Marijuana Use Contributes to Crime

Where to begin. Is this a sequel to Reefer Madness? MJ leads to violence? Only if the perp is already violence prone. Let's see, the govt once said that MJ use incited violence. Later they said MJ would put soldiers in a non violent state that would make them useless as soldiers. So which is it?

Does this man know why MJ was prohibited in the 1st place? That smoking cannabis was not the true target of prohibition? HEMP was the target of WR Hurst. But he had nothing on hemp that would promote his goal of hemp prohibition.

So, in a stroke of diabolical proportions as it turns out, Hurst deceived the public & govt officials who did not know their stuff, by equating the cannabis that was smoked to hemp because outwardly the 2 species look almost identical. Hurst did NOT clarify that one form of the cannabis plant was different from the other. That hemp could not get one 'high'.

Hurst was after hemp because it's production was bad for his $ bottom line. He had big $ invested in timber lands & DuPont. DuPont was just getting their synthetic chemical thing going & Hurst had big $ tied up there.

Cannabis prohibition is based solely on deception & lying propaganda. Even the AMA was for med cannabis, but the man whop was speaking for the AMA was not allowed to testify. He would have opposed prohibition. Later Hurst sock puppet Harry Ansliger said the AMA was for prohibition, an out right lie. another lie by the fed govt was when they started calling cannabis a narcotic& rescheduled it. The real definition of narcotic relates only to poppy products.

I know one thing, MJ does not make a non violent person turn violent. If any thing cannabis tends more to pacifism.

Look up what LEGAL drugs the Columbine shooters & other school shooters were on or had been on via prescription prior to their horrific sprees. .

I don't think that MJ RE legalization would cause much of an increase in drug driving. MJ has pretty much saturated the US already. Most peeps won't drive if they are really 'high' any way. If they do drive most of them are most likely get pulled over for going to slow. Keeping cannabis illegal is much more dangerous. Check out the Drug War Rant for innocent victims of the drug war. Read Jack Here's The Emperor Wears No Clothes, online. Watch the DVD Grass, narrated by Woody Harrelson.

It is a sad day when the prohibition of an awesomely useful substance is denied people. It is a very sad commentary on a nation when the prohibition of a substance is much more dangerous than the substance itself.

Prohibition has given us the lost & VERY expensive in $ & innocent life war on liberty: AKA: War On Drugs. A war that is soooo hopelessly LOST!!!!

SamFox

http://www.medicalmj.org /

http://www.drugscience.org/amu/amu_medprof.html

http://www.jackherer.com / [click The Book at top of page]

http://www.drugwarrant.com/articles /

Washington Post over view of the drug war:

http://tinyurl.com/34q6no

Mr. Evans, the hyperlinks to your evidence do not work. I would suggest though that there has not nearly been enough study on the effects of marijuana use . The AMA recently recommended more study. That's a good thing. Anyone who has used marijuana knows that there are some negative effects of smoking the plant that go with the beneficial effects, but I doubt that any marijuana users are afraid of what true scientific studies will show. The problem is that until now, the federal government has prevented rigorous scientific research into marijuana by restricting access to the plants for almost all university researchers. So I say, open up the field and let's really study this plant.

They only way this is possible is from keeping marijuana illegal . How is this? Easy the drug cartel makes an annual amount of money the annual is over 60% of their total earnings. What this does is the cartel takes the money from the illegalized marijuana that they just made money from and uses the money to get opium and heroin from Afghanistan - the Taliban hience more stronger drugs come into the USA which is more violent crime . Now say if wanted to end that then we need to legalize and tax marijuana this will surve a saver blow to the cartels over 60% annual profit prety much like cutting the cartels and Talibans legs out from with under them which in the long run can lead to less crime as well as means to help our troups battle terorism . In other words about marijuana use contributes to crime then yes it will if kept illegal yet if legalized and taxed will reduce the crime rate.

If we were to list the percentage of crimes that were alcohol induced and compare it to the percentage of crimes that were marijuana induced, what would we find?

