Cannabis Cannabis is one of the most versatile plants on the Earth and has been used in many different

ways for centuries. The hemp from the cannabis plant is a very durable material and can be used to make fabric, rope, food, paper, and fuel to name a few uses. Along with being extremely versatile, cannabis is one of the most controversial of all substances known to man. Upon hearing the word marijuana most people today think of very negative connotations, such as a stoner living alone in their parents basement. But marijuana, or cannabis, did not always have such negative stereotypes put upon it. In fact cannabis was once a major crop in the United States. The first uses of cannabis have been dated back to 7000 B.C., where cannabis hemp is found to have been used as the material in the first woven fabric. In 2727 B.C. china starts to use cannabis as a main medicine and it is also used as a source of food for many people. In 1000 B.C. cannabis or bhang is introduced to the Hindu culture as a way to boost meditation and achieve transcendental states. The first paper made by the Chinese in 105 A.D. was thought to have been made of cannabis hemp and after this discovery cannabis was used as the main material to make paper for the following 1600 years. In the 1700s Benjamin Franklin used hemp to make paper in some of the first paper mills. Even the Declaration of Independence was written on cannabis paper. By this time the uses of cannabis were well known and it was a major crop in the United States and in the world. In fact, the first cannabis law enacted in the United States actually had to do with the promotion of cannabis growth. In 1619 the Jamestown Colony passed a law requiring farmers to grow cannabis. During this time cannabis was even a valid means of currency. And by the time George Washington had taken office,

the primary crop on Mount Vernon was Cannabis. Up until the 1930s hemp was used to make all ropes and many fabrics. So a main question one might ask is: what happened to cause this very useful and important plant to become illegal? To answer this question we must look at the first negative laws passed against cannabis. During the early 1900s southern states began to resent the massive influx of Mexican immigrants(1). Mexicans were taking jobs by working for lower wages. This became a major problem when the great depression struck and all jobs became scarce. Conflict from the Mexican revolution in 1910 also spilled over the border. This resentment toward the Mexican immigrants led people to see a major difference from the Mexican people and the Americans, they smoked marijuana. In Mexico cannabis was called marijuana. Americans started to use the term marijuana as a type of propaganda. Popularizing this word made the plant sound foreign and made it much easier to criminalize the use of it. In 1913 California passed the first law outlawing marijuana and soon after eight other states followed suit. This is one of the first reasons we can find to answer our question of why is cannabis illegal: because of racism. We can also see other examples of racism pertaining to African Americans. Cannabis played a major role in music at the time, and most jazz players were African America. This is what a 1930 article from the Hearst Newspaper says, Marihuana is responsible for the raping of white women by crazed negroes.(2) The Hearst Newspaper was using racism as propaganda to place fear in Americans towards cannabis, but the Hearst Newspaper had other motives than the resentment of Mexican immigrants crossing the border. William Randolph Hearst, the owner of this newspaper and many others, owned the mills that made paper for his newspapers and

hundreds of acres of forest used to make the paper. Hearst realized the potential of hemp and its use to make paper, which would be much more efficient and inexpensive than using trees. Hearst was threatened by this alternative and knew he would lose money if hemp became widely used for paper. In addition to this Hearst had lost 800,000 acres of forest to Poncho Villa during the Mexican Revolution, so Hearst also had a very good reason to hate Mexicans(3). Hearst joined the campaign against marijuana and intended to take out industrial hemp with it. Industrial hemp is a type of cannabis that has been bred for its seed and fiber content(4). It contains large amounts of CBD and very low amounts of THC. THC, or delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, is the main psychoactive chemical in marijuana. The THC levels in industrial hemp are so low that it cannot be smoked. Industrial hemp and marijuana are virtually two completely different things. Hearst used his newspapers to print stories telling of the horrors of marijuana and started to associate industrial hemp with it. Another man along with William Hearst that saw how much money they would lose due to the benefits of hemp was Lamont DuPont. During the 1930s DuPont Industries was the largest ammunition manufacturer. They were about to make a tremendous breakthrough in the synthetics field. The developments found included methods of making fabric and plastics from coal and oil. The only problem DuPont had, just as Hearst had, was that hemp already had control over the market in plastics and fabric as well as many other fields. So with the help of Hearst newspaper, DuPont set out to pass The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. Andrew Mellon, the United States Treasury Secretary, was a major investor in DuPont Industries. In 1930 Mellon used the power of his position to appoint his nephew, Harry Anslinger, to be the first director of the Federal

