Cannabis is less harmful than alcohol or tobacco. If cannabis and other drugs weren't illegal, the drug barons wouldn't be in business.

Cannabis is illegal due to corporate and political greed - law enforcement and various industries and interest groups profit from its ban.

I live in the United Kingdom. The other day I was watching a TV program about police dogs, and during a part about sniffer dogs, a guy walked past and the dog became interested in him. The policewoman began asking the guy "You've just had a joint, haven't you?", he denied, and they arrested him.
I became furious watching this. This guy was minding his own business, walking down the street. He wasn't hurting anyone, and it wasn't likely that he would hurt anyone. What a waste of police time, harassing harmless pot smokers. Maybe if the police would go after real criminals, the crime rates would actually decrease a bit.

PENIS. Why is cannabis illegal? The answer is, powerful interest groups want it that way.
Cannabis competes with the products of the alcohol and tobacco industries. And the government is on their side because cannabis may be more difficult to tax than alcohol or tobacco.
Cannabis competes with the products of the wood pulp/cotton fibre industries.
And law enforcement agencies may also profit from prosecuting cannabis users.

>>2
I also forgot to add, cannabis competes with the products of the medical industries. It's an effective painkiller and sleep aid.

CannaBENIS. PENIS. BIG PENIS.

>>3
I do understand that cannabis might be some sort of competition for medical industries. As well as lots of herbs. Although they are not illegal, why?

>>2
And tell my why it would be more difficult to tax than alcohol or tabbaco. It's not that you can't make alcohol on your own nor tabacco.

>>5
It's unlikely someone will sell you alcohol in cheaper price than a store. However, it's easy to grow plants in your house and sell them for less than the legal price (if cannabis were legal).

>>6
I don't know from where you are, but in my country, if you want to buy cheap alcohol, you may go to certain places and buy it illegal (without excise). There is a small chance that from drinking you go blind or die, though.

And I am not an expert but tell me how different is growing tabacco from growing cannabis? Ok, maybe you would need more place for that but people with some land could do that.

Problem is tax/excise. And I still don't know why it is more difficult to tax cannabis.

You can make wine or beer on your own if you want to, but it is much safer not to sell it. If you'd try to do so, you'd go into trouble because of not giving money to goverment. So, if cannabis were legal, you'd still have to pay tax/excise, you'd have to have special permit to grow it etc.

>>5
Marijuana is already rampant in the underground. It's very easy to find, if you just ask around. Do you think that drug dealers would stop selling just because the drug was made legal to buy in retail? Nobody would buy legally because it would likely be expensive (like Salvia is), and everyone already has a dealer they have.

It would be insanely difficult to control and make profit off of. Therefore, the powers that be find it easier to keep it banned, no matter how senseless it seems to us.

>>6

I see. You could make it illegal to grow but legal to buy from licenced premeis. (Though that sound srather rediculous)

Legalizing & regulating access to drugs would
bring in money for the govt; while destroying powerful crimiinal gangs by cutting off cashflow
at the same time.

oh well

It wouldn't stop gangs who'll continue to sell it cheaper than you'd be able to buy it legally, while the government loses money attempting to regulate what it can't.

>>11
There's not a lot of bootleg alcohol or cigarettes now is there?

>>12

There is here in europe, for cigarettes at least. You can buy a pack of fake marlboros for 2 or 3 euro at flea markets, but they taste like crap. Most of them are imported from eastern europe and have obviously fake packaging.

I don't know what would happen for legalized weed. Sure I think people would try to sell it illegally but the quality would not be the same. Medical dispensaries sell high quality weed for $20 more than street value and people buy it simply because they know what they are getting and they know that it will be top notch.

I personally would go for legal weed for exactly this reason. Stuff on the street where I live is disgusting and barely worth smoking.

My brother's theory on why it's illegal is that it's both mind-altering and has second-hand smoke, so if people were able to legally smoke it in public then others would be at the risk of involuntarily having their state of mind altered.

Tobacco and alcohol are apparently both more hazardous to human health than marijuana is, but they're either mind-altering or produce second-hand smoke, not both together.

>>14
Wow, you really don't know much do you.

