user_1919 a dit:
"(I'm not really into this whole conspiracy theory about the society not wanting me to use psychoactive substances because they "open doors", I think people just generally don't understand them - they think LSD is the same as heroin. Of course there have been political reasons, but I don't think there has been a group of people with political power who've decided that mescaline is a big no-no because it dissolves cultural boundaries.) "
Forget the Big Conspiracy - Bogus.
It's bad enough to have small ones.
Actually there are some fundamental things one should know, why and when Canabis became illegal. And that really can make you think.
Ask yourself when Canabis became illegal - in the US/ in Europe
Ask yourself, who made it illegal? - in the US/ in Europe
And why is it still illegal in so many countries, although there are too many studies that proof its innocents.
Lets see...
Considering, that most people I know, once in a while smoke pot... Most people I don't know, do just the same. A friend of mine is running a tabbaco-store and sells papers to roll your own cigaretts. And there are two sizes... One to make normal cigs and one, that is about 5 inches/12 centimeter.
And noone I have seen in my entire life, ever rolls cigs with the big paper, just joints. But my friend can confirm, that the long papers sell very well (10-50 a nromal day). And the type of customers vary more then on any other product. And you have to keep in mind, that it's a conservative country I live in and the shop is a normal every-day store, even looking a little bit snob-like in middle-class district.
In most western country the legality is somewhat unclear.
Most countries allow the use (it think all western countries do, and most worldwide do too). Consumption in a privat area (e.g. your home). The use itself is normaly not illegal.
In most countries even possession is allowed up to a certain amount (most countries use the 3mg - is it 0.3mg? - THC mark, which is about 3gramms of mary-jane you carry around whereever you please).
In most countries hemp itself is not illegal. Its the THC-ammount in it. And since Hemp is a very important industrial product - and there is allways a trace of THC in Hemp forbidding totaly is impossible. And so most countried utilise a law, where growing is allowed (and for the same reason, possession is allowed - imagine a truck full of industrial hemp... illegal? no, just trace amount of THC), but that letting them bloom - and thus produce crystals, which has the most THC-portion in Weed - is not.
And selling is usually not allowed (suspicion to do so, is normaly deffined by the amount of weed/THC and the amount of money you have on you, because if you have a lot, its more likely you sell).
As far as I know, all this laws apply even in countries like the Netherlands, with some exceptions about selling and growing, which is constituted over lincenes. They even go as far as to proof how much you have grown and then sold in your cofe-shop, so that not too much of excess is in circulation...
But I might be wrong here... Any duch cofe-shop owner around?
And most people do know, that pot is by far healthier then any other legal drug. Like alcohol, aspirin, coffee and McDonalds.
The more conservative side of our culture is still affraid to try themself, but most accept it when others use it.
All these things make you wonder, why still give a shit about legality?
Lets go back in time and see, when it became illigal...
In most western countries, you could buy cocain, heroin, morphine, cannabis, opium and many other drugs freely in a apothecary or even the local convenient store (Drug-Store!) up until the late 20ies.
In America, the right wing conservative christian movement wanted most drugs to become illegal. And they protested and pressured the goverment until those drugs became illegal. The Prohibiton-Aera began.
The Prohibition was not all about alcohol. True, a lot of the illegal activities concerned boot-legging and such, but it was about all those drugs. It was the tinme, when Coca Cola had to change its receipt.
While heroin, opium and cocain where easily smuggeled, Alcohol was a different matter. While a pound of herion can bring a lot of money, it is a very small package. While a barrel of scotch is harder to hide.
So most of the big-busts the media brought to the people was about the barrels. Broken open and spilled into the gutter, while dead mobsters lie around or transported away, handcuffed - how dramatic.
A lone Columbian with a suitcase, that holds a few pounds of snowwhite, who descends from a plane is not even worth mentioning.
After a long struggle, America had to do something. The mobsters caused too much havoc. So they legalised Alcohol again and came up with some laws to control consumption (e.g. being 21 years).
