Wow, something i never knew about why legalization probably won't happen..

[tokinman]

never knew the below.. came from this article...
http://cannabisculture.com/v2/content/patriots-guide-legalization


SO WHAT ARE THE ODDS OF LEGALIZATION? Slim. For starters, the United States, along with virtually every other country in the world, is a signatory to the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (and its 1988 successor), which flatly prohibits legalization of cannabis. The only way around this is to unilaterally withdraw from the treaties or to withdraw and then reenter with reservations. That's not going to happen.

 

[OutdoIndo]

never knew the below.. came from this article...
http://cannabisculture.com/v2/content/patriots-guide-legalization

SO WHAT ARE THE ODDS OF LEGALIZATION? Slim. For starters, the United States, along with virtually every other country in the world, is a signatory to the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (and its 1988 successor), which flatly prohibits legalization of cannabis. The only way around this is to unilaterally withdraw from the treaties or to withdraw and then reenter with reservations. That's not going to happen.

Sorry but I must call you out... B.S.

If the people could put it to a ligitimate vote, knowing the true facts of the root of the prohibition, it would be legalized. We live in a Democracy for a reason. We are fighting currently to get the topic on a ballot, and president Obama is the biggest resource we could ever ask for.

In Short:

The basis of the prohibition of Marijuana is racist toward not only Black Americans, but was originally focused on the Mexicans in California who were the first people in America to actually smoke the herb.

When the prohibition started, weed was known to the Eastern and Mid-Western American settlers only as hemp. It was widely farmed for it's many, various non-psychedelic uses. The people who voted for the criminalization of Marijuana had no idea what it was. Coincidentally, Hemp was in direct competition with the lumber/paper industry. Very easily corrupted, the government was paid off, by a newspaper company owner who survived on timber, and much racist propaganda about Marijuana was created. All of which was made-up to influence the voter's decision to criminilize Marijuana. They never even knew that they were voting against the very same plant that most of them farmed regularly on their very own farms.

The government tricked the voters by never correlating the two names: Marijuana and Hemp. They instead only referred to it as "Marijuana," or "Loco Weed" because they had also started rumors to help make Marijuana seem like a scary substance to the voters. They said things like: "the Mexicans act crazy when they smoked it". Along with a slew of other racist propaganda, you all can Google it.

Anywayz, my point is: People, if they knew the truth, which you said is what you yourself are in search of, would overwhelmingly vote to legalize Marijuana in this country.

 

[howdyguhk]

no outdoindo, you can't vote out of a treaty as a public vote. do you really think enough people are going to rally together and put enough pressure on our administration to go through all the trouble of legalizing weed? no, and such an issue will most likely never be important enough to be brought out (abortion, stem cell research, capital punishment, etc)

but...weed can still get legalized at the state level.

 

[tokinman]

looking at the 2 dates, 1961 and the most recent signatory in 1988 you can't even refer to when prohibition started.. that is why the laws got so revamped over time because the old prohibition laws were bs and full of holes.. thats why pot was re legalized for a few years then the law was fixed and it has been illegal ever since.. the only hope like howdy stated is legalization on a state level.. either that or decriminalization. just imagine what a hay day the feds will have if cali legalizes.. the dea tears em up just for legal med pot.. on the bright side, if cali legalizes, i know where 90% of the dea will be camping out..
unless poser ass obama actually does something that forces the feds to abide by state law like they should be doing anyway..

 

[KaleoXxX]

im pretty sure a treaty is not supposed to be in effect forever, they usually have some conditions as to when it should run out or typically lasts under 50 years unless it gets reinstated. also marijuana dose not need to be considered a illicit drug and it is not a narcotic.

Sorry but I must call you out... B.S.

If the people could put it to a ligitimate vote, knowing the true facts of the root of the prohibition, it would be legalized. We live in a Democracy for a reason. We are fighting currently to get the topic on a ballot, and president Obama is the biggest resource we could ever ask for.

In Short:

The basis of the prohibition of Marijuana is racist toward not only Black Americans, but was originally focused on the Mexicans in California who were the first people in America to actually smoke the herb.

When the prohibition started, weed was known to the Eastern and Mid-Western American settlers only as hemp. It was widely farmed for it's many, various non-psychedelic uses. The people who voted for the criminalization of Marijuana had no idea what it was. Coincidentally, Hemp was in direct competition with the lumber/paper industry. Very easily corrupted, the government was paid off, by a newspaper company owner who survived on timber, and much racist propaganda about Marijuana was created. All of which was made-up to influence the voter's decision to criminilize Marijuana. They never even knew that they were voting against the very same plant that most of them farmed regularly on their very own farms.

The government tricked the voters by never correlating the two names: Marijuana and Hemp. They instead only referred to it as "Marijuana," or "Loco Weed" because they had also started rumors to help make Marijuana seem like a scary substance to the voters. They said things like: "the Mexicans act crazy when they smoked it". Along with a slew of other racist propaganda, you all can Google it.

