Marijuana worth it's weight in Gold.

This report is eye-opening. :Government Statistics

Isn't it time we take a long look at how the Regan Drug Laws are affecting the USA? There's an overcrowding of prison systems, and there seems to be no proven way to "stop" marijuana use in the USA. We're are still comsuming the product at the same rate we ever were..the question is can anything really be done to stop it.

7M incarcerated in the USA With very many offenders being in prison for drugs and probably a huge portion, if not the majority of people, serving their time for marijuana offenses...this issue of illegal pot is in need of major government review.

There are people who make their living, essentially busting stoned teenagers and ordinary citizens. The government has every reason to keep the laws the same, because many law enforcement agents would be either out of a job, or have to take a pay cut.

This issue is modern day Prohibition. If anything could be learned from alcohol bootleggers, is that some things simply can't be "outlawed" . Furthermore, if weed is "literally worth it's weight in gold" then isn't that saying something? Isn't it time for a policy change in america? We are one of the wealthiest countries in the world, and one of the most advanced societies in the modern day present, so why are we SO far behind on our Marijuana policy?

You know if people stopped wasting their time with stupid things like fighting gay marriage, and debating over weather 9/11 was a government policy..the MJ movement might make some ground. The problem is that people don't take the issue seriously. People think anyone who advocates legalized pot, is either some kind of flipped out drug addict looking for they next fix, or some kind of burnt out stoner who only wants legal weed so they can toke up.

Well the fact is that your parents probably tried weed in the 50s, 60's, and 70s. Fact is you probably smoked a joint or 2 in college. The thing is that you have the DEA itself saying that marijuana isn't like other classified narcotics. It's never been proven to be any more addictive, or physically/mentally dangerous then alcohol, or tobacco. In fact it's been proven to have legitimate medical use. So why the criminalization? Because the police make to much money keeping it illegal. Cops are * and hypocrites in general..but the reason no cop will ever vote to regulate and tax marijuana is because that's taking money out of his pocket.

A lot of townships make their money of pot busts, major and minor. think about it like this. A regular kid aged 19 gets stopped and has a joint on him. The joint is weighed at 2.5 grams (phatty)..and the police charge him for possession. The problem is that they charge him with "possession under 25 grams". Anyone who knows math or can even comprehend simple numbers, knows that 2 grams and 25 grams are night and day. So this kid either has to get a conditional discharge, or get convicted and in some states serve a MANDATORY 6 month sentence..for 2 grams of dirt from the earth? No..there's something seriously wrong there.

The bottom line is that pot isn't going away no matter how many DARE campaigns you run, and how many people you arrest. isn't it time we to right by the AMERICAN CITIZENS themselves and stop making criminals out of non-violent marjiuana offenders?

To legalize it there could be strict rules in place, like not being able to drive after consuming more that 3 grams in 5 hours...and then making anyone convicted of driving "high" have to pay a steep fine, and mandatory jail sentence (same as alcohol). And second would simply be to mandate that you need a licence to run a weed store, can only sell to people 21 and over, and that it's unlawful to posses more than 1 0z at a time. The answers are so simple..but we can't make the horse drink Neo, we can only show him how to get to the lake.

What do you think can be done to rally the support of the american people and lawmakers behind leglization/decriminalization? Our current laws are UNNACCEPTABLE and must be changed .



[Mod Edit: Please see T&C's 1b) Thank you - Jak

[edit on 18/7/07 by JAK]

I believe in decriminalization of marijauanna.
I highly doubt you will see any movement to that end anytime soon.
The propaganda over pot is just that propaganda.
Ps I never inhaled.

it's illegal because of money.. hemp is a direct threat to the petrol kings and the cotton kings, paper industry etc etc etc. Cannabis is a direct threat to big Px, all of these guys lobby in washington. getting this legalized would be the fight of the century considering so many industries are dead set against it dipping into their profits and perhaps overtaking them in the market. big tobacco and alcohol lobby heavily for cannabis prohibition.

not to mention alot ofprisons are privatized, so they actually profit for the imprisonment of victimless crime 'offenders'. LOL this countrys laws are so backwards, ronald reagan was such a goon.

[edit on 11-6-2007 by ape]

Interesting article. Heres an interesting question for everyone out there. If marijuana and gold are both on par in terms of prices what would you rather have... a pound of gold, or a pound of marijuana?

Then again right now gold is $650US/ounce. While the average price of marijuana in my neck of the woods (Saskatchewan, Canada) is about $150US/ounce. The prices might be different in the US, but I doubt that the price differential is that extreme.

Anyone paying $650US for an ounce of pot is quite the moron.

