This month the Supreme Court upheld the Federal government's longstanding tyranny over its citizens' right to decide for themselves how to manage their pleasure and their pain. Who would have thought, back in the '60s and '70s, that the thoroughly demonized herb, marijuana, might someday stage a comeback as "medical marijuana" and as a pain manager
Back then, after all, the issue was pleasure. But back up even further for a moment. In the '40s the people's government caved into the bullying tactics of a fanatical bureaucrat named Henry Anslinger, and put marijuana on the controlled substance list. They couldn't stand his nagging anymore, and ended up giving him what he wanted--a newly prohibited drug to replace the recently liberated drug, alcohol.
The profoundly asinine substance of Anslinger's case against marijuana has been enshrined in the camp movie, Reefer Madness. Though we look at that movie as a comedy, the truth is it represent an American tragedy--a drug war that has ruined more good and decent lives than all of our real wars combined. Compared to the legal drugs, alcohol and nicotine, marijuana is about as harmless to human health as baloney. Yet it remains the drug of choice for DEA enforcement, representing the lion's share of arrests, imprisonments, and tax dollars squandered against a sadly misbegotten ideological demon. Marijuana is a virtually harmless herb.
You shouldn't drive under its influence. But hey! The same is true with alcohol, right? Reasonable laws can protect us against stoned driving without criminalizing the safe and pleasurable feeling that this herb imparts for harmless activities like listening to music. As for harmful effects on "our" bodies, it has been connected to breast enlargement in men. Is this the reason that tens of thousands of truly non-criminal people have had their lives uprooted and virtually ruined by a government that is as fiercely ideological as the old Soviet Union, and just as adept at inventing enemies in order to maintain its inordinate hold on power?
Article comments
1 - Michael
Wow, great history lesson. Seems like the perspective of most of us is over about a 10 or 20 year window, the rest forgotten. Can't imagine what all the fuss is about with pot again, especially since it hasn't totally fallen out of the culture (youth seem to use it more than anything else illicit). Maybe it's the same ideological fervor and mindless trust in leaders cloaked in patriotism that perpetuates this kind of nonsense.
It is what it is. I guess the culture changes when the people in it change. And half of the voters supported Bush...
Craziness in the world today, just like always throughout history, but it seems a little crazier now, at least in America. Probably everywhere.
2 - Ejukonemu o merit
i really want to know more about the court proceedings pls send to my mail