The other drugs regulated by the Prohobition were never mentioned again. Technically America is still in the Prohibition-Area.
What happend to weed at that time?
There was no commercial reason for mobsters to even care about it. Those who wanted some pot, just grew it in their backyards. Since the media was so much after alcohol, they did not care about weed in the garden of a housewife.
When the Prohibition "ended", some people in washington realised, that a lot of people still consumed mary-jane. Starting a new war against drugs at that time was not a good idea. The disaster the acohol has caused was too much. There was also no THC-Lobby, that would have supported the legality of weed, since it was not a very commercial product - everybody can grow some weed, not a lot can distill there own whiskey or make their own beer.
So a more silent approach was done. The goverment started some propaganda - hail the media. Films like "Reefer" is a good example - get it, smoke some pot and watch it. its really funny :D.
People became indoctrinated with the idea, that weed was evil.
But there was no big prosecution against users or growers. I think it really just started in the midd-70ies, but I am no american. I think some southern states were a bit earlier and harder onto weed.
What about europe?
The english Royals had a monthly bill of over £20k a month on drugs of all kind, in the late 19th century.
Freud used several drugs to alter his mind. So did C.G. Jung and many others (Look at Einstein, you really thing that guy was sober?). There was no bad propaganda in Europe. No Prohibition. There was another evil. One so big, occult and weird, that Leviathan himself was bowing.
Hitler was a health-fanatic. He was vegetarian, never drank nor smoked. True, he only had one ball and was into his own kin, but nonetheless...
He also belived that a pure arian has to keep a healthy body and a sober mind.
But Of course, in a country, where beer is like mothermilk, a prohibition was political suicide and America had allready shown, what could happen.
So he went on this matter in a very different way. Guess who owned most drug-stores back then? Who would have owned the apothecarcy in an outher district of Berlin? Right, the evil jew.
The propaganda against the jews also took care about mind altering drugs. There were some smaller campaign, where "the Jew" was the one, that sold you evil mary-jane... And silently the law was made.
Most countries in Europe have been under rule of the Nazis. And if not, they followed suit in the matter of legal issues concerning drugs sooner or later anyway. I think england is a country, where it also just started to be bad on weed in the 70ies and noone cared much before that.´And some countries just took hitlers law over into the new goverment, after WWII.
But most countries really didn't care much until the Hippy-Area, when weed was accociated with the revolutionary youth (which does have its reason - see below). And most countries never completly forbid it (see the reasons above).
Germany was one where it was allmost completly ilegal until the late 90ies, when the law was a little bit eased - following the 3mg-THC-Rule now. Countires like e.g. Austria (very conservative, but a social country) had the 3mg rule for a very long time.
Now lets look into possible reasons:
What does THC do?
It does a lot. Most people here use it, because of this reason. While the dump ones use it just for the purpose of getting wasted, others also utilise its mind altering properties. Gathering with friends, have a mindblowing chat, munchies, having a nice time, exploration of ones own mind, nice sex, the giggles, alteres reality. relaxation and many others.
Whats bad about all that? Right! NOTHING!
It's not addictive. Coffee is harder. Alcohol make far easier addictive. Even a Sit-Com can make you more addictive then weed.
It does not socialy impair you at all. Besides a little red in the eyes, you are not only capable of conversing, but you are much more open for it. You are more relaxed, more open minded, a little bit more paranoic (but not in a real bad way - more in a funny one) and you smile much easier...
What happens to a drunk? He gets more agressive, can't talk, not even walk and usually you are not very happy when you are very drunk - at least a few minutes of depression kick in, where you start to hug everybody and tell them crying, how good a friend they are, even if you have never seen them before that night.
It does impair your physical reaction, but not as bad as alcohol. There are studies, that stoned people drive more carefully then anybody else. But who the fuck wants to drive anyway, when he sits stoned on a couch and is relaxed. And those that do, are usually accustomed to it and can handle it well enough, not to raise any suspicion.
