...to Comp. 11 November 2013 Legalizing Marijuana Marijuana was not known to be illegal at a point in time; back in 7,000 B.C it was legal. Marijuana also known as the hemp plant had a number of uses such as; woven fabric from hemp, food, cloth, rope, and much more. A man by the name Harry J. Anslinger came along, who seeked career opportunity with the Bureau of Narcotics. He didn’t feel as if cocaine would be enough to get his company up and starting as fast as he wanted, so he took on marijuana and started working on making it illegal at the federal level. Anslinger stated “There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others.” Anslinger soon became the first drug czar a person who deals with direct drug-control propaganda in the United States. Anslinger began making up these stories about how marijuana was the cause of gang of boys raping two teenagers girls and how a sixteen-year-old killing his whole family. By 1937 the Bureau set two important steps, first a plan to get from Congress to pass a new law that it would be under federal control on marijuana and its distributions. Second, any forms of media would mention the cleaning up hundreds of acres of marijuana. As years passed the use of marijuana was not just known to be “evil weed”, but it...
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...The Use of Marijuana in Terminally Ill Patients In recent years, the medical field has witnessed major changes in methods of treatment with the most common being complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). CAM refers to treatment methods that do not use conventional medicine. With time, the medical field is increasing research to establish the safety and efficiency of alternative medicine even though knowledge of CAM is still limited. Nonetheless, there is a difference between complementary medicine and alternative medicine. While complementary medicine refers to the conventional use of curative practices and products together with traditional medicine for instance a cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy using marijuana to alleviate the effects of chemotherapy. On the other hand alternative medicine acts as a substitute of conventional therapy for example a cancer patient foregoing therapy and opts for dietary changes. CAM is on the verge of increase with the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) reporting that up to 40% of adults 12% uses some form of CAM (Barnes, Bloom, Nahin, (US) & others, 2008). As opposed to traditional medical treatments that are comprehensively tested and vigilantly regulated professional bodies such as Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the majority CAM therapies have undergone exceptionally modest scientific study if any to assess their safety and effectiveness. One of the most common forms of CAM being used today is...
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...Introduction Marijuana is a psychoactive drug made from the dried leaves and flowering parts of the hem plant (Dudley, 1999). Marijuana contains an active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol, known as THC. It is one of the most strictly classified illegal drugs in the United States. Marijuana is a schedule I substance. Schedule I means that marijuana has a high potential for abuse. It is illegal to buy, sell, grow, or possess marijuana in the United States. Marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug in the United States. Marijuana is derived from the plant Cannabis. War on Drugs Marijuana prohibition comprises a large part of the federal government’s War on Drug’s. Law enforcement officials made 600,000 marijuana-related arrests in 1995 (Gerdes, 2002). The criminal prohibition of marijuana, this represents an extraordinary degree of government intrusion into the private, personal lives of those adults who choose to use it. People convicted of marijuana offenses face penalties ranging from probation to life imprisonment, plus fines and forfeiture of property. The government spends millions of dollars annually on preventative programs such as Dare Abuse Resistance Education (DARE), in which local police officers visit schools to teach young people to refrain from trying marijuana and other drugs. Marijuana Medical Uses Despite federal laws prohibiting marijuana in 1996, California and Arizona passed state initiatives legalizing marijuana for medical use by patients...
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...LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA FOR MEDICAL USES The legalization of marijuana for medical purposes has been questionable for many years, and it has been an active debate in the United States even up to now, with many different issues on which people have many different opinions. There is opposition to the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes because it has the potential to be used incorrectly, however it is also considered that there is the potential for marijuana to be used in relieving the suffering of many seriously ill patients. Marijuana has been used by people for thousands of years to provide relief from many different serious medical problems. For thousands of years marijuana was not only legal, it was a common crop. It is only in the past ninety years or so that marijuana has been found to be not only unusable, but also harmful and extremely illegal in some States in America (Blaszczak, 2014) .Up to now 23 states in America have legalized marijuana for medical uses, each state has its own regulations to control details such as allowable quantities and registration requirements (State by state marijuana law, 2015). However, the debate on the legalization of its medical uses is still going on in the rest of the states in America. Marijuana is defined as a shredded, green-brown mix of dried flowers, stems, and leaves from the plant named Cannabis sativa. Marijuana has been used as an agent for achieving a feeling of intense excitement and happiness since ancient...
