Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
History Of Medical Marijuana Essay
Harmful effects of marijuana essay
Review of related literature medical marijuana
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: History Of Medical Marijuana Essay
Introduction
“Marijuana has moved out of the back alleys, and into the open” (Weed - CNN Special Dr Sanjay Gupta).
Marijuana should be legalized in Canada because of its many benefits. It could benefit the government by bringing in revenue from tax dollars, it has many medical benefits to treat many ailments.
History
“Marijuana, weed, flower, bud; call it what you will, but humans have been using cannabis for a millennium” (The Future of Weed: HIGH COUNTRY). In 2737 B.C., the Chinese used cannabis medicinally. It was seen as medication for rheumatism, gout, malaria, and absent-mindedness. It spread from China to India, Africa, and Europe by A.D. 500. This shows we have been consuming marijuana for a very long time. Indians and Muslims both used cannabis recreationally. It was actually the Muslims who introduced hashish to the world (History of Marijuana). Hashish is a potent form of marijuana where they take the resin from the flowers of the plant (Hashish). The trend spread to Persia (Iran), and then to North Africa (History of Marijuana).
It was the Spanish who brought marijuana to America in 1545. Soon enough, it became a major commercial crop like tobacco in 1611. By 1890, marijuana was used in some medicines, and it began to catch on in the 1920’s, the same era of prohibition of alcohol. Hemp began to be one of the largest agricultural crops in the word. This was due to its incredibly robust and durable qualities. It was used for fabric, lighting oil, paper, fiber, dynamite, cellophane, and many more. Most textiles were actually made out of hemp at this time (The Union: The Business Behind Getting High).
Many people in the show business used marijuana recreationally. This is when “Reefer songs” became the rage of the jazz ...
... middle of paper ...
....
Before we legalize marijuana we need to answer some crucial questions such as, how will we regulate amounts, what is the age restrictions, and how should it be taxed?
Wine Model
“Anyone can brew a limited amount of wine in their own home, tax-free, for their own use or to share with friends. Anyone can open a winery too, but there is regulation for safety and quality control. The province regulates wine sales, and is the primary buyer and seller of wine through liquor stores.” (Larson). This is the “wine model” that would be how we should regulate marijuana. This way, people can grow their own marijuana although consumers can also purchase their marijuana at a dispensary for quick, easy, and safe access! When purchased at a store, there should be taxes on the product therefore the government can make revenue and put it back into the medical system.
Conclusion
Growing your own plants should become a privilege, granted only to patients who are deemed to have the greatest need for marijuana. To prevent abuse, distributions of the drug could be rationed in a way similar to modern prescription drugs. A predetermined amount would be given to each patient in a timely basis. Once established, the State governments could then vote on their own laws to fine tune the existing medical marijuana policy much in the way alcohol is regulated differently by each state. By implementing these new measures, many of the fears associated with medical marijuana would be eliminated and perhaps more people would realize marijuana has considerable potential worth exploring.
In conclusion, marijuana should be legalised for medicinal purposes to benefit all sick and unhealthy Australians. Australians with sicknesses can benefit by using marijuana which eventually could cure their sicknesses, the government and all tax payers can also benefit by saving money in many different departments. If marijuana were to be introduced as a medicinal benefit then many sick Australians would have an opportunity to cure their illnesses which could result in Australia being a lot as a healthier country.
Marijuana has long been the subject of many heated debates and political platforms. With lack of un-biased materials on marijuana, it quickly became victim to publications and political propaganda in the early 1900s. Richard Isralowits writes, “Publications from the period had such titles as Marijuana-Sex Crazy Drug Menace, Marijuana-The Weed of Madness, and Marijuana: Assassin of Youth”(Use of Marijuana,105). Surely in this modern age and heightened public awareness our marijuana laws, drafted in a time of extreme bias, have got to be obsolete. Although many people still have strong opinions against the legalisation of marijuana, after review of current un-biased studies and reports they will find that this is not the case. Marijuana should be legalised in Canada because of the cost, the justice system, and the health concerns.
According to Grinspoon (2005) marijuana, may have been a crop farmed as many as 10,000 years ago. The first evidence discovered that attests to the use of medicinal cannabis dates back to the Chinese Emperor, Chen Nung, who lived five-thousand years ago when this plant was recommended for malaria, constipation, and rheumatic pains, as well as, the inability to concentrate and pains in relation to the female body (Grinspoon, 2005; Guterman 2000). Even Queen Victoria had a physician recommend that she use marijuana as medicine for ailments such as “insomnia, migraines, menstrual cramps, and muscle spasms” (Guterman, 2000, p. A21). Evidence of the power of marijuana as a medicine can be found in almost any culture on Earth. For example, some tribes in Africa use marijuana to treat snake bites and to reduced the intense pain of child-birth and in India, cannabis is used to “quicken the mind, lower fevers, induce sleep, cure dysentery, stimulate appetite, improve digestion, relieve headaches, and cure venereal disease” (Grinspoon, 2005, p. 1). Marijuana has been proven as a powerful medicine by people of many ethnic backgrounds and countries over the entire world, time and time again.
Marijuana in America became a popular ingredient in many medicinal products and was openly sold in pharmacies in the late nineteenth century (“Busted-America’s War on Marijuana Timeline”). The National Institute of Drug Abuse defines marijuana as, “The dried leaves, flowers, stems, and seeds from the hemp plant Cannabis sativa, which contains the psychoactive (mind-altering) chemical delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), as well as other related compounds” (“DrugFacts: Marijuana”). It was not until the Food and Drug act of 19...
