Legalizing Marijuana essays

Legalizing Marijuana essays The earliest knowledge we have of marijuana comes from the Chinese around 3750 B.C. (A Brief History of Marijuana Prohibition par 1). A philosopher and farmer by the name of Shen Nung showed the Chinese how to use the oil and seeds for food and how to make rope and clothing from hemp. When Shen Nung became a mighty emperor, he created a book of medical knowledge. For thousands of years later, resinous cannabis extracts were used as real medicines. The idea of prohibiting marijuana is an ancient idea as well. The catholic empire saw the medical treatment as witchcraft and anyone who betrayed the law was put at risk to be burnt at the stake. Since 1937, the entire cannabis hemp plant has been illegal in the United States. In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, medical marijuana was fairly common. It was the second and third most used medicine in America by those just born to those in their old age (A Brief History of Marijuana Prohibition par 5). In 1937, the treasury department sent a draft of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 to congress. All cannabis plant substances were made illegal for social use. Marijuana was still recognized for its medical value; it just requited physicians, dentists, and other doctors to pay one dollar per year to continue prescribing the medicine. The pharmacists who dispensed the drug had to pay fifteen dollars, the growers twenty-five dollars, and the importers fifty dollars per year. Marijuana gained a reputation as an awful intoxicant by the government and was seen as a plant that was smuggled by violent immigrants (Why Legalize? par 3). Commissioner Anslinger said Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death (History of the Non-Medical Use of Drugs in the United States). More laws were passed making the penalty harsher for those with the drug in their possession. Consideration for re-legalizing the drug was denie...