Legalize Marijuana? Benefits Ignored by Federal Government (Infographic)
Cannabis has been known throughout history to be relatively harmless, especially when compared to other more heavily abused and dangerous drugs. It is so harmless, in fact, that it would most likely come as a surprise to someone from another entirely different era as to why it is classified as highly dangerous and subsequently subject to serious legal penalties. In America specifically, cannabis has been credited as the ‘gateway drug’ to drugs such as Opium and Cocaine – all the while studies have proven that cannabis has in fact been beneficial in patients with a variety of diseases and disorders. This includes use as a natural painkiller, and even possibly improving the health of your lungs. So, shouldn’t we legalize marijuana?
Legalize Marijuana? Benefits Ignored by Federal Government (Infographic)
The fact of the matter is that there is no real reason to continue the rampant federal prohibition of marijuana. Ignoring marijuana’s positive aspects, each and every person has the right to use marijuana. So therefore, why is marijuana illegal? Let us examine:
- Marijuana alone brings in upwards of 36 Billion dollars in revenue. That is well above the highest yielding cash crops in the country.
- The federal governments’ prohibition of cannabis costs them (and by proxy, us) 7.7 billion dollars a year. If we were to legalize marijuana, it would save us not only that large sum but also gain somewhere between 15 and 16 billion dollars in revenue (taxes/consumer products) alone – that is above a 20 billion dollar net gain ON TOP of the illegal industry’s current net worth.
- The development of the ‘Just Say No’ message alone cost the US 33 billion dollars – and yet still yielded no results, as students of high school age in both the 1970’s and today still use the same amount of illegal drugs.
- What’s more, well over half a trillion dollars was spent fighting the War on Drugs, 450 billion dollars of which was spent to lock away these so-called criminals in a federal penitentiary. On average, about half of all offenders in federal prisons are serving for drug related charges.
- Many of today’s teens can obtain marijuana more easily than they can with alcohol or cigarettes, proving that the legalized and fully regulated substances are much more difficult to acquire than marijuana.
These are but a few logistical reasons behind the generally wrong notion that marijuana is something only to be abused – all of them proven to be beneficial to no one, least of all the federal government. There are many more reasons on the individual level that need to be addressed to legalize marijuana, particularly the many beneficial health aspects. If this truly is an age of progression, we must move past this discrimination of marijuana as an illicit substance to be abused, so that one and all may reap the benefits and enjoy freedom given upon birth.
Additional Sources:
Great article, but it fails to mention the two root reasons why Marijuana & Hemp remain illegal…
Reason #1: As a regulated & taxed substance, the profits from Marijuana would have to be on the books. In addition, legalization would boost supply to meet demand & lower the price dramatically. Knowing this, why would any politician want to take it off the black market & put the lowered profits on the books when they can keep it on the black market, keep its price much higher, and pocket all the profit out of the public eye?
Reason #2: Several corporations have feared both Marijuana & Hemp for years, simply because if made legal, it would literally bankrupt them. And these corporations make campaign contributions to ensure that Marijuana & Hemp remain illegal. They make their profit from patented substances which destroy the environment and poison everyone in a vicious cycle of never ending control. If Hemp alone were made legal, any corporation which produces oil, paper, or textiles (clothing, carpeting, etc.) would suffer. If Marijuana were made legal, the entire cancer industry would be wiped out and most pharmaceutical companies would go bankrupt.
It was never about what is beneficial to all. It is and has always been about profits, about wealth. It is about the greed inherent in capitalism. Until that changes, Marijuana & Hemp, like so many other things that are beneficial to all mankind, will remain either hidden or illegal.
…and it is changing as more of you are waking up…
Right on, you got that right.
Although I mostly agree with you, I doubt those corporations will go bankrupt. Remember, they are the ones ultimately in control. They will adjust to public pressure but still maintain control. The pharma companies would likely start getting subsidies to develop marijuana "products" they could sell. Yes they maybe at a lower profit than otherwise, but it wouldn't bankrupt them. It would also mean that Monsanto would have another crop they could genetically engineer into some frankenstein plant. Who knows what that will do.
Big Giant Dripping Monsanto Monster GMO 42.9% THC Killer Buds from heaven.
Monsanto is evil. That would be an abomination of this beautiful plant.
