because of over use, and we have sure fire entertainment!

[Logic]

6 minutes ago, DC Tom said:

 

I'm surprised you could even read my post through the haze of smoke...

 

Sober up.  Then we can have an adult discussion.

I'm at work right now, sober as a judge. I won't hold my breath for any worthwhile contributions on your part, though.

2 minutes ago, Marv's Neighbor said:

Very true, then introduce historical information to people who "can't remember," because of over use, and we have sure fire entertainment!

I challenge you or any of the other "pot is dangerous" folks to provide some credible, peer reviewed evidence that this is the case. I suppose I'll be waiting a while, though, because no such research exists.

If you don't like cannabis, fine. But don't pretend that there is any scientific or evidentiary support for your stance.

[DC Tom]

2 minutes ago, Logic said:

I'm at work right now, sober as a judge. I won't hold my breath for any worthwhile contributions on your part, though.

 

The half-life for THC is 5-14 days.  If you've smoked in the past two weeks, you're still impaired.

[bbb]

Pot is harmless.  If you don't mind psychosis

 

Five years after Colorado first legalized marijuana, a new study shows pot’s bad effects are sending more people to the emergency room.

Inhaled marijuana caused the most severe problems at one large Denver area hospital. Marijuana-infused foods and candies, called edibles, also led to trouble. Patients came to the ER with symptoms such as repeated vomiting, racing hearts and psychotic episodes.

 

https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/marijuana-er-denver-hospital-study/

 

Weed use is taking off as more states move to legalize it. And with all the buzz over medical marijuana, it's starting to gain an aura of healthfulness. But there are some serious health risks associated with frequent use. One of the more troubling ones is the risk of having a psychotic episode.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/03/19/704948217/daily-marijuana-use-and-highly-potent-weed-linked-to-psychosis

 

 

And, nobody has ever died from pot:

 

Three deaths in Colorado tied to edible products also prompted the study.

Emergency room records from Monte’s hospital show a three-fold increase in marijuana cases since the state became the first to allow sales of recreational marijuana in January 2014. Nearly a third of patients were admitted to the hospital, evidence of severe symptoms, Monte said.

 

That is from the first link. 

[RochesterRob]

28 minutes ago, The Senator said:

 

Now I’m even more confused.

 

You are claiming that Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Carl Sagan, and Abraham Lincoln all suffered from “general dopiness”?

 

The list of highly successful, intelligent  people who partake is extensive.

.

  And we are surveying them out of how many other Americans to identify a statistical trend?  Do the dozens of guys in the same school class as each of the people that you cite that smoked pot count as part of the survey even though they had ordinary lives at best?  Set  aside Lincoln for a minute as he is not a part of contemporary America does 3 persons out of over 170 Americans (55 percent of adults are thought to be pot smokers based on surveys) identify a statistical trend?  Should we mandate pot consumption for the likely hood of academic success?

6 minutes ago, Logic said:

I'm at work right now, sober as a judge. I won't hold my breath for any worthwhile contributions on your part, though.

I challenge you or any of the other "pot is dangerous" folks to provide some credible, peer reviewed evidence that this is the case. I suppose I'll be waiting a while, though, because no such research exists.

If you don't like cannabis, fine. But don't pretend that there is any scientific or evidentiary support for your stance.

  From what I have seen as of late the statement "sober as a judge" is not reassuring.

[Logic]

20 minutes ago, DC Tom said:

 

The half-life for THC is 5-14 days.  If you've smoked in the past two weeks, you're still impaired.

The fact that you are stating that a person is still so impaired 5-14 days after consumption that he can't carry on a reasonable conversation shows your lack of understanding of the effects of cannabis. < Insert snarky Tom joke here. >

 

 

20 minutes ago, bbb said:

Pot is harmless.  If you don't mind psychosis

 

Five years after Colorado first legalized marijuana, a new study shows pot’s bad effects are sending more people to the emergency room.

Inhaled marijuana caused the most severe problems at one large Denver area hospital. Marijuana-infused foods and candies, called edibles, also led to trouble. Patients came to the ER with symptoms such as repeated vomiting, racing hearts and psychotic episodes.

 

https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/marijuana-er-denver-hospital-study/

 

Weed use is taking off as more states move to legalize it. And with all the buzz over medical marijuana, it's starting to gain an aura of healthfulness. But there are some serious health risks associated with frequent use. One of the more troubling ones is the risk of having a psychotic episode.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/03/19/704948217/daily-marijuana-use-and-highly-potent-weed-linked-to-psychosis

 

 

And, nobody has ever died from pot:

 

Three deaths in Colorado tied to edible products also prompted the study.

Emergency room records from Monte’s hospital show a three-fold increase in marijuana cases since the state became the first to allow sales of recreational marijuana in January 2014. Nearly a third of patients were admitted to the hospital, evidence of severe symptoms, Monte said.

 

That is from the first link. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/02/23/marijuana-may-be-even-safer-than-previously-thought-researchers-say/?utm_term=.66ac3d01a6df

Cannabis is roughly 114 times less deadly than alcohol. Alcohol, of course, is perfectly legal.

A review study comparing the acute lethal toxicity of commonly abused drugs shows that the lethal dose for marijuana (around 15 grams or above) is at least 1,000 times greater than the effective dose (15 milligrams), or the dose required to achieve a noticeable effect. In contrast, alcohol can become lethal at only 10 times the effective dose.

And don't even get me STARTED on the country's out-of-control addiction to completely legal pharmaceutically produced opioids.

Additionally, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration drug sheet for marijuana reports that no deaths from marijuana overdose have ever been recorded.

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/aug/16/gary-johnson/gary-johnson-claims-marijuana-cant-kill-and-prescr/

Edited April 20, 2019 by Logic

[Logic]

25 minutes ago, bbb said:

Pot is harmless.  If you don't mind psychosis

 

From the very article you posted:

However, the study doesn't prove causality, cautions Dr. Diana Martinez, a psychiatrist and addiction researcher at Columbia University. "You can't say that cannabis causes psychosis," she says. "It's simply not supported by the data," she says.

[bbb]

9 minutes ago, Logic said:

The fact that you are stating that a person is still so impaired 5-14 days after consumption that he can't carry on a reasonable conversation shows your lack of understanding of the effects of cannabis. < Insert snarky Tom joke here. >

 

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/02/23/marijuana-may-be-even-safer-than-previously-thought-researchers-say/?utm_term=.66ac3d01a6df

Cannabis is roughly 114 times less deadly than alcohol. Alcohol, of course, is perfectly legal.

A review study comparing the acute lethal toxicity of commonly abused drugs shows that the lethal dose for marijuana (around 15 grams or above) is at least 1,000 times greater than the effective dose (15 milligrams), or the dose required to achieve a noticeable effect. In contrast, alcohol can become lethal at only 10 times the effective dose.

And don't even get me STARTED on the country's out-of-control addiction to completely legal pharmaceutically produced opioids.

Additionally, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration drug sheet for marijuana reports that no deaths from marijuana overdose have ever been recorded.

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/aug/16/gary-johnson/gary-johnson-claims-marijuana-cant-kill-and-prescr/

 

I'd rather be dead than live a lifetime of psychosis.  

Just now, Logic said:

From the very article you posted:

However, the study doesn't prove causality, cautions Dr. Diana Martinez, a psychiatrist and addiction researcher at Columbia University. "You can't say that cannabis causes psychosis," she says. "It's simply not supported by the data," she says.

 

If you don't think pot causes psychosis, then you have your head in the sand.