Hello Jeff:
Jason Huff wrote in a message to Alex Vasauskas:
AV> If you must, deal with the irresponsible adults as being child abusers.
AV> Provide the death penalty for anyone who provides marijuana to
AV> a child.  Don't criminalize and lock up responsible adults for
AV> using marijuana as a medicinal, religious, or recreational herb.
 JH> I don't understand why people are locked up so long for possession
 JH> of a  controlled substance.  Just for using drugs (and getting
 JH> caught) you can get  more time than murder, rape and an assortment
 JH> of real crimes 
Any answer that would fit here would probably oversimplify the
issues involved.  But, the forces underlying the current
prohibition hysteria come in large part from greed and lust
for power.
In the context of medicine and alternative medicine, the established,
mainstream medical and drug manufacturing interests would rather
have medicinal herbs and alternative treatments be discounted if not
restricted or prohibited because these substances and treatments cut
into profits and respect for established medical authority, whether
or not they are deserving of that respect.
Prohibition has helped government grow, become more powerful,
and has been very lucrative for it.  Consequently, there is a
substantial interest in demonizing marijuana and other substances
to justify more prisons, more military, more police -- more
government and more government control.
Also, the United States has Puritanical and christian roots (making
this what is called by some sociologists a "Apollonian" culture),
and consequently pleasure-seeking and intoxication are not generally
considered to be respectable or desireable activities.  Of course,
there are "Dionysian" cultures in which consuming intoxicating
substances "medicinally" or "spiritually" to occasionally get out of
one's head for emotionally cathartic, stress-relieving, or religious
purposes is acceptable and expected.  But, our fundamentally
Apollonian culture opposes this kind of behavior, and this results
in many people being afraid and suspicious of such Dionysian behavior,
in others, and doing what they can to restrict, prohibit, and penalize it.
Politicians and religious leaders have also found that they can
make political hay with prohibition, demonizing those who use
intoxicating substances, and leading a righteous "war" to crush these
enemies.  These politicians and religious leaders have learned the
lessons of "practical politics", as described by H.L. Mencken, and put
them to use for their own profit and power:
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep
the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be
led to safety) by menacing it with an endless
series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
     
H.L. Mencken
So, at its simplest the answer to your question is not
completely, but very much:  money and power.
Oh yes... there are some people with apparently altruistic motives
who feel that they know better than others how those others
should live their lives.  These altruists believe that it is
better for those others to be put in prison for their own good
rather than to be permitted to reap the consequences or benefits
of the decisions the others might choose to make with their own
lives.  It's wonderful having such neighbors looking out for your
best interests, isn't it?
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