[InfoWarrior]

Marijuana otherwise known as Cannabis, hemp, weed, pot, whatever name you choose to call it was first cultivated and smoked for medicinal purposes as early back as 2700 BC by the Chinese.

In 70AD the Roman emperor Nero’s personal surgeon Dioscorides praised cannabis as an excellent fiber for making rope, and clothing, while also noting its medicinal purposes. It is even said that the father and first president of the United Colonies of America, George Washington himself was purported to have grown hemp on his farm, and in his journals writes about separating the female plants from the male plants and using the flowers of the female plants for smoking, and believe it or not the constitution of America is made out of hemp.

It wasn't until 1961 that hemp was first made illegal by Republican bureaucrats who received tremendous lobbying funds from the wood pulp industry who desired to eliminate their major competition. Cannabis sativa, or what the typical stoner knows of as weed, which is almost a different plant altogether than hemp is what is illegal. Industrial hemp has become more popular in the last few years as a fiber and also as a food source and it is extremely regulated and contains little or no THC, not enough to cause the psychoactive effects of marijuana. THC or (Tetrahydrocannabinol) is the active ingredient in marijuana which is responsible for the “high” feeling users receive when they smoke or ingest the plant. That is to say that hemp is not the same thing as what the typical stoner would know of or call “weed”.

It is important to note the fine line between the two. So now that you have a little background knowledge on the plant, and the contrast between Marijuana and hemp I will continue with my original idea of why legalizing marijuana is (to me) and millions of people a sensible idea, but before I continue let me say that I am not a marijuana user, or at least not a regular user and I personally dislike the drug because of the anxiety I often experience when I use the drug.

There is a much more profound and bigger reason to me that marijuana and subsequently all drugs should be legalized and the first and most basic reason is the idea of freedom or liberty. I was raised to believe that I live in a free society where an individual has the right to live his or her life the way they see fit free from government intervention, provided they do not pose any harm to others in the society. I believe that we all have the god given right by the architect of this universe to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. So to me the major problem is an issue of freedom, because to be free means you have the right to govern your existence the way you see fit, if that means you want to smoke grass then I’m certainly not going to spend money or show up at your house with a gun to stop you from getting stoned and eating potato chips on your sofa while watching your favorite television programming.

So to reiterate if we are to believe or say that we live in a free society then we should have the right to lead our lives the way see fit, period, provided you are not a harm to anyone else, just stay away from me when you’re smoking it, be a responsible person, don’t operate a motor vehicle while you’re intoxicated and we’re all good. That is to say one last time in case your high and missed that last part, individual freedom or the idea of freedom and liberty and freedom of knowledge and information to me is the most paramount and essential jewel a society can have. It is what allows the propagation and dissemination of all the other beautiful things that subsequently follow as a direct result of this essential freedom.

I believe we should all be working together to create a better future for mankind and trying leave this world a better place than what we were born into, by building and expanding on the work of those who came before us, only imagination can limit the future of what mankind is capable of.

Instead of trying to conquer and rule over and oppress each other, or dictating over each other’s lives and trying to force our own moral dictates or ideas on someone or dictate what they can or cannot do, or can or cannot say, or decide that they are right or wrong and make yourself some sort of moral oligarch, (which is what our modern day bureaucrats are becoming) we should be trying to work with one another symbiotically to better ourselves and each other, and working towards a greater standard of living for all people. I think we should just leave each other alone when it comes to deciding what is right and wrong for ourselves as an individual, especially from a moral and spiritual point of view.

With that said I don’t think someone should be able to think that murder or something is ok, there always exceptions to everything, and extremes. My idea of what a government is or is supposed to be is the same idea of what the founding fathers of the United States had and that is that the government is supposed to serve the people, it is supposed to protect life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. It is supposed to proactively and symbiotically serve society, not rule and dictate over it and decide what is acceptable or unacceptable.

The moment you allow a government to start to regulate or control even the smallest segment of society, or restrict intellectual property, you are allowing the destruction, the degradation, and the perversion of this essential freedom. So of course this is a moral dilemma that has been pondered by and wracked the brains of many great philosophers, and so now you may have a better understanding of where I stand from a philosophical and political point of view.

