As a very dedicated, but new and inexperienced, Medical Marijuana Activist, I have one question that I haven't seen much comment on regarding Marijuana Prohibiton and the supporters thereof and that question is, "What does the Alcohol Industry have to loose if Marijuana were legal as Alcohol is?" Does this question have any merit? Do you think the Alcohol companies have much to loose if Marijuana were legalized? Personally I think there just might be some merit to it. Simply because the Alcohol Industry has a monopoly on the 'Legal Adult Mood Altering Industry.' As we all know that is a multi billion dollar industry.
I'm sure you've discussed this before so please forgive me if this is redundant. All I know is I would choose Cannabis anytime over alcohol, wouldn't you? Not only because I prefer the Marijuana 'High' over being affected by alcohol or drunk but the fact that Cannabis also has many theraputic values, as we all know. The obvious point is marijuana has no hangover and is non-toxic to the body.
So I just wondered how much money the Alcohol people spend on lobbyist's, if needed, to make sure Marijuana stays in a Schedule I catagory for as soon as that is changed the whole picture changes. What do you think?

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"Some of my finest hours have been spent on my back veranda smoking hemp and observing as far as my eye could see."---Thomas Jefferson- 1781

They really have nothing to fear, think about it, when we smoke cannabis we get cotton mouth so.......
In fact when I don't have smoke I don't drink as much.

Yeah I see what you mean. However, I know more people today than just 10 years ago who have given up alcohol and use only marijuana. For me I have a digetive disorder where alcohol consumtion makes me extremely sick. Even NyQuil nauseates me. Whereas I use Marijuana to control my chronic nausea and vomiting and water, juice or soda (pop in the midwest) serves me better for alcohol increases the "Dry Mouth" experience. But I hope you are right, I was just wondering if they are a potential threat to the legalization of Medical and Recreational Marijuana use.

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"Some of my finest hours have been spent on my back veranda smoking hemp and observing as far as my eye could see."---Thomas Jefferson- 1781

The DEA need that extra money for there own drugs so legalizing pot would **** them good

Very nice question, with much merit indeed.
I think the more ovelooked condition or whatever, is the efect on the oil industry? few people know it seems that Cannabus was outlawed in this countrY because of it's efect on the gas business. The whole "Ganja will make black people and migrant workers go crazy & kill you & your childrens thing, waS their propaganda and it worked. And it still does, they still like you to not know; until '36 farmers all over America were making fuel instea of buying it from th' man.

Think about it; isnt it strange that hemp was included in the "ban" & law?
Still now, to make hemp braclets you have to buy the hemp thread from another country? isnt that bizzare? It also knocked the Native Americans down too. Most things in our disposable society could be MADE FROM HEMP! What would OUR having hemp do to Nike, Dupont, ect, ect. It would be really hard on capitlism if the tree of life grew freely.

Just imagine; your car being full of ganja gas!! The car of course would be made 99% of hemp, from the tires up! Driving you to a building made of hemp to buy groceries and consumables, most all made of hemp, ect? And imagine how clean the envirment is you are doing this in? Hmmmmm? Now that i think about it, Marijuana could be detramental to our whole existing reality; oUR WHOLE WAY OF LIFE!

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☼ Nos non pluris sumus quam bullae ☼

just in paper alone it would take trees 20 years to grow back. hemp it would take 6 months . think about it

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Don't believe what I say cause ALL I grow is virtual because virtual grow rooms are fun and legal!

I believe that the alcohol industry would suffer. It seems to me that places such as AA (alcoholics anonymous) has become sort of popular the past 10 years and I feel that if these poor souls could alleviate whatever pain they are trying to drink away (mostly psychological and behavioral pain) that maybe these folks could have skipped the detrimental effects (DUI, accidents, delerium tremens, etc...)of alcohol if they had access to marijuana. Sure these folks may turn into pot heads, but the long term as well as short term effects as compared to alcohol abuse is significantly different. It would seem that reasonable people (Americans in my case) should be able to see the effects of alcohol. I'm sure we can all relate to the uncle of aunt who has a DUI or three, how many bar fights have any of us experienced due to alcohol (and the extra dangerous combo of alcohol and the opposite or same sex whatever your persuaion), this list can go on for pages of course. Stoners, well they are mostly mellow, hungry, funny, etc... My point here is that due to some strong propaganda tactics, think "Reefer Madness" the movie, started in the 1930's by some guy named Harry Anslinger the moral outrage attached to pot has an almost permanent affect of making reasonable Americans to BELIEVE that pot is bad and alcohol is good. In some ways a study of prohibition and how that was all turned back around and repealed may reveal some answers to how marijuana laws could also be loosened, at the least. Heck if MJ was to become legal the liquor industry would not suffer too badly, they would simply make some sort of THC infused concoction to make back some of their losses.

