for 1 reason MONEY its been a cover up since 1937. 1:FINES: its known that 40% of all arrests are drug related(perticularly marijuana). most of the time, they end in heavy fines or bail. if they decriminalized marijuana completely, they would loose tens of millions in fines, because they wouldn't be getting money from fines. and they may also even face massive lawsuits from ex cons of weed convictions for false arrests.

2:JOBS:like i said before, 40% of all arrest are drugs, and 10% of those are convictions. the prisons make on average of $60,000 a prisoner for there incarceration. prisons would suffer massive losses and many could be shutdown. also, judges, district attorneys, prosecutors, and lawyers make money per case. if around 10 to 15% of cases were to dissapear, many would loose their jobs in the govenrment. and the government would once again loose millions.

3:BIG BUSINESS: many industrys could be hammered from this. logging could go under. if marijuana became the number 1 cash crop, it would make lumber basically worthless, the logging industry could switch, but it would be to large of a transaction. it would take too long and drive them to the ground. and if they fail, so does the paper industry. they could switch, but transaction would kill them, and so would the pharmesueticals..

4:TAXES: if it was legal the government WOULD tax it. but its not very hard to grow. its like anyother plant to grow, if everyone grew there own, the gov couldn't make money off of it and the attempt would be a waste of time.

5:FEAR: think about it, if it was shown that the government was banning a drug that could solve all kinds of diseases and they forces us to use crappy pills that make worse side effects than good, people would be INRAGED. riots, uprisings, and collapse of governments.

More Information

I'll try to respond to the answer above with some better information.

1: What is probably being referred to here is the "Marihuana Tax Act of 1937," which placed a federal tax on all marijuana sold. At the time, marijuana possession and use was already illegal, though it was occasionally prescribed by a doctor for relieving the effects of some specific illness. It was also being touted as a possible substitute for wood fiber in paper manufacturing. The tax was less a means of raising revenue (the hemp industry in the U.S. was miniscule at the time) than it was a means of nailing cannabis traders, much as the internal revenue code had been used to nail Al Capone.

Fines for marijuana possession of a minor nature are typically quite small, and are not a major source of income for government at any level. Total drug arrests in the U.S. are actually only about 12% of all arrests, and marijuana arrests are a small portion of those. And even if marijuana was legalized today, there is no possibility that anyone convicted previously on a marijuana-related offense could sue anybody for anything.

2: Jobs? Piffle. Prisons are not "paid per prisoner." They are allotted X dollars per year, period, though their inmate populations may come into consideration. As for judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, etc. ONLY defense attorneys are paid on a "per case" basis; the rest are on salaries. In any case, the huge majority of drug cases involving marijuana result in either minor fines and probation, or VERY short stints in a county lockup.

3: There is simply no possibility that logging or any other industry could "go under if marijuana became the number 1 cash crop." To begin with, there is already plenty of marijuana being grown to satisfy the existing demand. If it suddenly became legal to grow it, use it, etc. anyone with an interest in it could simply grow it in his back yard. I actually knew a grower/dealer in southern Ohio who made a very nice living growing weed in the attic of a small A-frame house using grow-lights and Miracle-Gro. Marijuana is already the #1 cash crop in southeastern Ohio, in Kentucky, in parts of West Virginia, Tennessee, and Hawaii, and possibly in California. Legalizing it would bring about an immediate steep decline in the price of the stuff, and therefore in the likelihood that growing it would displace any other business.

4: If marijuana became legal, you can bet the government would tax it to death. As things stand now, even with the fines and forfeitures and seizures of property, the government overall is losing money on drug enforcement in general, and marijuana enforcement in particular. (No surprise there.)

5: Fear? Fear of what, exactly? Marijuana has never been shown to cure any disease. Marijuana has been shown to alleviate some symptoms of certain diseases, most notably intraocular pressure resulting from glaucoma, but there are plenty of other medications that are legally available that do those jobs as well or better, and are much easier to control and administer in terms of dosage and expected effects.

Conclusion

I think marijuana will likely be banned in the U.S. for the foreseeable future. Our society has decided that, with few exceptions, recreational drugs are not a good thing, and the debatable medical benefits of cannabis notwithstanding, the primary use of marijuana today is recreational -- it is generally smoked for the sole purpose of getting a buzz.

