Medical Marijuana Background

It has been used for medicinal purposes and used for pleasure purposes. During the 1930s, Harry Anslinger became commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. (CNN History of Marijuana in America) He fought for the prohibition of marijuana. (CNN History of Marijuana in America) The movie “Reefer Madness” was made as a scare tactic for the youth in the 1930s. Back then marijuana was made to look like cigarettes. In 1937, Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act, which immediately criminalized the drug and lead to decline in marijuana prescriptions. (Mark Eddy) "Marijuana was removed from the US Pharmacopeia in 1942, thus losing its remaining mantle of therapeutic legitimacy. (American Medical Association)" In 1951, the Boggs Act was passed, which stated that two-to-five years was the minimum sentence for any first offense drug crimes. (Families Against Mandatory Minimums) U.S. Customs were trying to keep foreign marijuana distributors from getting marijuana into the U.S. Marijuana was used by many people by the 1960s. The DEA came around in 1973. In 1996, California was the first to legalize medicinal marijuana and in 1998, Alaska, Oregon, Washington followed. Then other states began to legalize to medical marijuana as the years passed. On April 14, 2014 Maryland was the 21st state to legalize medical marijuana. Over the years there have been many disputes between the people and the government on marijuana

During the 1920's many mexican immigrants fled to the United States for work. With them, many of them brought marijuana. The act of smoking marijuana was picked up on by many black and white jazz musicians during the 1920's and 1930's, but was not used widespread until the 1960's. During the 1930's, Louis Artmstrong was arrested in California and given a sentence of six months for possession of Marijuana [3]. In 1937, the Treasury Department established a marijuana transfer tax known as the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, after testifying before Congress. After 1937 up until the passing of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Act of 1970, which include the Controlled Substance Act of 1970, marijuana was legally controlled through a transfer tax. [2]

On October 1, 1937, the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was enacted and it prohibited all forms of cannabis sativa. Although the bill was targeted towards the banning of marijuana and both forms of cannabis on separate ends of the sativa spectrum, there was no specification on which form was directed for the ban. Thus both were prohibited from being grown in the United States of America. In November of 2016, marijuana officially became legal to grow in all fifty states, yet industrial hemp is still currently legal to be grown in 13 states within the USA.  Hemp is largely exported to the US from other countries. It is imperative that hemp becomes legal to be grown around the entire country, for hemp will help retain the USA’s revenue by using hemp grown in America, has can be used for many different purposes such as clothing or food for example, has the potential to reduce American citizen’s carbon footprint as a substitute for paper and gasoline, and has no major threat to the industrialization of hemp in factories.

The use of medical marijuana (slang: Acapulco gold, ace, bhang, cannabis, hash, dope, ganja, grass, weed, hashish oil, hemp, home-grown, honey oil, indica, Jamaican roach, sativa, sinse, sinsemilla, tea, weed oil) has a been a major topic of debate for countless years. People all around the United States have seen propaganda of some sort regarding the legalization of marijuana. For example, with the ongoing discussion of legalization throughout the states, it’s abruptly mentioned in the news, everyday conversations, school topics for debate, and within stories of social media. In the article, “Is marijuana prohibition coming to an end”, Michelle Johnson a North Carolina journalist, states “Legalizing marijuana for a medical or recreational

The question of legalizing marijuana has been an issue for many years. In the Unites States from the 1600s to late 1800s hemp was harvested on U.S. soil to create materials such as rope, paper and clothing. It was during the 1800s that cannabis products became popular for medical use and was sold in many pharmacies across the nation. It became a requirement to label these over-the-counter medicines containing cannabis but it was still legal. Around the early 1900s the many Mexicans immigrated to U.S. to escape the Mexican Revolution conflict. These immigrants smoked marijuana recreationally and brought this concept with them. El Paso, Texas became the first U.S. city to ban marijuana in 1915 (Benson, 2015) By 1937, 46 of the 48 states has passed laws banning marijuana use and the Marijuana Tax Act was passed making it illegal to have marijuana unless it was for medical reasons. In 1952 the Narcotics Control Act of 1956 was imposed and the federal government started requiring minimum prison sentences for possessing marijuana. Marijuana was made a schedule I drug meaning it had no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse in the Controlled Substance Act of 1970.

Before 1937, marijuana was freely bought, sold, grown, and smoked in the United States. Since that time, all of these activities have been illegal, but many groups and individuals have fought to decriminalize marijuana. The congressional decision to classify marijuana as a Schedule I drug in 1970 has made the legalization campaign more difficult, since it officially established marijuana as a dangerous, addictive drug with no medicinal benefits.