Marijuana is my medication of choice. I tryed alcohol once for 10 years, off and on...nothing good came from that. There was always something bad happening. I stop drinking...started smoking MJ, again, on occasion, and now everything is peachy.

Some people can't smoke pot but can drink. Just like some people can smoke pot and not drink. This is why we need the right of choice!

Peace.

Good point, it shows me that "We The People" will continue this fight until Marijuana is legal again for all the reasons you say it won't be. I really do believe "The Times They Are A Changin'." Now I know that Obama isn't going to do diddly squat in terms of legalizatioin of even just Medical Marijuana . But eventually there will be more states who have legalized at least Medical Marijuana simply because of the multi-billion dollar SAFE Industry it represents on both federal and state levels. Lotus already makes a Green car where the seat fabrics, fenders and door panels are made from Industrial Hemp and Mercedes Benz will be making dashboards out of hemp. Henry Ford made a car out of Hemp Resin stiffened fiber. He also made ethanol for fuel from Hemp seeds. Henry Ford knew that hemp could produce vast resources if widely cultivated. You are so right on the reasons why marijuana was made illegal in the first place. It had nothing to do with science or medicine. It was made illegal first to stop the flow of mexicans into the southwest after the 1910 Mexican Revolution and continues, on unsound opinion only i.e. science and medicine still are being ignored. Someday Marijuana will be totaly legal just you wait. It may take another 20 years but it will happen

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"Some of my finest hours have been spent on my back veranda smoking hemp and observing as far as my eye could see."---Thomas Jefferson- 1781

How many of you remember days after 911 there where hard liqueur commercial on TV, hard liqueur! that went off the tube some 25 years before this event

What the government was saying was relax and have a drink

With the continuous stress and pressure on people today maybe just maybe they'll do the same for us.

In the mean time... **** em

WOW, I did not know that, not that I doubt it. I am a fan of classic movies made in the 1930's and 40's. It is clear in these movies that alcohol and nicotine were the drugs of choice back than. In a movie called "Jewel Robbery" William Powell is a jewel thief and the cops catch him. He then says to the police as they are grabbing for their cigarettes, "Here try my brand of smoke." The cops get really stoned and start making prank phone calls, even though they don't say what it is you know its marijuana. When asked what he gave them Powell replys, "A harmless smoke that will put them to sleep and they will wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed with a big appetite ." This was prior to the hollywood "code" i.e. Censorship. Keep up the good fight...Peace...

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"Some of my finest hours have been spent on my back veranda smoking hemp and observing as far as my eye could see."---Thomas Jefferson- 1781

You mention AA.....its funny, my wife is swedish, my granny is german so ive realatives to visit all over the word. As an american one thing ive noticeed is that we americans are the ones with "alchohol problems"...and alchoholic support groups. the germans really never got the memo, alcholol is part of life, man, woman, and child. Beer is in vending machines, in Mc D's, ect.

Just something to think about, something that always made me go hmmmm?

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☼ Nos non pluris sumus quam bullae ☼

Yes. I believe there is likely some alcohol industry lobbyists doing their alcohol thing. Alcohol has such an aggressive nature to it, particularly those hard-driving whiskeys. You may as well be putting turpentine into your body. But, alas, cannabis being the happy little harmless friendly stuff that it is, smokers will always try to reason with the unreasonable. I'm wondering if the only way cannabis will ever come to acceptance is if everybody just starts giving it away and planting it all around. All this talk about multi-billion dollar cannabis industry growers when it's finally legalized . . . what's that all about anyway. Giving and planting just seems like a better way, I say. But yet the innocence of it all sounds too happy to be true.

The same goes in Japan. You can buy 2 liter mini kegs of beer from a vending machine, hot sake, wine. I don't think they sold hard liquor this way but anything easier than that was available. How come our culture has so many contradictory issues. I am proud to be an American so I mean no disrespect but. We claim to be the land of freedoms but yet we are not really free at all. The marijuana issue by itself is proof that as Americans we cannot choose to imbibe in a natural substance such as cannabis, but yet alcohol and tobacco are available and taxed like crazy. I digress, and still feel that the alcohol industry would suffer if MJ went legal.

