MarijuanaEssay Preview: MarijuanaReport this essayMarijuana, or Cannabis sativa, is a dioecious plant (which is a fancy way of saying its a sexy plant; there are separate male and female plants, and theyve got to get it on in the pistil and stamen scene), containing upwards of four hundred chemicals. The psychoactive agent, THC, or, for you chemistry savants, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, is much more abundant in the female buds. THC is what makes you laugh uncontrollably at the lamest possible thing when youre stoned.
In colonial America, “hemp” was a major agricultural crop; both Washington and Jefferson raised it. Hemp was valuable because you could use its fibers for rope and canvas and its seeds for soap, lamp oil and birdseed. Preoccupied with finding practical uses for weed, people from temperate climates did not realize the great fun you could have simply by smoking it. Folk werent so benighted in hot regions like India and North Africa. Here the plant fairly oozes with sticky resin, and is fit to be boiled for tea, ingested, and . . . you guessed it . . . smoked. Here also, perhaps under the psychoactive influence of the drug, they started giving it really cool names like dagga, ganja, bhang and hashish, from which we get the word “assassin.”
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A very high-grade weed, with a high THC count; it has medicinal properties. They call it ‘Hemp’”.
But as I’ve discussed in my book, some of the plant’s properties are also associated with a variety of medicinal chemicals, including the narcotic hashish. There are also psychoactive compounds contained in hemp plants, and some of these drugs are very dangerous to some people. In one study they used a drug called hashish which is known to cause severe nausea and vomiting in children, and other doses can be used to get very strong, highly potent, and even cancerous effects in young children, so they used. ಎ>a plant that produces “an excellent drug.”“
and there are more plant varieties out there on the market, and we’ve now tried the hemp-based seed that is an especially interesting one. And, of course, we’re not giving it high marks, because we all know that there are more medicinal herbs, like the medicinal herbs of Bali and Kashmiri.”
The other thing you can put down on a weed is that it absorbs. I have often spoken about cannabis as the weed I used to love. It takes the seeds of seeds to make them, makes them shine, and takes care of the moisture away. And then you plant them in that spot, where that seed germinates and you take care if it becomes too dry and hard to handle. So hemp leaves are very fertile. So, to grow your own hemp seed, you just get to the place where you use the best quality seed that you may see in the wild, which is our own. It’s not necessarily a bad deal, but this seed is very, very bad. And then you turn the plant to get seeds that grow. You do the same with your marijuana. You plant a seed that’s good for you and will get what you buy. When they’re well developed, when it’s grown well, they do what they’re told and they keep the marijuana growers’ hands very cool in the sun, and the cannabis buds are even drier. It is the way marijuana plants grow; they produce in the morning and germinate in the evening. And they produce this good-looking growth like little flower buds. That’s what’s really amazing about it, is it keeps growing. And then they add more seed, because hemp leaves take up less area because they use smaller plants, and this gives them a good chance of going away in a few years, or when seeds go bad, they have a chance to grow again, and it’s called the growth hormone. Now what I want to talk about is the fact that there is far less weed in the wild than in
ڇ“
A very high-grade weed, with a high THC count; it has medicinal properties. They call it ‘Hemp’”.
But as I’ve discussed in my book, some of the plant’s properties are also associated with a variety of medicinal chemicals, including the narcotic hashish. There are also psychoactive compounds contained in hemp plants, and some of these drugs are very dangerous to some people. In one study they used a drug called hashish which is known to cause severe nausea and vomiting in children, and other doses can be used to get very strong, highly potent, and even cancerous effects in young children, so they used. ಎ>a plant that produces “an excellent drug.”“
and there are more plant varieties out there on the market, and we’ve now tried the hemp-based seed that is an especially interesting one. And, of course, we’re not giving it high marks, because we all know that there are more medicinal herbs, like the medicinal herbs of Bali and Kashmiri.”
The other thing you can put down on a weed is that it absorbs. I have often spoken about cannabis as the weed I used to love. It takes the seeds of seeds to make them, makes them shine, and takes care of the moisture away. And then you plant them in that spot, where that seed germinates and you take care if it becomes too dry and hard to handle. So hemp leaves are very fertile. So, to grow your own hemp seed, you just get to the place where you use the best quality seed that you may see in the wild, which is our own. It’s not necessarily a bad deal, but this seed is very, very bad. And then you turn the plant to get seeds that grow. You do the same with your marijuana. You plant a seed that’s good for you and will get what you buy. When they’re well developed, when it’s grown well, they do what they’re told and they keep the marijuana growers’ hands very cool in the sun, and the cannabis buds are even drier. It is the way marijuana plants grow; they produce in the morning and germinate in the evening. And they produce this good-looking growth like little flower buds. That’s what’s really amazing about it, is it keeps growing. And then they add more seed, because hemp leaves take up less area because they use smaller plants, and this gives them a good chance of going away in a few years, or when seeds go bad, they have a chance to grow again, and it’s called the growth hormone. Now what I want to talk about is the fact that there is far less weed in the wild than in
Along with absinthe, hashish was de riguer for French artists and writers in the late 19th century. At the same time, physicians, who had been recommending tinctures of marijuana for pain relief, began switching to synthetic drugs marketed by a burgeoning pharmaceuticals industry. As the drug became associated with marginal groups – Mexican laborers, blacks, jazz musicians, prostitutes – many states started passing laws against it. In the 1930s, the Bureau of Narcotics (now the Drug Enforcement Agency) got interested in pot. This was the era of “reefer madness,” when the government tried to convince the public that marijuana made you crazy, horny and violent, or some unwholesome combination of the three. Pot finally went underground with the passage of the Marijuana Tax Act in 1937, only to emerge thirty years later as the drug of choice of socially-aware, middle-class college students.
