For decades, marijuana has been a topic of great relevance in America. Between 1600 and the 1890s, marijuana was highly favored. The Virginia Assembly passed a legislation that required farmers to grow hemp in 1619. Hemp is the plant that marijuana comes from, and can also be used to make ropes, sails, and clothing. When this legislation was passed, hemp provided rope, sails, and clothing for many Americans.
This legislation allowed the legal exchange of hemp. After the civil war in the late nineteenth century, marijuana became a common ingredient for medicinal products and was casually sold in public pharmacies (“Marijuana Timeline”, 2014). Some refer to it as a drug, while some refer to as a medicinal herb. These two references to marijuana are two reasons as to why it has become the newest controversial issue in America for the past couple of decades. Marijuana is said to be a medicinal drug that eases people of pain and intolerable symptoms due to the molecule, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) that is said to relieve nausea, loss of appetite, and headaches when one has cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy (“MedlinePlus Trusted Health Information for You”, 2014).
However, there are some people who refer to marijuana as a “gateway drug." This means that if one consumes or comes into contact with it, it will without a doubt cause one to want to experiment further with other drugs such as LSD, cocaine, crack, etc. The third reason why marijuana has become a controversial topic is because some believe that marijuana can benefit the economy like it did between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. These reasons are explanations as to why marijuana is such a thought provoking and controversial issue that has consumed most of America’s media, the daily lives of Americans, and topic if interest for a majority of politicians to debate on or speak on to gain support from Americans during a campaign or such.
Henry Anslinger, the director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics began to publicly slander marijuana. He went as far as making sure a movie called Reefer Madness was produced (Stiff, 2014). It contained scenes of users committing suicide, sexual assault, mental insanity, and other horrid things. The policies and laws that were passed during this period of time would only lead to the current issues facing marijuana usage and set the tone and image for it.
Since Henry Anslinger began his fight against marijuana, many organizations have been developed to enforce these ideas and images of it and also educate people on its effects on one’s mental and physical health. Organizations like the National Institute of Drug Abuse set up programs and conduct research studies to find out precisely what drugs like marijuana, steroids, and cocaine do to our bodies, what to do to prevent usage or how to find treatment if you think you have an addiction (NIDA, September, 2015). They even extended their services to the military with their detailed and analytical publications. As controversial tensions rise, so does the amount of users using the drug.
Currently, various states in the United States have passed laws that have decriminalized the substance or allow the recreational and medical use of it. There are many other events occurring with the substance now that has raised the tensions. Arguments such as the medicinal and therapeutic relief that the plant provides for chronically ill patients are the thought-provoking aspect that makes me ask the question, can we really hold a limitation on something that poses such therapy and medical relief for so many people? A substance that became illegal out of nowhere?