I agree with you 100% magnoliablu . The using of marijuana should be all about the growing, using and sharing of it by everyone adult who'd rather use the non-toxic substance Marijuana instead of the toxic and addictive substance Alcohol, be it for personal or medical use. As far as I'm concerned the smoking of marijuana is also a preventive therapy. When I was 4, I was hit by a car and suffered severe head injuries. Mainly an "Abnormal" brain wave pattern that was epileptic like but was not epilepsy. This made me seizure prone and I suffered from petit mal as a child and grand mal seizure's as an adult. My parents were told, and confirmed 20 years later, by neurosurgeons that this "Abnormal" brainwave would be life long . But at age 50 my neurosurgeon told me my latest EEG (brainwave test) came back as "Normal." She could not explain this transformation from a brain injured by a severe head injury restored back to "Normal." But I know the answer, CANNABIS . This God given herb has been described as, "The Killer Weed," "The Assassin of Youth" by the U.S. Gov't, when in reality it is actually "The most theraputically active substance know to man"-Francis L. Young-DEA Chief Administrative Law Judge, 1986 . Henry Ford recognized the 'utility' of the Hemp plant (non THC containing Industrial Cannabis.) He constructed a car of 'Resin stiffened Hemp fiber,' and even ran the car on Ethanol made from Hemp. Ford knew that "Hemp" could produce vast economic resouces if widely cultivated. However Henry Ford was also an extreme racist, he was a Nazi-sympathizer and an anti-semetic . Check out www.hempcar.org/ford.shtml, this is fact. As soon as Cannabis/Hemp is removed from the Schedule I, and any other schedule, you will see big corparte money going into the Cannabis/Hemp business. Eventually Marijuana/Hemp will no longer carry the underserved stigma and Medical Marijuana/Recreational Marijuana use will be the norm. I just hope I live long enough to see it . Peace...

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"Some of my finest hours have been spent on my back veranda smoking hemp and observing as far as my eye could see."---Thomas Jefferson- 1781

That will never happen, try paying for supply's and electricity and see if your generosity will live in such a dream

Quite true Major Tom however let us not forget

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"Some of my finest hours have been spent on my back veranda smoking hemp and observing as far as my eye could see."---Thomas Jefferson- 1781

Your dreaming that a grower and his experience would be exploited to the beggars, let them pay and learn, when the rubber hits the road the reality of life lives.
Dreams are for those tapping out fantasy on there keyboard while there loaded off what they paid for and running out.

I can't deny it Major Tom, you are right. Money talks and bullshit walks. Take my situation, I want to grow my own but since I live in a non-medical marijuana state in a HUD subsidized apt it would mean eviction, loss of benefits, arrest, prosecution, imprisonment and forfeiture of property and money if caught . If caught with under an ounce, possession only, first time offense is a misdemeanor but subsequent arrests means jail time. I truly envy people living in legal Medical Marijuana states for they have consistent excellent quality, legal access (state wise that is,) and the right to grow their own. Sen Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Sen Tom Harkin (D-IA) are both in the "Reefer Madness" mode. Not only that But Sen Harkin (D-IA) stated this past summer, "I am for Medical Marijuana and the research into other drugs from the Cannabis plant." This turned out to be nothing but a political ruse to help Obama. About one month after Obama won the election Harkin sent out emails stating, "I now believe that marijuana is as addictive and fatal as heroin." Funny thing though, this is only true within the Iowa state borders. But I digest, if I'm lucky, for I use Marijuana to control the chronic nausea and vomiting from Diabetic Neuropathic Gastroparesis (paralyzed stomach.) The 'script my digestive dr gave me was for Reglan/Metoclopramide which if used on a regular basis causes Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome i.e. Irreversible and Fatal Parkinson like shakes and tremors. As I put it to my local politicians and PE Obama, "How can you force people like me to take a drug that has fatal toxic side effects and deny me the use of marijuana which controls chronic nausea immediately with no toxic, or otherwise, bad side effects." In the drug description it say's, "Your Dr has prescribed Reglan for you because he/she feels the positive effects outweigh the negative effects." Yeah like death or Irreversible lifelong Parkinson like shakes and tremors. Marijuana has been proven extremely effective in controlling chronic nausea, vomiting and wasting syndrome with absolutely no negative side effects, except for the "High" effect which is...well it's just great. Yet the federal government says marijuana has worse side effects than Reglan (death or irreversible nervous conditions.) They say this simply by the fact that Marijuana is a Schedule I drug and Reglan, with its fatal side effects, is a schedule III drug. This is proof positive that all our politicians are liars, cheats and thieves. Just ask Illinois Gov Blagojevich who was enraged that his colleagues were not "Playing Politics correctly," plus former President Nixon, Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens, Sen Ted Kennedy (who got away with adultery, drunk driving and murder) and many more to numerous to mention. They got caught and to them that is the only thing they did wrong . End Marijuana Prohibition now which would be the end of the Marijuana Black Market and put control of Marijuana in the hands of government. Stripping the black market of its most profitable product, Marijuana, would hamper them greatly in the smuggling of hard drugs like heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine. One more thing, Marijuana is a soft drug not a hard drug Peace...

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"Some of my finest hours have been spent on my back veranda smoking hemp and observing as far as my eye could see."---Thomas Jefferson- 1781

So was that a parcel cut and paste above

If you can't grow it you buy it or move to a med state or wait for all state med cannabis law to change then buy it still.

It's rare to see pharmaceutical company's give there liver burning, kidney melting drugs away let alone growers but sharing with close family on rare occasion, that's cool but now pharmaceutical killers.