I See it hasn't gotten me banned (THANK YOU moderators for maintaining an open forum), so I am going to start this thread under an appropriate title. Please tell me what you think about CANNABIS! "The devil weed with roots in hell" according to the propaganda that brought about his prohibition. (I would refer everyone to http://www.jackherer.com , no one can deny that he is biased, but much of his documentation seems more than reliable, and it sure is interesting! Might also check out http://www.christiansforcannabis.com )
It seems like Christians poison their own well with this one. Christians generally believe that nature is a deliberate and conscious creation of God for the well-being of humanity. I am aware that the Fall has corrupted various things, but can anyone explain why God would give us such a useful plant, supplying protein and essential fatty acids (both these are in the seeds which are not psychoactive), clothing, paper, renewable fuel (think: American farmers growing fuel - we wouldnt have to mess with the Middle East), wood-like and concrete-like construction material, oil, cosmetics, plastic, even dynamite, in a plant that is easy to grow, good for the soil, and used to abound/could abound--all this, at the same time expecting us not only to abstain from its relatively benign intoxicant (while we manufacture alcohol, our own addictive, lethal and violence-inducing NARCOTIC [medically, not legally, it is a narcotic]) but to go to such lengths as to prohibit the plant for any use and attempt to eradicate it from the face to the earth at a direct cost of over $10 billion per year in the United States alone? Are we REALLY supposed to shun it and anyone who advocates it? Is cannabis prohibition based on the will of God or on its threat to several modern industries?
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Thank you for responding, but no one has addressed my original question: Why did God put cannabis on the earth, consciously? Was it a test to see if we could destroy it (why didn't He ever command us to in the Bible) or was it to be something we could make use of?
1) Caffeine Socialism: You are right! Even aside from cotton, think of all the other industries cannabis could compete with. Also, if non-psychoactive strains of the plant have been developed, why are THESE still illegal? Evidence suggests that cannabis is illegal due to potential market competition!You might read Popular Mechanics' 1938 article on the Billion-Dollar Crop.
Why was it prohibited just after the hemp decorticator made efficient mass production possible?
2) Administrator: Your concern is well-intended. You see the worst of the worst: the use of many drugs among children with psychological, social or other similar problems. First think how cannabis compares to all other abused drugs in the harm its caused (including legal ones like alcohol, or tobacco which kills 400,000+ per year). Now think whether cannabis prohibition is effective at keeping them from getting it. If the market and social climate under which cannabis is used and sold becomes legitimate, then reasonable controls can be imposed, making sure that responsible adults get it. The black market is lawless - alcohol prohibition showed us that corner peddlers don't ask for I.D. or get visits from the health inspector, and it also brought us organized black-market crime which thrives today in the high-demand drug market.
3) Erichmess: First off, we don't "let" people use drugs: they do or they don't. We can only choose whether to imprison the few users that get caught, and whether to allow drugs on store shelves or keep them on the street. As far as how useful cannabis products are, its true that we have many similar products. However, the advantages of cannabis are that it is farm-based, it could be entirely domestic, and it is annually renewable. We don't need alternatives to petroleum yet, but will soon, and cannabis (any biomass can, but cannabis is the best as far as tonnage per acre) promises to allow American farmers to grow fuel - we won't have to mess with other countries or worry about dwindling supply. Cannabis could save trees by producing more than four times as much paper per acre, and this paper need not contain acids, allowing it to last for 1500 years instead of the normal 75. Cannabis cloth is more durable, flexible, lightweight, and versatile (as far as the different types of cloth that can be made from it) than cotton, and you might want to know that about half the U.S.'s pesticides are used on cotton; about 5% of the crops grown in the U.S. are cotton. In short, imagine jeans, sweaters, and t-shirts that feel better, weigh less, and last four times longer than cotton. I have some. Before you say that we don't need alternatives, use the link I provided in the first post to read about what cannabis has to offer. Many products that can be made from it are superior to ours, or more easily produced.
Even if you think the drug it contains is horrible (PLEASE read more about it for yourself- dont believe ME), is it necessary to prohibit even industrial cannabis hemp, which is non-psychoactive? (To legalize this would be good, but the red-tape necessary to allow only this strain of cannabis hinders the market, making it less profitable and liable to take off).
4) Finally, though we can argue all day about the harm it causes, since studies done by all kinds of groups with all kinds of interests yield dramatically different results, we can agree that little of cannabis' harm or lack thereof is conclusively established (only if we lift restrictions on private research will we ever figure this one out).
This aside, where do we get that cananbis use is even a sin? We know the plant was commonplace, and essential for seafaring, so we can't rationally claim people didn't know about its psychoactive properties. We know that responsible alcohol use is not sinful, even though the Bible adamantly condemns drunkenness. HOW do we infer worse about cannabis?