[edit on 6-14-2007 by CPYKOmega]

Dang people, 3 replies??? i Knew i should have put this in skunk works...It's ok i'll revive this there, but in a different way. I have a good "conspirocy" theory on why it's ilegal anyway.

But seriously, i wanna know why nobody takes this..seriously. Maybe it's because i've grown up in an area where everything is drugs. I've seen what heroin, crack..and any other drug you want to name, do to people. In fact i classify drugs in to white people drugs, black people drugs..as well as poor and rich drugs. Funny thing is i'm not a druggie at all. Yeah i admit a little tokin in my time..but seriously who hasn't?

I swore to my mother i'd never take drugs other than pot..and even she said pot is not a drug. MY problem is that kids are getting lied to. There is this demonization of weed, more than any other drug on the street. Truth is that meth destroies you. But you hardly see meth commercials. Usually it's "live above the influence of weed". Why? I never known anyone die off a weed OD, but i did have a couple friends OD on heroin.

Basically i am wondering why, there is not a serious civil rights movement to get pot legalized? There hasn't ben a good civil rights movement since the 60's..and this is one of those issues where the government is wrong. I would picket..but i see no group doing much? yeah there's NORML and all..but they just hold a convention every year. Why not make a million man march on DC for legalization?

Don't deny ignorance, destroy it..so again i ask..how can we unite people for this serious cause?

The reason that most people who support decriminalization and regulation, the ONLY intelligent solution right now, do not get out and raise hell is this: it is not a popular enough subject for the voting crowd. Let's face it, as much as I would LOVE to see some real activism on this issue, it is not like the average American that votes is really concerned about it.

Joe sixpack is not about to spend his time promoting justice for others when he can just stroll down to the store and legally get his fix of alcohol.
And the people who DO care about the issue are normally unable to afford efective ways to get the point across; education, advertising, media, etc. are not available to the average person who has an open mind and the facts at hand. the old lies are still being pushed by the DRUG CZAR and with his millions for ads that lie, and the staffs of thousands who keep the truth on the back burner, we have a real job ahead of us to get the truth out there to the people.

Americans are notoriously undereducated about issues, usually lazy and unconcerned about the plights of others, and generally too busy to worry about really important issues, like justice ande civil rights, etc. unless the law bites THEM in the ass, they will not move a muscle to do anything about it. Typical. the huge corporations, from liquor manufacturers to tobacco companies to Big Pharma, the boss, will fight tooth and nail to keep cannabis illegal; they have a monopoly and will fight to keep it.

If YOU had the only legal drug available with govt. protections,etc. you would oppose any other choices as well for monetary reasons. It is business as usual in America; damn the logic and the truth, full speed ahead on a collision course with reality!! Also, how many BILLIONS of dollars are spent in a year on cop's and judges and attorneys and probation/parole and on and on? It is the LAST thing that the big shots want; to reduce the money flowing in is a sin to these people, bureaucrats.

They do not care one bit about fairness or compassion or logic, only dollars, always dollars. Anything that would rock the money boat is shot down right away by the phony Republican senators and congressmen who have NO morals at all; just a desire to enrich themselves from the scheme while keeping a lid on popular dissent and the desires of the People.

The whole system is rotten and until the leaders of this mess are gotten rid of and a whole new paradigm installed, we will continue to see gross violations of human rights, the law being used to enslave and dominate us, and the system will fight with all it's might to keep the rotten system chugging along and proviidng massive profits to the promoters of this madness. Most Americans are either brain dead to justice or too busy to care, so sad. THAT is why we still have stupid laws and abusive cop's all around this issue; they like it the way it is now. They get lots of victims to arrest, lot's of money changing hands, and a culture of cover ups and lies by the cop's. No wonder things are so screwed up.

Marijuana should be legal, and by the way, this is an excellent post, however, for the most part, I agree with the poster talking about the companies in business. If I remember correctly, marijuana has like 50,000 uses to it. Fuel is one, paper another, and that paper is way stronger than the trees, plus by legalizing it, we'd be saving trees.

I believe that it should be only available to patients who need it for medicaton purposes, like Palsy patients.

I agree here, I am all for legalization of marijuana for medical purposes but not for every idiot out there that just wants to blazeeee.

I am a recent HS graduate and I will say that once someone I knew got into ol mary jane they never came to classes again and spent the whole day smoking bowls and rolling blunts out back behind the school. Tell me that its not addictive ... if its not addictive then why did they do that crap all day instead of being productive?

[edit on 16-7-2007 by ChrisF231]

I had a great post all worked out to write down.

Then I forgot what I was going to say.

If You Want to DeCriminalize MJ then Vote for Ron Paul. He is the only presidential candidate willing to legalize it.

I agree that people should not be put in jail for smoking a herb.

When I was in my early twenties, I believed that pot would be legal in no more than twenty-five years.

