July 13, 2009
America's Love-Hate History with Pot
With a New CBS News Poll Finding 41% Now Support Legalization, CBSNews.com Examines Changing Views of Marijuana in the U.S.
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Play CBS Video Video Politics of Pot Highlights of Presidents and Presidential Candidates addressing the marijuana question.
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Video CBS Reports: Marijuana In 1968, Mike Wallace's report on the controversy surrounding marijuana looked at the significant increase in use and drug-related arrests.
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(CBS/iStockPhoto)
Norm Stamper still remembers the day, nearly six decades ago, when a police detective visited his elementary school class to warn of the dangers of smoking the "devil weed."
"That was the term he used -- and he even brought along a bag of marijuana to show us," said Stamper, 65, who would later become Seattle's police chief. "I remember him saying something to the effect that, 'If you smoke this, it will rot the membrane in your nose.' He was an authority figure, and so I figured he could tell me something about the dangers of this drug. That was my early education about marijuana."
By today's standards, such a warning might sound as dated as the bug-eyed, morally-depraved pot fiends portrayed in the 1936 movie Reefer Madness.
But it was in line with the prevailing view of the 1950s, which considered marijuana to be not just a dangerous drug, but a stepping stone to the use of heroin or even more dangerous controlled substances. In 1979, 27 percent of Americans favored legalization, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll at the time.
A new CBS News poll released today finds that more Americans now support legalization. Forty-one percent said they think marijuana should be made legal and 52 percent are opposed. That's even more than in a CBS News poll in March when 31 percent said they were in favor of legalization in all cases with another seven percent saying they would favor legalization if marijuana were taxed and the money went to projects. (Read more from the poll.)
"They told us that marijuana was a gateway drug," said Stamper, who these days is a speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. "It was not."
The story of how a child of the post-war era came to doubt, and then reject, conventional wisdom about the horrors of the "devil weed" parallels the story about how the rest of America has gradually rethought its views of marijuana. The transformation has been intertwined with the rise of the Baby Boom generation and its successors, the societal upheaval of the 1960s and 1970s, and a generational shift that chipped away at long-held assumptions about trust and authority.
Today the potent smell of marijuana legalization is in the air. States including California and New Mexico -- and, as of mid-June, Rhode Island -- already permit marijuana's use for medicinal purposes. The success of those initiatives, coupled with an economic downturn, a president who did inhale and governors who are willing to discuss complete legalization, make it seem possible that legal bans on recreational use of marijuana will, in the not-so-distant future, go up in smoke.
Smoke or Fire: How Pot Got Banned
By historical standards, today's federal ban on possession of marijuana may eventually be viewed as something of an aberration. There's evidence that the intoxicating properties of cannabis were known to Chinese physicians about 2,000 years ago. And for the first few hundred years after colonies were established on Jamestown and Plymouth Rock, the possession of intoxicants was not forbidden.
That began to change about 100 years ago. In response to worries about opium addicts, the International Opium Convention was held in 1909, which led to a drug-control treaty signed three years later by the major nations at the time, including the United States.
The domestic political debate over opiates had unmistakable racist overtones. A 1914 headline in the New York Times said "Negro Cocaine 'Fiends' Are A New Southern Menace; Murder And Insanity Increasing Among Lower Class Blacks Because They Have Taken To 'Sniffing' Since Deprived Of Whisky By Prohibition." Another article about a black man who was lynched refers to him as a "cocaine fiend"; another says that "opium, the most pernicious drug known to humanity, is surrounded, in this country, with far fewer safeguards than any nation in all Europe fences it with."
Congress enacted a law known as the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914, which regulated cocaine and opiates. Because that era coincided with a robust view of states' rights, the federal law did not seek to prohibit the private possession of pot directly. Such a measure probably would have experienced a swift demise at the hands of the judicial system at the time. So the Harrison Act's drafters took a more circuitous approach: they imposed stiff taxes.
Cannabis was believed to be a narcotic having practically the same effect as morphine and cocaine, and state restrictions began sprouting like weeds.
Some western states seem to have restricted it out of hostility to Mexican immigrants; a Chicago Tribune article from 1919 called cannabis "a weed of the Mexican desert." During the debate on Texas' first marijuana law,
That was not an isolated sentiment. In a letter to the Bureau of Narcotics, Floyd Baskette, then the city editor of The Alamosa Daily Courier in Colorado, complained in 1936 about felons arrested while under the influence of marijuana.
