Deciphering the ever complicated Marijuana Laws
It wasn’t really till 1937 until the first ever Marijuana Laws were created. It started out as a tax on growing hemp, or as prohibitionists coined the term “marijuana”. Before 1937 and for thousands of years Marijuana was completely legal. Anybody young or old had access to the plant because it was seen as an essential part of society as it provided; rope, cloth, food, medicine, construction materials and much more. This was a problem for some of the “underdog” industries of their time and thus they created Marijuana Laws to outlaw their competition and corrupt society through yellow journalism and suggestive propaganda.
People didn’t even know that they were outlawing Hemp; they thought Marijuana was this new drug on the street that was spawned from pure evil. The truth of the matter is that since 1937 Marijuana Laws only became more severe and started focusing on punishing all those who had anything to do with it.
In 1971 Nixon declares a War on Drugs. Not because drugs are bad, that’s not the real reason; the reason was because he was getting a lot of heat from Vietnam. He had thousands of protestors standing outside his lawn not willing to go until he made a decision. So in order to be able to move such a big crowd he declared a war on drugs. Nixon knew that most of the protestors were smoking marijuana and thus with an excuse like the “War on Drugs” he could legally break up a protest under the pretence of “eradicating the evils of this world”.
And since then the War on drugs and Marijuana Laws only became more intense and more unfair. In 1974 California tried to re-legalize but the initiative was shot down. It wasn’t until 22 years later that California managed to alter the Marijuana Laws within the state. They passed a law that protected people with debilitating diseases from any criminal proceedings if caught with smoking marijuana. Also these patients had a legal right to grow their own marijuana as well.
Since then the Medical Marijuana program has expanded like wild fire and within the time frame of 15 years there are 17 states with a legal marijuana program, and ten more pending. More importantly in 2012 in Washington, Oregon and Colorado the local citizens will be voting on legalizing marijuana once more for recreational use for adults 21 and over. This would mean that for the first time since it was illegalized in 1937, it would be made legal once more.
Yet that legality will only be effective on the State level as under the current Federal Marijuana Laws it is still considered illegal. The battle will still be long and there will still be plenty of resistance from the people running the United States. The same prohibitionists that implemented their shady tactics are the same people still running the country. But as people begin to realize that they have power and that through a collective movement, they can re-legalize their freedom.
Know in depth about Marijuana Laws from http://marijuanadoctors411.com/.
Processing your request, Please wait....