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...Health Marijuana Legalization 11-2-15 People say that marijuana is a helpful medical drug, similar in significance to chemotherapy. It helps people calm down and sleep better, in some cases. It has been helpful in suppressing nausea in chemo patients, and even helps with seizures. There may be a place for marijuana use in medicine, although that use is different than recreational marijuana use. Some say that recreational use it isn’t as harmful or bad for you as alcohol and other hard drugs. Maybe legalizing it will even help the economy. Those are some reasons why many might want to legalize recreational marijuana use. I disagree, recreational marijuana should stay illegal in the United States because if it is legalized it will cause negative effects on physical and mental health. Marijuana is a gateway drug....
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...Kevin Belanger English Comp 2 Analysis Response Marijuana, Medically Benign: A Look Into its Effects Phillip Boffey, formerly the president of the National Association of Science writers and currently the director of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing, is an editorial writer for the New York Times. He recently published an article about the health effects of marijuana titled “What Science Says About Marijuana.” The article is delivered in an informative and scientific tone by using research and proven facts to an audience most likely advocating the use of marijuana. It’s clear that anyone who picks up this article is most likely a user of the drug interested in its effects, or someone advocating for the legalization, or medical regulation of marijuana on a national scale. Boffey argues in his thesis that “It needs to be kept out of the hands of minors. But, on balance, its downsides are not reasons to impose criminal penalties on its possession, particularly not in a society that permits nicotine use and celebrates drinking.”(2) Boffey aims to educate his readers about how marijuana is far less harmful to the human body than some other completely legal substances like alcohol, tobacco, and prescription medications. While marijuana’s health effects may be minimal, these effects largely depend on the frequency of use, the age of the user, and if the user has any previous existing medical conditions. Phillip Boffey launches his debate on the subject with...
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...Mouna Mawloud Professor Orticelli AC 101 B February 28th, 2012 Legalizing Marijuana Since marijuana's first recorded use dating back five thousand years ago, it has never gained much popularity until the last century with prohibition and antiwar movements. Now, more than ever, propositions to legalize the plant have risen and been subject to controversy and heated debate. Marijuana is the most widely used drug in the United States and considered to be the most harmful by the government with its anti-marijuana stance and laws aimed at curtailing its use. With marijuana use rapidly growing, the United States national debt has never been so high, and the search for seemingly 'incurable’ diseases raging on, marijuana has the potential to solve many problems if it were to be legalized. Marijuana has been part of American culture ever since Thomas Jefferson smuggled hemp seeds out of France because he considered hemp vital to America. According to a national household survey an estimated sixty million Americans use marijuana occasionally or regularly. More than 800,000 marijuana users are arrested each year. The main reason marijuana is currently outlawed is money. The government earns revenue from prosecuting users, jobs will be lost in law-enforcement-judiciary-penal systems and scientists will lose millions of dollars in grants aimed at searching for the negative effects of marijuana. "Recently, many of these same researchers have changed their opinions as they see development...
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...dangerous if taken incorrectly. What’s worse, people simply do not have enough information about the benefits and risks of herbal supplements. A great example of the lack of regulation is overuse of Ephedra. A while back, people started taking mass amounts of Ephedra in order to lose weight. It ended in a great amount of deaths, causing the FDA to take measures against makers of medicines containing Ephedra. Because it was considered an herbal supplement, it did not have the same scrutiny as synthetic drugs. Herbal supplements can be just as powerful as synthetic drugs, so the same vigilance in regulation should apply. Also, harmful ingredients sometimes end up in herbal supplements, which present an entirely new risk. If herbal supplements were more closely monitored, there would be a better chance of preventing this from happening. Because of the lack of regulation, consumers do not have any assurance that what they are buying is safe. Consumers need that assurance, especially when it comes to health products. There also is not very much awareness about herbal supplements. People do not realize how powerful some herbal supplements are. Many people hold the mistaken belief that herbal supplements are safe because they are ‘natural.’ That simply is not true. Arsenic is a natural substance, and nobody would consider that safe, showing that simply being natural does not guarantee any measure of safety. If there was more awareness of the effects, it would lessen misuse. Regulating...
