USA - The Real Reasons Drugs are Illegal.

[CrakkBakk]

I am writing a paper and I would like to include facts on what the government had to gain originally in the begining my making certain drugs illegal.

Note: I would like FACTS, that can be backed by SOURCES. I do not want speculation or conspiracy theories. The government uses those tactics with their War on Drugs, and I am NOT going to fight fire w/ fire and use those same tactics.

We have all heard the "Marijuana is illegal because politicans were racist to the Mexicans," "Opium is illegal because the politicians were racist to Chinese, "Cocaine is illegal because the politicians were racist to Blacks." It would be nice if there was anything to back these claims, aside from speculation and conspiracy theories. I know that someone said that "Women are moar likely to have sex w/ negros under the influence of marijuana" which is definitley good. I need to find that though.

We have also heard the "Marijuana is illegal because the tobacco, alcohol and cotton industries have lobbyed against it so their products do not go out of buisness. Any proof? Any documents or recordings of these lobbyist?

Can anyone point me to a website or a series that shows this? I'm doing alot of things at once regarding this paper so I would appreciate the help.

Thanks.

Reputation Comments on this post:

need some green in your life bro- TRUTH

[Orchid_Suspiria]

The reason is the United States with their oppressive and evil drug laws push the rest of the world into adopting these laws.In the United States they know drugs are part of the counterculture,when you have recreational drug users,especially psychedellic users these people will think.They will not support unjust wars or development of new nuclear weapons.The government of the United States believe pleasure should be a crime unless it is pleasure in hardwork and providing the state with money for unjust and illegal wars and the development of evil weapons.

Is the government of the United States as evil as that of North Korea?No it is not.Is it evil?Yes at times it is,at other times it is simply misguided.Occasionally we have the rare politician with common sense and some level of care about the people but these are rare finds indeed.

[Panthers007]

To get the real powers-that-be to open up and speak truthfully regards the actual nature of what is called the "War On Drugs" would likely require taking them to a "Waterboarding Theme Park." Instead you will get the party line spoon-fed to you - like everyone else. "They destroy our youth! Join the army!" And other specious rhetoric.

The real truth is out there. Available through interviews from those who have quit, retired, or defected. One needs only to look around. If you want the equivalent of Cliff Notes for your paper on this subject, then you are flat out of luck. It requires some digging to get to the truth, which is well wrapped in lies in attempts to discredit the people who speak it.

One thing recently aired you might find helpful. It's a 2 hour documentary called American Drug War. It has been spoken of here before, so I don't wish to sound like a broken CD. But it aired on Showtime. It's well worth finding.

Good luck. Remember the old saying: "It's always easier to sell somebody some shit, than it is to give them the truth."

Reputation Comments on this post:

Good to see you around. Your commentary is as witty and incisive as ever. Hope you are faring well. - Baj

[Orchid_Suspiria]

I live in a very conservative part of Virginia,this is a very bad place to be if you wish to try and get any form of truth to people.Where I live free thought is a negative quality.Sometimes talking about this makes me so frustrated.However I have managed to convince alot of my family members of the hypocrisy of drinking daily but judging swim just because his mind altering substance of choice is a different one.

[Bezzz]

Another reason is the economy. Think of all the money that the governement gets to take in taxes to pay for this war on drugs and the fact that they have to employ tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of people to fight this war. All helps keep the system ticking over..

Also if drugs were legal then the governement wouldn't be allowed to traffic them as they do now and would lose all of that revenue.

Basically it's a mess, but what can anyone do really?

[Orchid_Suspiria]

Yup the war on drugs benefits no one but the rich,the politicians,and the criminal cartels involved in the blackmarket.We the people that just believe in the freedom to expand our consciousness without hurting anyone and society in general suffer though.