Even Bill Buckley came around to the view that the only real damage marijuana use caused the country resulted from the efforts to enforce prohibition. Lots of money spent and lives disrupted or destroyed by drug enforcement kept the smugglers and dealers laughing all the way to the money laundry.

Statements like the ones in this side of the argument are so completely at odds with the real world experience of former and current users, that they completely discredit the intellectual honesty of the expert.

Legalize marijuana and a large portion of the income of the Mexican drug smugglers would be cut off. One predictable result would be that given legal availability to pot, users wouldn't be so eager to engage is the far riskier behavior of purchasing and using coke and meth. Therefor, crime would decrease and fewer Americans would be incarcerated.

The anti-pot hysterics are the problem, not the solution.

David,

You forgot to cite Reefer Madness as your number one source of honest and unbiased information for this truly astounding claim.

How about this... From the White House.
http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/factsht/crime/index.html

Percentage of drug related homicides in 1991 - 6.2%
Percentage of drug related homicides in 1998 - 4.8%

Percentage of 18-25 year olds using marijuana in 1991 - 12.9%
Percentage of 18-25 year olds using marijuana in 1998 - 13.8%

Marijuana use increased by nearly 1% while drug related homicides decreased by 1.4%.

David, I don't think you now what you're talking about. You are certainly not an expert on this subject.

The only crimes I see Marijuana users committing are possessing, smoking, eating, growing or selling the substance. Therefore I can see how Marijuana can contribute to crime. I can imagine that some have a hard time dealing with Marijuana charges and may be prone to committing other crimes. Consider this: treat them like criminals and that is what they become.

Consider this - it's already a crime to smoke pot, so any measurable increase in drug-related crime would have to balance against the associated decrease.

Notwithstanding that, organized crime would take a big hit. That's the BIGGEST concern, as organized crime is far more dangerous than someone driving a car under the influence of pot.

There are opposing views on "drugged driving" as well. Drivers under the influence of Marijuana tend to compensate for their lower response time by driving LESS aggressively. Drivers under the influence of alchohol drive MORE aggressively.

Regarding Marijuana being a "major factor in fatal accidents", bear in mind, that data comes from drivers being drug tested after the accident, and if they had smoked even a single joint in the last 30 days, they probably will be positive. Thus, little to no data exists on drivers who are actually under the influence at the time of the accident.

the only reason marijuana causes any sort of gang violence or crime, is because it is illegal. The fact it's illegal GIVES people a reason to fight over it. If the government were to legalize it & monitor it's sale, people like me wouldn't have to go to a dangerous "drug lord" to get it. We wouldn't have to endanger our lives trying to get something that helps our medical conditons.
The fact of the matter is: what you're spreading is pure propaganda. Just like the movie that has made millions of "stoners" laugh their butts off - Reefer Madness.

How many of these criminals were taking other drugs, or how many had mental disorders such as depression etc? Smoking pot does not make you a criminal. I was arrested for simple poss. a few weeks back and that has been my only arrest. Now my life has to be put on hold so I can take care of pointless program that isn't gonna stop my use, just slow put it on hold till the program is over. Like a shirt once said " God made weed, man made beer. Who do you trust?"

Substitute the word alcohol for marijuana and the paragraph reads the same. Is Mr. Evans then in favor of criminalizing alcohol users?
Words like "linked" and "associated" often fail to show cause. Would you advocate outlawing aspirin because it is "linked" to headaches?
Many people with genetically caused aggressive behavior may use marijuana to relax. http://www.iol.co.zaindex.php?click_id=31&art_id=nw20080714201050231C816374
The Netherlands study http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/188/2/148 referred to in the Scottsman.com article, referenced aggression in children. That's not valid in a discussion of adult marijuana legalization. However, the same study did state, "It is notable that regular tobacco smoking, which may be considered less non-normative behaviour than cannabis use, explained a substantial part of the association between cannabis and delinquent and aggressive behaviour." There is a study linking marijuana intoxication with homicide?