I don’t understand why Marijuana is illegal. Before making your choice, or even if you have made your choice, I hope all should read and consider the information below. I am a very strong advocate for legalizing weed for many reasons. I’d like to start out by saying I am not against drinking and don’t think it should be illegal. I don’t enjoy drinking but have no problem with those who do. The point of me discussing alcohol V weed…well, it should be obvious. But I digress so, back on topic!
The first reason I support legalizing is– I don’t understand why alcohol (not to mention cigarettes and etc) are legal when they are proven killers, yet marijuana is illegal yet is not a killer? Some statistics…. Alcohol is legal yet is responsible for 2.5 million deaths annually world-wide. In America, alcohol can be related to at least 75,000 deaths each year.
Marijuana has no -not one- recorded death…yet in most states it is illegal. ???
Secondly, though alcohol is not a scapegoat for the actions of abusers and cheaters, it definitely makes them feel they can act as they please, revealing their true inner self. And I must add this: if a person is able to cheat, demean, hurt you in any way, including physically and/or emotionally while drunk, the alcohol is only revealing who they truly are inside. I’ve seen both kinds of drunk people… Sadly, I’ve seen far too many violent people while drunk & too many cheaters as well. Some of the cheating went on right in front of their partners face!
I am convinced a person with a good heart can be drunk but never cheat or abuse; all alcohol does is make a person relax enough to be their true selves. As noted, I’ve seen both kinds, so I also will say I am so thankful for my husband because when we’ve gone out with friends and he’s had perhaps a bit too much to drink, he never once has put me down. In fact, because I believe alcohol to reveal a person for whom they truly are, he’s actually touched my heart deeply when on one of those nights he stood up in front of men and women alike to let all his friends and anyone else who could hear know that he thought the world of me and loved me.
I will forever be grateful for that, for it is a rare find and I know I am blessed, I will never take him for granted, and the point of me sharing this with anyone reading is to show that it is not the alcohol to blame; it is the person drinking. Alcohol just opens the gateway to show the person for whom they really are.
Now going to Mary Jane, after a few drags most of your anger diminishes. You probably will realize how silly the argument you were having was and laugh about it with the very person you were just a few moments ago angry with. Yes, it may make one a bit lethargic, but you can abuse anything- the majority of smokers aren’t lazy people doing nothing with their lives. And besides, who are we to judge? If you feel like doing something about ‘evil’ why don’t you go after abusers or someone who has actually done something wrong. I’m against putting drug offenders in prison period as it’s a waste and we could be putting people in who truly deserve it, whom truly are threats to society. Drug offenders are not a threat to society, they need help not insane punishment.
And weed smokers don’t need help- weed should be legal. And it was, and hopefully will be again. There are so many misconceptions and the lack of knowledge regarding all that marijuana has to offer I believe it is blindness and ignorance that has kept these laws in place for so long. Hopefully those laws, now challenged, will be lifted for not just medicinal or recreational purposes…but also for all the listed below, and more.
Don’t forget, hemp was legal in the US until the early 1900s. Now marijuana and the like are one of the top money makers for the prison industry (another blog, another time).
Here are a few examples of things this wonderful plant does besides get people high:
- Hemp is the miracle plant of our time, breathing in 4x the carbon dioxide (CO2) of trees during it’s quick 12-14 week growing cycle. Trees take 20 years to mature vs 4 months for Industrial Hemp! Our forests are being cut down 3x faster than they can grow! One acre of hemp produces as much cellulose fiber pulp as 4.1 acres of trees!!! (Dewey & Merrill. Bulletin #404. U.S. Dept. of Age. 1916)
- * George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other founding fathers GREW HEMP; (Washington and Jefferson Diaries). Jefferson smuggled hemp seeds from China to France then to America. Hemp was in such demand in the colonies that taxes could be paid in hemp & fines were levied against farmers who did not grow hemp!
- * For thousands of years, 90% of all ships’ sails and rope were made from hemp. The word ‘canvas’ is Dutch for cannabis; (Webster’s New World Dictionary).
- * 80% of all textiles, fabrics, clothes, linen, drapes, bed sheets, etc. were made from hemp until the 1820s with the introduction of the cotton gin.
- The 1937 Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 placed a tax on the sale of Cannabis. The Act was drafted by Henry Anslinger and introduced by Rep. Robert L. Doughton (D) of North Carolina on April 14, 1937.
- * Hemp called ‘Billion Dollar Crop.’ It was the first time a cash crop had a business potential to exceed a billion dollars (Popular Mechanics, Feb., 1938).
For more interesting facts regarding all this plant offers, please click HERE.
Very interesting article – even sugar is more fatal than marijuana…
Of all the vices a person can indulge in, which is the least bad for your health? According to a new survey from NBC News/The Wall Street Journal, Americans believe that marijuana is the most benign — in fact, many believe it’s even less harmful than sugar.
Those surveyed were asked which substance “is the most harmful to a person’s overall health”: marijuana, sugar, tobacco or alcohol?
Forty-nine percent of respondents said that tobacco was the most dangerous. Alcohol came in at 24 percent, followed by sugar at 15 percent. Only 8 percent of those surveyed said marijuana was the most dangerous.
High alcohol consumption is indeed linked with a number of grave health problems, including heart disease, liver disease, a weakened immune system and elevated risks of developing cancer. There are also about 88,000 deaths attributable to excessive alcohol use each year in the United States.
Similarly, there’s a laundry list of well-documented adverse health effects related to tobacco use, which harms nearly every organ in the body and causes the deaths of nearly 480,000 people in the U.S. annually.
But perhaps what’s most surprising is that Americans think sugar poses a greater health risk than a drug that the federal government classifies among “the most dangerous” substances available, alongside heroin and LSD.
On the other hand, considering the health effects associated with, say, drinking a lot of soda — which can lead to obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and ultimately heart disease, stroke and even death — Americans may be onto something here.
Sugar, an additive to many kinds of food and drink, is difficult to avoid. The American Heart Association recommends that women get no more than 100 of their daily calories from added sugars, while for men the upper limit is 150 calories. However, for many people around the world, added sugars are contributing an additional 500 calories a day.
Sugary sodas can be so dangerous, doctors say that soda intake should be limited to less than one can of soda per day.
And what about marijuana? The drug is not without some health risks. Excessive use can lead to respiratory discomfort (although the drug itself does not impair lung function). Among people prone to the development of psychosis, research has shown that smoking pot can lead to an earlier onset of the disorder. And there’s understandable concern about adolescent marijuana use and its effects on the developing brain.
Still, in at least 10,000 years of human consumption, there have been no documented deaths as a result of marijuana overdose. It only takes 10 times the recommended serving of alcohol to lead to death, a recreational drug study from American Scientist found. By contrast, a marijuana smoker would have to consume 20,000 to 40,000 times the amount of THC in a joint in order to be at risk of dying, according to a 1988 ruling from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Meanwhile, a number of studies in recent years have demonstrated the medical potential of pot. Purified forms of cannabis can be effective at attacking some forms of aggressive cancer. Marijuana use has also been tied to better blood sugar control, and may help slow the spread of HIV. Legalization of the plant for medical purposes may even lead to lower suicide rates.
“Anyone who takes a truly objective look at the evidence surrounding these substances could not possibly arrive at any other conclusion,” Mason Tvert, communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project, told The Huffington Post. “The public’s understanding of marijuana is more in line with the facts than ever before. Marijuana is not entirely harmless, but there is no longer any doubt that it poses far less harm to the consumer than many of the legal products engrained in American culture.”
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