Introduction
The possession and cultivation of marijuana is illegal in many countries. However its decriminalization has become one of the most acute for the last 10 years. Specialists if different areas call to revise old norms and legalize possession and cultivation of marijuana. I examined historical, medical, social and financial aspects of the problem and received evidence that legalization is possible and even necessary in today’s world of free morality. It is obvious that the advantages of legal marijuana overweight its harm.
1. The short story of marijuana prohibition
Since early times people cultivated marijuana, or cannabis, or hemp, and used it for food. The fiber of young plants was the good raw material for clothes and paper. Cannabis also has a long history of medicinal usage, with evidence dating back to 4,000 B.C. In 19th century tincture of cannabis was the popular medicine. After the prohibition of alcohol beverages in 1919 young people in the USA began to smoke marijuana instead of liquor. In 1937 Harry J. Anslinger, the first Commissioner of the Treasury Department's Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN), inspired the “Marihuana Tax Act”. This act made possession or transfer of hemp illegal. At the USA hemp could be used for medical and industrial purposes only. However some critics noticed that Anslinger’s activity was supported by paper and plastic manufacturers who wanted to exclude hemp from the market.
It is interesting, that due to Anslinger’s campaign many people believed that marijuana and hemp are different plants.
“Mr. Dingell: I want to be certain what this is. Is this (Indian hemp) the same weed that grows wild in some of our Western States which is sometimes called the loco weed?
Mr. Anslinger: No, sir, that is another family.” (Anslinger, 1937)
However if we look in the “GRIN Taxonomy for Plants” by the United States