It made sense. Everyone I knew smoked pot and by then we'd be running the world and it'd be a slam dunk.

Guess what. It ain't legal anywhere, except for medical purposes in some states and the federal government doesn't even recognize that.

No one here will live to see pot legalized or decriminalized, except as it is in some states where citations are issued for possession of small amounts.

Ron Paul will never be elected to the office of president.

I don't like the war on drugs, mainly because it has scared the bejezus out of many MDs to the point that they are afraid to prescribe pain killers to patients who live with chronic pain.

But remember this. While you think of smoking pot as smoking a harmless herb, there are people out there abusing pot and creating dangerous conditions on the highways and in the workplace.

When responsible people stop and consider the problems that result from the legal drugs, such as alcohol and tobacco, they aren't so keen on the idea of adding legalized pot to the mix.

And they think that even if in their youth they smoked a bail or two of the stuff.



[edit on 2007/7/17 by GradyPhilpott]

Add to the mix? Can't you people see that the 'pot ' is ALREADY THERE? the question is this: What good does it do to lock up pot users, whether medical or not? NONE!! No good. You cannot show one iota of good that it does. Keeping it illegal simply makes a black market and causes all kinds of issues that need not even exist.

Since the people who want pot are going to get it on the black market, what good does the law do? None. The law is counter productive because bad laws always lower the respect for the entire system. You CANNOT keep the people who want it from getting it, not in jail, not on the street, nowhere. So logically, those people who are using it and causing no harm to others should be left alone.

Medical use is a no brainer; people who benefit from it should have it and not be hassled by the filthy Feds. You are mistaken that the governemnt sees no medical use in it: the government has a fram in Mississippi that grows the herb for packaging and it is sent to about 8 patients still on a program started long ago to help people who PROVED medically, and went thru hell with paperwork, that they needed it to be well. The FEDERAL govenment sends out tins full of joints to these patients every month.

So when they say that it has no medical benefit, they are speaking with a very forked tongue. It is all POLITICAL crap that has kept this nonsense going for so long, nothing else. 50 MILLION Americans have used cannabis, many millions use it daily, and never has one death ever been caused by it, compared to millions of deaths caused by the ' legal ' drugs like alcohol,etc. trying to keep pot illegal for ANYONE except the underage is stupid, useless, doomed to fail as it aalways has, historically impossible to regulate while illegal, and available to kids BECAUSE OF PROHIBITION, and nothing else.

Liquor sellers and tobacco sellers are not vying for turf and shooting it out for customers, nor are kids able to walk in and buy it. Only in a state of PROHIBITION can the least offensive substances be vilified while the poisons are promoted. Here is a fact: The LAW has no impact on the use or availability of drugs, after 35 years of the failed DRUG WAR the drugs are cheaper ( except for pot!!) , more potent and more available than at any time in history. Prohibition is a total failure and cannot be said to have ANY benefits.

According to the latest UN surevy, the Netherlands, which has removed penalties for possession of small amounts of cannabis, has a rate HALF of what we do here in the use of pot!!! Thats right, the Dutch use LESS pot per capita than we do in spite of the fact, or maybe because of the fact, that they have chosen an enlightened policy rather than draconian and insane laws that serve only to cause harm to the citizen. the worst harm about pot is getting caught with it in a repressive and politically ignorant population, which is what we have here.

There is NO really intelligent rebutal to the FACTS about cannabis; it is the lies and propaganda and nonsense that the government spews nowadays that need to made illegal, not a mild and beneficial herb with great medical uses. Remember, the Federal Government is growing, rolling into joints, and distrributing cannabis every month to multiple Americans. If there is no benefit, why are they doing it? Why did they start it? Why are they trying to go against all fact and research and history? MONEY, CORPORATE INFLUENCE, POLITICAL CONSIDERATIONS..these are the real isues behind the curtain.

No, it does NO GOOD to make illegal something that millions of Americans want; making criminals out of people who have done no wrong or impacted anyone ele in a negative way is stupid, evil and no way to preserve freedoms. Get real here!! pot is just another plant with a long history of innocuous use and great benefit, and NO PROVEN RISK of anything that would justify the repressive laws and attitudes about it.

The boozers will say "Who needs another one? ". while not realizing that it is there and being used regardless of anything else and so the harm that the LAWS cause is the real issue. The LAW is more harmful than the plant!! No question about it!! So why continue down a failed course and stupid policy? because no one wants to rock the boat and do the smart thing; weak sister politicians, weak kneed citizens and a complacent press mean that common sense and logic take a back seat to the foolish nonsese we keep hearing about how bad it is.

