... controlled by first taxing them, then using the tax act to prohibit them. Later that year, Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act. Prohibitionists disguised the act as a revenue bill and banned the entire plant species through regulation enforcement. The government then began arresting people for possession of any amount of Marijuana. More recent information says, "In 2000, 46.5 percent of the ... made most soldiers quit the habit. "Only 4.5 percent of the GIs showed up "positive." Here and at home, treatment became widely accepted."(PBS, Frontline, The Drug Wars) By 1972, the drugs wars w...

• Word Count: 1328
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... human rights, costs citizens a substantial amount of money, and has little to no positive influence on public safety or drug use. Many studies have produced evidence that the War on Drugs is a waste. The 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed in 1919, prohibiting the sale and consumption of alcohol. This groundbreaking legislation, although overturned in 1933, is ... credited with beginning the War on Drugs. A plethora of laws followed, including the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which successfully banned the plant until the Act was ruled unconstitutional in 1969. Duri...

• Word Count: 813
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... 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 ... "giving a pill to someone with extreme nausea is like giving a suppository to someone with diarrhea," says Lester Grinspoon, Harvard psychiatrist. Another thing that Grinspoon points out is that these synthetic ...

• Word Count: 3551
• Approx Pages: 14
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... the amounts of money spent on government enforcement of current laws, if taxed, it could increase our country's revenue. The government could then focus on cracking down on the harder drugs like crack and heroine. The government should also legalize marijuana because of its several medicinal and industrial purposes. Legalizing hemp based products could create a whole new industry. Fuels can be ... marijuana can be taken a puff at a time with almost immediate effects is also a big advantage to chronic pain sufferers or people with spastic disorders like multiple sclerosis. While other pr...

• Word Count: 2828
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: High School

... marijuana should occur not only because of its harmless recreational use, but also for its medical purposes, and because of the way it was wrongly banned in United States in 1937. Marijuana is used worldwide by an array of people. It knows no bounds of race, ethnicity, sexuality, or ... religion. Marijuana is the fourth commonly used drug in the united states, surpassed by the legal drugs caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol (Goldberg 245). Compared to caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol, the withdrawal symptoms of marijuana are insignificant. 80% of Americans drink ... the withdrawal symptoms, ...

• Word Count: 3573
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... 's marijuana than hundreds of years ago. This tremendous increase in potency is an unintended consequence of the efforts of law enforcement. Marijuana is very bulky when compared to other drugs, which increases the difficulty and risk of smuggling the product from the field to the users. Thus, producers have developed new, more powerful strains. This has made marijuana ... therefore a politically convenient target for allegations. An individual inclined to escape reality through the medium of substance abuse will gravitate into the response to life whether or not the drugs are legal. Leg...

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... social programs whose funding is being cut. Legalizing marijuana and taxing it could actually financially help the United States. The United State's war on drugs places a great emphasis on arresting people for smoking pot. Since 1990, around 5.9 million Americans have been arrested on marijuana charges. Most of ... memory loss, however only while under the influence. Marijuana does not cause long-term memory loss, and it is not a stepping-stone to harder drugs. It does not cause brain damage, genetic damage, or harm the immune system. Marijuana does not cause violent behavior or kill br...

• Word Count: 2020
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Marijuana Marijuana (pot,) is one of the most widely used recreational drugs. The legalization of marijuana is one of the most controversial debates in today's government. For years the debate to legalize this drug ... medicinal purposes. On the contrary, those who are against the legalization of marijuana argue that marijuana is a doorway drug to harsher more dangerous drugs, pot makes you stupid, and will make drugs readily available to our nation's youth. Until its ban, pot was used for over 50,000 non-drug commercial uses including paper, ... decrease the crime rate if the herb is readily...

