Why are alcohol and cigarettes (addictive, cancer causing) legal while marijuana stays illegal?

halsca

We tried banning alcohol back in the 1920's remember? Prohibition was a disaster. Despite strict laws against the distillation, sales and consumption people continued to drink. Also relatively obscure mobsters like Al Capone suddenly became wealthy and powerful crime bosses from the profits they raked in from the manufacture and sales of illegal liquor. It became quickly apparent the situation was getting out of hand so basically the federal government threw in the towel and repealed prohibition.

I sort of see the current anti pot laws the same way as prohibition. Despite the law people continue to cultivate, sell and consume marijuana. Only difference is instead of Chicago based mobsters we've got Mexican drug cartels calling the shots.

As others have said marijuana was first outlawed to make it easier to deport Mexican migrant farm laborers during lean economic times. It was widely known they used marijuana for both medicinal and recreational use. Outlawing pot also made the entire Latino culture seem seedy and dangerous.

Then you had powerful and influential people like William Randolph Hurst and Harry J. Anslinger. Hurst owned several newspapers and had extensive interest in the paper and timber industries. Last thing he wanted was competition from the hemp. He also hated Mexicans. Anslinger was basically a promoter who took up the cause of the evils of cannabis to create a name for himself.

Mercer Devil

Mostly for corruption's sake. Certain big business types don't want to see hemp and marijuana legalized because it would adversely affect their profit margins. They give Congress a lot of money to keep that from happening.

Originally, it seemed the rational for banning marijuana was racism. At the time, mostly Mexican immigrants and blacks were smoking it, so Congress used banning pot as a way to legally discriminate against those races. The same thing for opium and Chinese immigrants.

chris m

because in the 30's there was a huge marijuanna "scare" aimed at weeding (no pun intended) out the minorities in cities and what not. so what happened is they outlawed it and said it was extremely dangerous and hallucinigenic (check youtube for these old videos) and said people were going crazy or homicidal and stuff like that. so the ball kept rolling and even though all those myths were disproved, its still illegal because no politician has the balls to touch it because some of the old people in this country that still vote, still believe in those old myths that marijuanna is bad. its a trend that will have to change with the younger generation with education and what not. its such a shame its still illegal. plus alcohol and cigarettes will never be illegal, could you imaging how crowded our prisons would be if it were to be outlawed? but could you imagine how much our prisons would be freed up if marijuanna were legalized too? and the boost in our economy? its a win/win to legalize the stuff soon.

sasha p

I don't think any of its right but the main argue they have over that issue is ciggarettes do not make you impaired but marijauna on the other hand does as well as alcohol and any other controlled substance do you really think if marijauna was legal that people would not drive under the influence or go to work under the influence. That's why I don't understand that alcohol is legal. I think you should be asking WHY IS ALCOHOL LEGAL BUT MARIJAUNA ISN'T? Lol

tabbi8407

I agree. If marijuana is to be illegal, so should all other drugs, including cigarettes, alcohol, caffeine, and anti depressants

think about how many drug companies would go under if marijuana was made legal

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