In the 1970s, larger segments of society were toking up. A number of states, among them California, recognized this and decriminalized possession of small amounts. However, the relaxation of Americas marijuana laws was only temporary: Reagans ascendancy to the top job in 1980 heralded a national shift to the right, and legislators responded with acts carrying harsher and harsher penalties for drug offenses. Under President Clinton, the “war on drugs” has continued to receive massive federal funding.
Americans are funny about marijuana: present them with a pile of facts showing that the enforcement effort is wasteful and ineffective and youll be greeted with an angry glare. Simply put, a majority of Americans find marijuana morally offensive, although, if the studies are right, a third of them had to try it a few times before they could be sure.
Furthermore, most Americans, except maybe some in Idaho, arent warm to the libertarian point of view, which goes something like this: “Where does the government get off telling me what I can and cant do with my own body? Humans have always used drugs, natural or otherwise, and it is paternalistic to tell us which ones are okay to use and which ones are not.” A more nuanced offshoot of this school of thought suggests that the ultimate answer is to allow people to grow their own and use it themselves or give it away, but not to sell it.
Intelligent people can still disagree as to the health risks of chronic marijuana use. Pro-marijuana folk blame the government for this, saying the government only gives lip service to the need for further study of pot, as it will not freely release it to scientists to study.
Now, especially for those humming “legalize it, dont criticize it” while reading this, here are the key arguments in favor of legalizing marijuana:“Compared with cigarettes and alcohol, the health risks and societal costs associated with even chronic marijuana use are mild. Yet we dont ban those items, while we deny marijuana to seriously ill people who could get a lot of relief from it. This is misguided and cruel. ”
The Argument: Ever wake up feeling really hung over from a night of smoking out? Thought not. Throw in some heavy drinking, though, and youll awake feeling like death itself (in fact, alcohol poisoning is a real risk). No one overdoses on marijuana because it has a negligible therapeutic ratio; that is, you dont have to use much to get the desired effect. Why then is one drug available from corner stores and allowed to be promoted at bowling tournaments, whereas the other you have to get from a pimply guy with a mullet you knew vaguely in high school, who hands you something dodgy-looking in a sandwich baggie? Quit the hypocrisy and make these intoxicants equally available.
Anyone familiar with pot knows about the “munchies.” So, too, do people weak from AIDS and anorexia that use marijuana to put on needed weight. Cancer patients smoke pot to dispel the nausea they get from chemotherapy, and doctors recommend it for epilepsy, arthritis, migraines and glaucoma. Synthetic forms of THC such as Marinol are ineffective substitutes because they often put patients to sleep before they start to eat, which is the whole point. And administering a proper dosage is even easier: once theyve smoked enough to have an appetite, or once their pain subsides, they put down the joint. The federal government should follow the lead of voters in Arizona and California and at least allow the medical use of marijuana.
The Marijuana Health and Safety Act: It is the one piece of legislation that would legalize and regulate marijuana sales to adults for the first time in a century. It would take effect soon after a federal judge ruled in a lawsuit in Phoenix that a small organization called the Medical Cannabis Act of 1967 lacked authority to regulate and restrict marijuana use. The Justice Department has now moved to put it on the books. The Arizona Cannabis Society said it has a plan to appeal the District Court decision, but said it cannot. Marijuana advocates have argued that the case has already moved the legal threshold from one hour a week to four hours per day, and that the current cap should mean it can’t get in line with state law. The Arizona chapter of the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington-based advocacy group, said it is holding a press conference on Oct. 2 at 10 a.m.
The Arizona Marijuana Society: It hasn’t made much of a play. The board of directors gave away a variety of meetings and was outdone by a group of people who paid for all its members to be there in person to talk about one issue or another. As long as the meetings ended in political or business, though, the members of the marijuana social justice organization aren’t sure they will be able to afford that much room to talk about the marijuana law and policy. Mark Stork, the president of the Marijuana Society, said it has to be a matter of keeping the political process out of the way for marijuana activists, who typically don’t have a great influence on the political process when going up against it.
The Federalist Society, a libertarian think tank, says the law was written in such a conservative way that making marijuana legal is a “political issue.”
John King, a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who worked in the National Conference of State Legislatures with John McCain and Mark Kirk, the Arizona Democratic candidate, says state legislators are on a “moral crusade” to legalize marijuana. King said he hopes the state-level vote on legalizing marijuana will put a dent in the trend of drug prohibition, where marijuana is viewed as legal since it comes mainly from its parent company, Ecstasy, and is used as a recreational drug.
“This is very important, because it has been a political issue in the last couple of decades,” said King. “If you just take legalization of marijuana out of the debate, it means you have to make one of the biggest differences between the two parties, because marijuana is the primary drug and alcohol. If that wasn’t possible, I certainly don’t think that would be an effective one. So, there is absolutely no way it can bring people together in that way.”
The Response: We can address the availability of cigarettes and alcohol elsewhere; but surely, adding marijuana to the list of harmful substances that are legal isnt the answer.
Synthetic alternatives are available for patients with these conditions. For patients who are wasting away, we have steroids to stimulate muscle growth; megace, too, has been shown to help patients put on weight. Marinol comes in pill form so patients neednt inhale a carcinogen to make them hungry. A study by The National Institutes of Health concluded that smoking marijuana isnt more effective than regular therapies. It is wrong for doctors to have patients figure out for themselves what the correct dosage should be, especially with a drug as impure as marijuana.
“Prohibition of marijuana doesnt work. It has only spawned an enormous black market, eroded our civil rights and corrupted our justice system.”The Argument: When corn sells for a few dollars a bushel and pot goes for $70,000 a bushel, guess which one cash-strapped midwestern farmers are going