"I wish I could show you what a small marijuana cigarette can do to one of our degenerate Spanish-speaking residents," he wrote. "That's why our problem is so great; the greatest percentage of our population is composed of Spanish-speaking persons, most of who are low mentally, because of social and racial conditions..."
Other states and cities -- including New York City in 1914 -- outlawed pot for fear it was, or would become, a gateway drug leading to the use of opium or cocaine.
The Legal War Over the Weed
One year after the filming of "Reefer Madness," Congress enacted a law restricting the use of marijuana, cannabis or hemp. While it was a tax bill that did not officially ban pot, the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was the first step toward a complete federal prohibition. (note: "Marihuana" was the spelling used in 1937)
The net effect of this Prohibition-era provision was to deter -- and stigmatize --recreational use of these substances for more than the next couple of generations. The Marihuana Tax Act is perhaps most remembered for the controversial testimony supporting its passage.
One of its chief proponents, Harry J. Anslinger, then the Commissioner of Narcotics for the Treasury Department, offered testimony depicting marijuana in stark terms.
"Some individuals have a complete loss of sense of time or a sense of value," Anslinger said. "They lose their sense of place. They have an increased feeling of physical strength and power. Some people will fly into a delirious rage and they are temporarily irresponsible and may commit violent crimes... It is dangerous to the mind and body, and particularly dangerous to the criminal type, because it releases all of the inhibitions."
At the time, there were more than two dozen medicinal products on the market which contained marijuana. In the new political climate, replete with warnings from the federal government, they didn't last long.
© MMIX, CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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- Who hates weed?
Only people who have never tried it.
People who have smoked it know it's no threat to society.
And it's a shame our industries can't utilize its many great properties.
God knows it's much, much safer than alcohol. - Reply to this comment
- You know it is quite hilarious, how the people who do market a product that surpasses gold in price ounce for ounce,along with the federal government do not want prohibition to end either. Why is that?
1.)Prohibition WILL NEVER WORK.
2.) The government doesn't want to hurt the big bucks from pharmecuetical companies that are so afraid of a plant giving so many resources in the terms of medicine. "Oh no son nature cannot provide for you the fine quality of drugs we have here at pfizer. We have degrees and lobbyist, that "devil weed" uses a deadly concoction of photosynthesis.
3.) If prohibition ended thats money out of their pocket. growers trying to compete with factories turning out perfectly rolled J's. Oh no let the madness continue (haha, price goes up.) and whom do you think puts that kind of power into the business...it is a direct decent from you guessed it the prohibition of marijuana via the U.S. Government. The Government are the ones who create ANY violence or criminal action surrounding cannabis, NOT THE FLOWERING PLANT CALLED MARIJUANA.
4.)Because the Federal government has wasted so much money portraying these fabricated lies about Cannabis that it just simply could not go against that.
NOTE:Government of the United States...YOU ARE WRONG!!! - Reply to this comment
- The Last Word
By John Silveira
Backwoods Home Magazine
www.backwoodshome.com
Let prisoners get high on marijuana
Anyone who reads this column knows I don?t think drugs should be illegal. I?m not saying I want to take them, because I don?t. I?m just saying that what you want to do with your own body is your own business and not the state?s nor your neighbor?s. The primary reason the United States imprisons a greater proportion of its own citizens than any other is because of drug laws. Make most, if not all, drugs legal and the prisons will empty out. In fact, the price of drugs will plunge so far that you won?t have to steal to buy an ?eighth? of weed any more than you have to rob or burgle to buy a six-pack of beer.
Speaking of prisons, I?ve been watching documentaries on The History Channel, National Geographic, and others about American prisons and prisoners. Prisons are very violent places. I wouldn?t want to be in one, not as a guard, not as an inmate. Then it suddenly dawned on me what the solution to prison violence could be: Let those who are incarcerated smoke marijuana, as in weed, pot, grass, maryjane, cannabis, etc. Let ?em smoke as much as they want. All day! Twenty years? Hey, do the time calmly. What do we care. Let ?em grow it in their cells.
What would a prison full of pot smokers be like? As many others have pointed out, when some guy?s about to rob a bank, beat his wife, or steal a car, the drug he?s going to take is a drink of alcohol, not a puff of pot. A puff of pot and all the plans go up in smoke. Stoners I?ve known want to socialize, not victimize. Inmates will be sitting around ?zoning??moving slowly, talking slowly. Many will just want to sleep.
