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Tuck 1
Angellica L. Tuck
Denise Heald
English 102-001
April 10th, 2018
Project 2: Legalization of Marijuana
For over 100 years the American government has been fighting a war against drug use
amongst its civil citizens. This may seem like a long time, but in truth, drugs have been used in
throughout cultures of every kind, nearly since the beginning of humanity. Early colonial
Americans were no different. They used a number of drugs to help them in their daily lives
including alcohol, opiates, and a variety of herbal concoctions. One of their favored drug linked
plant was marijuana. They grew this plant in the form of hemp and used it for a lot of different
things including rope, clothes, paper and even for its chemical properties. In the last 60 years
especially, America has seen an increase in laws and the social views of marijuana continue to
shift and will likely continue to do so. This is because, even though the United States has a long
history of marijuana as a drug that is used by the citizens, it is only in the last hundred years that
there has been increased scrutiny of the use, which is mostly due to the changing social and
political viewpoints from Americans. Understanding the continued controversy over marijuana
and its laws, benefits, and illegalization is essential to public safety and the exercise of a true
democracy. This realization makes these TedTalks both timely and more important to readers
than ever because of the recent changes in state laws, and the research that is being made to
influence the people to open their minds and see the plant on a different playing field.
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While many people seem to know about the history or the laws of marijuana, few people
seem to understand the complexities of the regulations of the drug or how it came to be in the
criminalized state that it is. While this information will most likely be the most use to teens
thinking of trying marijuana, parents or those in a teaching or authority position where children
are involved, chances are that many people reading this will have been affected by marijuana in
some way. There are multiple visions that people see when marijuana comes into play including
medicinal marijuana, the racial divide due to illegalizing marijuana, and the economic boost
marijuana could bring to America. By having a better understanding of the history of marijuana
and staying up to date on the changes within the industry, people can sense a firmer grasp on the
scientific facts and a better heartfelt understanding on the effects of this drug in the eyes of each
speaker, though each speaker has different ways of connecting to their audiences.
Marijuana has been around since ancient times, and it has only been in relatively recent
history that laws have changed, or that the American government has shown any concern about
this particular drug. On a website called Marijuana - The First Twelve Thousand Years it states
“While traces of early Chinese fabrics have all but disappeared, in 1972 an ancient burial site
dating back to the Chou dynasty (1122-249 B.C.) was discovered. In it were fragments of cloth,
some bronze containers, weapons, and pieces of jade. Inspection of the cloth showed it to be
made of hemp, making this the oldest preserved specimen of hemp in existence.” More recently,
in American history, People were growing hemp since before there was an official United States.
In George Washington’s time, there was a law that stated every farmer legally had to grow hemp.
So marijuana has been commonly grown for much of the nation’s history without qualm from
the government and this remained this way until the early 1900s.
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Changes during this time propelled the War on Drugs to finally come full head in the
1960s and 70s. In David Schmader’s TedTalk “Stoners Coming Out-Beyond Marijuana Monster
Myths” he states “ Controlled Substances Act scheduled marijuana as a schedule one drug in the
1970’s.” All of this was caused because of the versatility of the cannabis plants. The Prohibition
on Marijuana really struck with force especially against Mexicans, African Americans, and
Hippies. Gene Taras states in “High Time for Change: How Legalizing Marijuana Could Help
Narrow The Racial Divide In The United States”
“Mexican immigrants were the primary users of the drug at the time (1937), so a tax on
the drug had the greatest effect on the immigrant population. Marijuana was associated with
minorities, specifically migrant workers who brought the plant into the United States, and the
white population was afraid that it predisposed them to crime.”
