Friday, April 20, 2012

Legalization or Bust: A Brief History of Marijuana Prohibition

In honor of 4/20, Weed Day, a little history. Post is from 2010.

  HuffPo
America's longest prohibition dates back to 1937 -- the "Reefer Madness" era when the country's earliest anti-drug zealots (led by former head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry J. Anslinger) convinced a gullible public that marijuana caused people to commit unspeakable acts of depravity, such as when the hopped-up stoner runs over an elderly man in the guffaw-inducing exploitation flick.
          ...

Perhaps even more harmful is the stereotyping of marijuana smokers as lazy, dumb, slow, passive, apathetic, memory-challenged junk-food addicts. Though anti-drug organizations like the Partnership gladly re-enforce all of these supposed stoner traits, the media has piled on with constant jokey references to pot-heads adding "dude" to every sentence (ok, maybe that one's true, dude) with their groggy heads buried in colossal sized bags of Doritos. Stephen Colbert is one of the biggest perpetrators of this archetype.
Hey, I resemble that remark! Duuuude...

 Good post. Go read. Spicoli and Los Guys figure in. Smoke 'em if ya got 'em. The smoking lamp is lit. And so will you be...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I don't want it to be legalized.

"Approved" ripoff companies to provide the legal product, from factory farms with chemicals. Taxes out the kazoo because this is The "Sin" drug.

President Obama's campaign against use would be fully backed by corporate money that would have the laws made stiffer for "illegal" growth, possession or sale. The former DEA would swallow the Homeland Administration whole.

Think about it. I'm pretty sure that I am right.

purplepenquin said...

The current "tax" on gardeners who grow this herb is having everything they own seized, being imprisoned for many years, and possibly even being killed by the police during a no-knock.

You really think there will be a higher "tax" than that if the plant is re-legalized?