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... Therefore, in the 1930's, discussion about marijuana was forbidden in all public schools, and from 1934 to 1956, the Motion Picture Association of America banned all films showing the use of narcotics (www.legalize.com). The strategy did not work as well as hoped, so anti-marijuana groups adopted ... need it, but legalizing marijuana for medical purposes only would allow patients to have another alternative when currently legal drugs are not working. Marijuana is unlike most other illegal drugs as it has the ability to heal. Marijuana cannot cure any diseases, but it can bring relief from...

• Word Count: 1532
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Researched Exploratory Essay Marijuana has been socially referred to as being a "poison in our culture and history."(Knipe.10) So much that it has been banned in America since the 1930's. But today it has become less thought of as an evil product of nature. So much that many states like California, ... or tobacco before making the step up. This didn"t come off as strange to me because it was not that they were moving up in drugs, more like they were moving in the direction of availability. Marijuana was a lot easier to acquire than buying alcohol or cigarettes because of the ... on my so...

• Word Count: 1918
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... completely misunderstood. 260 million people worldwide use it for its potential advantages. Those who don't use it are missing out. In 1973, the drug was banned from use in Britain, much to the dismay of its users. For twenty-seven years, people have fought for the right to use it as a ... a recent survey of the country's young people, it was discovered that around 45% of those interviewed had tried drugs. Probably more disturbingly, 73% of the 1000 sixth formers asked, had been offered drugs. 80% of the people who had taken cannabis did so because of the "buzz" they received. That is ...

• Word Count: 923
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... With the media and pop culture being constantly thrown at us everytime that we turn around it is no wonder that drugs are such a major influence in our country and our life styles today. And because drugs are seen everywhere, People know all about it, or so they think they do. The most popular drug in ... short. And it is still illegal. With an entire section of the Criminal Code of Canada (Controlled Drugs & substance act) set out to keep Canadians from using, growing, selling, and everything else to do with drugs. But to changing times and differences these are always being amended. Th...

• Word Count: 610
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• Grade Level: High School

... the constitution does not state that a federal government to regulate or ban substances that we choose to consume. Most states in the country have banned marijuana usage and possession in their counties but could in the future be legalized just as what happened in the Prohibition Era. Legalizing Marijuana would ... are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people"(Kieffer, Par3). With that being said federal governments cannot regulate laws drugs but only the states legislatives can. Just like in California where citizens exercise the use of legalized marijuana for medical purp...

• Word Count: 1375
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... . A cheap and widespread medicine is available right now in an increasing number of places to combat muscle spasticity, nausea and vomiting, analgesic pain, sleeping difficulty, and depressed appetites. (WorkShop) This banned medicine also has many other valuable resources to offer the country. It can "...provide all the basic necessities of life: food, shelter, clothing and medicine." (HIA). What is this amazing ... by prescription today. Dronabinol, also known as Marinol, has been available since approval in 1985 by prescription nausea reducer for chemo therapy patients and their react...

• Word Count: 1524
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... ago, Rebagliati would have been ostracized regardless of whether cannabis was on the list of his sport's banned substances. II. What's changed today is that our attitudes towards illegal drugs are becoming more sophisticated and discriminating. After thirty years of research into the harmful effects of cannabis, ... contributor to the spread of anti-legalization information is the Drug Enforcement Agency. i. The DEA is clearly opposed to the legalization of illicit drugs. ii. The DEA and other agencies seeking to promote the status quo claim the legalization argument is a cyclical trend t...

• Word Count: 1201
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... effectively treat their illness and relieve their pain. The basis upon which marijuana is prohibited has been proven by the very government which has banned the drug to be false. Since 1914, our nation has outwardly protested against the use of any "drug," contrary to our past ... by the medical community in the treatment of migraine headaches, insomnia and rheumatism and cocaine to treat sinusitis, hay fever, and chronic fatigue. These drugs were not only medicinal, however, and they became popular for recreation, and cocaine, specifically became an ingredient in wines and soft drinks, ...

