Cultivated for at least 5,000 years and serving as one of the oldest crops not grown for food, the marijuana plant began its life in China where the tissues of the hemp stalk were used to weave clothing, rope, and paper; seeds were pressed to make oil for paints and varnish; and dried seeds were used as food for canaries and other songbirds. Cultivation of the crop began thousands of years ago in China where the people had little regard for the psycho-active side effects of the plant (Richardson 41). During the seventeenth century, the English navy had a huge demand for hemp rope, since it was stronger than the rope of other materials, and ordered the colonists of Virginia and Maryland to grow it in order to fulfill this demand. Pilgrims used the plant's fibers to mak

Because marijuana is still illegal in most states, desperate measures have been taken in order to attain the substance. In San Francisco's Castro district, the Cannabis Buyers' Club allows people to buy marijuana and smoke it there only if they can prove a medical need; only then will they be admitted into the club (Donnelly H). Another group lead by Valerie Corral, who was arrested twice for growing marijuana to help control her epilepsy, deliver free marijuana to about 30 seriously ill people in the Santa Cruz area. They are very selective, and before giving the drug to their patients, they meet with each patient, talk to their

Major drug companies have little interest in the research of it as Grinspoon explains, "You can not patent the plant," (Schlosser 47). Nature can't be patented, which means that everyone could manufacture and sell it if it was legal, and there would be no big profits for large companies. In fact, large synthetic drug companies would most likely lose a lot of money if the drug were to become legal because instead of buying their medicine, they could just smoke their own supply and relieve their pain, and who's going to do the clinical testing on the drug? "Randomized clinical trials cost money," said Dr. Kleiman, drug policy specialist at Harvard University. "Who's going to put it up?" (Kolata 12). Dr. David Smith, founder and medical director of the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic, says it should be made available on a medical basis. "We don't deny morphine to cancer patients simply because an element of society is shooting heroin on the streets. I've had a number of HIV patients who smoke marijuana for medical reasons, and they describe it as very beneficial for wasting syndrome and loss of appetite." Still, many people say that marijuana will only take a significant toll on the country's rising and ever-popular drug problem, but cocaine and morphine are currently being used as medicines (Zeese 21). They're not causing any drastic change in the country's drug problem, and neither will MARIJUANA. In fact, the percentage of users could decrease, as in Amsterdam where marijuana is not legal but allowed to be used.

e clothing and rope as well, and the cultivation of the crop helped to boost the local shipbuilding industry. During the American Revolution when imports were no longer given to the colonies, the hemp fiber became an essential material in their production of clothing (Richardson 41). Even George Washington grew it on his plantation as he has mentioned in his diary. There is no evidence of the people of the colonies eating or smoking the plant due to the fact that those cool climates lessened the psycho-active material (Stwertka 16). Thomas Jefferson also grew the crop, and the Declaration of Independence was even written on hemp paper. This plant was also widely used to make sails and rigging for ships. However, during the 1930’s, the plant's favor began to fall as petrochemical plants lobbied for the plant to become illegal in order to reduce competition (Conrow 8), and despite objections from the American Medical Association and the pharmaceutical industry, the cultivation and consumption of the plant was finally banned in 1937 by the Marijuana Tax Act. However, this is not the only reason marijuana was banned. What few people fail to realize is that this and other drugs were banned by the fault of racial intolerance. Opium laws, for instance, were only passed in the 1870's to harass Chinese immigrants who came to the United States for hopes of a better life and to work for low wages. Rumors were often spread that these immigrants would lure white women into their opium dens. Cocaine was also insignificant until Hamilton Wright brought about charges that it was "the direct incentive to the crime of rape by Negroes." Long before marijuana was even known to most of the American Society, hostility towards it became evident within the next two decades because of reports that offensive minorit

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