Legalization Of Marijuana Tuck

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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.”