Marijuana — A Home Use Remedy!
— Possesses industrial and product applications and, if allowed, socially-accepted contributions.
[Originally written as a Facebook Note on October 11, 2016.]
Marijuana has always been one of life’s magical plants. It’s wide-ranging use throughout history, until recent political and corporate manipulations, always had been for the good of societies. It’s been a plant helpful with medical remedies, various industrial applications and for its pleasurable and comforting effects on human creative and social consciousness.
In the early 1900’s, opportunistic American politicians began attacking the plant on behalf of the corporations which sponsored their elections to public office.
Medical Properties:
Pharmaceutical companies were always against the plant because it could be grown in or at the home and it was free. Pot held a long history of being a plant known for helping people with headaches, nausea and eating disorders. Eventually pharmaceutical companies became so strong they lobbied against it given that it was a free medical remedy and it would thus interfere with the profits of the medicines pharmaceuticals produced. A key thought: Pot used to be asprin — it still is!
Industrial Properties:
Paper had always been made out of wood. But agricultural researchers concluded that marijuana was a better and more cost effective source for making paper than wood (see US Agriculture Dept. Bulletin 404). However, the corporate timber interests didn’t want pot to cut into the profits they making from timber operations.
Also, marijuana — known better in the olden days as hemp (hence, hempen linen) was the primary source for making fabrics. So when nylon became invented the corporate response was to eliminate the competition arising from hemp. Hemp was always the primary source for making rope and most ships of the past were rigged with hemp. Henry Ford wanted to run his cars using the oil from the seeds of marijuana, but the Rockefella’s Standard Oil Company was opposed.
So corporate medical and industrial lobbyists who influenced and controlled Congress lobbied to make use of marijuana prohibitive so a $100 an ounce tax was placed on the plant. This pretty much made pot noncompetitive in the capitalistic marketplace.
Social Implications:
Pretty much back in the old days, only minority populations — and some creative writers, musicians and artists, etc. — used the plant for social interaction. Back during the Jim Crow days any policy which could help arrest and control these populations was a positive for politicians and law enforcement. Thus, people were arrested for not paying the tax.
This pretty much is how pot was treated until the Nixon Administration decided it wanted a Drug War to clamp down on those protesting against the war and the Administration. Targeted at the top of the list for prosecution was marijuana. Nixon threatened to withhold federal transportation money to states whose laws did not comply with pot being illegal on the federal level. This was followed on for decades to the present time by look good/look busy-type politicians who postulated how tough they were on the drug issue before a genuinely-concerned citizenry. And, thus, draconian laws were put in place causing the lives of many young people to become destroyed from criminal records.
All of the above happened while all credible research showed nobody ever died from using the drug and that most users had no problem at all. In fact, overall, users became socially and creatively inspired. Fact is it’s hard to put down something which has such a positive effect on your life. So it’s use continues and is both prevalent and desired throughout societies all over the globe.
What To Do?
Legalize it everywhere! It never should have become illegal in the first place!!!