>>15

About illegal drugs? No, I don't. Care to enlighten me on any points you feel I lack knowledge of?

I'm not >>15 but I'll respond to you anyway.

1. Unless someone is standing right next to you, huffing the smoke in, it is very unlikely they will be affected. Anyway, I doubt they would legalize it for use out in public. Alcohol isn't legal to be drunk in public (where I live anyway).
2. Alcohol and cigarettes are drastically more detrimental to one's health than marijuana. Marijuana is actually medicinal in a variety of ways, and it's negative affects are more a matter of moral flaw (in my opinion) than anything inherent in the plant itself.

Cigarettes are filled with countless harmful chemicals (including those found in the actual tobacco leaf itself), but that's common knowledge. They are known to cause a variety of cancers and other illnesses. So there is actually a real reason to be worried about second-hand smoke with these. The chemicals from marijuana aren't so potent that they would affect passers-by as you smoke a joint (not that legalizing marijuana would mean that people would be allowed to smoke in public- it would probably fall under similar laws to alcohol, i.e. that it NOT be used in public, etc).

Cigarettes ARE mind-altering, by the way, in two ways: 1. they cause physical addiction (which comes with withdrawals if you try to quit), and 2. they produce a stimulant effect. That is why it is used. If it didn't produce an affect, people wouldn't use it.

Alcohol is shown to cause severe damage to the liver, and other organs. It is linked to liver cancer and other illnesses. In fact, I personally knew about half a dozen people who've died in the last 15 years from alcohol related illnesses.

Alcohol was previously outlawed, if you didn't know. It was done so for a number of reasons, including because it created social problems (domestic violence, etc; and it does cause some people to become enraged, etc- not saying I agree with it being outlawed though)- which are much worse than second-hand smoke, obviously. The only reason it was legalized was because the government couldn't control it's (widespread) use.

3. The only reason marijuana is outlawed now is because the DEA, etc, would lose massive amounts of funding because a large portion of crimes they pursue are related to marijuana. And if you know anything about government agencies, you know they hate to have their funding cut, even if it's justifiable. (In case you're not from the US and/or are a 12 year old, when a government agency doesn't meet a certain quota of activities within a year of operation, it's funding is trimmed down).

Also, major drug manufacturers (who mercilessly lobby congress, by the way) wouldn't necessarily be able to dominate the marijuana market, and since marijuana would probably end up replacing popular prescription drugs like xanax, etc, they would end up not only losing current profits, but also missing out on the big bucks from the marijuana industry (which would probably be run by small shops, like those in certain counties in California currently). And they are truly loath to losing profits, as are most major corporations. Just look at the outsourcing that is still rampant to this day. The U.S. economy is at least 50% in China at the moment, for gods sake, all because a bunch of cheap bastards can make a quick buck by having all their stuff made over their.

i really don't want to argue with smug marijuana aficionados, nor do i like seeing misinformation spread like butter on the minds of those that can't do their own research... so here is some reading relating to the impact of weed on human health which i will not discuss, summarize or back up in any way.

http://www.bcss.org/2006/01/resources/family-friends/cannabis-and-psychosis/
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/326/7396/942
http://www.lunguk.org/media-and-campaigning/media-centre/lung-stats-and-facts/cannabis

Benefits of legalization:

1. Drug cartels lose some power
2. People in prison for marijuana possession are set free (many of whom have done nothing other than have marijuana in their possession, and are harmless, or even generally productive, members of society who do nothing but pad the already huge prison population in the U.S.)
3. Crime in general goes down (as people who attempt to protect their investments in marijuana sales will no longer have to resort to violence; robberies, etc, against dealers will go down)
4. It can be used, in some cases, in medicinal ways for a variety of different problems.

Drawbacks:

1. It has potentially dangerous effects on health if used regularly for long periods of time
2. It can cause social problems if regular use becomes widespread

To me, the benefits certainly out-weigh the drawbacks, and the drawbacks can be remedied to some degree by putting warnings on packets, etc. Also, alcohol has the same types of drawbacks, yet that doesn't have the medicinal benefits that marijuana does.

Come to me, sweet baby Mary Jane!

Marijuana must be legalized.