Jim Hightower: Marijuana Is Basically Harmless -- The Monumentally Stupid Drug War Is Not

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



The War on Weed: Marijuana Is Basically Harmless -- The Monumentally Stupid Drug War Is Not

By Jim Hightower, Hightower Lowdown. Posted November 23, 2009.

The war on marijuana is insane; our officials keep sacrificing tax dollars, lives, civil liberties, and their own credibility in this misguided and losing effort.



You might remember Robert McNamara's stunning mea culpa, delivered a quarter century after his Vietnam War policies sent some 50,000 Americans (and even more horrendous numbers of Vietnamese) to their deaths in that disastrous war. In his 1995 memoir, the man who had been a cold, calculating secretary of defense for both Kennedy and Johnson belatedly confessed that he and other top officials had long known that the war was an unwinnable, ideologically driven mistake. "We were wrong," he wrote, almost tearfully begging in print for public forgiveness. "We were terribly wrong."

Yes, they were, and so are today's leaders (from the White House to nearly all local governments), who are keeping us mired in the longest, most costly, and most futile war in U.S. history: the drug war. As one adamant opponent of this ongoing madness put it, "I cannot help but wonder how many more lives, and how much more money, will be wasted before another Robert McNamara admits what is plain for all to see: the War on Drugs is a failure. Americans are paying too high a price in lives and liberty for a failing War on Drugs, about which our leaders have lost all sense of proportion."

That was no ex-hippie stoner expressing himself through a haze of herbal smoke. It was America's "Uncle Walter," the journalistic icon Walter Cronkite, calling earlier this year for a new truthfulness and sanity in American drug policy.

The drug war is rife with major failures and absurdities, including the rise of a vast, murderous narco-state within Mexico, caused by U.S. consumer demand for drugs outlawed by our government; Plan Colombia, a secretive, multibillion-dollar U.S. military operation started by Bill Clinton in 2000 to eradicate coca production in that country, which now produces 15% more coca than it did before the plan was launched; the racist and grossly unjust sentencing disparity, established by lawmakers in the 1980s, between crack-cocaine users (mostly black) and powder snorters (mostly white); and the ridiculous refusal by pious federal authorities to allow our farmers to grow hemp--a useful, profitable, sustainable, and historic crop (see Lowdown, May 1999). ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/144115/the_war_on_weed%3A_marijuana_is_basically_harmless_--_the_monumentally_stupid_drug_war_is_not

[ixion]

1. This is the Real Truth

End the so-called 'drug' war now.

[dotymed]

5. If pot were legal, as it should be,

anyone with a seed could grow it. Just think of the billions
of dollars created by its being illegal( and all of the jobs,
that usually pay so little). The "privatized" prison
industry, bribes from graft and corruption, the armies of DEA
agents (well paid), the legal system (well paid), on and on..
It is also a great excuse to control people. Of course, the
wealthy don't have to worry much even though they buy more.The
Kennedy wealth came from Prohibition against alcohol. Illegal
pot has created so many millionaires on al sides. The
"law" makes millions and seizes so much cool
property....it would take a nuclear bomb for the system, who
realize that pot is harmless compared to alcohol, to legalize
one of their biggest cash cows.

[slay]

26. Jim Hightower cuts right to the truth on a regular basis - just like this time

LEGALIZE IT! You can subscribe to Jim's awesome articles at http://www.creators.com/subscription/opinion/jim-hightower.html :hi:

[tabasco]

2. More than 100.000 Americans become felons each year

for having a couple plants in their closet.

[Warpy]

3. Hightower is basically correct

although no psychoactive drug is completely harmless. Grass is about as close as one can get, though: not physically addictive, a mellow high whose worst side effect is the munchies, and no real possibility of overdose.

However, operating heavy machinery while stoned is not a good idea. The stoner is not going to do a good job and it's going to harsh his mellow.

Some people don't react well to grass, so it's certainly not a panacea for a civil society. However, legalizing it will help.

[imdjh]

4. I think there is some disagreement on the "worst side" of pot.

Some people believe that the case in point would be to rightly or wrongly look at the US and then look at Mexico. Two countries with essentially the same resources in 1825, one became a world power famous for its technological contributions and the other a political and economically unstable tourist destination known for its siestas and the ease with which drugs can be obtained.

[Warpy]

6. Mexico is a colonial oligarchy

Their revolution didn't produce a revolutionary form of government the way ours did. The old colonialists had all the power and they have never seen fit to share it, even though they're holding elections these days. That's why Mexico has periodic revolutions and might be in the middle of one now, lingering questions about the last election fueling so much mistrust that the drug lords are starting to look like the better alternative in poor areas.

