Medical Marijuana Background

B. A federal law was passed in 1937 making the possession and sell of the plant genus cannabis illegal. Medicinal marijuana has been legal since as early in 1996 in California via state law. Across the United States, 24 states allow cannabis for medical reasons and four allow marijuana for all purposes, including recreational. Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Colorado and Washington D.C. are all states that allow the drug to be used for purposes exceeding medical needs. These states can be used as examples as the rest of the country decides to legalize the plant or allow the federal law to remain in effect.

Twenty-five states and the capital of the United States, Washington D.C. have legalized the use of medical marijuana. This poses a problem for employers that have a strict zero tolerance drug policy while abiding by the Americans with Disabilities Act. For example, an employee can be prescribed medical marijuana by their doctor to relieve certain diseases or symptoms such as cancer and migraines. The objective of this paper is to discuss and illustrate the right of an employer to apply their drug policy and not be required to accommodate an employee and/or applicant’s need for medical marijuana.

Marijuana has been used around the world for thousands of years to treat a wide variety of ailments. Chinese emperor Shen Nung was the first to record marijuana as a medical drug in 2737 B.C. He documented the drug’s effectiveness in treating the pains associated with rheumatism and gout. The legalization of medical marijuana has long been debated within American society and Government. Marijuana was a legal source for medicines in the U.S. until the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which federally prohibited marijuana. Prior to the enactment of the Marijuana Tax Act, there were at least twenty-seven legal medicines that contained marijuana available in the U.S. In 1970, The Controlled Substances Act placed marijuana into a

The use of medical marijuana (slang: Acapulco gold, ace, bhang, cannabis, hash, dope, ganja, grass, weed, hashish oil, hemp, home-grown, honey oil, indica, Jamaican roach, sativa, sinse, sinsemilla, tea, weed oil) has a been a major topic of debate for countless years. People all around the United States have seen propaganda of some sort regarding the legalization of marijuana. For example, with the ongoing discussion of legalization throughout the states, it’s abruptly mentioned in the news, everyday conversations, school topics for debate, and within stories of social media. In the article, “Is marijuana prohibition coming to an end”, Michelle Johnson a North Carolina journalist, states “Legalizing marijuana for a medical or recreational

Before 1937, marijuana was freely bought, sold, grown, and smoked in the United States. Since that time, all of these activities have been illegal, but many groups and individuals have fought to decriminalize marijuana. The congressional decision to classify marijuana as a Schedule I drug in 1970 has made the legalization campaign more difficult, since it officially established marijuana as a dangerous, addictive drug with no medicinal benefits.

During the 1920's many mexican immigrants fled to the United States for work. With them, many of them brought marijuana. The act of smoking marijuana was picked up on by many black and white jazz musicians during the 1920's and 1930's, but was not used widespread until the 1960's. During the 1930's, Louis Artmstrong was arrested in California and given a sentence of six months for possession of Marijuana [3]. In 1937, the Treasury Department established a marijuana transfer tax known as the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, after testifying before Congress. After 1937 up until the passing of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Act of 1970, which include the Controlled Substance Act of 1970, marijuana was legally controlled through a transfer tax. [2]

Have you ever wondered when and why marijuana was made illegal? The herbal plant, commonly used in medicines, was not considered a drug in the early 1900s. The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 banned the use and sales of marijuana. This act was put in place due to careless slander. Marijuana, in America should be legalized because it is safer than alcohol and tobacco, marijuana funds gangs and cartels, and marijuana can replace toxic, addictive pharmaceuticals.

Marijuana in the United States has been a big issue for decades dating back to when it was first made illegal in 1937. Using scare tactics, propaganda, and false facts, the government decided to classify the plant as a schedule one drug along with substances such as ecstasy, LSD, and heroin. Marijuana has since become a more common and socially acceptable (Not by the government) drug in recent years. This past year Colorado, Washington, and Oregon had decided to vote on the issue of legalizing marijuana for recreational use. Focusing on Colorado, Amendment 64 passed on November 6th, 2012 which would legalize the possession of up to an ounce of the plant.

When cannabis was first introduced its primary use was not for smoking or even medical it was for creating other things like clay pots and a fiber for making rope. Its first human consumption recorded back in 2737 B.C. by the Chinese emperor as a treatment for gout, malaria, beriberi, rheumatism, and poor memory. This drug didn’t enter the United States until the mid-1800s but by that time it was used as an intoxicant and a medicine. Marijuana entered the states by Mexican immigrants in the 19th and 20th century but was not popular. Marijuana was limited to the lower society pretty much minority smoked the drug. After its extended period of continuous use the government began to crack down and created different acts and legislation in 1937 such as the Marihuana act which puts a

On October 1, 1937, the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was enacted and it prohibited all forms of cannabis sativa. Although the bill was targeted towards the banning of marijuana and both forms of cannabis on separate ends of the sativa spectrum, there was no specification on which form was directed for the ban. Thus both were prohibited from being grown in the United States of America. In November of 2016, marijuana officially became legal to grow in all fifty states, yet industrial hemp is still currently legal to be grown in 13 states within the USA.  Hemp is largely exported to the US from other countries. It is imperative that hemp becomes legal to be grown around the entire country, for hemp will help retain the USA’s revenue by using hemp grown in America, has can be used for many different purposes such as clothing or food for example, has the potential to reduce American citizen’s carbon footprint as a substitute for paper and gasoline, and has no major threat to the industrialization of hemp in factories.

