Hysterical voters demanded action without seeing or hearing about any scientific research about marijuana or proof of the supposed harm that comes from smoking it. On October 2, 1937, without any open debate, scientific enquiry, or political objection, President Roosevelt signed the Marijuana Tax Law. The law made it illegal to possess marijuana in the U.S. without a special tax stamp issued by the U.S. Treasury Department. In theory, growing and selling marijuana was still legal as long as you bought the government tax stamp for $1.00. However, the Treasury Department did not issue any tax stamps for marijuana, effectively making growing, selling and possessing marijuana illegal under the
The first step to banning drugs was the Pure Food and Drug Act. This required patent medicines to label all of the ingredients in their products. Many of the smaller businesses were bankrupted because of this act but over hundreds of thousands of addicts remained. Companies like Coca-Cola almost were shut down because they didn’t want to stop putting Cocaine into their product (Johnson). The next step to banning drugs was the Heroin Tax Act.
al., 2002). Therefore, they implemented the Pure Food and Drug Act, which led to the Harrison Act of 1917, and later the Eighteenth Amendment and Volstead Act of 1920, which limited the use of marijuana that was not for medical use only, making the recreational use of the substance legal. Due to crime rated many believed associated with the substance, as many as 17 states implemented regulations that banned all non-medical use of marijuana by the early 1930’s.That by the time the Marijuana Tax Act was enacted in 1937, 36 of the U.S stated already had their own laws that penalized the use, possession and sell of marijuana (Pacula et. al., 2002). So after the amount physicians prescribing medical marijuana tarred off, because of the tedious paper work that had to be completed in order to dispense it.
In 2011, Connecticut became the latest state to enact a decriminalization law which classifies first offense possession of 1/2 ounce of marijuana for adults over 21, as a non-criminal infraction, punishable by a $150 fine. In each of these states, marijuana users no longer face jail time (nor in most cases, arrest or criminal records) for the possession or use of small amounts of marijuana. According to national polls, voters overwhelmingly support these policies. In Oregon, voters recently reaffirmed their state's decriminalization law by a 2-1 margin in a statewide
Running Head: The Benefit of Legalizing Marijuana Argumentative Analysis The Benefit of Legalizing Marijuana Lad AzizB City University BSC403 Summer Quarter 2012 Professor: J- Lum September 2, 2012 The Benefit of Legalizing Marijuana In our challenging world there are many laws that have been approved based on wrong perceptions and incorrect assumptions. Illegalization of Marijuana is one of those cases. Marijuana has been made illegal for some incorrect reasons, based on peoples’ false opinion that it is a highly addictive drug, with no useful purposes. In fact, the marijuana plant has been used productively since at least the 5th century BC. Chinese people used hemp to make clothes, shoes, rope, and an early form of paper.
The outlawing of marijuana has led to an expensive and seemingly futile battle to eliminate the plant and its use. Furthermore it takes average law abiding citizens who either grow or consume the plant with accordance to state medical/legalization laws and turns them into criminals. Sullum starts off my giving a brief history of the plant. It originated in China and India as a medicinal ingredient and was later brought overseas by the Spanish to be used for hemp fibres. Sullum states that marijuana originally came to the United States with migrant Mexican workers and later was commonly associated with African American jazz musicians.
The old lies are now exposed. Marijuana is not a demon, it is a medicinal herb. Marijuana does not turn people into homicidal maniacs; it safely treats a wide variety of physical and emotional illnesses. Marijuana is not a gateway to addiction; it is a plant that people use to treat stress … and it is safer than alcohol. Worry of addiction created a marijuana policy based on fear and ignorance.
Independent Study Unit Brinder Khakh CLU3MO Mrs. Chaudhary Monday January 12 2015 Marijuana has been growing on earth for many centuries. Marijuana was first discovered by the aboriginal Indians and consumed it as a resource for many of years. The first nation thought of it as a medicine and used it for many other medical reasons, but is Marijuana really a medicine? Today, the truth is revealed about marijuana and is illegal in society in many countries. Marijuana is classified as an illegal substance in 1923.
Where the Question lies Many people in the United States ask the question, “Why marijuana should be legalized?” when the real question is, “Why is marijuana illegal?” Marijuana was once a totally banned controlled substance in all fifty states. Slowly but surely the U.S states one by one are legalizing marijuana for medical reasons and so on. California and Colorado are the two states that have gone through their government and passed the law to legally sell and buy marijuana with the proper ID’s to verify acceptance. Some states have considered it before while other states hate the thought of legalizing this substance. Alcohol is a legal substance in our country yet people die every day from it rather it be liver problems or become a
James Lampert once said, concerning smoking bans, “What ‘right to smoke?’ Do I have a right to light up a sulfur candle in the middle of a crowd? Or set off a 4-Gone fogger? What would happen if I ran around with a can of Black Flag, spraying it in the faces of passersby at random? I'd be arrested for assault with a deadly weapon and probably also brought up on terrorism charges, and I'd deserve it mightily. So why do people addicted to inhaling an insecticide, a common ingredient in organic bug sprays, believe they have a right to spew noxious, toxic, carcinogenic fumes all over the place in public?” Many arguments can be made against smoking bans, but more arguments can be made for them.