The story of Clyde, the poker player
When I was young and playing lots of poker, drunks were tolerated in the game as long as they didn?t slow it down. Drunks lost their money. But stoners? I hated them at the table. They couldn?t lose their money fast enough to make up for the time they wasted. All they wanted to do was talk, socialize, or stare off into space. They couldn?t focus on the business at hand. Everything slowed down. I figured in the games I ran, hands were dealt at about 20 to 30 hands per hour. More hands meant more money for me. But one stoner in the game slowed it to about seven hands an hour?one hand every 8½ minutes. It killed my hourly earnings.
One guy who frequented our game often showed up stoned. Each time the action came around to him he had to have everything explained to him again.
?Your bet, Clyde ....Clyde, your bet ...CLYDE!?
?Huh??
?Your bet.?
Who?s in??
I?d patiently explain to him what each player had done before him?who had checked, bet, called, folded, or raised. He?d stare at his hand for several seconds, examine his cards carefully, then he?d ask, ?What?s the game??
I?d tell him.
?Who bet??
Again, I?d go through who had checked, bet, called, folded, or raised. He?d call, then resume socializing or staring.
There?d be cards drawn, or another stud card dealt, or a community card flopped, and then the next betting round of the hand began. The action would get back to him, and I?d say, ?Clyde, your bet ...Clyde ...CLYDE!?
?What?s up, man??
?The bet?s to you.?
He?d look around the table. ?Who bet??
I?d take a deep breath and go through the entire process once more. I?d even have to tell him, again, what the game was. Too many games of seven stud, with all of its betting rounds, made for a long night.
The downside is fat prisoners
In a poker game a guy like Clyde, when stoned, is exasperating. But if I were a prison guard, a warden, or especially if I were a fellow prisoner, that?s what I?d want around me or occupying the next cell?guys like Clyde. Nice, slow inmates afflicted with logorrhea.
The downside? About the only things I can think of is that prisoners would exercise less, eat more, and gain weight. So what! The food bill would be going up on far fewer inmates. And gang warfare? Stoners aren?t violent. Most would just want to socialize and satisfy the maryjane-induced munchies.
I know someone?s going to say people will be committing crimes just to go to jail for the free weed. But I don?t believe it. I don?t know anyone who?d willingly go to prison, with the exception of some who have already been in so long that they?re capable of nothing other than institutionalized lives. And even if there are some, don?t worry. As I said, decriminalize drugs and there will be plenty of room for the few who think a nice way to spend what remains of their three score and ten is in a six-by-eight concrete condo.
You think I?m joking? Irresponsible? Insane? I?m not.
Legalize marijuana and we?ll empty our prisons, and those violent people who do end up there will be more docile, making the prisons safer for both inmates and guards.
But for the love of Pete, whatever we do, let?s keep it illegal to smoke the stuff at poker games. - Reply to this comment
- I am a 49 year old man and I have chosen to use marijuana continually as an adult starting since age 9. I find that the more correct term of cannabis is seldom used. I consider it an anti-Catholic, anti-Mexican slang term which is involved with the disqualification of Americans like myself who made a 34 minute movie in high school in Pittsford, NY, in 1976, and was denied by the high school to even enter my film in a competition in Buffalo, NY, for a scholarship. I was told years later by a local friend who worked in TV, that if my film had been entered, "I would of had a house bigger than his." Although, my only intention was to facilitate a scholarship to be a film editor in Radio/TV and pay for my education. I also worked to decriminalize marijuana in NY state standing on street corners in all weather conditions, but marijuana was decriminalized on Sept. 1, 1978, upto 7/8th's of an ounce. President Jimmy Carter tried to federally decriminalize up to 2 ounces Federally unsuccesfully. Possibly this is because most American states have reclassified marijuana over time from a narcotic to a hallucinogen to, currently, a mild euphorant, however, I do not believe this is in the international language of the laws of the United Nations which are primarily involved in International traffic controls. The easy way would of been to legalize cannabis by import only ,having no production, advertisement, or resale in the US. The UK has completely decriminalized cannabis and permits full medical marijuana potential. The United States must not continue schizophrenic policies which have backed it into a corner which now must be addressed again with locality and medical cannabis compound problems. The Federal change would permit the cost of law enforcement/interdiction to be discontinued and no law enforcement agency loses when the American system continues to assert itself to its advantage. Full legalization without limit of amount which involves traffic or sale is the last option. We cannot continue this ignorance into the next century. The developing world has limited its childbirth rate and reforestation in many Middle Eastern and Eurasian states and does not need to continue the industrially and falsely societal prohibitions implaced by American Statesmen primarily since the 3rd decade of the 20th century.