Smoking marijuana does, in fact, impair a user to the point that a stoned driver is a danger to others on the road, as is the case with alcohol and other legal and illegal substances. Smoking a marijuana cigarette probably damages the smoker's lungs more than smoking a single tobacco cigarette. Although the evidence is a bit thin, many believe that marijuana is a "gateway drug," the precursor to other, more serious, drug abuse.

Those who argue for legalization often point to the fact that alcohol and tobacco are legal. While that's true, it should be pointed out that alcohol use goes back to the most ancient of times -- to the ancient Romans and Greeks and beyond. In the U.S., for example, the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock in 1607 not because that's where they wanted to go, but because they were out of beer. The fermentation of grain had for centuries been a way of purifying untreated water; the alcohol in the beer/whiskey/whatever killed the bacteria that could kill the drinker of the raw water.

Tobacco was a thing learned quickly by the early settlers on the east coast of North America. The natives showed them how to grow it, how to use it, and the early Americans exported it around the known world. Tobacco very quickly became the bedrock of the early American economy, and has enjoyed a hallowed and protected place in our culture -- and in our legal system -- ever since. As much as tobacco use is officially vilified, it is still officially legal, and tobacco growers are still, by law, protected with a federal system of price supports and crop limits, aimed at keeping tobacco prices high.

By comparison, marijuana use came along much later in the U.S. It neither came with the Mayflower nor originated in the colonies -- it was brought to us from Mexico. It does not enjoy the thousand of years of staple history that alcohol boasts, and it has never been a fundamental part of the U.S. economy in the way tobacco once was.

EVEN_MORE_INFORMATION">EVEN_MORE_INFORMATION">EVEN MORE INFORMATIONThe second answer is extremely bias and does not paint a fair picture on this topic.

There have been multiple studies on the medicinal value of Cannabis however these have NOT been done by the United States federal government. Just because the FDA did not do the study doesn't mean that other studies out there do not matter and aren't based on solid data and facts. In fact, some of these studies even exceed the FDA research and trial standards. A 2010 review by researchers in Germany reports that since 2005 there have been 37 controlled studies assessing the safety and efficacy of marijuana and its naturally occurring compounds in a total of 2,563 subjects. By contrast, many FDA-approved drugs go through far fewer trials involving far fewer subjects. (Paul Armentano- Recent Research on Medical Marijuana)

As it goes with prisons, there are a number of private prisons that exist in the United States and they are paid on a per prisoner basis. Nearly 10 percent of all state and federal prisoners are housed in a private facility ran by a CEO's and not government employed Wardens. This changes the motivation in deterring individuals from breaking the law and in some cases can cause the legislation of a laws to be impacted. For example, an estimated 42 percent of Americans use Cannabis, about 856,000 has been arrested on Cannabis related charges, and nearly 11,000 individuals are imprisoned because of it. Fully legalizing Cannabis will, without a doubt, have a negative impact on the private prison industry by eliminating a large number of their potential population.

Lastly, Cannabis has been used for thousands of years as a medical treatment. Humans have cultivated and consumed the flowering tops of the female cannabis plant, colloquially known as marijuana, since virtually the beginning of recorded history. Cannabis-based textiles dating to 7,000 B.C.E have been recovered in northern China, and the plant's use as a medicinal and mood altering agent date back nearly as far. In 2008, archeologists in Central Asia discovered over two-pounds of cannabis in the 2,700-year-old grave of an ancient shaman. After scientists conducted extensive testing on the material's potency, they affirmed, "[T]he most probable conclusion ... is that [ancient] culture[s] cultivated cannabis for pharmaceutical, psychoactive, and divinatory purposes." (Paul Armentano- Recent Research on Medical Marijuana)

The real truth is there aren't many good arguments against Cannabis anymore. Even the "Gateway Theory" has been disproven. I'm an individual who likes to seek out both sides of a story or issue to truly understand the conflict between the opposed and the un-opposed. I have searched for books, documentaries, and official state and federal documentation that explain the government's opposition against Cannabis and I have not found any. The information that I find against Cannabis is based on 100% opinion and ignorance. I've yet to see any factual based data against using Cannabis in both medicinal and recreational settings.