So to get back off the tangent I went on I will now get back to my original point of why marijuana should be legalized other than on the basis of freedom. When you make something illegal that people want you create what is known as a “black market” for that particular product, for example moonshine, or hooch during the prohibition is just one small example of what happens when you make something that really shouldn't be illegal, illegal. What did making alcohol illegal do? It drove up the prices, created huge profits for the people willing to take the risk of producing and distributing the product, made the safety and health regulations virtually non-existent so a lot of people got screwed up from improperly made moonshine.

It caused a lot of innocent and otherwise good people to be arrested for the use of the product, turning good people into criminals. Got a lot of young kids killed over turf wars and fights over distribution and sale of the illegal product and allowed for the creation of the archetypal gangsters, the Alchapone’s, the Pablo Escobar’s, these people would never have existed or at least not in the way they did if it was not for making drugs illegal in the first place. When you criminalize things that aren’t real crimes you still make real criminals. Any argument you throw at it, can’t stand up to the negative impact caused by the criminalization, demonization and outlawing of drugs. Making drugs illegal will never stop drugs from reaching our youth and children because of the profits involved in the manufacturing and distribution of the drugs.

Take it from me, even here in Saskatoon, you can find virtually any drug you want easily, there are drug dealers all over the place, and they aren’t checking you’re 12 year old daughter for ID. The police and federal task forces could wipe out an entire drug network and quite simply it will be replaced by another one over night, due to the profits involved with the black market. Another huge downer with making drugs illegal is that it actually stimulates crime. When a drug dealer gets robbed they aren’t going to go to the cops for help, they are going to go get a gun(illegally) or a weapon and harm someone. Black markets only breed and promote crime.

Look at it this way, would you rather a heroin junky got his fix for free courtesy of the local government, in a safe clean environment where help and treatment for addiction could be made available to those wishing to get off the stuff, or would you rather that heroin junky broke into your house and stole all your possessions to feed his addiction which is what happens, and I hate to even entertain this idea, but imagine if your son or daughter was at home by themselves when that heroin head was breaking in.

Quite simply the criminalization of drugs and demonization of drug users is a fucking joke, if you think locking someone away in a government daycare because they suffer from an addiction courtesy of your tax dollars is a good idea then I have a bridge I want to sell you. Prisons are infested with gangs, which by the way operate mainly as middleman between the real gangsters who are producing and shipping the stuff in. There are real violent and hardcore criminals in prison and prison only helps to turn otherwise good people into real hardcore criminals. Why do you think they call prisons crime colleges, because that’s where the novice or petty criminal often graduates into a real dangerous career criminal, locking someone away for a drug problem only exasperates the situation further and throws more tax dollars into the furnace of hell that is our prison system.

It’s a sick and vicious cycle and I refuse to sit here and look through the narrow scope of reality that the anti-drug lobbyists and the government are trying to project on the public. I know what prison is like, and it is not a very nice place, in fact I would say it is a complete and utter travesty, filled with a bunch of people who need rehabilitation and help, (those who want help anyways). Sending someone there for marijuana, or growing marijuana has got to be one of the most fucked up joke I can imagine.

The majority of marijuana users are good, hard working people, who raise families and pay taxes, they are not criminals and we must stop treating them like criminals.

[Airbornemama]

too bad about the panic you experience, but nice read! I was/am baked as I read this,legally as I have my green card,and found some of your essay very witty and well written! You get an A from stoner Dawnie

[InfoWarrior]

Originally Posted by dawnturner14 ↗

too bad about the panic you experience, but nice read! I was/am baked as I read this,legally as I have my green card,and found some of your essay very witty and well written! You get an A from stoner Dawnie

Oh yeah, it's really not that good of writing I think, or not my best writing.. not even close. I have learned a lot since I wrote this which was like 2 years ago? I was in grade 11 when I wrote this... uh anyways some of what I wrote in here I don't really agree with anymore. It's still a decent essay though, I haven't actually even re-read it and in retrospect I don't really know why I posted it lol.. but yeah thanks anyways. Some of what I wrote was more of talking points I was following because the essay had certain area's we had to touch on, so I kind of just wrote whatever.

Oh yeah and since then I have been smoking a bit more haha... I used to experience a lot of anxiety when I smoked but now I just feel good haha.. I still try not to smoke much because it makes me lethargic and I don't get things done. Although it really just depends on how I am feeling etc.

[wickedqueenwicker]

Great mighty balls to turn in a paper to a high school teacher that says that you're "at least not a regular" marijuana user. lol It is VERY good work for a high school junior. I hope you're in college! :)