Why is marijuana totally legal in so few countries around the world?

[SecretStoner]

I understand why its illegal in all the states. I understand snowball effect as well where one prohibition leads to another in an adjacent or neighboring country. But what blows my mind is that marijuana is completely and totally legal in only VERY few countries. Take this map for example:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/World-cannabis-laws.png

Marijuana is only COMPLETELY legal in what...3-5 countries? It's strange to me that such a large amount of people in so many places think that the plant is a bad thing. So bad that the majority of the people in the majority of the world prohibit its use.

Whack.

 

[JDSupreme]

Shit is wack

 

[MajorDoobage]

Money.....
http://www.thehempire.com/index.php/cannabis/cannabis_hemp/why_cannabis_is_illegal

 

[Sour Deez]

follow the money

 

[Havelock Vetenari]

It's even worse,The Netherlands on that map are shown as legal/essentially legal,believe me it's not.
Although in some ways we're better off,i can potentially be evicted and put on a rent-blacklist for growing my own,which is somewhat unnerving to say the least and a measure completely out of proportion.
I'm still hoping common sense will prevail someday,but it doesn't seem to be going to happen in the near future and right now here we're even taking some steps back sadly.

 

[WatTyler]

Take this map for example:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/World-cannabis-laws.png

That map is an overly optimistic interpretation of the status around the world IMO. With slightly dubious categories. Is there any explanation to go with it? I can't see where it's from.

 

[SecretStoner]

I found the image on digg somewhere. I definitely wouldn't take it for fact.

Point is, its crazy to me that someone convinced a few people that Marijuana was bad, so the entire world outlawed it. This seems to be the beliefs of the marijuana community, but it just doesn't add up to me.

SS

 

[Seek]

That picture can't be correct. Here iun Czech Republic it's absolutely not decriminalized as shown at the picture. Just lazy cops, so less people go to jail, but still they are going (for more than 15 grams, if less, a person has to pay money and they take his weed). So orange color fits better. Also medical marijuana is not legal here. Just the synthetic sativex with a price triggering tears over laughter.

I don't think it's legal anywhere.

 

[OhTheAgony]

I actually researched it when I went to Czech a few months ago (as part of a motorcycle tour, it was one of the ten countries I rode through this summer). It's actually ok to carry up to 15 grams there for personal use (getting caught with more than that can lead to trafficking charges according to the officer I talked to). That's a lot dude, the maximum allowed here in Holland is just 5 grams a person. Czech seems to be very tolerant nowadays, you guys just need some coffeeshops and you're done

ps: what's up with all the hookers on the highway along the borders everywhere, lmao

 

[djonkoman]

havelock is right, it's more like decriminalized here(officially it's still illegal, but the policy is to not prosecute if it's for personal use, and to make clear what personal use is they made a set of rules like 5 plants max., but they can still confiscate then and rent and electricitycompanies aren't bound by it, so they can still kick you out or shut off your electricity)

I think it's in our culture, all western countries have a history with christianity and mindaltering substances don't really fit into that, only when christianity arrived we were already drinking alcohol so if the church would've prohibited that nobody would've turned christian(the christians also took over a lot of pagan holidays to convert the pagans more easily, you aren't going to join a new religion if it doesn't allow you to party like you always did, so they just took them over and gave them a christian meaning and story)

weed is a relative newcomer to the western world so a lot easier to prohibit
and ofcourse there's the money involved

 

[aesthyrian]

Like everyone has already said, it's the money. Yes, there is A LOT of money to be made in Marijuana and especially Hemp, but their is even more money to be made in keeping a plant that is superior to most textiles, fabrics, foods, oils, and medicine.

Ben Franklin had it right, he ran a hemp paper mill and used that paper to draft our declaration of independence. The suppression of information such as this is a very important ally to the other side. Hemp is partly responsible for our freedom and for the victory of WWII. It's powerful stuff

I don't think it's legal anywhere.

All drug use is decriminalized in Portugal. They are doing great because of it too.

And I like how in the Czech Republic you guys are seeing Hookers on the highway.. but pot is some bad shit... what the fuck? The only victim in smoking pot is the pot that gets ignited. Hookers are all victims.

 

[wilf789]

Not saying that you don't already know this - but decriminalised and legalised are not the same thing.

Decriminalised is only a half-way measure, the production and sale can still be illegal, leaving the black market (obviously one of illegal drugs' worst aspects) untouched for the most part.

 

[He-Man]

Reason why almost any country even if it wanted to can't completely legalize Cannabis is because of UN.
UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs
UN Convention against illicit traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances.pdf - Wiki article

 

[aesthyrian]

Not saying that you don't already know this - but decriminalised and legalised are not the same thing.

Decriminalised is only a half-way measure, the production and sale can still be illegal, leaving the black market (obviously one of illegal drugs' worst aspects) untouched for the most part.

Yep. The benefit is the extra police force that can focus on real crime, and the money that is saved because of that and not having to lock up non violent drug users.

 

[Egzoset]

Salutations everybody,

After browsing through the whole section i finally identified this post as a proper anchor for what's next...

Reason why almost any country even if it wanted to can't completely legalize Cannabis is because of UN.

UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs...

Update:

Reuters: U.S. states' pot legalization not in line with international law: U.N. agency (2014-Nov-12)

« Moves by some U.S. states to legalize marijuana are not in line with international drugs conventions, the U.N. anti-narcotics chief said on Wednesday, adding he would discuss the issue in Washington next week.

Residents of Oregon, Alaska, and the U.S. capital voted this month to allow the use of marijuana, boosting the legalization movement as cannabis usage is increasingly recognized by the American mainstream.