[FuBai]

I think what he's after is the sources for these opinions. If you look back to the beginning of prohibition you will find quite a few beliefs that were presented in congress etc. Marijuana was claimed to give Mexicans super strength, and to have so befuddled one man that he cut off someone's head and, after recovering from the effects, had no idea what he had done. It may also be useful to look at the way drugs like cocaine and Marijuana spread (opiates were in common usage even amongst the white population, and the "scourge of opium" was one of the chief fears of the League of Temperance). Marijuana especially found its way into the Jazz scene, largely because it made music feel good and because it was a scene dominated by blacks and all ready viewed by many of the white population as being a worrying counter culture. In short it was a more permissive and, to many whites, therefore reprehensible culture. One should examine court records of the time to see how often it was claimed that people had been "led astray" by Jazz. Marijuana was refered to by many names, but "Tea" and "Reefer" were common. Try looking at contemporary news-paper articles in New York, Chicago etc and you will find things like "Tea replaces liquor in Harlem". It is my belief that drug prohibition was founded in well intentioned ignorance and maintained in pride and media hype - so little was known about the effects of Marijuana that, coupled with a much lower level of public education, it was easy for many to simply accept that it was "worse than opium", and that it caused insanity. This lead to a massive surge in support for the Marijuana laws and even demanding much harsh penalties. One source that is good for looking at the beginnings of prohibition is Grass, a film about Marijuana that is probably in the video archive. Look at things like the congressional debates over what drugs should be made illegal (some will be surprised to find that Caffeine was almost made illegal). Allot of it is about lack of research, ignorance and fear of change (although on the former you should look into the quashing of the La Guardia report by Anslinger). If you want to look at prohibition in the UK you should examine how Cannabis had similar scare stories surrounding it. This is a useful source and may point you in the direction of other sources, but remember, loath as I am to say this, Transform is a partisan organisation and you should use it as a guide not as a sole source.

[stoneinfocus]

A good point would be seeing the commercial pharma and research, which is now edging on being in the media and in drug-testing, but it´s a non-profit area, just some lab-rats getting the mike and a TV shot of their lab-coats, showing-off with some pseudo scientific statements.

If they were able to research and license for example a greatly lesser neurotoxic amphetamine, that wouldn´t have to be chemically masked, until it looses most of its beneficial properties, because of the restricting laws (amphetamines being legal again and needn´t special prescriptions), then, there´d be profit again, maybe a powerful money-lobby could be found and we all would win, the patients, the doctors, the research, the pharmas, the politicians doing the pharma lobby.BTW, interesting to see the marketing/commercials of once legal drugs, there was not a jota of doubt in them, by looking at the advertising and they were proudly selling them.

But actually, war is way more profitable and the weapons industry a major funding for weapon-dealer No.1 G.W.Bush, England, France, Russia, etc. and guess, how one is getting more votes, what fires the people-up more easily?Pro drug legalisation? Or a war against the axis of evil, conducted by the world´s greates military force? -you give the average guy a stereotype, which he can easily believe and let the media sell it for you [win(votes)-win(media-entertainment)-win(executional offices)-win(weapon lobby)-situation] and get some more voters into your boat. -No president´s candidate would ever say, that he´d been smoking Mj, had various experiences with psychedelics, or that he found the prohibition of heroin and cokaine useless, ever. Freedom doesn´t sell, enough of that, let´s go with the
strongest and most prevailing instincts, the children, the criminals(whatever), work, money, laws, laws, terrorists, wars, oil, climate, climate, oil, terror, prisons, infaltion, diminishing wealth, harder punishments, more wars, more restrictions, less freedom, more police,
peadophiles, more punishment, more religous value, fags, equal rights?-no,
celebreties, another terrorists news, oil, less money, less wealth, lower income, more criminals, more media... .


No one could really demand from a regular guy to elaborate on drugs, toxicity, safety-charts/&standards, side-effects, flaws in research, false research and proper use, much more-so, when he has the media pictures of drug-victims and the strong upstanding politician against drugs in his head(not to forget the evil afghan, with his murdering plants supporting terrorism), which he can identify so easily with.

then they mix up the really good arguments against prohibition, against war, equal rights and lace them into their flawed agenda, so these arguements are becoming quite worthless, too, as the avarage guy will identify them and categorize them as being against it, now the more.

It´s all psychology and it works so well.Unfrotunately not for us, so much...

Your statement is true, that some might always get the "I´m discriminated by cocaine and the laws to it"- (except your name is G.W.Bush)" picture and -as this might hold true, to smash counter-cultures- as being said by orchid surprisia- one just has to absolutely stereotypically stick to the facts, which will indicate itself any discrimination of sub-cultures or ethnics, vice versa, it doesn´t really matter, or solve anything to the better, if an ethnic group is prevalent in causing a problem... one would just dismiss all good arguments with this faktum, which´s of no use at all, when the problems can be resolved by means, which have nothing to do with the colour of the skin. One would attract fascist idiots and scare-off the pinkboy intellectual,
the hippie, the alternatives, by just mentioning this and showing, that their "equal" rights and treatment is not working.
Less is more!
The truth can be told in one sentence and make people think.