Marijuana was first outlawed in the United States in the 1930s by the Marijuana Tax act of 1934. At the time smoking was done primarily by black men and those in urban or poor communities as well as jazz Musicians. The expansion of users started in the 1960’s with the age of the baby boomers and the vietnam war along

Federal government has the power to control all the state local activities including the purely local that can have substantial effect on the interstate commerce. In the case of growing marijuana plant at home for personal consumption being for medical use, the federal government banning that marijuana sounds not right at first glance. The marijuana plants are grown within a state and the grower cultivates the plant for personal use and the situation sounds like no interstate commercial activities are involved or affected.

It wasn't until the mid-nineteenth century that western doctors began prescribing it to their patients, and soon it could even be bought in drug stores. It was commonly used in the U.S. to treat asthma, epilepsy, dysmemarrhea, gonorrhea, and migraines, being compared to opium in strength but much kinder on the body. The use of marijuana declined with the development of aspirin and barbiturates, which were much more dependable. The belief that Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. This new law to discourage recreational smoking required anyone purchasing the drug for certain medical purposes to pay a tax of one dollar per ounce, while those inclined to use it for other purposes paid one hundred dollars per ounce. In 1970 Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act, assigning psychoactive drugs to five schedules. Cannabis came under schedule 1, the most restrictive. Drugs outlined under schedule 1 were said to have no medical use, a high potential for abuse and no safe uses. In 1978 New Mexico enacted the first law to make it legal for medical use, and by 1994, 36 other states followed. Cannabis was not recognized as a medicine by the federal government , and in order to dispense it, states had to conduct special research and receive FDA approval. Because this was so hard to do, only 10 states actually established programs in which cannabis was used as a medicine. Patients had to complete extensive paperwork in order to get

When cannabis was first introduced its primary use was not for smoking or even medical it was for creating other things like clay pots and a fiber for making rope. Its first human consumption recorded back in 2737 B.C. by the Chinese emperor as a treatment for gout, malaria, beriberi, rheumatism, and poor memory. This drug didn’t enter the United States until the mid-1800s but by that time it was used as an intoxicant and a medicine. Marijuana entered the states by Mexican immigrants in the 19th and 20th century but was not popular. Marijuana was limited to the lower society pretty much minority smoked the drug. After its extended period of continuous use the government began to crack down and created different acts and legislation in 1937 such as the Marihuana act which puts a

The topic of legalizing marijuana has been on the fore front of controversial issues ever since marijuana, cannabis, was brought into the United States from Mexico in the early 1920s. Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana use in the past two decades, however, only four of those states, Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington, have passed the law legalizing recreational marijuana use. Some states have already enacted laws that allowed for the possession of marijuana to such individuals that received a written prescription from their doctors. Federal law, however, has continued to prohibit doctors from writing patients a marijuana prescription, meaning

Between 1978 and 1996, 34 states passed laws recognizing marijuana's therapeutic value. Most recently, voters in two states -- Arizona and California -- passed laws allowing for the medical use of marijuana under a physician's supervision. Yet, states are severely limited in their ability to implement their medical use laws because of the federal prohibition of marijuana. America tried alcohol prohibition between 1919 and 1931, but discovered that the crime and violence associated with prohibition was more damaging

In 1996 the first law for legalizing weed was in effect. Proposition 215 also known as the California Compassionate Use Act. This proposition allows patients to posses and cultivate marijuana. for their medical reasons. They were allowed to do so after being recommended and approved by a California licensed

The United States made the use of marijuana illegal in 1937 (Marijuana Tax Act, 2015). In 2009, New Mexico was the first state that allowed marijuana as a treatment for patients with

Since the passage of the CSA, many campaigns to have marijuana rescheduled under a less restrictive category have failed. However, popular opinion began to sway in the 1990’s and California became the first state to legalize the use of medical marijuana in 1996 with the passage of the Compassionate Use Act (Reinarman et al., 2011). Unfortunately, the federal response was swift and threatened to be severe. General Barry McCaffrey, the drug czar under the Clinton Administration, advised the federal government would “vigorously prosecute persons who supplied medical marijuana, revoke the prescription writing authority of physicians who recommended marijuana to patients, and deny various federal benefits (including licenses) to anyone who used marijuana pursuant to California law” (Mikos, 2011, p. 637-638). The Bush Administration picked up the torch and continued the war on medical marijuana by carrying out almost 200 raids by the DEA on dispensaries in California as well as prosecuting those people associated with medical marijuana. However, advocates of medical marijuana remained vigilant and kept spreading their message and gaining support. To date as listed on ProCon.org (2013) 18 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws legalizing the use of medical marijuana.