Profiles in Marijuana Reform: Jim Hightower

Comments (11)
July 11, 2008

We sat down with author and national radio commentator, Jim Hightower, to discuss some of his thoughts on marijuana.  Check it out and look for more Profiles in Marijuana Reform coming soon!

The opinions expressed below by our viewers and posters do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Marijuana Policy Project. These views are those of the individual authors alone. MPP does not condone or support the illegal use of marijuana. We do encourage open and frank discussion, but if a comment has been posted that is in some way significantly inappropriate, please e-mail us at socialnetwork@mpp.org to report it. Thank you, and we're looking forward to what you think!

11 Comments, Comment or Ping

  1. Ellen Komp

    This is terrific plain speaking from one of our most cogent commentators. I love the classy way he mentions his personal experience, too. Kudos to MPP and I hope to see more of the same.

    Jul 11th, 2008

  2. Rich

    This guy is so honest— I think he should be the next president. I’d vote for him!

    Jul 15th, 2008

  3. Domingo A Torres

    Jim Hightower is a very articulate speaker on the issue of Marijuana and I totally agree with him. I just wish that I had the speaking power that he has, because I find it very difficult to speak to people about the subject, especially those who will have nothing to do with any intoxicating substance. What I have found out is that these people that are hard to talk to have been brainwashed by the false propaganda commercials about Marijuana. What they see and think in their minds is the stereo type drug abuser image, which has been portrayed in movies and anti-drugs commercials. The fact is that movies that portray this behavior make for good storytelling entertainment, but do not portray the majority of responsible marijuana user or even those that are sick and in need of it.

    Sep 7th, 2008

  4. Cynthia

    Marijuana is not a drug, it is a medicine that makes people think they feel better!
    Legalize weed already, make some money off the millions off of the ‘potheads’!!!!!!!!!!!

    Mar 13th, 2009

  5. Warren Osborn

    Stop trying to alienate us from our alleged right to choose for ourselves. All nazi bastards go to hell. You know who you are.

    Apr 21st, 2009

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    You don`t say so!
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    Sep 16th, 2009

  7. Matt Deleon

    If you can drink alchol and take pills that kill people why cant we smoke pot if we want to because it doesnt kill you the government claims they want better but they gives us the bad and keep us away from the good and another thing how can there be a war on drugs when the other side cant fight back or they go to jail we need a new government that gives us real freedom and real democracy our government is more like the mob that doesnt give a shit about americans and what we want its all about them and money

    Oct 5th, 2009

  8. Matt Deleon

    Since Marijuana cant kill you and has been proving that it cant but everything that is legal can kill you and kills hundreds of thousands of people every year why is marijuana illegal and why are people in jail because of it

    Oct 5th, 2009

  9. Bev Covington

    I am going with my husband to Amsterdam and wish you could all go to at least once to feel what it is like to be legal to order it., My sister and her cop husband are the typical brainwashed Catholics. I know for fact more people in the world have died from religion more than anything else in the World. Think about it…Wars as far back in history as it goes. Churches should be taxed for the amount of mental illness they cause.

    Nov 22nd, 2009

  10. David Anthony Tofflemire

    Under the name cannabis, 19th century medical practitioners sold the drug, (usually as a tincture) popularizing the word amongst English-speakers. It was rumored that Queen Victoria’s weed pains were treated with cannabis; Her personal physician, Sir John Russell Reynolds, wrote an article in the first edition of the medical journal The Lancet about the benefits of cannabis. In 1894, the Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission commissioned by the UK Secretary of State and the government of India, was instrumental in the decision not to criminalize the drug in those countries. From 1906 different states in the United States started to implement regulations for sales of Cannabis indica. In 1925 a change of the International Opium Convention banned exportation of Indian hemp to countries that have prohibited its use. Importing countries were required to issue certificates approving the importation and stating that the shipment was to be used “exclusively for medical or scientific purposes…….”
    In 1937 the F.D. Roosevelt administration crafted the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act, the first US national law making cannabis possession illegal via an unpayable tax on the drug. The name marijuana (Mexican Spanish marihuana, mariguana) is associated almost exclusively with the plant’s psychoactive use. The term is now well known in English largely due to the efforts of American drug prohibitionists during the 1920s and 1930s. The prohibitionists deliberately used a Mexican name for cannabis in order to turn the populace against the idea that it should be legal by playing to negative attitudes towards that nationality. (See 1937 Marihuana Tax Act). Those who demonized the drug by calling it marihuana omitted the fact that the “deadly marihuana” was identical to cannabis indica, which had at the time a reputation for pharmaceutical safety. It should be noted, however, that due to variations in the potency of the preparations, cannabis indica in the 1930s had lost most of its former popularity as a medical drug. Some advocate legalization of cannabis, believing that it will reduce illegal trade & associated crime and yield a valuable tax-source. Cannabis is now available as a palliative agent, in Canada, with a medical prescription. Yet 86% of Canadian cannabis users with HIV/AIDS, eligible for a prescription, continue to obtain cannabis illegally. (AIDS Care. 2007 Apr;19(4):500-6.) In 1969, only 16% percent of voters in the USA supported legalization, according to a poll by Gallup. According to the same source, that number had risen to 36% by 2005. More recent polling indicates that the number has risen even further since the financial crisis of 2007-2009: in 2009, between 46% and 56% of US voters would support legalization.

    Do yourself a favor: Understand the history. MARIJUANA WAS LEGAL FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS ALL OVER THE WORLD, UNTIL THE 20th CENTURY. I have been a supporter for 24 years, and I will support the legalization of marijuana for recreational use until the day I breathe my last.

    Jan 9th, 2010

  1. MPP-TV Profiles in Marijuana Reform with Jim Hightower « BuelahMan’s Redstate Revolt - Jul 17th, 2008

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