Think About It

THINK ABOUT IT!!

You are not alone in your experience!

1 - Costs of Prohibition
2 - Ill-conceived legislation
3 - Self-imposed prison
4 - The War on Drugs
5 - A new Criminal Atmosphere?
6 - Whose to the Rescue
7 - This vicious cycle has got to stop

1) Costs of Prohibition

Prohibition (alcohol) lasted in the United States of America from 1919-1933. That was 14 years of insanity. It made criminals out of the majority of American Citizens. "We" turned on ourselves and the cost was paid in both monetary terms and human lives. And you think Korea and Vietnam was a tragedy. Tsk...tsk! Today we have the War on Drugs which is being waged against Americans by Americans. Tsk... tsk... tsk!.

Here are some facts for you. Source: Public Enemies, by William Hunter, Checkmark Books, 1998.,

These are some of the monetary costs of Prohibition:

Criminal-court costs -- $4.2 million a week. That's $218 million a year. For the 14 year duration that represents over $3 billion And that was when a penny was worth a penny and an American dollar was worth a dollar. That mere $3 billion would be trillions in todays economy. Needless to say, lawyers were kept very busy.

General enforcement costs -- $210,000 a week. $11 million a year and $154 million for the duration. There's clearly money in law enforcement. Gotta keep that family fed.

Coast Guard enforcement -- $224,000 a week. $11.6 million a year and that's $162.4 million for the duration.

Customs Service enforcement -- $140,000 a week. $7.28 million a year and $101.9 million for the duration.

Jailed-violators costs -- $161,000 a week. $8.37 million a year and $117.2 million for the duration.

Liquor revenues lost -- $27 million a week. $1.4 billion a year and $19 billion for the duration.

Rent lost by landlords whose buildings were padlocked -- $500,000 a week. $26 million a year and $364 million for the duration.

To Top

2) Ill-conceived legislation

This brief list is an example of the results of ill-conceived legislation, specifically criminalizing those who would want to drink beer or have a martini or a scotch on the rocks or a simple glass of wine with their meal.

The cost was $32.4 million per week,
$1.7 billion a year
$22.9 billion for the duration.

Its ludicrous to think of that money in today's fiscal environment. What use to cost a nickel or a dime now costs a dollar or two. Houses that would sell for 17 thousand then, now sell for a quarter of a million.

3) Self-imposed prison

Once again we are holding ourselves hostage to those forces we've given control of our lives to; The United States Congress and the National Guard in collusion with local law enforcement officers. These forces are kept in place by industries that benefit from the control over the legality of marijuana as a "controlled substance".

We know that back the early 1900's, the likes of Dupont and Old money Chemical companies were creating a new fiber out of petroleum and already saw the cotton industry be threatened by the hemp industry. They wanted hemp to be outlawed and saw fit to do so by turning it "marijuana" into a demon weed in need of being a controlled substance. They did so though acts of Congress in order to snuff out this inexpensive fiber in order to promote their chemical fibers. These chemical fibers needed rubber trees to provide a necessary ingredient and these rubber trees were in abundance in Vietnam. The Vietnam War wasn't really a war at all. It was a police action to protect "American Industrys' interests in Rubber Tree Farms.

4) The War on Drugs

Currently the "War on Drugs" instituted by the Bush Administration in 1984 has turned our National Guard into a drug sniffing task force designed to discover and destroy any natural and otherwise growing marijuana and hemp growths from the air with the use of helicopters and soon...satellites. You see, the hemp plant and marijuana have the same infrared signature from the air. That's because they ARE the same plant. Cultivation (how long you let it grow, how much you water it, what kind of light shines on it, etc.) is the only difference between them. There are three issues at stake with Hemp/Cannabis/Marijuana - Industrialization/Medicinal/Recreational.

To Top

5) A new Criminal Atmosphere?

The early 20's saw prohibition take men like Al Capone, Mad Louie Scarface and other notorious criminals and turn them into institutions. These men reaped millions on the black market environment created by the criminalization of alcohol drinkers. Today, urban street gangs are organizing the youth of America to develop a hoodlum attitude promoting the illicit black market of buying and selling drugs, namely marijuana. It corrupts law enforcement agencies and, who knows how high up it goes into the fabric of the Governments of the World.

6) Whose to the Rescue?

Cheers to those in 1933 who repealed the "Prohibition" and once again made it legal to have a wine at dinner time and beers at a football game. We need a new force to appear and set things straight for marijuana.

Sure the law was passed in order to stop all the drunkenness and partying going on by the far left Americans. But who gave these puritan far right doctrine-religious Americans the right to impose their set of values on the rest of the crowd? Huh???

7) This vicious cycle has got to stop

Our prison systems are being over-crowded by the criminalization of innocent law abiding, tax paying citizens who find the lure of easy money irresistable.

The only way to get past this current situation is to awaken the sleeping giant of the silent majority of people who do use marijuana as a recreational drug and promote moderation and toleration instead of sustaining this criminal atmosphere.

Which ancient individual said "Moderation in all things". If you know please e-mail me at so it can be credited properly.

To Top