Legalization of Marijuana

It’s hard to imagine a plant being outlawed. This plant has been here as long as man and used for centuries for a wide variety of reasons by him. Medicine, fiber, rope, clothing and paper are merely a few of its uses. The cannabis plant, also known as marijuana has been illegal in America for some time now. While everyone knows about its illegality, the vase majority aren’t sure exactly why. I hope to bring this subject to light and prove that marijuana deserves to be legalized in the United States.

In 1936, Popular Mechanics magazine ran a cover story hailing the invention of a new machine which could efficiently strip the fiber from any plant. The magazine predicted that because of this invention, the marijuana plant would once again become the world’s most important cash crop. This idea was not embraced by everyone however, says Charles Overbeck, the possibility of cheaper, more durable hemp paper was hardly good news to Hearst Paper Manufacturing, or Kimberly Clark, among others in the timber and paper industry. It meant huge losses of income and possible bankruptcy. The plant also threatened DuPont, who had just patented processes to manufacture plastic and synthetic fibers from coal and oil, and new process to produce paper from wood and pulp.

These industries knew they could not compete with marijuana plant and stood to lose billions of dollars to it. A huge propaganda campaign against marijuana ensued, fronted by William Randolph Hearst, owner of Hearst Paper manufacturing. Now nicknamed, “The King of Yellow Journalism,” Hearst newspaper fathered some of the most anti-marijuana literature around. A story of a car wreck in which a marijuana cigarette was found, remained on the front page for weeks, while alcohol-related wrecks, which outnumbered marijuana-related wrecks one thousand to one, were hidden in the back pages. Headlines such as, “Marijuana Makes Fiends of Boys in 30 days. Hashish Goads users to Blood Lust,” frightened readers to death of this plant. Concerned parents began calling on thier local representatives to protect their families from this so-called “demon weed”. And so, in December 1937 the Marijuana Tax Act was passed, outlawing all uses of the cannabis plant in the United States.

From around 1.000 BC until after the American Civil War, the marijuana plant was the world’s largest cash crop. Fabric, rope, lighting oil, paper, medicine, food oil, and a source of protein were just a few of its uses. It was truly and incredible plant.

Hemp also part of the cannabis family, is a cousin plant to marijuana. It is basically the same plant, just grown with a different technique. Hemp fiber is one of, if not the strongest natural fiber known to man. This fiber is stripped from the leaves, and then processed. The processed hemp can be made onto a number of products. Paper is just one of them the advantage of hemp paper is remarkable compared to paper from wood-pulp.

A spoken word piece by the artist, Biafra, tells of USDA reports on hemp. The United States Department of Agriculture’s studies show that one can get four times more paper from an acre of hemp than form an acre of trees. Hemp paper can be made at just one quarter of the cost of paper from wood pulp, and it requires only one fifth the chemicals. Where wood pulp based paper can presently only be recycled three times, hemp paper can be recycled at least seven times. Paper is not the only thing hemp is good for, Charles Overbeck attest that hemp fiber is softer, warmer than, more water resistant than and three times as strong as cotton. Hemp was Americas leading textile until it lost the throne in the 1820’s however Eli Whitney’s gin made cotton processing cheaper and more efficient. Hemp remained the 2nd leading textile in the U.S. until it was banned in the 1930′S. Cotton then became America’s chosen fabric.

The downside to cotton is that 50 percent of all agricultural chemicals in the US are used on cotton plants. Hemp on the other hand is entirely environmental friendly as it needs no chemicals or pesticides because it has no enemy insects.

The 1930’s showed promise for hemp. Henry ford was growing the plant as part of a plan to build cars from hemp based plastics, and running them on hemp fuel. Overbeck notes that one hundred and sixteen million pounds of hemp seed were used to make paint and varnish. Conservative estimates by experts in the 1930’s stated that hemp could have pumped as much as $500 billion and could be far exceeded. An article on hemp in the pro marijuana magazine High Times, tells that relatively few countries today have legalized marijuana outright, but an ever increasing number are allowing test plots of industrial hemp to be grown. There are around ten thousand products that contain hemp out on the market today. America holds such an influence on the rest of the world, once we realize these plants potential, it will be legitimized and universally accepted.

The oldest argument against marijuana is still one of the biggest “the only reason people want marijuana legalized is so they can smoke it”. There’s no doubt that many people want to legally smoke marijuana. While that are plenty of other reasons for legalization, there is still no good argument of why recreation usage is wrong.

In Bruce Goldstein book, Psychology, among other places, it is said that three major studies were conducted on the effects of long time marijuana usage. These studies, one each in Jamaica, Costa Rica, and Greece, all failed to find evidence of physical or psychological damage in long time users. But others find that there is evidence that lung damage could occur as a result of chronic use.

It is a common belief that marijuana usage causes damage to the brain cells, which causes memory loss, impairment and difficulty learning. Lynn Zimmer and John Morgan’s finds in “Exposing Marijuana Myths,” prove otherwise. According to Zimmer and Morgan this claim was based on a study that found damage in the brains of two lab monkeys. The damage was done in an area known as the hippocampus, which is involved in learning and memory functions. Other test conducted on rodents found similar results. These rodents had to be given the equivalent to two hundred times the psychoactive dose for humans.