"I don't see how (the new laws) can be compatible with existing conventions," Yury Fedotov, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), told reporters.

Asked whether there was anything the UNODC could do about it, Fedotov said he would raise the problem next week with the U.S. State Department and other U.N. agencies. »​

Reaction:

Fox News: Marijuana meddle: UN official rips US states over legal pot policies (2014-Nov-13)

« ...Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, told FoxNews.com that while Fedotov technically might be right, those “conventions” have “no teeth.”

Further, he criticized the U.N. office for focusing on punitive policies and said, “At this point, we’d be better off without the UNODC.”

Nadelmann and allied groups have been buoyed by a string of Obama administration statements making clear that, for now, they will take a lenient approach toward marijuana legalization.

Last month, a senior State Department official called for a “flexible interpretation” of U.N. drug policies. “Things have changed since 1961,” Assistant Secretary of State William Brownfield said.

Given that and other statements from top administration officials, Nadelmann brushed off Fedotov’s comments.

“It doesn’t make any difference,” he said. “Fedotov is going through the motions…. but the decision’s already been made.” »​

 

[He-Man]

Nice. =)

U.N. official is full of s*it;
whole world (except Russia) does what U.S.A. tells them, and eventually so will U.N.
That's what happened in 61 when U.N. was heavily pressured by U.S.A. to enact those conventions.

 

[KeroZen]

Reminds me the well known experiment with monkeys, a banana and a cold water hose... http://www.answers.com/Q/Did_the_monkey_banana_and_water_spray_experiment_ever_take_place

We're all suffering the war on drugs initiated and led by the USA, and now that they finally changed their mind, we'll continue suffering for a long time... because it will take ages to undo things at the UN level...

 

[CarolKing]

By allowing Colorado, Washington, Alaska, Oregon and Washington D.C. voters to legalize limited amounts of cannabis for personal use, the United States has violated United Nations conventions. That's the gripe from the head of the U.N. director of the Office on Drugs and Crime, Yury Fedotov, who says he plans to take official actions.


"I don't see how (the new laws) can be compatible with existing conventions," Fedotov told reporters this week.

Read More >>

EDIT
Fuck the U.N. I'm really not sure what they do? It seems like they are always late out of the gate to any crisis that comes around, like war, famine, Ebola. Now they want to fuck up legal cannabis? They need to keep their nose out of it.
CK

 

[t-dub]

The UN can lick my sweaty nut sack. They want my firearms too, fuck that. I think all my weed and firearms are defective because neither of them have ever hurt anyone . . .

 

[HillaryClinton]

Companies/politicians want control, over health and what you do, and how you "think". MJ influences the mind in what I would say is a good way of expanding ones mind, they don't want this, also Big Phrama for sure does not want the health benefits that come along from it, weakens the grip.

 

[cybrguy]

The UN can lick my sweaty nut sack.

I wouldn't expect you to get many takers on that offer, but not knowing you personally it's hard to know if there is something special goin on that might make it a better draw...

 

[Egzoset]

Salutations,

...full of s*it...

Indeed and UN's past wasn't exactly glorious neither when known as the former League of Nations: imagine, this organisation had multiple copies of "The Black Candle" for reference in their Narcotics Division...

The Internet Archive: The Black Candle, Emily F. Murphy (aka "Janey Canuck") - 1922


Chapitre 23

« Marihuana: A New Menace »

Historically it appears North-American prohibition laws happened to have xenophobic roots. To me it's still somewhat vague so i'll simply attempt to suggest a starting point for those who'd like to explore further:

Google Search: Prohibition Eugenics Alberta Washington California "Emily Murphy"​

Those were quite different times when a spread of intolerance actually allowed sexual sterilisation laws to emerge... These locations listed above were only among the first ones to adopt such unjust legislation, not the last.

On my side of the borders it seems a great deal of the agravation originated from "elite" persons, like Emily Murphy who received lots of honor in her time and even in our own era!

Certaines de ses récompenses les plus notoires

1915 - L'Ordre de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem
1985 - Timbre-Poste 32 ¢ commémoratif
2004 - 50 Dollars - Les Cinq Fameuses

For more details i'd refer to opinions from David Kilgour as he criticized this memorable Canadian character with influent ties in moral, political and judiciary domains.

...what happened in 61 when U.N. was heavily...

Pressured by USA and also infiltrated by Canadian prohibitionists, possibly among others i believe.

We're all suffering the war on drugs initiated and led by the USA, and now that they finally changed their mind, we'll continue suffering for a long time... because it will take ages to undo things at the UN level...

Fuck the U.N. I'm really not sure what they do?

They didn't know at the time so maybe it's just normal we still have to wonder today!!

Now they want to fuck up legal cannabis?

That wouldn't be a first time in Canada considering that cannabis ("Indian Hemp") was on "Annexe A" of the "Loi de Pharmacie" of Québec initially (1890 & 1909), but then i think it got mysteriously banned via silent transfer to federal jurisdiction by Henri-Séverin Béland in 1923 (without due political debate!), before it was declared as "poison" at the provincial level in 1925 while Raoul Dandurand presided at the League of Nations (not to mention it turns out his wife shared some of Murphy's views as an activist)...



Briefly put high society members felt entitled to re-organize the world with themselves as raw models, dreaming of guiding ordinary populations like sheep breeders, or gardeners cultivating new plant strains i guess.

So much for the love of children...

 

[grokit]

When all other rationalizations fail, it becomes a matter of national (in)security

 

[Crohnie]

Ironic that marijuana is totally legal in North Korea....

 

[HillaryClinton]

Ironic that marijuana is totally legal in North Korea....

Sorry.....had to.....