The popularity of cannabis continues to increase across the nation. According to the latest Gallup poll, more Americans admit to smoking cannabis than smoking tobacco cigarettes. 16% of Americans surveyed by Gallup said they had smoked cannabis within the last week, while only 11% said they had smoked a cigarette.
Go back just over half a century, 52 years ago, and a Gallup poll from 1969 showed only 4% of Americans admitted to even having tried cannabis. Today that number has jumped to 48%. Another Gallup poll from that same year showed that 40% of Americans admitted to smoking a cigarette within the last week. Fast forward a few years to 1985, and Gallup polls showed that nearly as many Americans had tried cannabis (33%) as those who had smoked a cigarette (35%) in the past week. It is great to see the numbers turning in favor of cannabis.
“If you substitute marijuana for tobacco and alcohol, you’ll add 8 to 24 years to your life.” – Jack Herer
The tobacco industry has been a major opponent of cannabis legalization for many years now. They are part of the big five that stood against cannabis legalization at every turn blocking it from the people of America. Alcohol, pharmaceutical, police unions, and private prisons have been some of the largest financial contributors blocking cannabis legalization. Even the fashion industry had a hand in it. Cotton wouldn’t be the “Fabric of Our Lives” if hemp would not have been knocked out of the picture by federal lawmakers of the time.
The Feds Lost a Lot Because of Cannabis Prohibition
Cotton replaced hemp and gave birth to the toxic version of the pesticide and insecticide-treated cotton that many of us wear today. Hemp could be used to make so many things. In 1937, Popular Mechanics said, “Hemp is the standard fiber of the world. It has great tensile strength and durability. It is used to produce more than 5,000 textile products, ranging from rope to fine laces, and the wood “hurdles” remaining after the fiber has been removed contains more than seventy-seven percent cellulose and can be used to produce more than 25,000 products, ranging from dynamite to cellophane.”
Instead, America began to import fabrics from around the world, sending money overseas rather than into the hands of the American economy through farmers, tailors, processors, and other crafts. After all this time, America is still on the import kick rather than supporting local farmers. Just look what Popular Mechanics had to say about the many uses of hemp fabric and fibers.
“Fish nets, bow strings, canvas, strong rope, overalls, damask tablecloths, fine linen garments, towels, bed linen, and thousands of other everyday items can be grown on American farms. Our imports of foreign fabrics and fibers average about 200,000,000 per year; in raw fibers alone, we imported over $50,000,000 in the first six months of 1937. All of this income can be made available for Americans.”-Popular Mechanics
Maybe the oil tycoon John Davison Rockefeller Sr. had something to do with the downfall of hemp, envisioning a petroleum-based world rather than one fueled by hemp. Judging by the world today, it looks like his vision was the perfect fit for many different political and private agendas.
Times Were Sure Different In 1937
Apparently, cannabis was everywhere when prohibition started. Locoweed, the Devil’s lettuce, or marihuana as some called it, reportedly could easily be found growing next to any train track in every state across America. Wow! Could you imagine the air quality back then? How about how easy it must have been to get your hands on some smoke? I bet the politicians of the day are rolling over in their graves at the loss of profits they could have made from cannabis.
Today, the legal cannabis industry is estimated to be worth around $33 billion. “Legal sales of marijuana are expected to top $33 billion by the end of 2022, according to a new study by MJBiz, a leading B2B cannabis industry resource. That’s a 32% increase over 2021’s total of $25 billion.”-Fortune.com
Forbes paints a picture of the illicit black market for cannabis being worth more than the legal market, saying the current legal market is worth about $25 billion while the black markets sit at a worth of about $47 billion. Politicians, just imagine if you had never turned the market black, you wouldn’t be embarrassed today, looking foolish trying to turn it back. While lawmakers bicker back-and-fourth like schoolchildren about cannabis legalization, other nations around the world are leaving America to stay stuck in its draconian cannabis past.
Cannabis Popularity Steadily Increases
It seems that back in the 1930s, before marijuana prohibition ever got started, that cannabis was quite popular. It had the potential to make thousands of the products we use today. It could be used for building, manufacturing, clothing, food, animal feed, medicine, and more! Instead, the political representatives of the time, and many of them still today, have chosen to look upon cannabis legalization with blind eyes, deaf ears, and closed minds.
It’s almost like the American government wants to see just how far the American people can be pushed before they will no longer tolerate something. That has to be the only explanation for today’s political behavior and that of the past. It’s a game they started years ago that the people are winning today. Lawmakers and elected representatives toy with the lives of millions of Americans by dangling cannabis legalization over them. It has far too long been utilized as a tool of destruction and control by the government, and these times are coming to an end. The popularity of cannabis will only continue to increase until it is legal in every state across the nation, and our federal government has reversed its outdated, archaic policy supporting continued federal marijuana prohibition. Only a handful of states are left where American citizens sadly have to battle for the right to have legal access to cannabis. Cannabis is medicine. Cannabis does have accepted medical uses. Cannabis is not the demonized drug the federal government has made it out to be, and it’s time they acknowledge they were wrong. Contact your local lawmakers and let them know if they don’t support cannabis legalization, you don’t support them.
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