• Word Count: 1707
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Marijuana is, by definition, a drug. A drug that was first banned in 1913 by the state of California, acting out against the preparation of hemp, has since then gained a higher status in society today with, "[m]ore than 30 percent of the U.S. population liv[ing] under some form of marijuana decriminalization " (Norml par. 5). Marijuana, like other drugs, has been known to impair a person's judgment and ... of marijuana would theoretically generate thousands of legitimate jobs and opportunities for Americans today. We see in sociology that class determines the access people have to resources a...

• Word Count: 1300
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... the state passes the law more people ask for marijuana and the doctor prescribes Marinol first. This standard doctor's practice is to issue all conventional medications before resorting to experimental drugs (i.e. marijuana). ". . .[O]nly about one in ten patients prefers Marinol to smoking pot"(44). This shows that synthetic THC is not as effective as natural THC. Also note that the Institute ... of Medicine said "Marijuana has been proven to be less toxic and less expensive than conventional medication and in many cases more effective than commercially available drugs." (Russell 32) B...

• Word Count: 1571
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... think that it is the gateway drug. People smoke pot, and then they want to try all other drugs. If marijuana was banned and made illegal than it must be bad and we don't want it near our kids and in our society. Our Society makes marijuana look and seem worse than it ... ). They are also working on a vaporizer or aerosol can. Marijuana has been considered the gateway drug, but that is only true for a few. Some people want to try other, different drugs after they've smoked pot, but this can't be said to always be true. Just the same, people try other things when they are drunk as well, b...

• Word Count: 959
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... in large amounts in marijuana. Researchers believe that THC is the cannabinoid that is responsible for the psychoactive effects of marijuana. Marijuana is one of the most strictly classified illegal drugs in the United States. Under the 1970 Controlled Substances Act, marijuana is listed as a Schedule I substance, which defines it as having a high potential for abuse and no currently accepted medical ... use. Marijuana is therefore classified more severely than cocaine and morphine, which as Schedule II drugs are also banned for general use, but can be prescribed by doctors. It is illeg...

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... being used today as an alternative to painful medical treatments such as chemotherapy, for terminal illness patients who seek quality of life over painful days and nights. Marijuana was officially banned by the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, due to outrageous lies created by the media. Marijuana should be re-legalized for the purposes of medical, industrial, and restricted recreational use ... . When marijuana was banned in 1937, one of the main arguing points for its illegality was "Marijuana is the most violence causing drug in the history of mankind. Most marijuana smokers are Negroes, Hi...

• Word Count: 1594
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... four times as much pulp for paper as trees. Fabrics made from hemp insulate better, are more absorbent, and more durable than cotton. At one time in history alcohol was banned from Canada and The United States and bootleggers would smuggle alcohol across the border from Canada to America. Does this sound familiar? People are smuggling marijuana into the states just ... like they did when the government banned alcohol. Let's just say for a minute that marijuana is legal. What bad would come from its legalization? Would underage kids be able to buy marijuana more easily? The youth of ... ...

• Word Count: 662
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• Grade Level: High School

... . Marijuana may present similar risks, but at present there are no reliable data on its importance in accidents. By lifting the ban on marijuana use and treating it like other drugs such as tobacco and alcohol, the nation would gain immediate and long-term benefits. This change in the law would greatly improve the quality of life for many people. Victims ... , and a secret part of the economy would come into the open. It is difficult to say whether this change would reduce crime because criminals would probably continue to sell other drugs. But it would have an impact on the amount of mon...

• Word Count: 485
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

The legalization of marijuana has been an issue of controversy since the passing of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which banned marijuana use in the United States. The law was passed in an attempt to curb recreational use of the drug, and it made cannabis so difficult to get, the drug ... and hashish were dangerous. By 1890, the widespread prescribing this drug as a remedy began to decline. This was due in part to the invention of the hypodermic needle, which enabled drugs that could be dissolved, such as morphine, to be injected into the body. This, in turn, provided quicker, more reliable...

• Word Count: 1037
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School