If anyone believes the govt. line about pot them you are just the kind of automaton that they love: unquestioning, obediant, unwilling to see chnage regardless of value, assuming that lies are truth woithout verifying,etc. citizens like that are useless and a danger to the rest of us. Either get with the truth or get out of the way and let the real facts be known and ACTED upon. Accepting the status quo when it is wrong is NOT the patriotic way of correcting injustice. And every time someone is arrested for cannabis, an injustice HAS been done, make no mistake.

The cop's should NOT be in the health business, that is for doctors. Cop's shopuld be looking for rapists and burglars and killers, not hassling peaceful and innocent citizens for choosing nature over chemicals. The bnig Pharma guys hate that, and so do the cop's and courts and lawyers and all the others whop make a living feeding on the corpses of a law that shames the system and demeans our people.

It does NO GOOD to keep it illegal, and it does great good to regulate it and keep it away from kids. As it is now, the dealer decides who to sell to, not the law. Stupid laws must be ignored if they cannot get done away with.

Nothing else makes any sense; history has proven over and over that Prohibition is a loser, and so are the people that insist that THEY have the right to say what we eat, drink, smoke, chew, sniff , etc. As long as we do not try and use intoxication as a defense to our actions, we should be left alone. No state allows the use of impairment as a valid defense to one's actions, and neither would it be allowed if cannabis was regulated instead of controlled by the black marketeers. Common sense people, just common sense.

I've been listening to this same rant for 35 years or more.

Nonetheless, it ain't going to happen in the lifetime of anyone reading this at the time of this posting.

Justice is served when a person is arrested for breaking the law.

Marijuana possession for most is against the law.

Truthfully, I'd rather have a pound of gold...I'd keep it in a Swiss Bank Vault & just watch it accumulate interest. If I chose a pound of pot, any potential profits (as well as the initial investment-cost) would literally "go up in smoke."


The only way that would happen is if humongous amounts were smoked in an enclosed, unventilated area...But then it would be "death by smoke inhalation," not an OD. Personally, I think the DEA Agents just like to get stoned when they burn the fields.


Okay, I'll tell you...MJ is not addictive, it's merely habitual. A person who comes down off MJ has no withdrawl symptoms, other than a desire to get more. A real withdrawl from a real drug means that the person's physiology has (at least somewhat) adjusted to require the drug...The worst effect of an MJ withdrawl is psychological, but nothing physical.
Next time anyone tells you that MJ is addictive, it's just another success racked up to lying propaganda.


Sure, people create problems while stoned, which does pose a danger; Just as anyone who drinks & drives creates a danger...But just as most people can drink responsibly without endangering others, why not at least decriminalize MJ for those who can toke in a responsible manner?


Not to mention that, right here on ATS, there's some threads about Aspartame & MSG, as well as literally hundreds of toxic chemicals that the Government does allow in virtually everyday life. IMO, the Government that keeps MJ tagged as a criminal offense is...to put it in the most polite term I can think of...Hypocritical. That's the true conspiracy in the Government...Ignoring the Constitution that they've sworn a legally binding Oath to obey.


Is it Justice to let millions of illegals enter our country & overwhelm our infrastructure & services, while at the same time the Executive Branch refuses to enforce Immigration Laws? Even while someone else rots in prison for years, just because he took a few harmless tokes in his own home in a responsible manner that endangers no one? Is that how closely you relate Law to Justice, when they are so definitively different?

Making something into a Law doesn't automatically serve Justice; Justice is supposed to guide the Law, while Law is supposed to define Justice. But Law should never overwhelm Justice, which is something that the MJ laws actually do. The Government has always been making Law overwhelm Justice, which is what needs to be stopped.

The most power to change the unjust laws resides with The People...Even after all of Bush's power-grabbing, at least Congress has been starting to get hold of that truth (at least, on other more critical issues) lately & even starting to confront Bush with this fact. The more that the People stand up for their Rights, the less that the Government can ignore that fact. However, the inverse is also true...If people don't stand up for their Rights, then the Government will take away those Rights...This is a fact that's been proven by all civilizations throughout human history.

That's the biggest trick of all; Educating people in the truth against the propaganda & motivating them to stand up. If enough People stood up against the unjust MJ laws, not even the Big Pharm influence in Government can stand in our way.


Just do what I do...Start up any el-cheapo word processing program, like Wordpad or something. When you see something you want to quote, hit the Quote button & copy/paste it to your Wordpad, then add your comments to it. If you need to go look up info at other links, you can add that info to your Wordpad (& provide links to your sources). As long as you've still got it all in Wordpad, you can look it over & edit/modify what you want to say in any way you wish before you actually post it. When you've finished typing up all of your replies & such, just copy/paste the whole kittin' kaboodle into the thread.

I must admit that I post long replies at times & that method works for me...

[edit on 19-7-2007 by MidnightDStroyer]