Facts About Marijuana Essay, Research Paper

Marijuana originated in the middle east (Taiwan, Korea). China

plays an important part in Marijuana’s history. Hoatho, the first

chinese physician to use Cannabis for medical purposes as a painkiller

and anesthetic for surgery. In the Ninth Century B.C., it was used as

an incense by the Assyrians Herbal, a Chinese book of medicine from

the second Century B.C., was first to describe it in print. It was

used as an anesthetic 5,000 years ago in ancient china. Many (*)

ancient cultures such as the persians, Greeks, East Indians, Romans,

and the Assyrians for many things. These were what they used it for:

the control of muscle spasms, reduction of pain, and for indegestion.

Imagine that if they still practiced this, instead of taking an Alka

Seltzer after you had mom’s Chili or Tacos, you might be sitting in

the living room on the LAY-Z Boy, smoking a joint or however they

would take it. The folk medicine of Africa and Asia have used it as an

herbal preparation. A “mythical” and “legendary” pharmacist and

emperor Shen Nung thought using it as a seditive was all right. In

2,700 B.C. that same “mythical” emperor said it helped female

weakness, gout, rheumatism, malaria, beri-beri (?), contipation, and

absentmindedness.

In 1979 (A.D.) Carlton E. Turner visited China and found

marijuana was not in use in formal medical places. J. D. P. Graham

of the Welsh National School of Medicine wrote, “One not need take to

seriously the anecdotal use of it’s use for many purposes in China or

by the Hindus in the pre-Christian Millennia …and by the Arabs!” In

1890 in England’s “Lancet” said cannabis extract was good for

neuralgia, fits, migraine and psychosomatic disorders but not for

rheumatic conditions. It is not easy to tell the dosage because of the

variations in potency and the irregularity in absorbtion. The time

delay before the onset of the possible effects of marijuana lowered

it’s popularity as a medicine as did the introduction of a variety of

new and better medicines like aspirin, morpheine (habit forming),

chloral, barbituates tranquilizers, and when it got on the list of

drugs thought by the world community to require legal restrictions.

Our first President, George Washington, grew cannabis on his

plantation. The cannabis he grew was more fibrous and is better known

as hemp. Hemp was used to make rope, twine, paper and canvas (the word

“canvas” comes from Cannabis) and was an important crop in the

american colonies. In Jamestown, Virginia it was grown for it’s fiber

qualities in 1611. (Snyder, 1985) The U.S. Pharmacopeia had it listed

as a useful medicine from the year 1870 to 1941. A Pharmacopeia is “a

book of directions and requirements for the preparations of medicines,

generally published by an authority; a collection or stock of drugs.”

This tells us the U.S. Pharmacopeia was an authority on the

use of drugs for medical purposes, and said that the use of marijuana

for said purposes was helpful. The U.S. Pharmacopeia last listed

cannabis (”the dried flower tops of the pistillate plants of cannabis

sativa”) in 1936.(Lovinge,1985,p434) That years epitome of the

pharmacopeia and the national formula described the drug for

physicians thus:”a narcotic poison, producing a mild delirium. Used in

sedative mixtures but of doubtful value. Also employed to color corn

remedies.” The next pharmacopeia released in 1942 (I gather they were

relaesed every six years) did not have cannabis sativa in it. “The

1937 U.S. dispensatory said:”Cannabis is used in medicine to relieve

pain, encourage sleep, and to soothe restlessness. We have very little

definite knowledge of the effects of therapeutic quantities, but in

some persons it appears to produce a euphoria and will often relieve

migrainic headaches. One of the great hindrances to the wider use of

this drug is the great variability and the potency of different

samples of Cannabis which renders it impossible to approximate the

proper dose of any individual smaple except by clinical trial. Because

of occasional unpleasant symptoms from unusually potent preparations,

physicians have generally been overcaustious in the quantities

administered. The only way of determining the dose of an individual

preparation is to give it in ascending quantities until some effect is

produced. (The Book suggested using a fluid extract – powdered

cannabis in solution, 4/5 alcohol – three times a day, starting with

two or three minims.)”(Lovinge,1985,p434)

Extracts, tinctures, and herbal packages of cannabis

manufactured by many drug companies, was available in any pharmacy

until 1941 when “The two main professional directories of drugs in the

United States” dropped it.(Snnyder 1985,p38) It is still used as a

medicine in the Middle East and Asia, and is completely legal in

Amsterdam. Since the 19th Century, it has been recognized as as

intoxicant in Europe, and an intoxicant for many centuries in Central

and South America, and in Asia. “An 1870 Book called “The Hasheesh

Eater” by Fitz Hugh Hudlow, discussed the intoxicating properties of

marijuana.”(Snyder,1985,p39) Mexican farm workers emigrating to the

United States smoked marijuana regularly, and the surrounding

population…” quickly followed.

California and Utah were the first to call it a narcotic and

outlawed it completely except for mecial purposes. “From 1914 to 1931,

29 States, 17 of them West of the Mississippi made it a criminal

offense to possess or use it.”(Snyder,1985,p40) An army report from

1925 concerning the Panama Canal Zone said it wasnt habit forming and

no steps should be taken to keep it from being sold or used. The

Uniform States Narcotic Act said all states should control drug

distribution. “By 1937 marijuana use was restricted by law”

(Snyder,1985,p42) and the Marijuana Tax Act was signed by President

Roosevelt. This act was made to collect more taxes and locate people

selling marijuana. You had to pay $1 for medical use and $100 for

recreational use as tax. This was a large factor why doctors quit

using it as a medicine. “The Narcotics Drug Control Act of 1965

increased the existing penalties for selling and distribution of

marijuana and heroin…” (Snyder,1985,p46) The National Organization

for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) was founded in 1970. Just the

facts Ma’am: It is illegal to own or sell marijuana. It is a

misdemeanor not a felony. Penalties vary widely in each state, for

growing and selling it is almost always a felony. It can cause cancer

in the lungs and the throat IF smoked. “Among the reasons to suspect

potentially injurious effect of cannabis use on the lungs, pointed out

it “the almost ubiquitous occurrennce of throat discomfort and

irritation associated with marihuana smoking” (Lovinge,1985,p15)but

the same carinogens are present in tobacco smoke. Marijuana takes away

the discomfort and nausea associated with chemotherapy taken to stop

the growth of cancer. It also helps people with glaucoma and it keeps

them from going blind. It doesn’t lessen feelings and pain, it

heightens them. Users say they hear things better, and they see

details they have never seen before. If made legal, it could be

regulated by the U.S. government (Food and Drug Administration?) as to

how potent it would be. Or there could be a “government monopoly on it

controlling the cultivation, importation, manufacture, wholesale

distribution, and retail sales. Controls could also be placed on the

quantity, potency,, amount, price, time and place of sale, and age of

buyers. This would do away with black market activity, cost of law

enforcement and tax revenue.”(Snyder,1985,p89) It would also keep alot

of people out of jail/prison and save the government money.