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...Cannabis/Marijuana for Our Environment, Health and Ecology A Research Paper in English Submitted to: Mrs. Ma. Leonor M. Vertucio Submitted by: Mayuga, John Angel Ocino, Angel Joseph I. Introduction Our topic is about Cannabis, also known as marijuana (sometimes spelled "marihuana") among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. According to the United Nations, cannabis "is the most widely used illicit substance in the world.“ The typical herbal form of cannabis consists of the flowers and subtending leaves and stalks of mature pistil late female plants. The resinous form of the drug is known as hashish (or merely as 'hash') The major psychoactive chemical compound in cannabis is Δ9- tetrahydrocannabinol (commonly abbreviated as THC). Cannabis contains more than 400 different chemical compounds, including at least 66 other cannabinoids (cannabidiol (CBD), cannabinol (CBN) and tetrahydro cannabis varin (THCV), etc. which can result in different effects from those of THC alone. In modern times, the drug has been used for recreational, religious or spiritual, and medicinal purposes. We choose this topic to know and to inform our listeners that marijuana is a harmful plant...
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...be the legalization of marijuana. Before you have a heart attack I should explain that I am not drug user. I have never tried marijuana…..had a drop of alcohol….or even smoked a cigarette. This is undoubtedly a bold topic for a seventeen year old to tackle. However, this is an issue that has been debated for many decades now, and with some states now legalizing marijuana I feel that this is something that directly affects the immediate future of my generation. But why? Why would anyone ever want to legalize a drug? Aren’t drugs bad? How would this benefit our society? And how is marijuana different from other drugs? Perhaps it would be useful to define marijuana. According to drugfreeworld.org, marijuana is the dried flowers, seeds, and leaves of the Indian hemp plant. It is normally smoked in rolled paper like a cigarette or in a pipe. In recent years people have found additional ways to consume the plant such as baking it into foods like cookies and brownies. The documentation of its use dates as far back as 2737 BC when Chinese Emperor Sheng Nung wrote about the use of marijuana as medication for rheumatism, gout, and malaria. And herein lies the root of the argument. On one side many people regard marijuana as a natural plant based drug with medicinal properties, while the other side considers it to be a dangerous illegal drug often viewed as a gateway drug that leads young people into experimenting with other more dangerous illegal drugs. For purposes of this...
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...Salem Goodrum English 1002 Bovey 19 March 2015 The subject of legalizing marijuana has been a very popular and debatable topic recently. It has been such a popular topic because, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, “Marijuana is the most common illicit drug used in the United States” (par. 2). You often hear or see people talking about the pros of legalizing marijuana, and not so many cons. I have done extensive research and came up with some powerful cons as to why we should not legalize this drug. The negative issues associated with legalizing marijuana are the physical and mental effects to the body, it typically leads to the further use of drugs that are more harmful, and it has multiple implications on society. This drug is a plant known as a herb. According to Dictionary.com a herb is such a plant when valued for its medicinal properties, flavor, scent, or the like. Marijuana has a never-ending list of names such as “weed”,” pot”,” Mary Jane”, “cannabis”, and many more labels people come up with. “The main hallucinatory chemical in marijuana is THC, which stands for tetrahydrocannabinol; this chemical is responsible for majority of the intoxicating effects. The plant contains more than 500 other chemicals, including over 100 compounds that are chemically related to THC.” (NIDA. Par. 2). Marijuana can be smoked in almost any way involving a lighter. The topic of legalizing cannabis has been a controversy that just will not go away. I am not...
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...Institution Course Date Legalization of marijuana Introduction In most regions, the use and possession of marijuana are considered illegal. Marijuana is also known as cannabis. For many years, cannabis has been termed as an illegal drug. Today some countries in the world have legalized marijuana. To be specific, a small amount of cannabis has been legalized in regions such as Europe, South America and North America. In USA, some states such as Washington and Colorado have also legalized the possession and the usage of marijuana for medical reasons. Most countries in the world have great penalties for the usage and possession of cannabis. It should be observed that these penalties range from very simple to severe punishments. The punishment for the small amount of marijuana is not the same as the punishment for the possession of a large amount (Earleywine, 2005). The paper does explain as to why cannabis should be legalized. Lack of evidence The main reason as to why the legalization of marijuana should be lawful is that there is lack of evidence for its legalization. From a philosophical point of view, people have the right to make choices and decision for themselves. Of course, it is the function of the government to limit those choices and decisions if the action that is taken by a person does not affect with the rights of other persons. Persons who choose and decide to use cannabis do so because of their free will. Marijuana should be legalized because for its medicinal...
