I haven't heard a new or a valid argument from the prohibition side in years.In Colorado,opponents were claiming that legalisation would just give the cartels more customers.How that makes sense to anyone is beyond my ability to comprehend.

What need is there to regulate 'the safest therapeutically active substance known' and potentially less toxic than potatoes, according to judge Francis Young?

Just let it become a cottage industry like everything should be.

Prohibition, taxation, regulation is all designed to exclude us and leave the corporations in charge of the economy.

The really scary part is that there are people out there who are capable of thinking this way and are not ashamed to put in print for the whole world to see.

And worse there will be people who read it and agree.This is why prohibition has lasted so long.To support prohibition you must be either ignorant, stupid, brainwashed, insane or corrupt.

Opposing marijuana legalization is a business.  It supports prisons, lawyers, judges, courts, and social workers.  It provides the police department with real estate, cars, recreation vehicles, and flat screen TVs through asset confiscation.  It provides cheap labor to replace the higher illegal immigrant labor being chased out of the country.

I've been working in the criminal justice system for about 15 years now as an attorney. Jose, if you think that criminal defense attorneys are fighting for pot to remain illegal, you need to look at the positions organizations like the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and their state affiliates have taken.  Most of us think the laws are stupid and pot should be legal. Hardly any of us make that much money from pot cases.  I've handled thousands of pounds worth of pot cases but most of that was as a public defender representing drug mules. Hardly any of those guys can afford attorneys, so they get a public defender who gets the same measly salary whether he represents those guys or not. Public defenders get something like 80% of all criminal cases filed and pot cases only add to their workload. Judges don't make any money off these cases either.  Pot cases just add to their already massive dockets.  Courts make some money from fines, but it's a pain in the butt to collect the fines and these cases tie up a lot of time and a lot of the fines never get paid.  Social workers don't benefit financially from pot being illegal any more than judges or public defenders.

Prosecutors and cops do make money on asset forfeitures in pot cases. But, the ones really cleaning up tend to be those on major drug pipelines like Interstate 40 where the drugs go one way and the money comes back another. They can do pretty well in big cities and border towns, but in most places they really aren't seizing that much pot money.  There are financial reasons for the people to want marijuana to remain illegal, but mostly they really believe pot is bad and they like having any reason to arrest and prosecute people because they like to be able to get bad guys off the streets and if they can't catch them for one bad thing they're doing they like to be able to find something else to bust them on, and when they do bust them they like to have as many charges as possible because the more time someone is looking at the greater the chance he'll shut up and plead and take whatever sentence they want to give the guy.  

Money may have something to do with why cops and prosecutors want marijuana to be illegal, but I think it's more about power and  the genuine belief on many of their parts that marijuana is bad and so are the people involved with it.  They deal with a lot of scumbags, see all the worst case scenarios. They're indoctrinated. A lot of them were probably tattle tales as children. They're in most cases not going to be pot smokers and often are people who didn't smoke it when they were younger either. They see the bong on the table in the cockroach infested home with neglected children. They bust the child molester who lures boys to his home with weed and porn. (Real case-guy fooled around with some teenaged boys and anally raped a 9 year old boy and got five life terms plus a hundred years.) They catch the meth dealing violent thug whose been in and out of prison and find a pound of weed on him when they catch him.  They see the car wreck cases where people die and there's weed in the car and the driver's drug test comes back hot. I deal with these people all the time and know that for the most part they oppose legalization and it's not a money thing. They genuinely believe it would be a bad idea. Some might believe it because they think they're supposed to or will convince themselves to believe it because they want to feel good about their work. Quite a few believe it should be legal, but most keep that quiet as it's a minority view that is not popular at all in their organizations.

Private prisons are a different matter.  The more prisons they build and the more people they lock up, the more money they make, the higher their stock prices grow.  Corporations need to grow to increase in value. They spend piles of money lobbying to make new crimes and increase sentences, and their motives are purely financial. 

I don't think that marijuana has remained illegal as long as it has because so many make money from it being illegal.  It's illegal because the majority in this country have opposed legalization. That is changing, but still older voters are against legalization, as are the old politicians, and the younger ones who are still afraid that they'll become unelectable if they become the pro-pot candidate. Actually there hasn't been a lot of lobbying efforts to keep marijuana illegal because it hasn't been a threat, there's been no chance of it happening. Support keeps growing. We might see some who stand to lose money if it's legalized spending money to lobby against it, but when a strong majority including the older voters who actually go to the polls and vote support legalization, It will happen. I bet it happens on the federal level years before the end of the next decade, and maybe even close to the end of this one.         

 

Whether it’s ending slavery or confronting prohibition, opposition remains fixed among those who believe some vile and oppressive institution is the only thing holding society together.  Comfort zones a millimeter thick create fear and denial.  Contemptible prohibitionists are mired in the mud and destined to become fossils for historians who will pick through the remnants of the drug war to reveal more data about the nature of crimes against humanity.

Momentum against the drug war increases every day.  Every botched raid, every sanctimonious lie about the evils of marijuana brings legalization closer.  Once legalization happens, pro-drug-war zealots can go back to doing what they’ve always done, like standing on street corners with picket signs that read ‘The End of the World is Near – Repent!'

Giordano

It`s funny at how the Cannabis Prohibitionists follow the tide out into the Ocean . They`re having a blast at how the sand feels to their feet . Let`s build a dock here so we can enjoy this new ground . Cannabis legalization is gaining ground at a current rate of 2% a year . In 2016 it will be a hefty 60%+  public approval . The Green Tsunami is coming . You either catch a wave or get sucked under , ran over , washed out to Sea , ..what`s next . ?  Cannabis will be legal in at least 1 State in January 2013 . Bet on it .

9/11 a day which prompted 100% checks of all border traffic. so answer me this, why could persons so inclined still buy mexican pot by the dump truck load with such mesures in place? ten years later and its business a usual. this so called war is bought and paid for. I still remember those stupid d.e.a. billboards stating proudly"do you think its dry now?". the answer to the d.e.a. ten years after is NO. you havent even made a dent or a scratch or a ding. there are no heros in this war, if you find a ton, ten more make it here. money money money.

THC is the most medicinal substance found in nature. It will heal anything to do with mutating cells. Even cancer. Yes, even cancer. Think of all the money the Doctors and the pharmicudical industry would loose if Hemp Oil was available to everyone. Were talking billions of dollars.