Legalizing Marijuana Term paper

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Legalizing Marijuana

Marijuana is the name for the drug that comes from the leaves and flowers of the Indian

hemp plant, Cannabis sativa. It is a tobacco-like substance produced by drying the leaves and

flowery top of the cannabis plant. Marijuana is usually smoked as a cigarette called a joint or in

a pipe or bong. Recently, it has appeared in cigars called blunts which are longer. This drug is a

mild hallucinogen, meaning that it distorts sensory perceptions. The intoxicating part of the

plant lies mostly in its strong-smelling, sticky, golden resin. This is given off by the hemp

flowers, especially those of the female plant. The resin protects the plant from heat and helps it

stay moist during its reproductive cycle. Many users describe two phases of marijuana

intoxication: initial stimulation, giddiness, and euphoria, followed by sedation and pleasant

tranquillity. Mood changes can often accompany altered perceptions of time and space and one's

bodily dimension. The hemp plant can be found growing as a weed or as a cultivated plant

throughout the world, in many soils and climates, with the more potent varieties produced in dry,

hot, upland, climates (Berger 1).

All forms of marijuana are mind-altering. They all contain THC, the main active

chemical in marijuana. THC was first identified in the mid-1960s. Its chemical structure is

complex and unique, making it unlike that of any other psychoactive drug. There are also four

hundred other chemicals in the marijuana plant besides THC, but they do not cause the same

effect. For this reason, marijuana is, by far, the most frequently used illegal drug. Though its

use in the United States is primarily for the pleasure effect of the drug, it has been used as an

intoxicant in various parts of the world for centuries. Marijuana is known as a "Schedule I drug

which means it is one of the most tightly controlled drugs" (McCormick 94). Only few

countries around the world have legalized marijuana, but those that have, have seen good results.

Marijuana has many benefits and is used for various reasons other than the reaction from the

drug, and therefore it should be legalized.

The first existence of marijuana was first described in print in a "Chinese book of

medicine" in the second century B.C.E. and was used in China as an anesthetic five thousand

years ago (Freeman 58). Its earliest use was recommended as a painkiller during operations.

Known in Central Asia as early as 3000 BC, marijuana was used as a folk medicine. The

practice of smoking it was brought to Brazil by black slaves from Africa. After spreading

throughout Mexico, it was brought to the United States by Mexican laborers. In the 1800s, it

was popular with black field hands in the South and in the hashish houses that often took the

place of opium dens. Many people knew that they would profit from marijuana in America and

they imported the drug any way possible. "Marijuana was smuggled across the Mexican border

in a variety of ways including inside the gasoline tanks of motor vehicles" (Bugliosi 13). During

the 1920s and 1930s, marijuana rose in popularity, especially among jazz musicians, most of

whom were black. The effects of marijuana back then,...

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