California Proposition 215: Medical Marijuana

Marijuana was in the United States Pharmacopeia from 1850 until 1942 and was prescribed to patients for various conditions including labor pains, nausea and rheumatism. During the 1850’s up to the 1930’s it was a very popular intoxicant. A movement conducted in the 1930’s by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics (presently the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs) fought to make marijuana appear to be an Addicting and powerful substance that would lead

In 1937, Hearst teamed up with Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN), Harry J. Anslinger, to spark a nation-wide smear campaign against Cannabis known widely as “Reefer Madness”. Cannabis was never really referred to as “marijuana” because marijuana is a type of wild mexican tobacco, a completely different plant. Hearst and Anslinger added a mexican name to Cannabis to make it’s image as a mexican product more easily hated by the American public. This campaign depicted african-americans and mexican immigrants as beasts who, when and after smoking marijuana, would seek to rape white women. The campaign claimed to congress that marijuana caused insanity, violence, and death. The inaccurate claims were based on no scientific research or studies

Isaac Campos wrote this book in order to provide a background history of Mexico’s use of marijuana and the effect it had in Mexican society. He displays marijuana’s extent both, socially and politically. He scripted his book to carry the reader from the arrival of cannabis (would later be referred to as marijuana) in Mexico through the substance’s prohibition in 1920. With this book, he attempts to “decipher the psychoactive riddle of cannabis in nineteenth and early twentieth century Mexico” (p.8). The “psychoactive riddle” is the way the drug, set, and setting are imposed on the resulting influence of marijuana. Home Grown is significant in understanding the War on Drugs and the impact marijuana has had on society in North America. It provided history of notable events due to the production and prohibition of the drug ranging from its introduction until the 1920s when it was banned. Campos argued that the negative stereotypes of marijuana, often thought to have originated in the United States, actually originated in Mexico as a way to control the use of the drug. Citizens of Mexico related the drug to causing the users to go mad, hence the reason of the term “Reefer Madness.”

Lately it seems that drug policy and the war on drugs has been in the headlines quite a lot. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the policies that the United States government takes against illegal drugs are coming into question. The mainstream media is catching on to the message of organizations and individuals who have long been considered liberal "Counter Culture" supporters. The marijuana question seems to be the most prevalent and pressed of the drugs and issues that are currently being addressed. The messages of these organizations and individuals include everything from legalization of marijuana for medical purposes, to full-unrestricted legalization of the drug. Of course, the status quo of vote seeking politicians and

The Author in this article is discussing the alarming truth that more people have been arrested for small amounts of marijuana this year compared to those who have committed serious violent crimes last year. The author also argues that an excessive number of African Americans have been arrested for marijuana use similar to whites but are prosecuted far more frequently.

America in the early 1900’s, the use of marijuana within the immigrant Mexican community was used as a scapegoat for the increasing unemployment rate, with politicians stating that the use of marijuana causes extreme violence, crime and radical behavior. This myth was widely spread around the United states, ultimately giving marijuana the infamous term ‘killer weed’.

About thirty years into the nearer future, Americans rediscovered marijuana as a result of the notorious alcohol prohibition of the 1920s when “people looking for oblivion from their own troubles turned to a new way of getting high.” Consequently and realistically, America can only blame itself for marijuana’s recreational popularity, seeing as “from 1850 to 1945, the … plant was listed in the United States Pharmacopoeia.” Almost a decade after the alcohol prohibition ended is when marijuana was first perceived “as a dangerous, addictive, ‘gateway drug’” by the United States Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Then, “in 1970, the Controlled Substances Act was passed … [which] classified marijuana, [alongside Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD)] and heroin, as a Schedule I drug, meaning that [the drug] had a high risk of abuse [with] no acceptable medicinal use.” Within the following decade, “marijuana use in the United States declined,” then once again escalating among youth in the nineties. Meanwhile in modern-day India, people are still practicing marijuana medicinally, and exploring what advantages the “dangerous” drug has to offer (Chapter 2: The History of Marijuana 18-31).

