Not Because It Gets You High.

I get sort of frustrated with all the arguments about pot only being illegal because it gets you high.  For some reason we default toward this argument and that is what the government wants us to do.  The government doesn't care if we go out and have fun on weed.  They dont really care about the intoxicating effects it has on us at all!  They don't care about the health risks.  They DO NOT care if money can be made by regulating it because plenty of money can be made by prohibiting it.  If they cared that much about our safety, then they would bring back alcohol prohibition, ban guns, ban tobacco. 

It is very easy for a politician to give lip service to a stoner on Capitol Hill arguing that, "dudes, weed just needs to be like, legalized because it is a gift from God, dude and it just isn't fair that I can't use it when I want to, man."  Every politician in Washington goes to the break room every time this happens and just high fives each other.  They have everyone in the country thinking that all weed is good for is getting high.  And it isn't stopping!  All the stoners out there want to KEEP talking about, "alcohol is waaay more dangerous, dude" and "cigarettes kill waaay more people than weed ever thought about, man".  If the most resounding argument for the legalization of pot is because it gets you high, then of course it will never be legalized.

I encourage everyone to educate themselves about pot.  And I don't mean that you should get to know it in your waterpipe.  Understand the myriad of products that can be produced with industrial hemp.  But more importantly, understand the myriad of industries that will be brought to their knees with the legalization of marijuana.  Why would we continue to purchase gasoline- a product that is limited on this planet when we can get more energy by volume from cellulosic ethanol or bio-diesel made from pot?  Do you think Texaco, Conoco, 66, Shell, Shamrock, etc. wants to see that happen?  What about the politicians whose pockets will immediately stop being filled by the oil and gas industries if legislation is passed in favor of pot?  They are for sure not going to vote pot "in" based on the strength of a bunch of stoners begging and pleading for its legalization!

The government actually pays farmers not to grow certain things.  It is called subsidizing crops, and it has been going on for years.  It is done to regulate the supply and demand of the country's agriculture.  Currently the government is not paying the farmer for wheat or cotton, but they are paying for corn and other plants that can help ethanol production.  Pot can do everything that wheat, corn, and soy can do.  Do you think the government wants to pay our farmers to NOT grow pot?

On my oven, I can put marijuana through a process called isomerization.  Atomically it has something to do with rotating the molecules around the nucleus and it converts CBD to THC and converts THC to Delta-9 THC.  Incidentally, it is why most people find that eating brownies gets them off way worse than smoking.  Actual isomerization just provides more time and energy for the reaction to complete.  It takes about 8 hours, I was taught how to do it before I was 16 years old in high school chemistry, (isomerization that is, not with pot) and the end result can make you stay high for the better part of a day on one hit.  No Bullshit.  If I can do that on my stove in my kitchen, then what can be done with it in a proper lab, with modern techniques and equipment?  It has been known for millenia that pot had medicinal properties.  The modern scientific communities have been singing about it's potential since before the war on drugs started.  Do you think the FDA is going to stand idly by while the legislators pass laws in favor of a substance that would cripple the current system of billions of dollars in research, more billions of dollars in schmoozing, and more billions of dollars in advertising?  Lets also not forget the multi billion dollar drugs of recent years that perpetuated the expenditure of billions more dollars in legal fees, attorneys fees, recall fees, and the reformulation of approved drugs that were known to carry serious health risks BEFORE they hit the shelves.  I always laugh when I think of this because a lot of those dangerous drugs are being developed to do things like lose weight, curb appetite, etc.  Wanna lose weight?  Do what your great grandparents did- watch what you are eating, portion control, people, or even excercise!  You don't need a pill to do that, and it is all those pills that are keeping the FDA corrupt.

Don't expect a million fenfen patients, (currently spending billions of more dollars) taking drugs for the rest of their lives for their Government given gift of heart disease to believe that the powers that be actually care about their health.  Don't expect the victims of approved anti-inflammatory drugs like Celebrex, Vioxx, and Ultram to praise the government or the FDA for its compassion in the interests of a nation of pain sufferers, either. 

It is a little known fact that any American Citizen, (who has never been convicted of a felony) can run down to Harbor Freight tool and buy a mini lathe and a mill drill.  He can then go home, sit down on his computer and design a firearm.  He can then send his application to the BATF and get his firearm design "papered" then prototype and manufacture a legal firearm.  With all the government papers.  Nay sayers please give me a break here.  Firearms is not what I do, the order of this process may be a little off, but the point is that there is a way for a private citizen in the US to legally manufacture their own firearm.  But you can go to prison for the rest of your life for cultivating marijuana.  Do not be the repetitive ignoramus that thinks your health has anything to do with marijuana prohibition.

One more point about money and I'll get off my soapbox for a minute.  My brother smoked about half of a joint, put it out, pocketed the roach and headed off walking to a friends house down the street.  On the way there, he was approached by a police officer.  He was questioned and illegally searched.  The roach was found.  The cop lied, (imagine that) and said he had probable cause to search because my brother seemed intoxicated.  My brother spent 2 years in the can over that roach.  Really, about 4 dollars worth of weed cost the taxpayer 35,000 a year for 2 years to keep him locked up.  That is just for the incarceration, not the prosecution, and all the other BS that comes with the system, or the 8 years of probation, his fines, lawyers fees, etc.   So rethink the argument that soooo much money can be made from legalization.  They already make sooo much money on its prohibition. 

We need to think and act collectively about our future.  For the sake of legal arguments we need to forget that pot gets you high.  Forget that alcohol is more dangerous, forget that cigarettes kill people.  We need to exploit that our planet is not producing oil at the rate it is being consumed.  We need to exploit that there are people suffering out there and the current system is corrupt.  We need to quit believing that public safety has anything to do with it.  We need to remember that God is green and looks like George Washington.  We need to remember the words of Thomas Jefferson: "A man that is not willing to fight for his own liberty does not deserve it in the first place."