More Freedom, Less Mastery

THERE IS ONE REASON, and one reason alone, why marijuana has been illegal in america since 1937.Its the same reason why everything else is the way it is: the corporations which own and control this country want it that way.

We all know that marijuana has been known and popular for thousands of years, but a combination of late nineteenth century prudish anti - hedonistic  victorian values, and widespread opium, cocaine and alcohol addiction in the united states brought about first, prohibition of alcohol, then, when that turned out to be a disaster, the forces of censorship turned against marijuana.

the same people, corporations who favored repeal of alcohol prohibition in 1933 favored the regulation of marijuna in 1937. Cleverly the roosevelt administration passed a law requiring purchase of a stamp in order to process marijuana, but in order to purchase the stamp, a sample of the plant had to be provided by the applicant, which was illegal, because said applicant did not yet have the stamp. Thus, effectively, curcuitously, marijuana was outlawed, spearheaded by a few overly zealous crusaders.

Now it is slowly becoming legal again, as a more reasonable and educated public begins to understand the folly of the phony drug war, and the folly of limiting personal freedom. Because marijuana can be grown in anybody's home, our corporate masters cannot control it, thus, they oppose it.

The reasons to oppose prohibition of marijuana are almost too numerous to mention, but they include lower law enforecmednt costs, lower rates of inprisnoment of potentially productive citizens, the raising of tax revenue; all of which benefits are well known.

As abraham lincoln said "prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason, in that it attempts to control a man's appetites by legislation, and make a crime out of things which are not crimes. Prohibition strikes a blow against the very principles upon which our nation was founded."

Well said, mr lincoln. But perhaps the best reason for a libertarian approach to personal habits is the following; with every freedom we have, our corporate masters have a little less mastery over us.