"There are over 100,000 marijuana smokers in the United States, mostly blacks, hispanics, filipinos, or entertainers. Their satanic music, jazz and swing, results from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek relations with blacks, entertainers, or any others."
-Henry Anslinger at Congressional hearings on the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act
It seems like Christians poison their own well with this one. Christians generally believe that nature is a deliberate and conscious creation of God for the well-being of humanity. I am aware that the Fall has corrupted various things, but can anyone explain why God would give us such a useful plant, supplying protein and essential fatty acids (both these are in the seeds which are not psychoactive), clothing, paper, renewable fuel (think: American farmers growing fuel - we wouldnt have to mess with the Middle East), wood-like and concrete-like construction material, oil, cosmetics, plastic, even dynamite, in a plant that is easy to grow, good for the soil, and used to abound/could abound--all this, at the same time expecting us not only to abstain from its relatively benign intoxicant (while we manufacture alcohol, our own addictive, lethal and violence-inducing NARCOTIC [medically, not legally, it is a narcotic]) but to go to such lengths as to prohibit the plant for any use and attempt to eradicate it from the face to the earth at a direct cost of over $10 billion per year in the United States alone? Are we REALLY supposed to shun it and anyone who advocates it? Is cannabis prohibition based on the will of God or on its threat to several modern industries?
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Thank you for responding, but no one has addressed my original question: Why did God put cannabis on the earth, consciously? Was it a test to see if we could destroy it (why didn't He ever command us to in the Bible) or was it to be something we could make use of?
1) Caffeine Socialism: You are right! Even aside from cotton, think of all the other industries cannabis could compete with. Also, if non-psychoactive strains of the plant have been developed, why are THESE still illegal? Evidence suggests that cannabis is illegal due to potential market competition!You might read Popular Mechanics' 1938 article on the Billion-Dollar Crop.
Why was it prohibited just after the hemp decorticator made efficient mass production possible?
2) Administrator: Your concern is well-intended. You see the worst of the worst: the use of many drugs among children with psychological, social or other similar problems. First think how cannabis compares to all other abused drugs in the harm its caused (including legal ones like alcohol, or tobacco which kills 400,000+ per year). Now think whether cannabis prohibition is effective at keeping them from getting it. If the market and social climate under which cannabis is used and sold becomes legitimate, then reasonable controls can be imposed, making sure that responsible adults get it. The black market is lawless - alcohol prohibition showed us that corner peddlers don't ask for I.D. or get visits from the health inspector, and it also brought us organized black-market crime which thrives today in the high-demand drug market.
3) Erichmess: First off, we don't "let" people use drugs: they do or they don't. We can only choose whether to imprison the few users that get caught, and whether to allow drugs on store shelves or keep them on the street. As far as how useful cannabis products are, its true that we have many similar products. However, the advantages of cannabis are that it is farm-based, it could be entirely domestic, and it is annually renewable. We don't need alternatives to petroleum yet, but will soon, and cannabis (any biomass can, but cannabis is the best as far as tonnage per acre) promises to allow American farmers to grow fuel - we won't have to mess with other countries or worry about dwindling supply. Cannabis could save trees by producing more than four times as much paper per acre, and this paper need not contain acids, allowing it to last for 1500 years instead of the normal 75. Cannabis cloth is more durable, flexible, lightweight, and versatile (as far as the different types of cloth that can be made from it) than cotton, and you might want to know that about half the U.S.'s pesticides are used on cotton; about 5% of the crops grown in the U.S. are cotton. In short, imagine jeans, sweaters, and t-shirts that feel better, weigh less, and last four times longer than cotton. I have some. Before you say that we don't need alternatives, use the link I provided in the first post to read about what cannabis has to offer. Many products that can be made from it are superior to ours, or more easily produced.
Even if you think the drug it contains is horrible (PLEASE read more about it for yourself- dont believe ME), is it necessary to prohibit even industrial cannabis hemp, which is non-psychoactive? (To legalize this would be good, but the red-tape necessary to allow only this strain of cannabis hinders the market, making it less profitable and liable to take off).
4) Finally, though we can argue all day about the harm it causes, since studies done by all kinds of groups with all kinds of interests yield dramatically different results, we can agree that little of cannabis' harm or lack thereof is conclusively established (only if we lift restrictions on private research will we ever figure this one out).
This aside, where do we get that cananbis use is even a sin? We know the plant was commonplace, and essential for seafaring, so we can't rationally claim people didn't know about its psychoactive properties. We know that responsible alcohol use is not sinful, even though the Bible adamantly condemns drunkenness. HOW do we infer worse about cannabis?
"There are over 100,000 marijuana smokers in the United States, mostly blacks, hispanics, filipinos, or entertainers. Their satanic music, jazz and swing, results from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek relations with blacks, entertainers, or any others."
-Henry Anslinger at Congressional hearings on the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act