narcotics Bureau(5). Anslinger secretly wrote the Marihuana Tax act for two years before bringing to the attention of congress. Anslinger had many examples of news stories from Hearst newspapers showing the horrors of marihuana. Again the word marihuana was used instead of cannabis or hemp to confuse people. Many people did not make the connection between marihuana and cannabis and therefore people who would have tried to fight the tax act did not even know that they had to fight. Anslinger, with help of Hearst newspaper, had fooled most Americans and Congress and in 1937 The Marihuana tax act was passed. After this, cultivation of industrial hemp at all was very risky due to strict fines and heavy taxation, and many farmers had to accept that the country had moved on to synthetic materials. At this same time as fabrics and plastics were changing from organic to synthetic, medicine was making the same transition. Up until the 1930s cannabis had been used as an effective medicine for thousands of years. Most medicine at the time was botanical, but this would soon change. Smith Kline & French, a large pharmaceutical firm, cut their botanical line down from over 15,000 products in the 1920s to only 60 by the end of the 1950s. This is where pharmocracy vs. pharmacology comes into play. The drug cannabis had been used to effectively medicate people for thousands of years and suddenly it became completely useless. Well not entirely useless. THC, the active chemical in cannabis, has been synthetically produced to form a drug called Marinol. This drug is not chemically different from cannabis at all and yet one is said to be safe and the other not. The natural form would be just as effective but if it were used pharmacies would not be making any money or a considerable amount less. The pharmocracy, just as DuPont and Hearst, want cannabis to be illegal for their own profit. This is the second and main

reason cannabis was made illegal: for the capital gain of major companies. If one was to look at the biological effects on the human body instead of cultural attitudes it would be easy to see that cannabis, when smoked, is safer than alcohol and tobacco. Cannabis smoke while similar to tobacco smoke actually contains fewer carcinogens. Alcohol consumed in large amounts can be very deadly and can lead to alcohol poisoning. With cannabis on the other hand it is virtually impossible to attain levels of THC that would be lethal. In fact you would have to smoke around 1000 joints in a matter of minutes to reach levels of THC that would be toxic. When THC enters the brain, only seconds after entering the bloodstream, the brain starts to release dopamine which is the chemical in the brain responsible for feelings of pleasure and motivation. After the dopamine is released some effects felt may include euphoria, relaxation, increased awareness of sensation, and increased appreciation of humor, music, or art. Cannabis is coming back into the mainstream as a legitimate medicine. Today in the United States medical marijuana is legal in 15 states. Some uses for medical marijuana include: the stimulation of appetite in AIDS patients, the amelioration of nausea and vomiting, insomnia, asthma, glaucoma, and for pain relief. Research in by Scripps Research Institute has shown that THC prevents deposits in the brain that are associated with Alzheimers disease(6). A study done by Complutense University of Madrid also found that the use of marijuana promotes the death of brain cancer cells by helping them feed upon themselves(7). There are many more medical uses cannabis can be used for and probably many that have not been discovered yet, but the only way to make these discoveries is to make cannabis more available for the use of research.

Over thousands of years cannabis has shown how useful of a plant it is. It is an efficient source for paper, fiber, rope, fabric, food, and many, many more uses. It is also a powerful, inexpensive, and safe medicine that can be used in many different situations. Cannabis could be the most useful plant to the United States but we only look at the negatives, most of which are all false. If cannabis was legalized crime rates would go down and the US would gain a major asset.