Drugs aren't doing it. Plutocracy and a lack of hope are.

[imdjh]

7. Yeah, but it's more than that. Pot really isn't harmless and my age group is finding that out.

We were the first age group of middle class white suburbanites to smoke pot at will. Our grades really did go down hill. Our work ethic really was affected. Most of which most of us recovered from. But now, we're seeing the long term effects of pot on some of our friends, and it's not good. Artificial stupidity, laziness, and forgetfulness are not harmless side effects.

[bob4460]

8. B.S. It is called old age!!

[Warpy]

9. I've seen too many high functioning researchers who were daily smokers

to see that. I think your friends might have refused to be cogs in the corporate machine even without pot. I did and I only smoked it for a couple of years before the asthma told me it was a bad idea.

However, calling me low functioning would also be a misnomer, as I imagine it might be if you looked more closely at your stoner friends who might be functioning at a much higher level than you are in other areas of their lives.

People will manage to run into trouble with all sorts of things, though, and pot could conceivably be one of them, just like food, religion, sex, and behaviors like gambling are for some people.

That doesn't mean the nanny state should make any of these things illegal. The same goes for grass.

[ixion]

10. you shouldn't blame a drug for your apathy

it's not the pot that caused your grades or your work ethic to slide: it's you. There are plenty of pot smokers who are smart and work hard.

You're just making excuses for your own short-comings.

[eShirl]

12. "It's been cooler than usual this week. WHAT global warming??"

:eyes:

[Webster Green]

13. Links?

I smoke like a Rasta. I work my fucking ass off, and had a 3.8 GPA when I went to college.

Sounds like bullshit to me. :smoke:

[imdjh]

21. 3.8 in what major?

[winyanstaz]

24. Don't blame that on pot you silly :)

First off, pot will keep you from getting alzheimer's and will open new pathways in the brain (one of the reason the government doesn't like it is that people on pot tend to think for their selves too much) and can help with the creative processes. (Just ask all the rich and famous musicians and artists that have used it)
It can keep you healthier as pot smokers tend to have a lot less cancers.
It can keep you more active as you age because it can help you deal with pain.
Being stupid has nothing to do with pot..nor is being lazy something to blame on pot. Many people get very creative and do a lot of beautiful things with their minds and hands while stoned.
If you get too stoned..it will pass...being lazy or stupid is there all the time and there is no cure for stupid.

[change_notfinetuning]

25. As a retired air traffic controller, who smoked pot daily (never high at work)

and got excellent performance reviews, I think you need to look elsewhere for reasons for your and your friends' shortcomings/failures.

Is pot the only substance you and your friends use/used?

[eShirl]

11. In the same way there is "some disagreement" on global warming.

Good grief!

[imdjh]

22. There actually is when you don't spend your life in an echo chamber.

[reggie the dog]

15. I can get you drugs easy in the USA.

[montanto]

19. Yeah, pot caused that. Yep.

[imdjh]

23. No, culture caused that.

[L. Coyote]

29. I think there is some disagreement on the "worst side" of The War on Mexico

Stealing half a country and most of their mineral wealth, especially all the gold in California,
and you blame the difference between these countries on "siestas and the ease with which drugs can be obtained."

That's rich, culturally prejudiced too, plus outright racism!!

[JonQ]

14. Even if it weren't

if it caused lung cancer, impaired judgement, violence, etc as some claim it does, that would still not be a reason for banning it. That is, unless we were to likewise ban cigarettes and alcohol. I think tobacco sets the standard for what sort of recreational poisons are acceptable and by that criteria there is no medical argument against marijuana.

Some people argue that it is perfectly harmless or even beneficial, others cite studies showing slight increases in some ailment or other after smoking it. I feel this is merely quibbling over details, unless it's worse for you than other drugs that are perfectly legal there is no grounds for a prohibition.

[L. Coyote]

16. Criminalizing pot is a massive industry targeting Nixon political enemies.

Think about all the goon jobs that will be lost :rofl:

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

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[FlyByNight]

20. There's a huge prison-industrial complex to maintain

Taking a common-sense, rational, public health-oriented stance would upset that.

The vulgar waste and insanity of it all makes my head hurt (along with the military-industrial-congressional complex). Makes me wonder when (if?) the republic/empire will finally implode.

:banghead:

[TexasObserver]

27. Recommend

[midnight]

28. War is profitable, and money trumps peace..... Time to end this-Now.