Anywayz, my point is: People, if they knew the truth, which you said is what you yourself are in search of, would overwhelmingly vote to legalize Marijuana in this country.

good points i just wanted to point out one thing

it is raciest against Mexicans because when it was made illegal, was when they needed a reason to deport legally immigrated Mexicans. propaganda of the time confused black peoples acts (like raping whie women, killing and stealing, all verry raceist) under the influence of cocaine instead of smoking marijuana

 

[Ne0.]

Sorry but I must call you out... B.S.

If the people could put it to a ligitimate vote, knowing the true facts of the root of the prohibition, it would be legalized. We live in a Democracy for a reason. We are fighting currently to get the topic on a ballot, and president Obama is the biggest resource we could ever ask for.

In Short:

The basis of the prohibition of Marijuana is racist toward not only Black Americans, but was originally focused on the Mexicans in California who were the first people in America to actually smoke the herb.

When the prohibition started, weed was known to the Eastern and Mid-Western American settlers only as hemp. It was widely farmed for it's many, various non-psychedelic uses. The people who voted for the criminalization of Marijuana had no idea what it was. Coincidentally, Hemp was in direct competition with the lumber/paper industry. Very easily corrupted, the government was paid off, by a newspaper company owner who survived on timber, and much racist propaganda about Marijuana was created. All of which was made-up to influence the voter's decision to criminilize Marijuana. They never even knew that they were voting against the very same plant that most of them farmed regularly on their very own farms.

The government tricked the voters by never correlating the two names: Marijuana and Hemp. They instead only referred to it as "Marijuana," or "Loco Weed" because they had also started rumors to help make Marijuana seem like a scary substance to the voters. They said things like: "the Mexicans act crazy when they smoked it". Along with a slew of other racist propaganda, you all can Google it.

Anywayz, my point is: People, if they knew the truth, which you said is what you yourself are in search of, would overwhelmingly vote to legalize Marijuana in this country.

They even went as far as producing propaganda videos that came out and directly said that if your wife or daughter started smoking marijauna she would become a sex addict and have relations with minorities. Rediculous stuff. The thing about that treaty is it is pretty easy to get around, sure there might not be legalization on the federal level, but it doesn't stop us from being able to decriminalize until the treaty is expired and renogatiated for participating countries. Not to mention the fact the United States is pretty notorious for backing out of treaties that don't meet all our needs. And it wouldn't be that big of a deal if we backed out of it at all, it's not just the United States that has started to see the benefits of the MJ.

 

[growone]

i like these debates on legalization, but i don't think this the most effective route for the change in laws
my own humble opinion is law change is happening from the state perspective, with federal enforcement likely to become a slowly decreasing factor
from medical marijuana, decreased enforcement at the local level, this is literally a grass roots deal
i don't see the laws so much going away as the enforcement becoming similar to holland, canada, and the rest of the world(like of all places, mexico, when did they become the more progressive country)

 

[bgmike8]

black people will rape white women with or without dope. duh. marijuana wont be legalized for a long time. they will always say that it is bad for kids and so forth. and truth be told, we don't have enough science to support legalization because the gov doesn't allow it.

 

[KayAreOEnnEyeSee]

All I know is we are taking steps in the right direction, if not for legalization but decriminalization. Lets all just keep fighting the good fight together, they can't keep a good thing away from us forever, can they?

 

[bgmike8]

depends what you mean by forever

 

[ruderalis88]

They probably couldn't fully legalise it altogether because (mainly in my opinion) of the UN. There's nothing like that to stop them from "tolerating" it as in the dutch system, and regulating the market. All it takes is a bit of declassification and a new attitude and it could be grown, sold, used, and any other verb really, without hassle from the cops and robbers alike in any country. 'Legal' is just a word but it has strong connotations. It's not that difficult for someone who's commited rape or murder to talk their way around proper punishment just using the right words in the right context. It's the national or international attitude that matters, the public opinion, and unfortunately weed seems to be at the shitty end of that. It seems like vocabulary and semantics are more important these days than the morality of a thing, which is a travesty.

This got posted in a thread a month or two ago, it's the UN world drug report from 06 and pretty much backs up the argument that says they couldn't entirely legalise it. But the UN does change its mind on some things sometimes too.

http://www.unodc.org/pdf/WDR_2006/wdr2006_volume1.pdf

It'll never be a lost cause to me.

Peace

 

[apocalyptic]

http://www.youtube.com/user/DrRonPaul4President

Check out the videos on that video channel, Ron Paul's views on cannabis and drugs is different but sounds effective. The 60 minutes interview is quite interesting.