And yet, the TRUE gateway drug, ALCOHOL, is legal and available almost everywhere!
yes i think it should, but with restictions all the tx that is collected goes to paying off the debt this country has and no goverment office can touch it for ever
Hemp truth is the simply the most salient symbol and most extreme example of the general pattern of social facts. Namely, society is controlled by the people who are the "best" at being dishonest. It is BECAUSE cannabis is the single best plant for people that the law asserts "marijuana is almost as bad as murder." Drug wars segued from slavery and racism, and primarily achieve the same purposes. That was NOT an accident. Drug laws have been driven by international forces, and the international banksters were the prime movers of those events. The international banksters are the supreme organized crime gang, which effectively control the territorial gangsters that control countries. All of those social facts are aspects of our real political economy and human ecology. All of those social facts are primarily due to the real history of militarism. Success in war depended on being the best at deceits, and spies were the most important soldiers. None of that was an accident, and none of it can be wished away, nor made to disappear by beliefs, rather, impossible ideals make the opposite happen in the real world! The FACT that civilizations are controlled by the people who are the "best" at being dishonest can be derived from energy laws and general systems theory. The drug wars are necessarily aspects of war in general. Marijuana was an innocent and good plant thrown into the chipper of the money and murder systems. Articles like this one bemoan and bewail that, but REFUSE to think any deeper about militarism. They maintain old-fashioned false fundamental dichotomies, rather than advance to unitary mechanisms, to better understand militarism. That advancement is what is truly necessary for the sake of marijuana, and everything else! As long as the rest of the monetary and taxation systems stay the same, then marijuana could only be "legalized" in the worst possible ways. The USA needs a Second American Revolution, and pot prohibition is merely another symbolic issue driving the psychotic breakdowns of the established systems. Such a scientific intellectual revolution must move far, far beyond all the old labels that people bandy about. We are now inside an ouroboros of incorporated robbery. The powers of We the People are being used to destroy Us!
The only "rational" reason to keep cannabis illegal is MONEY. Full employment and profits for drug lords, politicians, and lackeys of the law-enforcement/prison industrial complex, and the rest of us can go to hell.
Wake up, America, we've been had.
No-one has mentioned cigarettes and the billions spent on lung diseases. But then the taxes raked in from this drug is a huge bonus to the government.
Medical marijuana is legal in California. Just go see a doctor, get a certficate and voila!
When we talk about those in power we assume that they are caring and rational people like our selves. We write to our legislators with rational logical arguments about why they should do this or not do that.
What people don't realize is the people in charge are psychopaths. That is, they think only of their own interests and have no morals or conscience. Between 5 and 6 percent of the people born are psychopaths. Not all psychopaths are the serial killers we see in the movies. Many end up running our corporations. Because of their ruthless nature they are often more successful at getting to positions of power.
If you want to see what their agenda for our food supply is, read SEEDS OF DESTRUCTION by F. William Engdahl.
This book shows how cruel and heartless these people are as they plan through GMOs to take control of ALL of the food of the world. If your not awake now, you surely will be after reading this book.
there is an alternative theory…statist could profit from dead
I agree with your views on the legalization of marijuana, but what makes even less sense is the fact that hemp, marijuana's non-THC cousin, is also regulated under the Drug Enforcement Agency. Currently we import all hemp clothing and food products from places like Canada and China. If farmer's were allowed to grow hemp, we could not only produce food and clothing products, but we could also use hemp as a bio-fuel, to make plastics, construction products, etc. Talk about a turn around in our economy!! Hemp could save our economy and our planet as well.
The only reason Hemp is not leagal is because the Feds say it looks to much like the real thing and therefore would be used a a 'cover' for the real thing – in other words – too hard to monitor the good from the bad….
You mean the good from the great
Hemp was outlawed in 1937 when the cotton growers were just starting to get going again after that 'dustbowl' deal. Hemp would eliminate the need for cotton, completely. It would also put a huge dent in the pulp and paper industry, and the synthetics industry. Is this a coincidence: A machine to process Hemp cheaply, and quickly had just recently been introduced. It was called a "Decorticator" and it's introduction suddenly made Hemp serious competition. Now, how about this: Andrew Mellon was one of America's wealthiest men in 1937. He had much of his money in DuPont's new synthetics endeavor. Hemp would have killed it. Think about that. Oh, Andrew Mellon was also Secretary of the Treasury in 1937. Starting to make sense now? Saying it looks like the stuff with THC is just said to throw people off the scent of the scam that's been going on for decades.
Hopefully one day it is all legalized so those companies can suffer and lose money so they all end up penniless on the streets like the worthless pieces of crap they are. And we can light one up and watch with joy.
using force to control others is a personality disorder and is very profitable…..