While an undereducated, youth fostered movement towards the legalization of marijuana is rapidly spreading across America, Father Gerald Coleman, in Is America Going to Pot, steps back from the frenzy to examine the gross amount of physical evidence that opposes the rash movement. Approaching legalization of marijuana from numerous avenues, Coleman systematically degrades many of the popular pro-marijuana arguments circulating today. In addition his article is able to simultaneously provide a number of well-founded arguments ranging from the various health troubles, the gateway drug potential, and the resounding positive effects on the black market drug trade that legalization of marijuana would and is currently promoting, to support his anti-legalization

Director Brett Harvey documentary, The Culture High is an interesting story that takes a raw and honest look that tears into the very grit of modern day marijuana prohibition to reveal the truth behind the arguments and motivations governing both those who support and those who oppose the existing pot laws. As we ask ourselves will marijuana be legalized in our lifetime? Or is the “war on drugs” really fundamentally affecting this country? This documentary states two reasons why the information on cannabis is kept from the public, either just one joint can cause psychiatric (mental illness) episodes similar to schizophrenia (a long-term mental disorder) or the addiction and how this drug can lead to another drug. The thesis that this documentary

The purpose of the research is to determine the opinions of Californians about the issue of marijuana, both with respect to whether it should be legalized, and if so, how should such legalization be implemented.

· Medical Marijuana Law: Passed under the Compassionate Use act of 1996, Proposition 215 ensured that individuals in California could use marijuana for medical uses as approved by a physician. It also led to the rise of dispensaries, where the drug could be provided and monitored safely, as well as allowed home growing of marijuana under certain restrictions for individuals using it medically. It also allowed the patient’s, “primary caregiver” to obtain the marijuana for the individual. This caregiver has to provide “…for housing, health or safety” of the patient (Proposition 215).

"In any civilized society, it is every citizen 's responsibility to obey just laws. But at the same time, it is every citizen 's responsibility to disobey unjust laws." Martin Luther King Jr. Many people ask “why should marijuana be legalized”? when the real question that we should be asking is “why shouldn’t marijuana be legalized”?. Marijuana also known as hemp is a naturally grown plant that has been around for decades dating back to around 2697 B.C., when the Egyptians would use it to cure many common ailments, and the Chinese would use it for therapeutics. Using marijuana not only to cure common illnesses but for your pleasure as well should be up to you the free citizens of California and not to the government. The first major reason

Everyone is raised with the constant reminder of how bad illegal substances are and are told this time and time again. People and powerful political figures give a false idea on one specific “drug” present in the world today, without the facts and statistics to prove their theories. People in today’s world, specifically those in the United States, do not quite understand how useful and profitable this naturally grown herb really is. This “drug” is known as marijuana, and has many surprising beneficial factors for both medical and recreational purposes. Marijuana is referred to in today’s media as a brain damaging and dangerous drug, showing stereotype after stereotype of people who have abused this substance. Citizens of our country, especially children and young adults, are shown these

The use of marijuana has been an active past time for thousands of years, however, it did not reach the United States until around 1912. A wave of Mexican immigrants was entering the country in the effort to find work; with them came marijuana. The use of marijuana was a normal custom among the Mexican people, but the White Americans in towns bordering Mexico saw the use of this particular plant in a different light. Fueled with racism and frustration associated with the lack of work for the American people, whites proclaimed that the smoking of marijuana gave the Mexicans super-human strength and transformed those who smoked it into violent murderers. With the increase in rumors

As the late president of America, Thomas Jefferson said, “If people let [the] government decide which food they eat and medicine they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.” Jefferson’s quote relates to the growing controversy surrounding the legalization of marijuana and how marijuana benefits individuals in society. However, when looking back at the history of marijuana, it is understood that there is more to the drug beyond the negative aspects. When marijuana was first introduced in Jamestown by the English, the drug quickly became a major cash crop along with tobacco and was grown as a source of fiber. Later around the 1830s, Americans and Europeans learned about the health benefits that marijuana provides and began the practice of marijuana as a pharmacopeia. However, Americans’ attitude toward marijuana shifted at the turn of the century due to the hatred towards Mexican immigrants along with their association with marijuana. As a result, marijuana was banned from the United States. The legalization of marijuana leads to economic prosperity through the decrease in health issues and crime rates along with the increase in tax revenue.