America, Let Marijuana Smokers Be
By Benjamin Engle
The voice of God has spoken once again, and it may come as a surprise to you that he does not agree with our laws regarding marijuana regulations. In fact this is what he has to say about marijuana.
“Marijuana! Heavens, oh yeah. It’s just the stupidest law possible, given history. You don’t stop people from doing what they want to do, so forget about making it unlawful. You’re just making criminals out of people who aren’t engaged in criminal activity. And we’re spending zillions of dollars trying to fight a war we can’t win! We could make zillions, just legalize it and tax it like we do liquor. It’s stupid. ”
Okay, so it’s not literally God saying this but rather someone who has played God. Morgan Freeman made this statement in an interview with Newsweek Magazine. Maybe Freeman has a point here. If it was God speaking, wouldn’t he be defending his creation as well?
In this point and time in history, our country America is tasting a glimpse of what it may be like to no longer be the greatest nation in the world. As 2012 draws closer, we see more and more budget cuts throughout government, unemployment rates are still high and our country’s debt is still in the trillions with little to no hope of diminishing. Yet we still continue to spend upwards of 78 million a year arresting, prosecuting and jailing people for marijuana possession. You can’t tell me this is the wisest, most profitable and beneficial way to spend tax payers’ dollars. Why can’t we take this money and use it to better our country, our schools or use it to help others in some way instead of using it to punish our people for using an herb that grows in the ground naturally?
Maybe Morgan has a point. Maybe we should take Batman’s personal adviser and technology guru’s advice on this one. Maybe, just maybe, trying the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is actually insanity. Marijuana has been illegal in the United States since 1937, and every year, more and more arrests are being made. This “drug war” has been going on for nearly a century with no signs of winning in the near future. It has to come a point and when you realize that the amount of money you are pouring into a program that does not effectively solve a problem or serve its purpose is money that you are just throwing away. An effective program stops a problem or shows some form of progress. Maybe this law is out of date. People all over our country are beginning to find medical benefits from marijuana. The majority of these people are not drug dealers, cartel lords or thugs. The majority of these people are hardworking, family-making, honest, community-building citizens just like you and me. They just choose to smoke a little weed instead of drink or get high off pharmaceuticals with God knows what’s in them. Instead, these people choose to take a natural alternative to their ailments, and who are we to hunt them down and convict them?
In conclusion, I offer you a challenge. I simply ask you to think. As a United States citizen, do you think that it is right to spend $78 million a year to track down and arrest those who smoke a naturally growing plant? I’m not asking for legalization. But as a society, I believe that we should reconsider the effectiveness of a law originating in 1937 that is today effecting hundreds of thousands of people in a negative way. That’s right; it’s the law that is negative, not the plant. What’s more harmful: a man smoking weed or government taking a man off the streets, away from work and his family throwing him in jail, charging him fines and then making him pay for rehabilitation? The beautiful thing is this is America, and you get to decide for yourselves if you choose to.
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The decriminalizing of tens of millions of our Fellow Americans would do more to establish better community ties and support for LE than if those people had to avoid and distrust police, which they do, now. Prohibition alienates those people who are law abiding Except for choosing an intoxicant which is safer, by a huge margin, over the intoxicant the government allows.
Wow I agree. All smoking does is breathe peace. Awesome article!
voting for the lesser of two evils is still voting for evil, and therefore not doing anyone any favors. Gary Johnson for President 2012.
Well yes god did put it on earth and made it for man to use if more people would read the bible it plainly says in GEN CHAPT 1 VERS 11,12 that god put the seed bearing plant on earth GEN CHAPT 1 VERS 29 tells you he gives you a right to use it and ISAIAH CHAPT 18 VERS 4,5 tells you to smoke herbs and how to get the buds of the plant so how much more plainer can you get ? DUH!
This is by far the best article I’ve read. Well done (:
I think that you can rightly say God approved the use of marijuana plant when you look at all the uses for it. What other plant can grow almost anywhere, refirtilizes the ground it grows in( unlike cotton with short fibers and leaving the earth it grows in infertile), produces stronger fibers for cloth,produces protein in the seeds, helps with many different medical issues, provides a safer relaxant quality than alcohol or any man made drug and could help America get out of debt if managed correctly! If God doesn’t have his hands on that then who does!
Great article. As to Obama, he smoked weed himself as a kid. Being agains drugs and supporting the drug war doesn’t necessarily mean he is against Mariajuana. I am agains Meth and support the drug war on that, but I am a supporter of legalization of marijuana. Mariajuana is not a drug, drugs are man made, it is a plant that grows naturally. The war on drugs should be just that against man made drugs.
What about cocaine? Coke is naturally occurring, yet has numerous negative effects. Don’t get me wrong, I agree with you on marijuana legalization, but you should be careful how you phrase things, depending on your views on other drugs.
Cocaine is not natural; the coca plant is. Cocaine is derived from a process of extracting a chemical in the plant and involves adding other chemicals and several chemical reactions occur .. Chewing the actual coca leaf is the equivalent of drinking strong espresso and . That’s how it has been used for centuries.. just an FYI.. Coke is terrible for you, just wanted to clear that up though!
Errr… hate to burst your bubble, but the usual practice of coca-chewing is merely a scaled-down version of the same chemical extraction process you say is not natural. Not only that, but a reasonably strong concoction of cocaine can be made by simply brewing a strong tea from mashed leaves and then boiling away all the water (it’s not pure enough to be used as a pharmaceutical, but it’s *potent*).
Exactly Kevin……we are the land of the free. Except when you try to manage your pain. Ironically, MJ may be the answer to our country’s debt…..
That’s unfair. I like Obama over all other candidates running right now. I may not agree with everything he says, but as they say he is: lesser of evils. Would you prefer that Freeman and others not vote at all and then we end up with Romney as President?
That’s all great! Except that Freeman just donated a million dollars to Obama, who is an even worse drug war crusader that Bush was. So, sorry Morgan but you’re more than a little inconsistent here. If you had given that money to someone who would ACTUALLY END THE DRUG WAR like, say, Gary Johnson, then I could get behind you.
The anti-marijuana crowd still hasn’t made a good argument as to why alcohol is legal and marijuana is not. Great article!