In my opinion, I'm not sure why the federal government will not legalize Cannabis. Every attempt to perform a federal study on the plant has been denied by the DEA and the White House. So when serious talk on the subject arises the common scape goat has been "We don't know enough about it". The only way to truly "Know" about it would be to grant researchers and drug companies the permission to study and analyze the plant which will allows us to make informed, fact based, decisions and legislation on this substance.

EVEN MORE INFO: im the original person to answer this question. The person who ridiculously tried to debunk my answers, sounds like someone coming straight out of the reefer madness theater. This truly is a childish argument.

"What is probably being referred to here is the "Marihuana Tax Act of 1937," which placed a federal tax on all marijuana sold. At the time, marijuana possession and use was already illegal, though it was occasionally prescribed by a doctor for relieving the effects of some specific illness. It was also being touted as a possible substitute for wood fiber in paper manufacturing. The tax was less a means of raising revenue (the hemp industry in the U.S. was miniscule at the time) than it was a means of nailing cannabis traders, much as the internal revenue code had been used to nail Al Capone."

" At the time, marijuana possession and use was already illegal, though it was occasionally prescribed by a doctor for relieving the effects of some specific illness." -correction, that is completely false because the first marijuana arrest ever was after the tax act was introduced.

" It was also being touted as a possible substitute for wood fiber in paper manufacturing. The tax was less a means of raising revenue (the hemp industry in the U.S. was miniscule at the time) than it was a means of nailing cannabis traders, much as the internal revenue code had been used to nail Al Capone."

correction-first of all, that's the point! it was a very small industry at the time, and it was named the new billion dollar crop by a large magazine.William Randolph Hearst had acres of timber land and paper mills, so he used the newspapers he owned to print hyped up and exaggerated stories about this new "marijuana" drug. It scared everyone so much that anslinger (who's uncle owned major stock in duponts chemical company, another supporter of prohibition of cannabis due to the replacement of his nylon patents) was able to fool the AMA into allowing congress to vote on outlawing Marijuana because after they voted is when the AMA realized it was actually cannabis-classic yellow journalism at it's finest. So all cannabis and industrial hemp disappeared from drug stores and the rest of the country, hence modern day pharmaceuticals and chemical/logging companies,who along with the gas/oil industry are now the #1 lobbyists against it. 2nd of all, you would be correct when you say it was good revenue since people had to buy tax stamps, but the problem is, the federal government handed out literally NONE. It's the same now adays when you can

technically "legally buy" a license from the DEA to grow industrial hemp, but its realistically impossible, theres a reason all other international countries make so much off of import-exports of hemp products to the u.s.

"Jobs? Piffle. Prisons are not "paid per prisoner." They are allotted X dollars per year, period, though their inmate populations may come into consideration. As for judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, etc. ONLY defense attorneys are paid on a "per case" basis; the rest are on salaries. In any case, the huge majority of drug cases involving marijuana result in either minor fines and probation, or VERY short stints in a county lockup. " CORRECTION-you completely forgot about private prisons. That is explained thoroughly by the last answerer. You also have to keep in mind that is the same for the fines, lawyers, judges, etc., and the private prison industry is booming and increasing in size.

"Fear? Fear of what exactly? Marijuana has never been shown to cure any disease. Marijuana has been shown to alleviate some symptoms of certain diseases, most notably intraocular pressure resulting from glaucoma, but there are plenty of other medications that are legally available that do those jobs as well or better, and are much easier to control and administer in terms of dosage and expected effects. "

CORRECTION- you forgot to mention the many thousands of diseases that are alleviated and many cured. Like it or not, cancer has been cured countless times using hemp oil. Plus, even if they were only "alleviated" it's a HELL of a lot safer to use than any pharma pills. It almost always works, all pharma drugs do is ruin your health and life (mainly statins and antidepressants) dosage doesn't matter either. Find one person to ever overdose on marijuana, or die for that matter, and I will give you the map to neverneverland, because that's where the brain of anyone who doesn't know that is trapped in.

