... had unprecedented potential for profitability. The commodification of drugs, both illicit and licit, follows the principles of capitalism and supply-and-demand. David Courtwright has summarized drug use throughout world history in his book, Forces of Habit. Courtwright described the "big three" and the "little three" drugs of all time. The "big three" drugs: alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine as well as ... and health promises. In the United States, around the 1880's, cocaine was being used for medical anesthesia resulting in a large demand. Peru had shipped mass amounts of coca leaves to A...

• Word Count: 1853
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... the fabric looks, and feels. Today, anyone can legally make, sell, and buy hemp products in the U.S., but no one can legally grow it here. American manufacturers are forced to import hemp from other countries, an unnecessary outflow of U.S. dollars. "In the past few years, the industry has been exploding faster than ... plants to legalizing a drug? It makes no sense to be afraid of a plant that has been grown for thousands of years around the globe. B. History 1. The main difference between hemp and marijuana is that hemp is useful to us; some people realize that and others have not. Th...

• Word Count: 1449
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... and grains being contaminated with fermented ergot, the substance that produces the hallucinogenic effects in LSD. Religions of all cultures have incorporated mind-altering substances into their practices. The Native American Shamans were religious figures and healers of tribes that performed ceremonies using drugs and herbs as methods of treating the sick, also, peyote, a strong hallucinogenic, was taken to induce spiritual ... a record 105 lynchings of black men were a result of the unfounded hysteria about these superhuman addicts. Prohibition of alcohol in the 20's is perhaps the mo...

• Word Count: 3129
• Approx Pages: 13
• Grade Level: High School

... utilized in many different ways. It has been grown to provide food for villages and towns, and used for clothes, rope, and sails on early ships. The Bible was written on hemp paper, as well as the first draft of the US Constitution. (House of Lords Select Committee ... decline in United States hemp cultivation. The decline in commercial production did not, however, mean that marijuana became scarce. As late as 1937, the American commercial crop was still estimated at 10,000 acres, much of it in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Kentucky. Four million pounds of marijuana seed a ... Marijuana). Med...

• Word Count: 3100
• Approx Pages: 12
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... known to them. Mark Souder, a Republican member of Congress representing Indiana, made known that the legalization of marijuana is not supported by the American people. "Proponents of marijuana legalization are attempting to con voters with deceptive referenda on medical marijuana. But marijuana should not be smoked as medicine ... toward drugs. The battlegrounds of this war include newspapers, television, magazines, and radio. While the war on drugs was mainly forged in the early eighties, it's roots go back to the sixties. The public began to become concerned with the rise in popularity...

• Word Count: 5937
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... "dope". Marijuana has been around for a long time. Greek, Egyptian and Persian history document marijuana use as far back at 1090 A.D. (Anslinger). Even before that, there is evidence of marijuana for medical use. As early as 2700 B.C. Chinese Emperor Shen-Nung used marijuana for medical purposes ("Medical Marijuana ... Tobacco") and alcohol causes 100,000 deaths per year ("ARDI"). Some advocates argue that the use of marijuana is their right as an American citizen in pursuit of their happiness, even if it is illegal. Others point out that marijuana has use as a raw material. Hemp ... How...

• Word Count: 1944
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... the underground economy. It produces an estimated 4 billion to 25 billion dollars a year. Marijuana however, has not always been an illegal drug. At various times in history, marijuana usage and growth was not such a bad thing as it is viewed today. Marijuana was first used to make oil, rope, paper, boat sails, ... as an intoxicant at the recreational level in the 1920's. It was then that marijuana became a social problem, "marijuana is depicted as an alien intrusion into American life, capable of transforming healthy teenagers into sex- crazed maniacs." (RM 19) marijuana being bad laste...

• Word Count: 2124
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... Smoked in cigarettes or pipes, mixed with food and beverages is marijuana, a Schedule one drug. Ever since the early 1900's, the possession or intoxication of marijuana is prohibited in the United States. The popularity of marijuana began in the ... States. People in the states who use medical marijuana legally, are still illegal drug offenders in the U.S. Even though illegal, one out of three American adults admits to smoking marijuana (Hightimes 73). Made from dried leaves and flowering hemp plant tops, marijuana's usage is widespread in the U.S. Grass, ... of tobacco (Cowan 5). Hemp...

• Word Count: 3056
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... Smoked in cigarettes or pipes, mixed with food and beverages is marijuana, a Schedule one drug. Ever since the early 1900's, the possession or intoxication of marijuana is prohibited in the United States. The popularity of marijuana began in the ... States. People in the states who use medical marijuana legally, are still illegal drug offenders in the U.S. Even though illegal, one out of three American adults admits to smoking marijuana (Hightimes 73). Made from dried leaves and flowering hemp plant tops, marijuana's usage is widespread in the U.S. Grass, ... of tobacco (Cowan 5). Hemp...

• Word Count: 3390
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... are myths and have never been scientifically proven. In many scientific studies and surveys most of these have been proven to be wrong. American drug laws are not currently working marijuana is still a widely used drug. According to Ira Glasser, millions of employees in both the public ... school seniors say it is "very easy" or "fairly easy" to obtain marijuana. That statistic has been unchanged since the early seventies (Glasser 138). According to the American Civil Liberties Union. (ACLU) in the past thirty years ten million people have been arrested for marijuana offensives in the Un...