Not directly giving any information about drug-culture, but living a culture of love and solidarity would show, that things are actually working out and giving others a clue of a living example of how the truth is working, when it´s applied to life.(No, not puking on the sidewalk and getting aromatherapy and homeopathic treatment for the strange back- and chest pain after 30mg adderall, or trying to gain attention from your doc, because he´s the onyl one who listens when you´re speaking).

Sorry for being off-topic, but how do you proof psycholigical manipulation/warfare and how well it works, even backed-up by scientific research, when most of the people just disagree, because they´ve never experienced any pressure or surge and therefore they would be hard-pressed to show empathy and relating the logic behind simple restrictions to the impact of one´s live. (it´s his fault, I´d done a lot better in his place; I´d never ever gotten into sch a situation, it´s not that bad, you´re exaggerating, you´re whining, you´re bitter, you´re too negative, that I don´t believe... Robert -get the shredder for those CIA-docs, after that we´ll have cold beer, ... or better beer and Jaegermeister?).

then again, maybe the media can do a lot to the positive: fire with fire.
But it will most likely be quenched by a bigger silent fire of the conservative masses or just being pushed away, as soem thousands of unnecessary deaths and endless suffering in the own country isn´t that important, when one´s just fighting in Kandahar and realizes, that the armor of the 30 mio. XK.107 is insufficient and turban-joe has just announced, that his cup of tea is too shallow and therefor he will lead his imaginary troops to invade all the world.

[CrakkBakk]

I was thinking more on the lines of sources. Opinions do not mean anything.

If there was a written court arguement that stated "Marijuana should be illegal because it makes white women have intercourse w/ black men," I could use that as an arguement for legalization: Marijuana was made illegal on ignorant and racist ideologies. Are you ignorant and racist?

etc.

Thanks for links^

[jilola]

Originally Posted by CrakkBakk

I was thinking more on the lines of sources. Opinions do not mean anything.

Opinions sustain policy.
Without firm opinions there is no basisi for a policy.

What is the basis (provable or propagandist) for the enduring opinion that supports th eprohibition?

[FuBai]

Originally Posted by jilola

Opinions sustain policy.
Without firm opinions there is no basisi for a policy.

What is the basis (provable or propagandist) for the enduring opinion that supports th eprohibition?

Ok we'll say it slowly so you can get it this time - this is a historical essay, not a work of conjecture. All contemproary opinions MUST be backed up by source material, whether primary or secondary. This is not about making new policy descisions but about picking apart the reasons behind the policy descisions of the past.

[Shiacmkmleer]

The National Institute on Money in State Politics indicates the major sources of campaign contributions for US politicians. For example, Representative John Lim’s largest individual campaign sponsor in 2006 was the Oregon Beer & Wine Distributors Association. Lim argued for Schedule I classification of salvia in Oregon. Senator Karen Peterson’s second largest group campaign donations in 2006 came from ‘Beer, Wine & Liquor’ industries. Peterson introduced Schedule I classification of Salvia divinorum in Delaware. Senator Tim Burchett (R) sponsored salvia legislation in Tennessee. In 2006 his second largest individual campaign donation came from the Tennessee Malt Beverage Association. In the same period alcohol and tobacco related contributions amounted to the fourth largest industry contributions for Representative Paul Ray in Utah. Representative Ray (R) submitted a bill calling for Schedule I classification of Salvia in that state. Alcohol related contributions also featured highly for Representative Dennis Reboletti in Illinois ‘Beer, Wine & Liquor’ was his seventh highest industry contributor.[94] Representative Reboletti (R) sponsored a bill for Schedule I classification of Salvia divinorum in Illinois.

from Wiki pedia but the sources check out.. the more you know...

[/-\_/-\]

I'll make this short but it will sound really weird to some of you.

Anyways, my take on this, on being a conspiracy researcher and spiritualist, is that the government fears drugs or any substances which can alter our present consciousness and make us see "beyond" into the metaphysical, because the government is working malevolently behind spiritual walls which most people cannot see. The entire media and social norm is based on materialism, and it defiles anything spiritual; this is because the government and those in power ARE a conspiracy, and there are things people on drugs see that others don't.