 

[ThumbofGreen]

as long as hemp would threaten all the major industries we already have, it wont be legalized. it would knock too much food out of peoples mouths. Think abut it, if legalized, the tobacco industry would be crippled, along with the fabrics and textiles industry. Hemp is their worst enemy.

 

[doobnVA]

It's true that outright legalization probably isn't an option because of the Single Convention treaties, however, that's only as long as cannabis remains a scheduled narcotic. If cannabis were removed from the schedule, then the rules of the treaty would no longer apply.

Also, the treaty does allow for decriminalization of cannabis (like what's been done in Portugal).

 

[SaneLawsMake4SaneSociety]

Interesting thoughts on this, you all do have (I will stop talking like Yoda now).

I want to add that this is about a LOT more than just us being able to burn a joint, or bowl, or vapo, or even a bukket (that thing is crazy, btw...zero to baked in 1 hit).

For reasons touched upon in this thread already, every step we take toward full-on legalization is a step towards an eventual lessening of a lot of problems facing our society, and also the entire ecosystem of planet earth.

I know that there may be people here who are turned off by that part of that last statement, thinking its "hippe crap" or whatever, but seriously, we are GOING to run out of fossil fuels one day, and for reasons that are way too much to go into here, the cannabis plant moves us towards being able, a lot more easily, to rid our dependence on fossil fuels and also, nuclear energy. (super short example..it's is incredibly easy to grow, and you can make food AND fuel from it {among other things, of course}...if you are growing it for those purposes, its actually an issue that it can overtake your land!)

With that in mind, it becomes even more important for us to keep pushing forward with this.

My personal take, btw, on the best approach, is that we are kind of already taking it.

We may not be able to get Obama to sign off on legalization, BUT.... if we can win enough smaller battles to make it abundantly clear to anyone in power that not only do the people in general support legalization, but that there is already significant legislative momentum, and also, possibly even more importantly, industrial backing for, legalization, he would be a lot more likely to do it. i.e., I don't think DuPont, or Exxon, or IBM for that matter, give a shit if they are deriving their profits from oil based products, petroleum based products, or magic fairy dust based products, so long as they can see a genuine financial opportunity in a given approach.

One thing that could be considered a downside to that, of course, is that if a person is currently making money selling weed, their profits are artificially inflated by the fact that its illegal. If it became legal, their whole game would have to change. But there are millionaires to be made by that, too. That doesn't affect me, though. I have a total of 2 plants right now. And they are both being ravaged by something I have yet to identify. One doesnt even look like weed anymore.

OK... rant done now. If you read this far, thanks for tuning in!

 

[doobnVA]

Doesn't sound like hippie crap to me at all. Cannabis is a wonderful plant. So wonderful, in fact, that not so long ago where I live farmers were required to grow it. Not for "marijuana", because nobody had even heard of that made-up shit, but because we used it for freaking everything.

Now, we go drill up the ground and suck out the poisonous gunk that we turn into more poisonous gunk that NEVER GOES AWAY so we've got heaps of broken plastic toys and styrofoam cups and disposable diapers not to mention the toxic byproducts of making all this garbage in the first place leeching into our soil, our drinking water, and our DNA.

I don't know about you guys, but it pisses me off. With legal cannabis, we could all have access to a cheap, easily renewable source of fuel, textiles, food... not to mention the !!!

 

[doobnVA]

as long as hemp would threaten all the major industries we already have, it wont be legalized. it would knock too much food out of peoples mouths. Think abut it, if legalized, the tobacco industry would be crippled, along with the fabrics and textiles industry. Hemp is their worst enemy.

Hemp could be their best friend, if they let it. When you look at the pros and cons of growing tobacco vs. cannabis or cotton vs. cannabis - cannabis is the logical choice every time. You can grow it with less pesticides (lower impact on the environment and lower cost for the grower), it takes less processing than cotton to turn into fabric (also good for the environment) and yield per acre of cannabis can be 2 to 3 times more than cotton. Plus you can use just about every part of the cannabis plant for something.

 

[DankyDank]

Sorry but I must call you out... B.S.

We are fighting currently to get the topic on a ballot, and president Obama is the biggest resource we could ever ask for.

I'm not sure how anyone who is even remotely keeping themselves informed on this topic could see Obama as a "resource."

Obama has turned out to be a sell out. He is actually prosecuting pot cases MORE enthusiastically than the Bush administration ever did. Obama had the DEA raid a medical dispensary in the heart of San Francisco that had been open for more than five years! And as far as I know, the feds are still pursuing the case against Ed Rosenthal.

The punk isn't a resource, he's a goddamn liability.

 

[strangerdude562]

I think marijuana will be legal in the US within 10 years, every where I go there is always talk about it.

 

[amrock]

there is a racial descriminis on this site, for those that don't know what that is, read all the forums on this page from top to bottom and you will find out who that person is.