It has been used for medicinal purposes and used for pleasure purposes. During the 1930s, Harry Anslinger became commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. (CNN History of Marijuana in America) He fought for the prohibition of marijuana. (CNN History of Marijuana in America) The movie “Reefer Madness” was made as a scare tactic for the youth in the 1930s. Back then marijuana was made to look like cigarettes. In 1937, Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act, which immediately criminalized the drug and lead to decline in marijuana prescriptions. (Mark Eddy) "Marijuana was removed from the US Pharmacopeia in 1942, thus losing its remaining mantle of therapeutic legitimacy. (American Medical Association)" In 1951, the Boggs Act was passed, which stated that two-to-five years was the minimum sentence for any first offense drug crimes. (Families Against Mandatory Minimums) U.S. Customs were trying to keep foreign marijuana distributors from getting marijuana into the U.S. Marijuana was used by many people by the 1960s. The DEA came around in 1973. In 1996, California was the first to legalize medicinal marijuana and in 1998, Alaska, Oregon, Washington followed. Then other states began to legalize to medical marijuana as the years passed. On April 14, 2014 Maryland was the 21st state to legalize medical marijuana. Over the years there have been many disputes between the people and the government on marijuana

It wasn't until the mid-nineteenth century that western doctors began prescribing it to their patients, and soon it could even be bought in drug stores. It was commonly used in the U.S. to treat asthma, epilepsy, dysmemarrhea, gonorrhea, and migraines, being compared to opium in strength but much kinder on the body. The use of marijuana declined with the development of aspirin and barbiturates, which were much more dependable. The belief that Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. This new law to discourage recreational smoking required anyone purchasing the drug for certain medical purposes to pay a tax of one dollar per ounce, while those inclined to use it for other purposes paid one hundred dollars per ounce. In 1970 Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act, assigning psychoactive drugs to five schedules. Cannabis came under schedule 1, the most restrictive. Drugs outlined under schedule 1 were said to have no medical use, a high potential for abuse and no safe uses. In 1978 New Mexico enacted the first law to make it legal for medical use, and by 1994, 36 other states followed. Cannabis was not recognized as a medicine by the federal government , and in order to dispense it, states had to conduct special research and receive FDA approval. Because this was so hard to do, only 10 states actually established programs in which cannabis was used as a medicine. Patients had to complete extensive paperwork in order to get

Between 1978 and 1996, 34 states passed laws recognizing marijuana's therapeutic value. Most recently, voters in two states -- Arizona and California -- passed laws allowing for the medical use of marijuana under a physician's supervision. Yet, states are severely limited in their ability to implement their medical use laws because of the federal prohibition of marijuana. America tried alcohol prohibition between 1919 and 1931, but discovered that the crime and violence associated with prohibition was more damaging

The topic of legalizing marijuana has been on the fore front of controversial issues ever since marijuana, cannabis, was brought into the United States from Mexico in the early 1920s. Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana use in the past two decades, however, only four of those states, Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington, have passed the law legalizing recreational marijuana use. Some states have already enacted laws that allowed for the possession of marijuana to such individuals that received a written prescription from their doctors. Federal law, however, has continued to prohibit doctors from writing patients a marijuana prescription, meaning

Marijuana has been used for a very long time throughout the country for many medical uses. Starting in the 1900’s marijuana as well as other drugs such as cocaine and opium were not considered drugs and were in fact very commonly used. Not much later in 1914 the U.S. made cocaine illegal for non-medical purposes, 56 years later in 1970 cocaine was classified as a schedule II substance. The U.S. was very strict about the cannabis laws starting around the 1980’s. Then beginning in the early 2000’s scientists started discovering the medical benefits the marijuana has on people that are sick. Marijuana was used to treat many people with cancer and also people suffering from depression. Shortly after these studies were released the argument for medical marijuana began to grow throughout the United States. The government did not want any kind of marijuana becoming legal but by being able to overrule the government laws marijuana was legalized for medical use only in California in 1996. This was a huge step in the marijuana industry and a few other states such as Colorado and Arizona had also allowed medical marijuana shortly after. There are now 21 states in the United States that have legalized medical marijuana.