"I think marijuana will likely be banned in the U.S. for the foreseeable future. Our society has decided that, with few exceptions, recreational drugs are not a good thing, and the debatable medical benefits of cannabis notwithstanding, the primary use of marijuana today is recreational -- it is generally smoked for the sole purpose of getting a buzz."CORRECTION-the benefits of cannabis is SO withstanding that its to live in the dark ages to say it so. And yes, it's used for recreation more than anything, Does that really matter? No, because if people like you (nothing personal,but you seem like the classic "family values" type guy, who prefers whiskey over a plant) think that alcohol is appropriate and marijuana is not, is once again, the sign of something called denial and ignorance.

"Smoking marijuana does, in fact, impair a user to the point that a stoned driver is a danger to others on the road, as is the case with alcohol and other legal and illegal substances. Smoking a marijuana cigarette probably damages the smoker's lungs more than smoking a single tobacco cigarette. Although the evidence is a bit thin, many believe that marijuana is a "gateway drug," the precursor to other, more serious, drug abuse." CORRECTION-sure it has possibly happened before, but get realistic, when is the last time someone crashed a car and killed a family while high? The VAST majority of statistics that show someone was high while in a car accident, are also when the alcohol was involved, I don't personally know of a single case where someone caused an accident when only on marijuana. and no, it sure as HELL doesn't cause more lung damage than a tobacco cigarette. Now I know I must be responding to someone involved with some industry that has something to loose from legalization. The only possible way this is, is because more actuall smoke is inhaled than a cigarette, however, this doesn't matter, because THC and CBD cancel that out, evidence? again, find one case of lung cancer, any cancer or death for that matter...

"Those who argue for legalization often point to the fact that alcohol and tobacco are legal. While that's true, it should be pointed out that alcohol use goes back to the most ancient of times -- to the ancient Romans and Greeks and beyond. In the U.S., for example, the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock in 1607 not because that's where they wanted to go, but because they were out of beer. The fermentation of grain had for centuries been a way of purifying untreated water; the alcohol in the beer/whiskey/whatever killed the bacteria that could kill the drinker of the raw water."CORRECTION- Marijuana existed far before man made alcohol, alcohol always has been produced naturally by fermentation of fruits in the wild, however, marijuana as a plant, is also very ancient, It was the first medicine that organized civilizations used, and it will be the last.

"Tobacco was a thing learned quickly by the early settlers on the east coast of North America. The natives showed them how to grow it, how to use it, and the early Americans exported it around the known world. Tobacco very quickly became the bedrock of the early American economy, and has enjoyed a hallowed and protected place in our culture -- and in our legal system -- ever since. As much as tobacco use is officially vilified, it is still officially legal, and tobacco growers are still, by law, protected with a federal system of price supports and crop limits, aimed at keeping tobacco prices high."CORRECTION- Yes, and hemp was used for thousands of years on the east coast, and which civilization grew? and which was destroyed? You are kidding me, American economy was formed by tobacco? (hold on, I can't believe im actually reading this, gotta take a breather) The founding fathers said cannabis was vital, it was actually ILLEGAL not to grow in Virginia. Everything we had back then up until the 1800's was completely reliant on cannabis. You are stunningly misinformed.

"By comparison, marijuana use came along much later in the U.S. It neither came with the Mayflower nor originated in the colonies -- it was brought to us from Mexico. It does not enjoy the thousand of years of staple history that alcohol boasts, and it has never been a fundamental part of the U.S. economy in the way tobacco once was." CORRECTION- no, it what the first product that was used, and the original colonies relied on it for a long time. Mexico? that's ironic, because asia and Europe had hemp LONG before they even discovered there even WAS another whole side of the planet. Plus, "marijuana" the new fraudster name of cannabis, came from a MEXICAN TOBBACO.

Mushrooms, DMT, Cannabis, all outlawed for political reasons, none of them have ever killed anyone and for the psychadelics, have never "caused anyone to go crazy" We woudl'nt even know about the (possibility) of the after life, or higher dimensions, if mushrooms, dmt, and lsd didn't exist. Dna was discovered on LSD. Inferior medical treatments (like modern day medicine) would have destroyed us by now if we weren't started out with cannabis. It appears that this person got most of his imformation from either a newspaper from the 1930's, or memorized a day's worth of 5th grade D.A.R.E. indoctrination.

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