Vitamin 420

I agree with Purpose420, I think this should stay as quiet as possible, until we at least establish a solid foundation. Then people can start trying to interfere -- but we don't want the wrong kind of attention even before we have substantial influence. I think it's highly possible that we can induce a movement; however, we need to identify the proper steps in order to ensure a smooth-as-possible progression.

Also, do you guys want to add each other as friends on the blogs?

TheMeatball

Why do you care if you're #1 on Google? That's a good thing.

It's stupid to try and make this a "secret operation" or whatever. You're striving for raising awareness, right?

frolic

This is a great idea. Let's blog to our hearts content and present the facts.

__________________
"Where the hell is my comb?"
Einstein

Vitamin 420

We're not trying to make this a secret operation, but at the same time, we shouldn't be announcing to the world what we're trying to do - not right away, at least. That'll bring the wrong kind of attention.

Striving to raise awareness of marijuana's beneficiary aspects should be an orchestrated task; think about it dude, if we're announcing to the world that we're going to try to make them believe that marijuana is not nearly as bad as the general public thinks it to be, then we need to come up with something more than blogs and links to webpages. That's just the first step we're going to take to organize our thoughts, it can't be the strongest material we have to present. If we're not ready to convince people (which we are not), then we shouldn't be so open about we're trying to do, because people just won't take it seriously. There's going to be too many loose ends. Unity is necessary; and not a unity of people, a unity of ideas. Some of us are misinformed about marijuana facts as well as the public (although we aren't quite as bad as them ) so imagine if we all did some research and wrote about multiple articles that were tied together to support a thesis. Just think about how easily the progression would flow from paper to paper. With so many links and content available because everyone is researching, the combination of strong evidence and support is endless. Pooled knowledge is the key, and the more time we allow our thoughts to develop, the more we can avoid conflicts. The point, I hope, is not to argue; but to induce change, and we can only do that through sensible presentation.

nornerator

I am very happy that others are interested in this idea.

I would like to make a point

We need to let this evolve in an organic fashion.

What I mean by this is, I intentionally created this thread and this idea in the most non-secret way possible. I posted it on a public forum. I want people to read about this, and I want people to know what I am doing.

My goal is not perfection.

My goal is to get as much pro-marijuana material onto the internet as possible.

We do not need to be secret about this, we simply need to create a collection of blogs, websites, and or pictures about the topic.

Focus on your strengths.

There are 3 main ways to combat the existing ignorance.

The first and easiest is the philosophical argument "Why shouldn't an individual be able to decide for themself what goes into their own body?"

The second (and hardest) is evidence based refutation of the existing ignorance. This is what I am focusing on because I find this personally to be the most convincing. I go out and look through medical databases for studies done on marijuana I read the articles then paraphrase the research.

The third way is to simply point out economic and legal consequences of prohibition. For instance, it costs the US nearly $42 billion a year in lost taxes and legal costs to keep marijuana prohibited, and we arrest almost twice as many people per year for marijuana than for all violent crime combined. Also the drug war is actually unconstitutional as it violates the 10th amendment. When alcohol was banned they needed an amendment. When marijuana was banned congress simply said they had the power to do this because they regulate interstate trade, although if this were true we wouldn't have needed an amendment for alcohol prohibition either.


I have noticed that so far I am the only one to have put up a blog. It would be monumental for others to simply join in, or at the very least use the social web-browsing tools to help promote the pro-marijuana blogs out there.

If you need help getting an idea for a blog post, here is one, go to my blog at Marijuana Is Wholesome: Stop The Lies: Legalize it Already

and go through the article on that web-page.

Now I realize that this article is ridiculously long, and not something a person reading a blog is likely to read. Thats where you come in.

I invite everybody to look through my paper and write a blog post using just one of my sources.

You can either look up the source yourself, or paraphrase what I have written. Create some sort of cool image to go with it and post it up.

The most important thing is that we get people posting pro-marijuana content online. Internet memes spread far faster than any other type of meme we have encountered in human history. Please take advantage of this.

Vitamin 420

Because that is not grounds for legalization. Why shouldn't a man be able to decide if he wants to marry two women (which is illegal), or if he wants to eat a dog (social taboo) in peace? (or pieces)

It would have to be way more narrow in order to relate to a purpose; an inarguable reason as to why marijuana should not be illegal. We could argue that the prohibition was unconstitutional more easily than we can argue any philosophical arguments, because it is just subject to interpretation and debate.