What else?
It does not make you stupid...
Alcohol does - especially on long term. Weed? Does not! The opposite might be the case here.
True, there are some stoners out there, that could not spell their name right, even if their life depended on it. But they are either completely wasted or used many other drugs, that are not so much in favor of the brain.
I am sure, many of you know how THC works, right? It connects to a carrier(receptors?) in our brain, where usually body-made substances connect to trigger certain brain and body functions. Caffein does something similar, but a little bit more agressiv.
This mutual connectability is actually the beauty of it and one of the main reasons, why weed is a plant that has been in use all through human history in EVERY SINGLE CULTURE since the dawn of the domesticated primate Homo Erectus.
It does not have to be processed in any way. You can just ripp of some buds and eat them. Hemp has so many possible uses, that it can be considered the most important cultivated plant in human existence.
Its very easy to grow and can do so in almost every climate. It takes a plant 7 generations to adapt to its best potential in the given circumstances and become a natural inhabitant of its surrounding.
It keeps many pests away (which is why it was often grown among other plants) and is very kind to the earth and other plants nearby.
And every single bit of the plant can be used. From Roots to leave, from stem to seed.
And still, or maybe because of all that, THC flows into our system so naturally like nothing else. Even so, that most people, that use Weed the first time, don't even notice anything, because the body just doesn't know what to make of it. It like "Huh? What connected there? Must be a... no wait... err... maybe its for... nah... ok, I'll have to think about it".
It matches human functions so perfectly, while we still can't drink milk properly, because we could not mutate enough in the last 20.000 years, to process lactose bacteria effectively - which is why milk is not that healthy unless its processed to cheese or yoghurt.
Most of you will have used weed, I guees. And everybody, how did more then one or two times, will know, that being stoned can activate your brain in a manner which really is fun and interesting. Your asscociations are more free, you discuss stuff and come from one topic to another, you get the most weird ideas and you can comprehend stuff, you cannot, when you are sober.
While everything seems a little bit funnier and less freightening.
You become more open-minded. You can catch other perspectives easier, you are less ignorant, less intolerant, less paranoid (in the bad way), less caught up in moral issues.
Plainly it even makes you smarter (as long as the amount used does not just waste you). And of course a little bit of stimulation is needed too.
Someone, who never really dwells in philosophy, who never read a single book, or just doesn't give a shit, might not have such mind-bogling experiences. But if not? How cares.
But it happens to a lot of people. And they really get smarter, more creative, then without weed.
I am pretty sure, Hendrix would not have been so great without it. And his music sounds better too, if you are stoned as well.
Is getting smarter a bad thing?
Depends who you ask.
Imagine politicians faced with a knowing public. A public, that raises questions. A public, that is sceptical. And all that on a wider scale then it has been in the Hippy-Area. Lyawers, Doctors, Policemen, Everyone is a possible pot-head. And if there would be just a little more, goverments would crumble.
Just think about all the bad things that happened to us as society in the last 20-30 years...
Less communal live - most people don't even know their neighbors anymore (if you live in a city) or even want to know them.
Fear and hate - the 2 big ones we get shoved down our throat every day.
Less free thoughts - just look at the fucking media!
Less connection to nature - fuck bio-food at McDonalds! I want real nature!
Less body-affection - sex is everywhere, except in our own beds.
And now think of the classical Hippy sit-in.
Go, read up Machiavelli. That guy only wrote down, what he saw and learned and its true stuff. If you are in higher business, or politics, its a must-read.
And one of the most important rule of a dictoral leadership (and don't even think, that the bullshit democracy you live in really gives you any choice)? Keep the ruled ones happy and stupid.
Panem et circenses!
Now think again, why the favorite plant of prometheus has such a bad reputation... Conspiracy? I don't care. But there is a good reason, why it is still illegal...
:D
PS: Sorry 'bout the english, I just smoked some weed - which explains the long post - and its not my mother-tongue. I am still looking for an english lector... ;)