- Reply to this comment
- I am a 49 year old man and I have chosen to use marijuana continually as an adult starting since age 9. I find that the more correct term of cannabis is seldom used. I consider it an anti-Catholic, anti-Mexican slang term which is involved with the disqualification of Americans like myself who made a 34 minute movie in high school in Pittsford, NY, in 1976, and was denied by the high school to even enter my film in a competition in Buffalo, NY, for a scholarship. I was told years later by a local friend who worked in TV, that if my film had been entered, "I would of had a house bigger than his." Although, my only intention was to facilitate a scholarship to be a film editor in Radio/TV and pay for my education. I also worked to decriminalize marijuana in NY state standing on street corners in all weather conditions, but marijuana was decriminalized on Sept. 1, 1978, upto 7/8th's of an ounce. President Jimmy Carter tried to federally decriminalize up to 2 ounces Federally unsuccesfully. Possibly this is because most American states have reclassified marijuana over time from a narcotic to a hallucinogen to, currently, a mild euphorant, however, I do not believe this is in the international language of the laws of the United Nations which are primarily involved in International traffic controls. The easy way would of been to legalize cannabis by import only ,having no production, advertisement, or resale in the US. The UK has completely decriminalized cannabis and permits full medical marijuana potential. The United States must not continue schizophrenic policies which have backed it into a corner which now must be addressed again with locality and medical cannabis compound problems. The Federal change would permit the cost of law enforcement/interdiction to be discontinued and no law enforcement agency loses when the American system continues to assert itself to its advantage. Full legalization without limit of amount which involves traffic or sale is the last option. We cannot continue this ignorance into the next century. The developing world has limited its childbirth rate and reforestation in many Middle Eastern and Eurasian states and does not need to continue the industrially and falsely societal prohibitions implaced by American Statesmen primarily since the 3rd decade of the 20th century.
- Reply to this comment
- You can go and drink "energy" drinks which can give you a heart attack if you drink too many. You can drink a bottle of 190 proof liquor and kill yourself or someone else. You can buy an AK-47. You can smoke cigarettes until your lungs are full of cancer. You can buy toys made in China that have lead paint. You can order a fast food meal at Burger King and clog your arteries. You can go the the doctor and get prescribed a box full of pills if you tell them all your problems.
BUT you still can't legally smoke a bong, joint, spliff, eat a brown or cookie, or use a vaporizer with cannabis.
Now you tell me what is wrong? It sure the hell isn't marijuana.
Thank you CBS for this unbiased look at cannabis.
Legalize, regulate, and CONTROL cannabis finally. - Reply to this comment
- Your survey suggest that 41% are for legalizing cannabis. Surveys depend on who you ask, a small sample of people and where you ask. Recent surveys on the west coast suggest 90-95% in favor. Another thing, some people are too affraid to admit they've even tried it and some may be affraid to admit they are in favor of legalizing it. When it comes to surveys like these the error is always going to be less in favor than actually feel that way.
Something else to consider, the demise of the family farm started with the prohibition of hemp. There we're other factors of course but between this and other government controls like subsidies have led to less families being able to keep their farms.
One more thing, go to Jack herer's site and check out his book "The Emporer Wears No Clouths". - Reply to this comment
- Oregon James...You're the MAN!
- Reply to this comment
- Come on! Cannabis has been around since the beginning of time.
ALL CANNABIS SMOKERS UNITE!!! - Reply to this comment
- TO all of the cannibus naysayers.....Keep drinking the alcohol that kills and let us smoke the weed.
- Reply to this comment
- Put it up to a vote. See what the people say.
- Reply to this comment
- It sounds like you are suggesting that it is only liberals who smoke pot. So are you for the legalization of pot, or do you think the laws we have in place are effective and practical. This is the issue. You know, Obama does not like the idea of making pot legal.. Do you take the position of Obama on this or do you think it should be legalized? I know a lot of stoner's who vote republican.
- Reply to this comment
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- Reply to this comment
- So funny how many people are still being duped into believing that marijuana is as bad as alcohol or some persciption drugs. Its time to wake up and realize that we as a nation waste billions of tax payer's money on a drug that is by no means dangerous. Want to open up jobs and stimulate the economy, then legalize marijuana it creates new businesses and jobs along with helping farmers and also generates a cost effective way of making paper and paper goods without destroying our environment. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS FULL OF HYPOCRITES. THE PREACH ABOUT THE "SUPPOSED" DANGERS OF MARIJUANA IN ONE HAND WHILE IN THE OTHER THEY ACCEPT THE TAX MONEY THAT IS GENERATED FROM THE DISPENSARIES IN CALIFORNIA. I've said my peace now I am going to take some bong hits for my migraine and enjoy a movie. I'll be careful not to eat too much, because thats the worst thats going to happen. If you believe differently, go smoke and find out the truth instead of believing the propoganda that is generated by the government.
