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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hello again" data-source="post: 2939742" data-attributes="member: 576295">Although marijuana is outlawed and has been for the past 70 years, it is only right to legalize the possession and use of marijuana. In California, the law states that anyone with the possession of less than an ounce be given a misdemeanor ticket and be fined up to 100 dollars. Anyone with the possession of over an ounce is taken into custody and is to be charged with the felony crime of possession and possibly with “the intention to distribute (<a href="http://www.chrisconrad.com/expert.witness/calmjlaws.html" target="_blank">http://www.chrisconrad.com/expert.witness/calmjlaws.html</a>).” These laws only make it harder on users to find a steady source of marijuana but do not stop the use or cultivation of it at all. With these laws out the way, not only would we have a much more stable economy, but we would see a decrease in crime rates, and we, the people, could have back the one right that was literally stolen from us through deception.Since the beginning of the 20th century, countless accounts of propaganda toward marijuana had led to the prohibition of it. Through his chain of nationwide newspapers, William Randolph Hearst painted prejudiced racial obscurities for thirty years. He painted the stereotypical image of the “lazy, pot-smoking Mexican.” From 1910 to 1920, his newspapers claimed that the majority of incidents in which blacks were said to have ***** white women, could be traced directly to cocaine. 10 years later he decided it was not the “cocaine-crazed negroes” raping women but the “marijuana-crazed negroes.” Besides Hearst’s newspapers, several other tabloids had printed hysterical headlines in their papers portraying “negroes” and Mexicans as “Frenzied beasts who, under the influence of marijuana, would play anti-white ‘voodoo-satanic’ music (Jazz) and heap disrespect and ‘viciousness’ upon the predominantly white readership (Herer 31).” These slippery slope statements and false reports had great influence on “Reefer Madness,” a movie that depicted marijuana users as vicious, cold-hearted people that were prone to be perpetrators of ****, murder, theft, homosexuality, bigotry, *******, and even permanent insanity (<a href="http://www.reefermadness.org/propaganda/prop.html" target="_blank">http://www.reefermadness.org/propaganda/prop.html</a>). Besides “Reefer Madness,” many other devices of propaganda were released by the media. This had all led to the propaganda of associating marijuana with crime and in general, negativity.On April 14, 1937 a meeting was held about passing the Marijuana Tax Act, which would tax people that sold marijuana, but with an absurd twist, it would imprison the same people for 5 years and fine them up to $2000 if any procedures were violated (Solomon). This bill would make it practically impossible to even deal with marijuana because the five-year sentence, itself, was not worth the risk. Just two days before the meeting, the AMA had realized that marijuana was not a “killer” and that it was used in America with perfect safety in scores of illnesses for over one hundred years (Herer 32). At the hearing, Dr. Woodward of the American Medical Association (AMA) spoke out against the tax act stating they would have protested against the tax act sooner if marijuana hadn’t been described and portrayed as the “killer weed from Mexico.” The representatives of the AMA were then dismissed from the hearing and when it had come time to vote for the Marijuana Tax Act bill, the only question asked by congress was, “Did anyone consult with the AMA and get their opinion?” A representative that was all for the tax act lied and replied, “Yes, we have… A Dr. Wharton (did he purposely mistake the pronunciation of Dr. Woodward?) and the AMA are in complete agreement (Herer 32)!” Thus, the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was passed virtually outlawing marijuana (Simmons 234).</blockquote>

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