The term "marijuana" is a word with indistinct origins. Some believe it is derived from the Mexican words for "Mary Jane"; others hold that the name comes from the Portuguese word marigu-ano, which means "intoxicant". The use of marijuana in the 1960's might lead one to surmise that marihuana use spread explosively. The chronicle of its 3,000 year history, however, shows that this "explosion" has been characteristic only of the contemporary scene. The plant has been grown for fiber and as a source of medicine for several thousand years, but until 500~ AD its use as a mind-altering drug was almost solely confined in India. The drug and its uses reached the Middle and Near East during the next several centuries, and then moved across North Africa, appeared in Latin America and the Caribbean, and finally entered the United States in the early decades of this century. Marijuana can even be used as "Biomass" fuel, where the pulp (hurd) of the hemp plant can be burned as is or processed into charcoal, methanol, methane, or gasoline. This process is call...
In conclusion, Canada should not be legalized for marijuana because it causes a lot of negative effects to everyone. Nowadays, everyone knows how bad marijuana is, how can it affect on people’s lives, and how terrible to human. Therefore, people should not use marijuana in their lives for maintaining their health, having a better relationship with their partners and families, and improving the public safety. Also, there are several ways for people or education institutions to avoid using marijuana, schools should teach the right information about marijuana to the next generation, and parents should be good models for their children.
Jazz musicians, labor workers, and river boatmen were quickly taking to its euphoric effects (Gettman, 1995). Smoking marijuana also became more popular during Prohibition when more people began cultivation of the plant and importing it into the U.S. to replace alcohol (Doweiko, 2002). In 1942, marijuana was removed from the United States Pharacopoeia and the Federal Government began to criminalize non-medicinal marijuana possession and use (Carter et al., 2003). Marijuana became extremely popular in the 1960's and, today, is considered the most widely used illicit drug in the world, Canada, and the United States (Gettman, 1995). Pharmacology and Chemistry of Marijuana Cannabis is known to contain over 400 chemicals in which about 70 are classified as plant cannabinoids.
Before Americans can make accusations that marijuana can only be used for the sole purpose of euphoric pleasure, they should first become knowledgeable of cannabis’s original and highly valuable uses that gave the plant its primary popularity. The herbal plant was actually a food source around 6000 BC, and it was used as a fiber two thousand years later. Another couple thousand years later was when cannabis obtained its first medical record in China and soon traveled to India and North Africa where cannabis began its use as a “recreational hallucinogen.” When Europe greeted marijuana at about 500 BC, users began classifying in what methods the plant can treat various medical conditions. The Americas were first introduced t...
Marijuana has been widely mis-viewed as a bad thing; society classifies marijuana as a drug, parents warn their children to stay away from marijuana because it is bad; but those are all misconceptions. But in reality, it is actually a very beneficial drug to many degrees. Marijuana actually has numerous favorable effects, such as helping people escape the cruel reality for a moment, helping patients who are almost at the end of their lives feel better, and helping the economy recover. In addition, marijuana’s side effects are all due to human abusing it, like the old saying goes, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. Although marijuana users have a history of not doing so well in life, marijuana should still be made available to anyone above the legal drinking age and be regulated like tobacco and alcohol; due to its assuaging effects to the economy and human’s mental health.
Marijuana is the cause of much commotion and debating, as the question of legalization becomes more of an issue. Drugs are a major influential force in countries all over the world today. Legalization is an option that has not had a chance, but really should be given one. Although many people feel that legalizing marijuana would increase the amount of drug use, legalization would benefit for the following reasons: 1)reduction of money spent on law enforcement 2)increase in the countries revenue 3)lessen crime 4)useful in treating certain medical conditions.
Marijuana has been illegal for less than 1% of the time that it’s been in use (Guither, 2014). Going back to 1619, the Virginia Assembly passed legislation requiring every farmer to grow hemp. Hemp was allowed to be exchanged as legal tender in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland (Block, 2014). It was actually a crime in some states to refuse to grow hemp in the 1700's. In the late 19th century, marijuana was a popular ingredient in many medicinal products and was sold openly in public pharmacies (PBS, 2014). However, in the early 1900’s things changed, a prejudice and fear began to develop around marijuana because it was being used and associated with Mexican immigrants. In the 1930’s, the massive unemployment rates increased public resentment and disgust of Mexican immigrants, which escalated public and governmental concern (PBS, 2014). In 1930 a new federal law enforcement agency, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) was created. Harry J. Anslinger was appointed the first commissioner of the FBN in 1930 (...
Let’s begin with US revenue gain that would occur from legalizing marijuana. Marijuana Offers Extreme US revenue boost in several different ways. Shouldn’t we want to collect revenue due to taxation other then criminalization? Marijuana is too expensive for our justice system and should inst...
The first law that regarded marijuana in America required farmers to grow hemp in the year 1619 for clothing, rope, and other materials, but “as early as 1840, doctors recognized the medical applications of marijuana, and the drug was freely sold in pharmacies for over a century.” (Rich and Stingl). In 1937, the use and possession of marijuana was made illegal, but “before 1937 marijuana was freely bought, sold, grown, and used. ”(Rich and Stingl). In 1970 the Congress decided to classify marijuana as a schedule one drug, which has made the legalization more difficult.
There is no doubt, that marijuana should be legalized in Canada and sold just like alcohol. There is one thing in this world that is ultimately the driving force for decision made every single day around the globe. That is money. If the Canadian government legalizes marijuana, the potential to make astronomical amounts of money is truly a reality. Canada is going to generate 124 billion dollars in revenue each year off of the sale of marijuana, the government is expects to save an estimated 1.5 billion dollars by releasing incarcerated prisoners each year, the government is going to save 6 billion in wood pulp production and an increase of tourism is expects to generate an excess of 30 billion dollars for the Canadian government (Beckl). In