Otherwise, I'm on board. Finals are over on Wednesday so I'll have something more to contribute after then

nornerator

You are absolutely right the philosophical argument is the flimsiest of the reasons marijuana should not be illegal. However it is still a good argument that promotes the pro-marijuana message.

As I said in my post I try to focus on scientific facts because I find these to be the most convincing and are pretty damn near inarguable.

However we must keep in mind that we have an incredibly broad audience of people that we are trying to convince.

Many people will simply dismiss the scientific articles because they are essentially appeals to authority.

For some people they need to have an argument presented to them in a way that they can reason out for themselves without using facts. I am an evidence based person myself and I do not believe statements or arguments unless they are backed by evidence. Like many other people I have come to the conclusion that the majority of western society does not base their beliefs on evidence. Most people base their beliefs on one of two things 1)Emotion 2) Tradition.

This is how marijuana was made illegal in the first place. Propagandists manipulated peoples emotion to make them fear marijuana. They didn't even need any evidence to do this. In current times most people are not "afraid" of marijuana but simply believe it is bad based on tradition.

We must also keep in mind that even though we believe marijuana should be legalized and that there are many good reasons for it, should or should not are subjective statements that come down to individual philosophy on life.

I really just want people to create pro-marijuana content. If we try to set standards too high very few people are going to join in.

I completely agree with you that this should be an organized coordinated effort, however this is somewhat unrealistic.

Purpose420

Read the post again Vic I think I said this "marijuana internet campaign" is what I Googled, no worries though.

Anyway my cables been out all day but while it was out I had a thought, if anyone comes down on us for this all we gotta say is "we were holding Obama to his word" and gathering the facts.


Anyways I'll get on this tmw

Gn

__________________
"If (marijuana) were unknown, and bio-prospectors were suddenly to find it in some remote mountain crevice, its discovery would no doubt be hailed as a medical breakthrough. Scientists would praise its potential for treating everything from pain to cancer, and marvel at its rich pharmacopoeia -- many of whose chemicals mimic vital molecules in the human body." -- The Economist, "Reefer Madness: Marijuana Is Medically Useful Whether Politicians Like It or Not," April 29, 2006

Long live the VaporStore

Vitamin 420

Agreed, the addition of philosophy won't hurt


I was researching some stuff earlier today, and one of the things I was doing was researching the history of why weed is illegal! What a coincidence. Here, I found some interesting stuff, check these out:

http://www.plebesite.com/2007/04/prohibition_37.html <-- I haven't looked this one over thoroughly, but I believe this is the actual hearing documented! Great source for direct quotes if it is.

Why is Marijuana Illegal? <-- this one too, it kind of guides you along as to why marijuana was made illegal.

Also, I did a little reading on William Rudolph Hearst, and the last paragraph of the following link provides a chunk of info that you can branch out quite well from.:

William Randolph Hearst - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Cheers


Of course, any socially established "law" can be classified as the shared subjective opinions of the larger majority. We may not be able to change their (general public) individual philosophies, but we can convince them why they should be concerned with legalization. If they find a benefit in legalizing it, their personal philosophies won't be called into question; as legality and morality seldom go hand in hand. Currently, they do not see the advantages, but with time and more awareness from efforts such as ours, it will eventually click in their heads.


I didn't want to make it seem like I was trying to make this an exclusive club with standards; sorry if it seemed that way. I was meaning to say that people who can write technical papers should coordinate with the people who pull up these great links. It's a team effort, everyone should rightly be involved. But we have to understand who our audience is; the more formal and technical, the better we can do. That, of course, will be a joint effort (pun intended )

Vicki

Ok, I thought you were concerned about your screen name being Googled back to here. I misunderstood, I apologize.

__________________
Be kinder than necessary as everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.
Save the Wand Hash!
Hungry? Non-Cannabis Recipes
Want real free samples?
Those that forget the past are condemned to re-live it.
"If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures
from the shelter of compassion and pity,
you have men who will deal likewise with their fellow man."
~ St. Francis of Assisi ~