- Reply to this comment
- "Racist overtones", you've hit the nail right on the head. Tell it like it is. Those anti-cannabis laws were first enacted to oppress and persecute Mexican immigrants and southern 'jazz music' blacks. And they are still used that way today - so law enforcement can shovel as many low-income, poor, minority people into jails on any pretext. Plus they can get a 'strike' against them, while they're at it.
I think CBS's poll is jaundiced: I think they only ask stabilized middle class people these questions, and avoid the out-of-work, minority, youthful, or disenfranchised masses. 41% is not the REAL statistic; it would be much higher, but you'd have to reach out to the rest of the world for more responses - not just to comfy-cozy suburbia.
It's probably more like 60 or 70% that now favor such a change, if you take the time to bother counting up ALL of us folks. - Reply to this comment
- Government spends around ten billion dollars each year in their marijuana war, yet it is abundant everywhere you go. Prohibition just does not work, so why waste all that money? Invest that ten billion dollars annually into our nation's energy infrastructure, where we will all reap benefits.
- Reply to this comment
- Please temporarily shut the propaganda flood gate long enough to hear a sensible side to all this madness!?
Right at this very moment, Any kid in America can walk up to a drug dealer and buy a bag of marijuana. Do you think the drug dealer asks that youth for an I.D. to prove that they are 21? Of course not! As long as your money is green, you are getting served! As far as Marijuana being a gateway drug, the only reason it could remotely be considered a gateway drug is simply because it is on the black market. The drug dealer your buying your weed from is also more then likely the go to guy for the harder stuff (Heroin/ cocaine ect). These drug dealers know they can make by far more money off of you with these harder drugs then what they can from selling you weed. Lets forget a moment about the economy, the murders that are taking place in Mexico, the failed war on drugs, Lets look at our youth. If there ever was a reason to legalize marijuana it would be for the simple fact that it would make it so much harder for youth to get their hands on it if it was regulated like alcohol (no brainer!?) you ask any youth right now that has experimented with marijuana and they will tell you that it is by far much easier to obtain then alcohol by a long shot. Now lets look at the more sinister side of all this. Right now, because marijuana is on the black market and purchased illegally, there is always an excellent chance that the dealer could lace the weed with something harder that could get you hooked or even kill you!!! There is also the fact that because marijuana is illegal the places you sometimes have to go to get it can sometimes put you in a position to where you could be caught in the crossfire when the bullets start to fly.
If you regulate it like alcohol, you will separate marijuana from hard drugs which would help to accomplish 2 things
#1 you will make it harder for anyone under 21 to get it.
#2 You will disassociate marijuana with the lethal drugs.
I do not smoke marijuana but I used to be a drug counselor in one of the most dangerous prisons in the state of Florida and I used to hold a drug and alcohol meeting once a week, in one of our local jails. I have met so many inmates that were in jail/prison because they drank alcohol and made bad desicions that had negative consequences. I had also met a lot of people who were in Jail/prison because of marijuana. When I say that, I don't mean these people had used marijuana and robbed a bank or beat their wife, they were either simply caught in possession of or selling marijuana. These are non violent people who's lives are ruined because they choose to use a substance that is by far less dangerous then alcohol and cigarettes.
I believe the answer is education! I also believe that the task of educating falls on the parents shoulders and not the governments. Teach your kids that drugs are bad and what the consequences can be if they choose to use them. After they leave the nest and become adults it will then become their choice and that is exactly what we are talking about here CHOICE!
No American ADULT should be told what they can and cannot do in the privacy of their own home. If someone comes home after a hard days work and wishes to unwind by smoking a marijuana cigarette then they should have that CIVIL RIGHT.
We are playing a dangerous game here and it has been going on too long. Our history has shown us that Prohibition does NOT work but yet we keep dumping money into this thing we call the "war on drugs" and people continue to die, and families continue to be torn apart and billions of dollars keep getting flushed down the toilet.
It is time to end this madness. Is doing drugs OK? no of course not! But what is going on now is causing by far more damage then if we taxed and regulated!
