Ari's Musings: Legalize For 2012

One year ago today, Jacki Rickert testified in support of AB554/SB368, the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act of Wisconsin at a hearing at the WI State Capitol in Madison where she literally begged for her medicine to be made legal.

Unfortunately, that bill did not pass, and with the republicans having taken over the state house recently I don't hold out much hope for anything happening until possibly the next election year...

http://www.zazzle.com/legalize_4_2012_button-145864538789978364

In case anyone who reads this blog doesn't already know, I am a very strong proponent of the legalization of cannabis.

Although I would settle for just Industrial Hemp and Medical Marijuana as a start...personally I would actually favor legalization across the board with cannabis to be treated like (the far more dangerous) alcohol and tobacco. (http://www.amazon.com/Marijuana-Safer-Driving-People-Drink/dp/1603581448)

In my opinion, like alcohol and tobacco it should be available for controlled sale only to adults with the same penalties for sales to minors as those other substances. Also, it should of course be subject to sufficient taxation. In my estimation, the legalization of marijuana under those parameters would not only generate massive tax revenue; the savings in law enforcement and incarceration costs would also be in the billions and I believe it would make it easier to control (ask the average 15 year old what would be easier for him to get, cigarettes or marijuana?).

Personally, I believe that the legalization of marijuana could solve a good number of our nation's financial woes and possibly even generate enough left over to also pay for a National Health Service. In addition to massive tax revenue and prohibition cost savings, legalization would also create private sector jobs in farming, processing, distribution, dispensaries, and numerous other fields.

In the matter of Industrial Hemp, I don't really understand why it even IS illegal, as it does NOT have the THC content necessary in order to get one "high", even if you were to smoke an entire field of it.

Well...let me clarify, I actually DO understand why it became illegal even though it used to be considered unAmerican and unpatriotic to NOT grow hemp. It came about because a number of events all converged to begin the process which brought about the illegality of both industrial hemp as well as its cousin, cannabis sativa. And it all comes down to the very same things that are responsible for plaguing our country today.

Greed.

Massive, intense greed from people who are already among the richest people in the country.

The first element in the series of events was the appointment of Henry Anslinger as the head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Then in 1936, experiments were being successfully conducted for the mechanical harvesting of hemp. This development would have done for the processing of hemp what the cotton gin had done for the cotton industry. It would make the production of hemp based products far easier, faster and more profitable. The only problem was that some very powerful friends of Mr. Ansligner didn't want hemp production to be easier, for their own personal reasons. First there was William Randolph Hearst, a newspaper publisher that owned millions of acres of timberland and didn't really want his paper production undercut by hemp. Then there was Mr. DuPont who was very close to patenting his newly created "wonder fabric"...nylon, which didn't want to have to compete with hemp either. DuPont's banker, Andrew Mellon, was also financially invested as well as being actually related to Anslinger by marriage (Mellon had also literally appointed Anslinger to his post as head of the Bureau of Narcotics while Mellon was Secretary of the Treasury under Hoover). So Mr. Anslinger, with help from the Hearst Newspapers and well-financed by DuPont and Mellon money, started a smear campaign filled with lies and misinformation in order to get both hemp and marijuana made illegal, over the strenuous objection of the American Medical Association who wanted this medicine to remain available to doctors and pharmacists.

It is time for this valuable plant to once again be properly utilized...after all, our brains have special THC receptors for a reason. http://www.lycaeum.org/~sputnik/Drugs/THC/Health/mj.brain.html