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...Legalization of Marijuana Marijuana is a very prominent and controversial issue in our society today. Although many slanderous claims have been made about cannabis over the last seventy years, the truth about it is slowly starting to resurface. Unfortunately, all these years of propaganda has led to a stereotypical view of the typical “pot smoker.” This skewed perception of a lazy and unmotivated American is the result of over seventy years of propaganda and misinformation spread by private interests who needed cannabis illegal for their own personal gains. Most of the accepted reasons that marijuana should be illegal are complete fallacies. I strongly believe that marijuana should be legalized for all uses. The reason marijuana is illegal today has a very clear, well-documented past with the United States government. Hemp (the plant that is grown to make marijuana) is a very powerful biomass source. It can be used as fuel. It could end our dependence on fossil fuels forever. In fact, Dr. Rudolph Diesel created an engine that ran on peanut oil, which is another type of biomass fuel that is made in the same way as hemp fuel. Biodiesel made from hemp can run in any diesel engine, without having to modify the engine in any way. Obviously, this poses a big threat to oil companies. They fought from the very beginning to criminalize marijuana because of this reason. Instead of importing massive amount of crude oil from foreign nations, we could grow hemp locally and cut down...
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...Why Marijuana Should Remain Illegal Published: February 26, 1994 * Sign In to E-Mail * Print To the Editor: I read with concern "Legalizing Marijuana Would Allow Regulation of Its Potency" (letter, Feb. 13). According to the writer, marijuana with high levels of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC (the chemical that causes the psychoactive effects on the abuser), is not a new phenomenon, and this high potency should not be used as a reason to keep marijuana illegal. Marijuana is not the same drug it was 20 years ago. Special fertilizers, plant hormones and steroids, carbon dioxide and advanced indoor horticulture techniques are used by the informed grower to "push" the plant to produce the highest grade, most potent variety of marijuana, sinsemilla. Because of its potency, domestic marijuana is the most highly prized cannabis product in the world. In 1970, the average THC content of a marijuana plant was 1.5 percent. The THC content of today's sinsemilla variety ranges from 8 percent to 20 percent. Today's marijuana is a drug that is significantly more potent than it was during the Woodstock era. The writer then states that "if the Government really believes that stronger varieties of marijuana are less desirable, then it has one more reason to support legalization. If cultivation of marijuana were legal, growers would not be pressed to produce the strongest possible product, and health authorities would be able to regulate its production and strength." This logic doesn't...
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...Drug use and abuse is as old as mankind itself. Human beings have always had a desire to eat or drink substances that make them feel relaxed, stimulated, or euphoric. Humans have used drugs of one sort or another for thousands of years. Wine was used at least from the time of the early Egyptians; narcotics from 4000 B.C.; and medicinal use of marijuana has been dated to 2737 BC in China. As time went by, "home remedies" were discovered and used to alleviate aches, pains and other ailments. Most of these preparations were herbs, roots, mushrooms or fungi. They had to be eaten, drunk, rubbed on the skin, or inhaled to achieve the desired effect. One of the oldest records of such medicinal recommendations is found in the writings of the Chinese scholar-emperor Shen Nung, who lived in 2735 BC He compiled a book about herbs, a forerunner of the medieval pharmacopoeias that listed all the then-known medications. He was able to judge the value of some Chinese herbs. For example, he found that Ch'ang Shan was helpful in treating fevers. Such fevers were, and still are, caused by malaria parasites. South and Central American Indians made many prehistoric discoveries of drug-bearing plants. Mexican Aztecs even recorded their properties in hieroglyphics on rocks, but our knowledge of their studies comes mainly from manuscripts of Spanish monks and medical men attached to the forces of the conquistador Hernan Cortes (1485-1547). Pre-Columbian Mexicans used many substances...
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