OP: The world has its prorities mixed up. In the early part of the 20th century, a large number of refugees were leaving Mexico as refugees during the Mexican Civil War. According to the history channel and other sources, there was a man named Hertz, the guy that built Hertz Castle and had a virtual monopolie on the Nations media outlets. In the USA we have freedom of speach and the owners of the media have the freedom to outright lie although the public is less guilible (in some ways) and more cynical.
anyway, this Jingoistic asshole was a racist that got the US into the Spanish American war. We got the territories of Guam, The Philipines (independent in 1945), Peurto Rico, and Cuba got its independence except for concession- a Naval base to be leassed on the Eastern part of the Island called Guantanamo Bay (was supposed to be for 100 years, still haven't given it back like the UK did with Hong Kong.) This led to the creation of the Cuba-libre which had cocanized coca-cola in the mix
before it was removed 1906ish.
So I go off on my usuall tangents. Its editorials were very good at swaying American political opinion and that of the average US resident. Anyway, this racist SOB was looking for an excuse to deport mexican immigrants. Alot of them brought their enthusiasm for mota. He love his booze and hobnobong with celebrities but loved the power to be a prick. He wrote editorials in the 30s demonizing the weed.
Enter Harry Ass-slinger. I mean Anslinger. He was a revenue agent during the USAs ignoble expirement with alcohol prohibition. After repeal in 1933, he saw Narcotics prohibition a perfect ladder for this ambitious bureacrat to move up the ladder.
He met with Hertz and at first thought it distateful the man was obssed with this plant. He saw fighting marijuana akin to taking out the garbage. But as hysteria grew he found in cannabis a long term money-maker hence the passage of the Marijuana Stamp Act with little debate in Congress and when the AMA's witness was called and said he didn't consider cannabis a serious health issue he was rudely denounced and discredited, his nedical expertise, by a bunch of lawyers and bureacrats. The rest of the world stayed sane but slowly succumed to the laudability and ludicrosity of MJ prohobition culminating in international treatise and international pressure.
Sanity prevailed somewhere in the USA first. In the US Panama Canal Zone, Cannabis was outlawed under military pressure. The civilian government studied cannabis and formed a commission. They studied it, its history, tested it on soldiers who were users, They even used a few physicians and Canal Zone cops as research subjects. There findings were that cannabis was relatively harmless, it was legalized for civilian use, and the government of Panama repealed their own laws a year later. Another instance of sanity was the Great State of Alaska that dropped penalties for possession and cultivation for personal use on ones own land in 1975. In 1976, the Dutch instituted their soft drug policy. CA and a few other states turned the penalties from felonies requiring jail time to misdemeanors in the early 70s.
Why is it illegal: because it caters to a whole industry that benefits from its illegality, prisons, cops, and growers. The Emerald trangle counties were among places it didn't pass. So stupidity, racism and discrimination, and the money trail... thats the answer.
In Nevada, a somehat Libertarian state:
Nevada is known for letting just about anything slide, whether it's booze, bets or brothels. But even here there are limits.
It has been OK to smoke pot to treat illness for ten years. But don't think about selling it. Lately, federal agents and local police have taken notice, raiding several pot shops in and around Sin City....Political leaders and historians say these activists don't know Nevada.
Sure, they say, the state has libertarian leanings and is generally willing to prosper from activities that most states have declared repugnant.
For many, however, pot is for hippies.
And Nevada, borne in the rugged days of the Wild West, is no place for hippies.
"The attitude was real men drank, whored and gambled — these are the vices of frontier men and women," said Guy Rocha, Nevada's former archivist.
"When it comes to drugs, Nevada has looked at it as, 'that's what those wild people in California do, or New York or Oregon,'" he said.
So there you have it, emotion and prejudice defy logic and common sense and don't forget the money trail.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101229/ap_on_re_us/us_nevada_pot_shops
