Why make something that is (1) harmless to other individuals when controlled, (2) not especially more harmful than many other accepted things, (3) highly profitable, and (4) effective for controlling a large population illegal?
It's simple. Racism is only one part.
The truth is there are three major reasons.
(1) If drugs are illegal, they are worth more money. Simply supply and demand. If you limit the supply channels, prices go up. If you make it illegal and build the image of drug use as undeserably, a certain percent of rebel youth et al. will also be drawn to it. Demand. Money. There's some accusations, too, that the CIA and other wonderful people like that are involved with it, too.
(2) If drugs are illegal, it gives us something to arrest a lot of people for. How many people are in jail for drug offenses? How many lives are destroyed because of former drug use coming back on job applications, etc.? Drugs are easy to plant. (I don't trust the police.) Therein lies the racism, to a degree. Also, before the USA PATRIOT act, there was the RICO act. Civil rights don't apply to pot heads.
(3) And now for the central reason: If drugs are illegal, it helps keep poor people poor. Who is arrested on drug charged? White, middle-class, money-laundering businessmen? Or inner-city blacks? If you were convicted of smoking pot, do you think your place of business would approve of it? Might not you risk being fired over it, even? Yet George W. Bush did it. He's also an alcoholic. And he's rich.
The rich can get whatever drugs they want. Even Newt popped pills. The rule of--or rather, enforcement of--law does not apply to them. It affects the poor.
Slashdot Mirror
Is Dick Cheney planning a trip to South Korea soon?
Why make something that is (1) harmless to other individuals when controlled, (2) not especially more harmful than many other accepted things, (3) highly profitable, and (4) effective for controlling a large population illegal?
It's simple. Racism is only one part.
The truth is there are three major reasons.
(1) If drugs are illegal, they are worth more money. Simply supply and demand. If you limit the supply channels, prices go up. If you make it illegal and build the image of drug use as undeserably, a certain percent of rebel youth et al. will also be drawn to it. Demand. Money. There's some accusations, too, that the CIA and other wonderful people like that are involved with it, too.
(2) If drugs are illegal, it gives us something to arrest a lot of people for. How many people are in jail for drug offenses? How many lives are destroyed because of former drug use coming back on job applications, etc.? Drugs are easy to plant. (I don't trust the police.) Therein lies the racism, to a degree. Also, before the USA PATRIOT act, there was the RICO act. Civil rights don't apply to pot heads.
(3) And now for the central reason: If drugs are illegal, it helps keep poor people poor. Who is arrested on drug charged? White, middle-class, money-laundering businessmen? Or inner-city blacks? If you were convicted of smoking pot, do you think your place of business would approve of it? Might not you risk being fired over it, even? Yet George W. Bush did it. He's also an alcoholic. And he's rich.
The rich can get whatever drugs they want. Even Newt popped pills. The rule of--or rather, enforcement of--law does not apply to them. It affects the poor.
Kinda like taxes.