Why is weed illegal but alchohol legal?

Blame it on The Man.

Or we could make them both illegal.

“Because”.
That’s the best answer anyone can possibly give. There is no reason. It’s illegal, well, just because.

There is a huge Industry (read: Money) behind Tobacco and Alcohol.

Alcohol only makes people angry and crazy if taken to the extreme. Personally, I don’t take it to the extreme, and find that the occasional drink makes me warm and happy.

Alcohol was illegal for a while, but people really wanted their drinks, so Prohibition was repealed.

Because William Randolph Hearst (a long dead newspaper tycoon) ran jingoist articles in his papers about how ‘evil’ marijuana is for America.

He did this because he had huge investments in the timber industry and marijuana (read: hemp) was poised to become the no. 1 source for paper.

TL:DR- A man with lots of money didn’t want to lose his money.

You try banning Alcohol. See what kind of trouble THAT will stir. Luckily, weed has BEEN illegal and no riots have started for it.

But thing is, not all alcohol, in moderation is bad/wrong. I would hate it if I knew that sipping some wine was illegal, ya know? Some alcohol is good for you anyway. It is only that some people like to use it to “drink away” their problems as they say, and others just want to look cool at parties. Why let these irresponsible people spoil something good for you?

I personally think they should make cigarettes illegal, but due to financial issues, it ain’t happenin’. It does NOTHING good for you!

BTW- Alcohol does not “make people angry and crazy”. It depends on 1) the person and 2)how much they drink.

I wish weed was legall weed enhances life and isn’t addicting alcahol is addicting and makes people violent.
I also think this is kinda stupid.

J0E: Nice.
ragingloli: There is a huge industry behind marijuana, it is just not taxed.
laureth: Yes, my question was a bit generalized for simplicity’s sake. I agree that anything in moderation is fine, and really think both should be legal.
Sampson: I don’t think you can blame the fate of an entire industry on just one person.
Glow: I’m not suggesting we ban alcohol, I’m just wondering why weed is illegal when other drugs are not. Like wine being scientifically shown to have positive health effects in moderation, so has marijuana been shown to have positive health effects on people suffering from certain medical conditions.
disturbed_broken: I think both can be addicting to some people, and not addicting at all to others. ..

@lilikoi Well, it wasn’t necessarily just one person. People had to believe them. They’re at fault too.

@lilikoi – I haven’t done any research on that, but the only thing I can think of is that even if they wanted to second think it and legalize marijuana, it would be a bit too late since they are having trouble dealing with people who abuse it already. Legalize it now and these people will only think it as an opportunity to do it even more, and kids will find it easier to buy them (not like it isn’t already anyway). I think if they want to do that they will have to find a way to deal with it first, and educate the people about it too. But like you said, Weed can help people with certain medical conditions. Most people who use it use it for recreation, and tend to abuse its use. But the again, cigarettes are definitely no better. But it is like I said, it may be too late to second think it now.

More money gets made by the “right” people when things are this way. People get very wealthy from alcohol and from weed. Why would they want to change it?

Because the government would have to admit it was wrong about marijuana all these years.

also what sampson said as well as a few other reasons

We should note that marijuana is on a slow path to being legalized.

Medical marijuana is being legalized in more and more states. Pres. Obama ordered that DEA raids on medical marijuana clinics that operate in accordance to state laws are to end. And the number of people in favor of legalizing marijuana reached an all-time high (no pun intended) in 2009.

Probably the main reason is that drinking alcohol has been part of Western culture from the beginning while other drug use has not.

There are of course other factors, neo-Puritanism, racism and governmental overreaching among them.

@Sampson nj just made great progress in that department. :)

@uberbatman As did my home state of Michigan. I voted and won. I am proud.

@Sampson Don’t forget the bigwigs in tobacco. They had a hand in it too.

:)

Because weed was the “drug of the black man (not the word they used)” back in the 20’s/30’s. There was a political movement to have it outlawed to prevent drug crazed black people from roaming the streets and raping helpless white women. Also the reason cocaine (at the time the drug of the rich… well i guess that’s the same now too) was still legal for a while longer.

Wow, biggest generalization of drug effects I’ve ever heard…

My guess is because alcohol goes back thousands of years and has been a part of almost every society. Smoking was brought to the world by the Native Americans and is relatively recent. I think the better question is: why are cigarettes legal, but weed is illegal?

Yes that is a good question, too. Sorry on generalizing, too lazy to elaborate, figured everyone would get the gist.

For one thing, one can have an alcoholic drink and suffer no inebriation, and in some cases actually benefit his health. Weed, on the other hand, has the sole function of chemically impairing the user. The healthy approach to alcohol is to drink without getting drunk; there is no equivalent for marijuana.

As far as I know, one puff of weed is not the same as sucking on a bong for 4 hours straight. And how about this: who is more dangerous on the road? The guy that is high or the guy that is drunk?

I’d like to quote Spock: Illogical.

Short answer? Because most lawmakers drink or don’t have a problem with booze as much as they do with pot.

@Nullo you couldn’t be more wrong…...

I think it’s also going to hurt the re-election campaign for lawmakers if they do these things.

Outlaw alcohol? —What are you, some kind of puritan freak, telling me I can’t kick back with a beer after work?!

Legalize pot? – You’re soft on drugs.

You misunderstood the question.

Great Question @lilikoi ! Prohibition proved that you can’t force your religious and social values on others without a lot of unintended consequences like organized crime and bootleggers.

I was around when marijuana became popular in the 60’s and 70’s. It mostly came from you local neighborhood hipiie who grew enough to maintain is supply. Nothing really serious happened if you were caught (as long as you weren’t in the military).

I noticed when the police started raiding growing patches, prices went up and organized crime started to take over. The more the government fought these syndicates, the bigger and more violent they became.

Pressure became so great that foreign growing and importing became more important and better organized. The government reacted by increasing officers and funding, which made international trade even better paying and more violent. When I grew up, nobody was killed for marijuana now it is common.

You ask why it is banned; the primary reason that too many people make their living off it. Very few are the crimminals, the majority are government and legal professionals. There is just too much money to be made fighting a drug that generally makes people non-violent. The other, rather minor reason is that the religious right thinks we should all suffer in this life and any drug that prevents it (at low cost) must be immoral.

I thought the govt would make more money by legalizing it and taxing it, but maybe you are right. The “war on drugs” probably employs a lot of people…

i would think the same lilikoi with legalization you have mass job creation as well as many other opportunities to make money.

@lilikoi the people in the governmenrt don’t care about government money, they care about their money.

@uberbatman
Enlighten me, preferably without reaching for the conspiracy theories.

@Nullo i dont follow…. just as one can drink without getting drunk one can smoke without getting real high. Thats all there really is to it.

i dont see how conspiracy theories would even come into this.

@uberbatman
But so far as I can determine, the point of smoking pot is to get high. Alcohol may be consumed for the flavor, or for ceremonial purposes.

@Nullo Marijuana is smoked for ceremonial purposes in a few religions, too. And I would say that most people drink alcohol specifically to feel a buzz.

@Nullo good weed tastes amazing and i often take just one hit. I dont get high but it just has a nice subtle effect on the mind. One beer will also have subtle effects on me though im not drunk. So how are these two things any different?

@lilikoi you are correct is saying that the government would make more on taxes than fighting a war on drugs. The only problem is that the money would go for the general good while multi-billion dollar drug enforcement entities would close down. That is the problem. Once you build up your little kingdom, it becomes very difficult to let go. Unfortunately today’s government has become a bunch of interlocking kingdoms dedicated to supporting the kingdoms regardless the effect on society.