From "Marijuana, Assassin of Youth" 1937, written by Harry J. Anslinger, appointed head of the U.S. Narcotics Enforcement Agency. As published in The American magazine 1937 and later condensed for Reader's Digest 1938.
"The sprawled body of a young girl lay crushed on the sidewalk the other day after a plunge from the fifth story of a Chicago apartment house. Everyone called it suicide, but actually it was murder. The killer was a narcotic known to America as marijuana, and to history as hashish. It is a narcotic used in the form of cigarettes, comparatively new to the United States and as dangerous as a coiled rattlesnake." "In Alamosa, Colorado, a degenerate brutally attacked a young girl while under the influence of the drug. In Chicago, two marijuana-smoking boys murdered a policeman." "No one knows, when he places a marijuana cigarette to his lips, whether he will become a joyous reveler in a musical heaven, a mad insensate, a calm philosopher, or a murderer."  It's Time To Wake Up Out There!
There is no way Pot can be as bad as they have described it. There has never been a reported death due to any reason by ingesting pot in any way. We have been told for decades that smoking pot can harm us by making us dangerous offenders just by a few puffs, inspite of the numbers of users who say otherwise. Unfortunately, our governments have been led by men who fear to make a controversial step in changing bad laws. Instead, we vote in those that lack the will to lead and just feel complaicent to follow the status quo. Penalites for simple possession got stiffer and stiffer. A trend was noticed years ago that the stiffer laws did not deter users away from marijuana. All they did was put more and more innocent people in jail for enjoying something much less worrisome than alcohol. The penalties, across the board, were ineffective. More and more people were turning to pot. There are those that will point out the negative aspects of marijuana use saying it causes addiction, it contributes to harder drug use (a gateway drug), and that it might cause lung problems, mental illness, and a range of other maladies. The drug has been wrongly catorgorized from the get-go! The government didn't ask why people wanted it. They ignore claims of medical relief by medicinal use, they don't listen to pleas that it less harmful than alcohol and should a be a good substitute. No one cares if you get drunk and cause problems for your family and society. They do care if you puff a little joint now and again... how many pot addicts have you seen sleeping in the gutter?? 
The intent of this website is to advocate the use of medicinal marijuana as an addition to, or, instead of, some psychiatric meds. I do not advocate that what is good for one is good for another. Far from it. As with "legal" meds there are meds that suit some but not everyone and so we play the dreaded drug shuffle until we find what works for us. Marijuana as an alternate medication source. Why not? It's a novel idea... isn't it? Medicinal Marijuana users insist that by "taking a little" of the 'herb', a couple of times a day, helps them with certain medical ailments as well as allows them to enjoy a few hours of the day. In my personal experience, smoking pot has helped me tremendously. Marijuana when smoked allows me to experience relief immediately from the problems associated with my mental illness. Pills can take up to an hour to start working. Marijuana works for my psychiatric disorders. I have been "labelled" Bipolar, Socialphobic, Borderline Personality Disorder and depressive. None of which say anything in themselves. It's the symptoms of the illness I am trying to relieve. I Suffer from long bouts of depression that lead to suicidal ideations. Pot helps me to alleviate the mood encouraging healthier thoughts. I also suffer from extreme anxiety and socialphobia. I get major relief from stress when I do a couple of bowls. I can slow my thoughts, ease my mood and relax. Long-term use of psych meds themselves carries a host of side effects, which have been poorly evaluated in long-term studies – kidney and liver damage chief among them, along with nausea, weight gain, sexual dysfunction, sleep interference, and hair loss. And they talk about the side effects of marijuana? By comparison, pot's side effects are almost minimal. Really, if you look at it from a medical standpoint, marijuana is the drug to cause the least unwanted side-effects. It is also one of the cheapest. Pot has been called the "Green Prozac." Every drug on the market that has been approved by the FDA has gone through testing. The results of those tests were - not everyone was helped by the new drug. Only a certain percentage were helped. Most psych meds work quite well for an estimated 60 percent to 70 percent of patients. It's the remaining 30 percent to 40 percent who are effected adversely. Anti-depressants, anti-anxiety, anti-psychotics to name a few, have severe side-effects such as weight gain, dry mouth, diarreha, constipation, blurred vision, death by overdose and a whole host of other life threatening side-effects. Not everyone taking the medication will have the same side-effects. Some will experience mild side-effects and others will experience quite aggressive side-effects. Some will require a small dose and others will require a larger dose. No one is the same. If the approved meds don't work at all or barely work most people seek something that will provide relief. While most anti-depressants take several weeks to work at full strength, smoking marijuana is effective in minutes. Also, negative side effects associated with pharmaceutical anti-depressants such as nausea, sleep disruption, and loss of libido are usually non-existant with medical marijuana. Any drug can be said to be bad if the user has adverse reactions to it's effects. People are allergic to penicillin, but it is touted to be the drug of the 20th century. It helped more than it harmed. Science, pure science. If it helps - use it. If the goods far outweigh the bads, use it. Medications do not control mental illness that well in all people, and psychiatric drugs can have unpleasant side-effects. Many hate them, and as soon as they can escape the constant monitoring of a hospital, they would begin self-medicating again. They prefer their own medication, marijuana, which the mental health professionals told them time and again interfered with the effectiveness of the antipsychotic drugs. Psychological therapy using Cannabis is as old as man's association with it. Cannabis is effective in substance withdrawl and various mental perturbations. One way it works is by changing the mood of the user, usually in a positive direction, although it can cause paranoia and agitation in some cases. Cannabis is a stress relieving agent and it lowers blood pressure. Many patients find that marijuana helps them sleep better. In the nineteenth century cannabis was highly recognized as effective hypnotic; Dr J.R. Reynolds strongly recommended it for "senile insomnia". Quite a few healthy people have taken a toke or two every night before bedtime to help them get to sleep. In London, Ontario, Canada Dr. Buck who founded the town's first psychiatric institution used marijuana as a medication back in the 1800's. He had to stop when the plant was villified for political reasons and declared illegal. Some people still, who have been diagnosed with a mental illness take cannabis to help alleviate some of the side effects of their prescribed medications and to aide in some of their symptoms. Such as anxiety disorders, personality disorders, socialphobia, and agoraphobia to name a few.
Taken from Hwy420.ca Some ways cannabis prohibition harms society:
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