Wasn't hemp/dope first made illegal because newspaperman Hearst poured money and influence into DC in order to boost sales for his logging companies which could be best done by forcing paper companies to switch from renewable-resource hemp to trees? Or is this one of those urban legends?
Either way, it's time for some sanity when it comes to drug laws/enforcement. Just-saying-no has created a subculture of illegal, underground behavior, and an unregulated industry. For the most part, all it succeeds at is to actively generate criminals -- on both ends. Users are forced into unlawfullness while sellers find themselves adopting dodgy gateway behaviors. Instead of finding useful jobs, sellers get hooked into a shady career path which, any way you put it, does not look good on a resume. And, from what I've heard, it doesn't even pay that well.
Plus it promotes the culture of legislating "morality." Making victimless crimes a crime because they offend someone else's sense of morality is not going to stop them from doing it. It's just going to punish them for doing it. And that's not moral. It's sadistic.
Either way, it's time for some sanity when it comes to drug laws/enforcement. Just-saying-no has created a subculture of illegal, underground behavior, and an unregulated industry. For the most part, all it succeeds at is to actively generate criminals -- on both ends. Users are forced into unlawfullness while sellers find themselves adopting dodgy gateway behaviors. Instead of finding useful jobs, sellers get hooked into a shady career path which, any way you put it, does not look good on a resume. And, from what I've heard, it doesn't even pay that well.
Plus it promotes the culture of legislating "morality." Making victimless crimes a crime because they offend someone else's sense of morality is not going to stop them from doing it. It's just going to punish them for doing it. And that's not moral. It's sadistic.