Just my 2 pence! - Reply to this comment
- hy?poc?ri?sy?[hi-pok-ruh-see]:
?noun, plural -sies. 1. a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not really possess.
How about the fact that a plant containing (the newest Reefer Madness argument of) 13% THC (active ingredient in Cannabis) is labeled as a Schedule 1 narcotic (up there with Cocaine, Heroine, and Meth) as having NO human benefit what so ever is completely illegal, evil, mind bending, and lil kitten raping BAD. While the FDA approved, and government (and prohibitionist)pushed pill Marinol contains 100% THC, and comes with some nasty side effects.
Can one of you "pot head" hating prohibtionist please explain that to me. - Reply to this comment
- i think we should...wait. what was the question again? i forgot. oh yeah we need to legalize beer
- Reply to this comment
- lazy, mindless potheads for NorCal441
Carl Sagan....World renowned Astronomer
Who said ?the illegality of cannabis is outrageous"
Barack Obama ...Not only can you grow up to be ridiculously smart, you can grow up to be President.
Sir Richard Branson ...the 236th richest person in the world, founder of the Virgin empire.
Michael Bloomberg ...The Mayor of New York. Did he smoke pot when he was younger? In his own words "You bet I did. And I enjoyed it!"
Ted Turner..... a billionaire ? He single-handedly invented the 24-hour news cycle with CNN, was named Time's Man of the Year in 1991, is the largest private land owner in America, and also owns Atlanta Braves. So? Not what you'd expect from a guy who grew pot in his college dorm room.
Arnold Schwarzenegger...is on video smoking weed. In the documentary Pumping Iron, he is seen smoking, and loving, a joint. Since his election to office,California has approved medical marijuana. According to Arnold, marijuana "is not a drug, it's a leaf."
Mark Stepnoski...two-time Super Bowl champion. Who confirmed "responsible use" of marijuana during his pro career. "I'd rather smoke than take painkillers."
Stephen King...writing 1,000 page novels. You can't just 'jam out' The Stand. He's authored upwards of 50 novels and short stories which have sold a collective 500 million copies worldwide. He's also been one of the most vocal proponents for the legalization of marijuana, calling laws against the drug "ridiculous,"
Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps ?has a lot of motivation to be the best with 14 medals......All those millions spent on adds to tell us pot heads are not motivated went up in smoke what a waste of time and money.
Ricky Williams...is another great NFL player who has spoken out about the benefits of marijuana. Williams was briefly a spokesperson for the antidepressant Paxil, which he was prescribed to treat his social anxiety disorder. That endorsement deal ended when Williams told ESPN that "marijuana is 10 times better for me than Paxil."
Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati...1998 Olympic gold medalist
Montel Williams...discovered pot late in life. In 1999 he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, and couldn't find anything to suppress his symptoms. He tried all sorts of pain killers; none worked, and all had horrible side effects. He decided to try marijuana and it worked wonders for him! He is one of MS's most recognizable faces, and one of medical marijuana's staunchest defenders.
Rick Steves,...author of 27 top selling European travel guides, host of his own TV show and radio show, and a very outspoken pothead. He's a member of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
Aaron Sorkin...His work on The West Wing, both as writer and producer, earned him multiple Emmy Awards, and countless nominations for other awards.
Willie Nelson....enough said....There are millions of productive Americans who use marijuana.
"I personally know boxers, body builders, cyclists, runners and athletes from all walks of life that train and compete with the assistance of marijuana," said WWE wrestler Rob Van Dam.
Some of the best cricket players of all time, like Phil Tufnell and Sir Ian Botham, have admitted to regularly using marijuana to deal with the stress and muscle aches common to all athletes. In 2001, half of South Africa's cricket team was punished after being caught toking up with the team physiotherapist.
Regular marijuana use didn't impede the ability of basketball legends like Rasheed Wallace, Charles Oakley or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Indeed, Oakley has claimed that over half of NBA players smoke pot before each game. Since these players are top athletes whose career depends on them being at peak performance for every game, it stands to reason that perhaps they are using marijuana because it provides some benefit to their abilities on the court.
Cannabis can actually enhance and improve human abilities. Discovering how toking up possibly helps the world's greatest athletes to better their performance could also teach us how this plant can better serve us all.
Motivated people smoke pot and unmotivated people smoke pot. Good people smoke pot and bad people smoke pot. Marijuana use does not define a person. Contrary to the propaganda put out by crazed zealots and paid for by taxpayers. We could sure use those moneys for a better purpose. - Reply to this comment
