Another sign of whats wrong with our society

[tfr270]

Out here in California illegal pot growing goes on by trespassers on private property, private property owners, in "grow houses" in side city limits ( a great source of electrical fire causes) and in warehouses in commercial districts. The trespassers are always Mexicans either working the patch by choice or by force . They pollute the environment, terrace and erode the hillsides and steal water. the local LE goes in and clears them out when they can at very high cost. They run snares and triplines and other booby traps and are armed to the teeth to defend the patch. The grow houses and warehouses are usually done by "medical marijuana" users. It is insanely easy to get a medical marijuana card out here. One card holder can grow up to 99 plants for personal use. You have three card holders in one house and they can each grow 99 plants...I've been to very many fires caused by electrical issues in these houses.
If it is made legal will big brother legislate where and how it is grown? Or will these people continue to produce it as they have been to supply a market?
Is it good to have a drugged, complacent populace? Especially one with no guns? Or should we continue to spend lots of money trying to fight drugs? Hmmm.... 

[fightingquaker13]

FQ will probably have better info on this but I believe that after cultivating grains the next step in civilization was the brewing of beer, even before the invention of the "community". About 6,000 years ago.

I appreciate the vote of confidence Tom but I home brewed exactly three five gallon batches of beer. They were pretty good, but a whole lot of work, and in Austin I could go to two brew pubs and several bars with micros and get better. My understanding is that historically, it was wine first (much like the chimps with their rotting fruit, which bonobos will actually let age) then honey mead, then beer, then distilled spirits. Beyond that, you'll have to find a better informed drunken geek.
FQ13

[fightingquaker13]

Just for the record, I feel bad for M58. He started this thread full of moral outrage, and now we're talking about the history of homemade hootch and making bongs out of apples. Does this make us bad people?
FQ13

[shooter32]

Just for the record, I feel bad for M58. He started this thread full of moral outrage, and now we're talking about the history of homemade hootch and making bongs out of apples. Does this make us bad people?
FQ13

Another sign of whats wrong with our society


 

[Pathfinder]

FQ will probably have better info on this but I believe that after cultivating grains the next step in civilization was the brewing of beer, even before the invention of the "community". About 6,000 years ago.

I can't believe I am going to say this . . . .

It takes a village to make beer.

More precisely, it takes a settled society to grow and harvest enough grains adequately, and make the beer. It is not beer as we would recognize it, strnger and thicker, and it's not mead (which is honey-based) either. The Egyptians used it for food - prevented problems from questionable water and is highly nutritious. I'm not aware of a clear archeological record that "proves" wine preceded beer or vice versa.

[Sponsor]

[tombogan03884]

Out here in California illegal pot growing goes on by trespassers on private property, private property owners, in "grow houses" in side city limits ( a great source of electrical fire causes) and in warehouses in commercial districts. The trespassers are always Mexicans either working the patch by choice or by force . They pollute the environment, terrace and erode the hillsides and steal water. the local LE goes in and clears them out when they can at very high cost. They run snares and triplines and other booby traps and are armed to the teeth to defend the patch. The grow houses and warehouses are usually done by "medical marijuana" users. It is insanely easy to get a medical marijuana card out here. One card holder can grow up to 99 plants for personal use. You have three card holders in one house and they can each grow 99 plants...I've been to very many fires caused by electrical issues in these houses.
If it is made legal will big brother legislate where and how it is grown? Or will these people continue to produce it as they have been to supply a market?
Is it good to have a drugged, complacent populace? Especially one with no guns? Or should we continue to spend lots of money trying to fight drugs? Hmmm.... 

\

Your argument is irrelevant for 2 reasons, first, the thread is more about the Gov trying to scrounge up more money with another tax. Second, with legalization companies like Phillip Morris and RJR Reynolds would cut into Pedro's market, plus he would STILL be a target of the Gov, just like moonshiners.
According to a report I saw on TV in 2000, Pot is the number 1 cash crop in Ca, and 50% of home owners are growing for extra income.

[Timothy]

Beer is as old as civilization itself. It all started some ten thousand years ago in Sumeria, the fertile flood plains between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates in what is now Iraq. It was there that the first humans abandoned their hunting and gathering ways and settled down to plant fields, raise cattle, and do all the things we now associate with society. We also know that much of the grain the Sumerians harvested went into their beverage: beer! Yes, the Sumerians were the world's first brewers.

From this fact, some beer historians have maintained, somewhat glibly, that man settled and started agriculture because he wanted to turn grain into beer. In other words, these authors argue that beer came before bread. That argument, however, makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, because the ancient brews were made from bread! In those distant times, you needed bread before you could make beer.

The very first Sumerian brew was probably made by sheer accident and must have been a rather primitive beverage by today's standards. A forgetful Sumerian baker - probably the lady of the house or her maid - might have left her dough out during one of Sumeria's infrequent rainstorms. When the rays of the returning sun warmed the earthenware mixing bowl, in which the dough was now immersed in water, it became a combination of mash tun and open fermenter (as we would say today). Or, perhaps, a Sumerian family sat down for a bowl of bread dunked in water, perhaps flavored with honey, dates, or date syrup. For some reason, however, the meal was not finished. When the household re-assembled, perhaps a few days later, the bowls of gruel were still on the table.

www.beeradvocate.com

[tfr270]

Not as irrevelant as talking about making beer...

Sure, they could legalize pot and make money off of it. What's to stop that. Is it the right thing to do? Lot of people out here think so. Dr. Dean Edells show today talked about how less people actually used pot since it was legalized over in some country in Europe...sorry, forgot which one. So, would I rather the state and feds spent tons of our money trying to control something they have no way of every controlling? OR would I rather they just legalize it, undercut the growers and dealers, and tax it like cigarettes and alcohol? Can you imagine the money that would bring in? You know that RJR et al will ramp up the advertising machine and hype the shit out of it. Can you imagine a nation full of pot smokers? Even more than we already have? Try and see the big picture here. There is more than just do we legalize pot to make money off of the taxes. 
And how do you get 50% of homeowners out here grow dope? Haven't heard that one.

[Big Frank]

Marijauna is a gateway drug that leads to other, harder drugs. I always thought that was just anti-drug propaganda until I saw it happen in my own family. If marajuana is legalizeed should we also legalize all the other drugs that people use? Should meth, crack, and heroin be available at the drugstore without a prescription? I don't think so. IMO even if it's legal junkies will steal to get drug money, and illegal dealers will commit acts of violence.  

[Hazcat]

I'm one of those that say legalize it and I haven't smoked (pot) in 30 years!

The "war on (some) drugs" is a bigger failure than prohibition!