Yeah sounds pretty weird, but those are my thoughts on this.

[tip]

I'll make this short but it will sound really weird to some of you.

Anyways, my take on this, on being a conspiracy researcher and spiritualist, is that the government fears drugs or any substances which can alter our present consciousness and make us see "beyond" into the metaphysical, because the government is working malevolently behind spiritual walls which most people cannot see. The entire media and social norm is based on materialism, and it defiles anything spiritual; this is because the government and those in power ARE a conspiracy, and there are things people on drugs see that others don't.

Yeah sounds pretty weird, but those are my thoughts on this.

This began long ago with the the repression of shamanism via the evil Catholic influence that spread with the Spanish colonization. In the Caribbean, and Central and South America, Catholic child molestering priests were instrumental in the destruction of all local traditions, denouncing practitioners as "devil worshippers" and having them executed. In many areas, all over the world former shamans have ceased to fill the functions in the community they used to. And still to this day, as they were mocked by their own communitys, this is what happens to people whom take LSD in this day and age. This is why consiousness destroying ego drugs like cocaine are everywhere and same with alchohol just hang around a groupe of conformists and talk about LSD see what happens to you. You will see how nothing has change in hundreds of years. This story has been told in the Star Wars saga. With the Sith wiping out the Jedi in episode 3, the Sith can you guess who they are? There are alwase 2 no more no less!! Swim cannot wait for Episode 6 "Return of the Jedi (Shaman)".

Reputation Comments on this post:

Well said, absolutely spot-on analysis

[/-\_/-\]

Originally Posted by tip

This began long ago with the the repression of shamanism via the evil Catholic influence that spread with the Spanish colonization. In the Caribbean, and Central and South America, Catholic child molestering priests were instrumental in the destruction of all local traditions, denouncing practitioners as "devil worshippers" and having them executed. In many areas, all over the world former shamans have ceased to fill the functions in the community they used to. And still to this day, as they were mocked by their own communitys, this is what happens to people whom take LSD in this day and age. This is why consiousness destroying ego drugs like cocaine are everywhere and same with alchohol just hang around a groupe of conformists and talk about LSD see what happens to you. You will see how nothing has change in hundreds of years. This story has been told in the Star Wars saga. With the Sith wiping out the Jedi in episode 3, the Sith can you guess who they are? There are alwase 2 no more no less!! Swim cannot wait for Episode 6 "Return of the Jedi (Shaman)".

Oh Indeed. The same forces have been using religion and various other methods (AIDS in Africa) to suppress spiritual knowledge. I mean cigarettes are legal yet LSD and Cannabis are not (in most places)

One need only take a look behind the products they buy from their supermarket, and it's obvious how much more damaging and addictive some of those products can be as opposed to natural drugs tribes all over the world have taken for centuries. Fast foods; anti-depressants; Vaccinations; soda; list goes on...

[Xanthic]

This is a speech by the extremely knowledgeable Professor Charles Whitebread, who is a famous and credible law analyst/teacher. He and Professor Richard Bonnie researched the history of marijuana prohibition back to its origins, and their data relies on legislative records, Congressional hearings, conference transcripts, and other direct sources. The full book the pair wrote is listed in the link.

(not a forum)
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/whiteb1.htm

[POLSKA]

Bezzz, I couldn't have said it better. There is an equation involved. Would the government take in more revenue if drugs were illegal or legal? Incorporating the jobs it provides, along with the money thrown at the court system, I'm betting that keeping them illegal is the answer. The government wouldn't want groups of people feeling "euphoria" sitting around cuz then they couldn't play puppet master and make society run under their command (not sure if anyone understands what I mean by that). Keeping the drugs illegal keeps the price higher as well, making the dirty government even more money by keeping them scarce.

POLSKA added 4 Minutes and 40 Seconds later...

OH also I tend to think of alcohol as a "get stupified and tell the truth" serum. And that can only be to the government's advantage.

[purplehaze]

I've got a movie that talks about marijuana being illegal and how it became. It clearly explains that marijuana was made illegal because of the oil companys. Theres alot of research to be done to prove this as a fact, but it does have alot of information about how marijuana being a cash crop and the oil industrys competeting so someone that was high up made it illegal so they could run there oil business and it hasnt never changed. The movie is called totally baked.