• Word Count: 1609
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... groups, including professional athletes. It is certainly quite common to hear about or read about athletes and drug use. Although drugs have a lengthy history of use by athletes, they have varied effects on the body and different preventions. Much of the world's supply of cocaine is produced in ... each year. Eighty thousand tons of coca leaf will eventually produce about 200 tons of cocaine("Coca"). Marijuana was first smoked as a medicine as early as 2737 B.C.E. in China. Marijuana is a mixture of leaves, stems, and flowering tops of the hemp plant. The hemp plant has the ... 's. In ...

• Word Count: 3784
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... groups, including professional athletes. It is certainly quite common to hear about or read about athletes and drug use. Although drugs have a lengthy history of use by athletes, they have varied effects on the body and different preventions. Much of the world's supply of cocaine is produced in ... each year. Eighty thousand tons of coca leaf will eventually produce about 200 tons of cocaine("Coca"). Marijuana was first smoked as a medicine as early as 2737 B.C.E. in China. Marijuana is a mixture of leaves, stems, and flowering tops of the hemp plant. The hemp plant has the ... 's. In ...

• Word Count: 3784
• Approx Pages: 15
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... groups, including professional athletes. It is certainly quite common to hear about or read about athletes and drug use. Although drugs have a lengthy history of use by athletes, they have varied effects on the body and different preventions. Much of the world's supply of cocaine is produced in ... each year. Eighty thousand tons of coca leaf will eventually produce about 200 tons of cocaine("Coca"). Marijuana was first smoked as a medicine as early as 2737 B.C.E. in China. Marijuana is a mixture of leaves, stems, and flowering tops of the hemp plant. The hemp plant has the ... 's. In ...

• Word Count: 3787
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... I who suffers, not the state." Many would be shocked that this quote came from the very man who wrote some of the most brilliant American literature in history, Mark Twain. This was his view of marijuana; many Americans have the same view on marijuana. The legalization of marijuana would lead to many ... have been drastically misinterpreted and misunderstood. Marijuana has been used as a source of euphoria, relief, and income since ancient times; arriving in Europe as early as 500 A.D. Marijuana is a mixture of shredded green and gray flowers and leaves from the hemp plant Cannabis sati...

• Word Count: 1091
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

The history of U.S. policy toward mind-altering substances has followed cycles of tolerance and intolerance ever since the mid-19th century. Walking into a ... certainly seems safer than may other drugs, even aspirin that causes gastrointestinal bleeding, killing hundreds of people every year (Grinspoon/Bakalar 4).3 There are lots of drugs American society does not let people use except under doctor's care, for instance, cocaine, Demerol, est. No one thinks we have legalized cocaine because we let ... the U.S. Drugs Enforcement Administration insist there are few, if any therapeutic uses of m...

• Word Count: 2295
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• Grade Level: High School

... 's major psychoactive chemical, delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (or THC), is also almost literally impossible to achieve a fatal dose of and has yet to be witnessed or accounted over the almost millenium-long history of the drug, though modifications can render marijuana potentially deadly, such as being laced with crack cocaine, PCP, and even so far as soaking cigarettes in embalming fluid (Popular Science ... deaths from it and nearly free of detrimental effects, it is surprising marijuana is dealth with as hard and with such serious consequences and penalties. Since marijuana's spread in...

• Word Count: 811
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... kills about 2,000, these are not that high considering Aspirin by itself kills about 2,000 people per year (Schaffer, 1998). Marijuana, has never in US history had a reported or recorded death at any time. All illegal drugs combined kill about 4,500 people per year, or about 1% of the number killed ... prohibition against drugs. One example of this type of prohibition increasing violence, look at what the alcohol prohibition did to te nation back in the early 1900s. Crime doubled its rates quickly. After the prohibition act was repealed crime dropped 65% (Schaffer, 1998). If crime could...

• Word Count: 1388
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... the world. Many people find pot to be a gateway drug, like a stepping stone toward other harmful drugs. There are many reasons why young kids get into this drug at an early age, one reason I think this is because of the types of music kids listen to. If your children listen to any CD with a parental advisory sticker, most likely that record ... . Marijuana use among the youth declined throughout the 1980's, and began increasing in the 1990's. This increase occurred despite young people's exposure to the most massive anti-marijuana campaign in American history. Marijuana's persistence in ...

• Word Count: 1871
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... government's war on drugs seems to be accomplishing a lot those in Washington say. The drug war has cost our country billions of dollars, imprisoned people with no criminal past or history of violence and has actually made it easier to obtain drugs, albeit the quality of drugs is not necessarily as pure. Different options need to be considered. Legalization is an ... legalized because it will reduce the great amounts of money spent on enforcement and it will increase our country's revenue. This is something that should be left up to the American people. Let us vote on it during the next...

• Word Count: 1149
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... the world. Many people find pot to be a gateway drug, like a stepping stone toward other harmful drugs. There are many reasons why young kids get into this drug at an early age, one reason I think this is because of the types of music kids listen to. If your children listen to any CD with a parental advisory sticker, most likely that record ... . Marijuana use among the youth declined throughout the 1980's, and began increasing in the 1990's. This increase occurred despite young people's exposure to the most massive anti-marijuana campaign in American history. Marijuana's persistence in ...

• Word Count: 1838
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School