Remember, marijuana and hemp both come from the same plant known as Cannibis, and they are terms used to describe different parts of the plant, although many people use the terms interchangeably. Hemp cannot be produced without producing marijuana.
Cannabis is still today an important agricultural product and during WWII, the US government actually FORCED farmers to grow it. The various forms of Cannibis and Cannibis products have so many names and forms in so many different parts of the world that many people don't even recognize it to be the same plant.
The plant is more versatile than the soybean, the cotton plant, and the Douglas fir tree put together, whose products are interchangeable with those from timber or petroleum, and which grows like Jack's beanstalk with minimal care.
In the DR, like elsewhere, attitudes are formed by hearsay, the media, government reports and policies, parents, schools, and churches. Most of the people with the hardest attitudes against the plant know very little about it.
Tony: Can you name me where marijuana smoking is socialy acceptable among the majority in a country of western society?
Jim: Can you name me one society where it is socially acceptable to break the law? That said, attitudes amongst the general public are pretty ho-hum in Jamaica, Holland, and a large percentage of citizens of western nations have tried marijuana, despite knowing that it was illegal.
Social acceptance is often depending on how and where something is done. Is oral and anal sex socially acceptable? Is masterbation socially acceptable? Is speeding, cheating a little on your taxes, lying on your resume, watching hard-core pornography and surfing the web for sex sites, cheating on one's partner, ehancing athletic performance through drugs, not declaring that extra bottle of rum at customs, or getting a "free" copy of Microsoft Office and a CD with a bunch of good songs from your friend socially acceptable?
Does social acceptance validate or invalidate anything? There are some pretty horrible things that are socially acceptable in this world and quite a few things that aren't but without valid reason. And there are enough things that many or most of us do but would not admit to if asked in a public venue.
How is it that the big drug dealers that everybody knows is the main man drug dealer never get arrested but the foreigner smoking a joint that was delivered by the local street tout gets a US$10,000 fine, 6-months in hell, and then deported? Sometimes the penalty causes more harm to individuals and their families than the potential harm that the law was purportedly designed to prevent. Hence, the big facade.
That's the story. Best to swim with the current unless you think you are a very big fish. An extra Presidente or two and you'll forget all about that long lost marijuana cigarette.
Frankly, the laws against drugs (and guns and [name your favorite contaversial law]) are good for the sheep that populate this world and those that long to walk apart from the flock, will do so. Remember prohibition. Did you know that most of those that supported prohibition in the USA were not against drinking alcohol and frequently drank alcohol themselves?
