FREE ESSAY ON MARIJUANA

MARIJUANA

Marijuana
Throughout history marijuana has been used to serve various purposes in many different
cultures. The purposes have changed over time to fit in with the current lifestyles. This
pattern is also true in American history. The use of marijuana has adapted to the social
climate of the time. Marijuana, whose scientific name is cannibis sativa, was mentioned
in historical manuscripts as early as 2700 B. C. in China. (Grolier Electronic
Encyclopedia, 1995). The cultivation of the marijuana plant began as far back as the
Jamestown settlers, around 1611, who used hemp produced from the marijuana plant's fibers
to make rope and canvas. It was also used in making clothing because of it's durability.
These uses fit in with the social climate of the time, because the main focus was on
survival rather than for psychoactive purposes. During the prohibition, marijuana was
widely used because of the scarcity of alcohol. Prohibition was repealed after just
thirteen years while the prohibition against marijuana lasted for more than seventy five
years. 
This double standard may have resulted from the wishes of those in power. Alcohol
prohibition struck directly at tens of millions of Americans of all ages, including many
of societies most powerful members. Marijuana prohibition threatened far fewer Americans,
and they had relatively little influence in the districts of power. Only the prohibition
of marijuana, which some sixty million Americans have violated since 1965 has come close
to approximating the prohibition experience, but marijuana smokers consist mostly of
young and relatively powerless Americans (American Heritage, pg. 47). Alcohol prohibition
was repealed and marijuana prohibition was retained, not because scientists had proved
that alcohol was the less dangerous of the various psychoactive drugs, but because of the
prejudices and preferences of most Americans (American Heritage, pg. 47). In 1937 the
government issued the Marijuana Tax Act, which levied a dollar an ounce tax on marijuana,
coupled with fines of 
$2,000 for drug possession and jail sentences for evasion of the tax. For this reason
marijuana use in the United States appears to have gone into decline in the late 30's
(Grolier Wellness Encyclopedia, pg. 54). Then marijuana was outlawed in 1937 as a
repressive measure against Mexican workers who crossed the border seeking jobs during the
Depression. The specific reason given for the outlawing of the hemp plant was it's
supposed violent effect on the degenerate races (Schaffer, pg. 86). Beginning in the 60's
marijuana use saw a resurgence which may be attributed to many causes. One of the main
causes was the rebellion of youth against the Vietnam War. They used marijuana as an
escape from war to peace. It was easy at this time to depict marijuana as a beneficial
and completely harmless substance whose effects were far less harmful than those of legal
drugs such as alcohol and nicotine because there was not enough scientific research done
during the 60's (Grolier Wellness Encyclopedia, pg. 54). 
Another cause may have been the discovery of the psychoactive component of marijuana-
tetrahydrocannabinol, commonly known as THC. Users found the relation between the doses
and the effects (Grolier Electronic Publishing, 1995). The current atmosphere provides
for doctors to suggest synthetic marijuana (THC) in a pure and standardized form bp
rescriptionon (called Marinol) for the treatment of nausea associated with cancer
chemotherapy. Also, although there is no scientific evidence that shows marijuana is
beneficial in the treatment of glaucoma, it may prevent the progression of visual loss.
Marijuana, along with alcohol and a host of other substances, can actually lower
intraocular eye pressure. The medication however, must be carefully tailored to the
individual to prevent further eye damage. The evidence has clearly shown that marijuana
has been around for a great deal of time and has served multiple purposes throughout
history. 
History Of Marijuana
Marijuana Through Time
I cannot know now which of the several uses of Cannabis was earliest. Since plant uses
normally proceed from the simpler to the more complex, one might presume that its useful
fibers first attracted man's attention.
Indeed remains of hemp fibers have been found in the earliest archaeological sites in the
cradles of Asiatic civilization: evidence of fiber in China dating from 4000 B.C. and
hemp rope and thread from Turkestan from 3000 B.C. Stone beaters for pounding hemp fiber
and impressions of hemp cord baked into pottery have been found in ancient sites in
Taiwan.
Hemp fabrics have been found in Turkish sites of the late eighth century B.C., and there
is a questionable specimen of Hemp in an Egyptian tomb dated between three and four
thousand years ago.
** Here is a passage about a picture map shown in the text, but not written into the
article itself:
The original home of Cannabis is thought to be central Asia, but it has spread around the
globe with the exception of Arctic regions and areas of wet tropical forests. Cannabis
spread at a very early date to Africa (except for the humid tropics) and was quickly
accepted into native pharmacopoeias.
The Spaniards took it to Mexico and Peru, the French to Canada, the English to North
America. It had been introduced into northern Europe in Viking times. It was probably the
Scythians who took it first to China.**
The Indian Vedas sang of Cannabis as one of the divine nectars, able to give man anything
from good health and long life to visions of the gods. The Zend-Avesta of 600 B.C.
mentions an intoxicating resin, and the Assyrians used Cannabis as an incense as early as
the ninth century B.C.
Inscriptions from the Chou dynasty in China, dated 700-500 B.C., have a negative
connotation that accompanies the ancient character for Cannabis, Ma, implying its
stupefying properties. Since this idea obviously predated writing, the Pen Tsao Ching,
written in A.C. 100 but going back to a legendary emperor, Shen-Nung, 2000 B.C., may be
taken as evidence that the Chinese knew and probably used the hallucinogenic properties
at very early dates.
It was said that Ma-fen (Hemp fruit) if taken to excess, will produce hallucinations
[literally, `seeing devils']. If taken over a long term, it makes one communicate with
spirits and lightens one's body. A Taoist priest wrote in the fifth century B.C. that
Cannabis was employed by necromancers, in combination with Ginseng, to set forward time
and reveal future events.
In these early periods, use of Cannabis as an hallucinogen was undoubtedly associated
with Chinese shamanism, but by the time of European contact 1500 years later, shamanism
had fallen into decline, and the use of the plant for inebriation seems to have ceased
and had been forgotten. Its value in Chine then was primarily as a fiber source. There
was, however, a continuous record of Hemp cultivation in China from Neolithic times, and
it has been suggested that Cannabis may have originated in China, not in central Asia.
About 500 B.C. the Greek writer Herodotus described a marvelous bath of the Scythians,
aggressive horsemen who swept out of the Transcaucasus eastward and westward.
He reported that they make a booth by fixing in the ground three sticks inclined toward
one another, and stretching around them woolen pelts which they arrange so as to fit as
close as possible: inside the booth a dish is placed upon the ground into which they put
a number of red hot stones and then add some Hemp seed...immediately it smokes and gives
out such a vapor as no Grecian vapor bath can exceed; the Scythes, delighted, shout for
joy....
Only recently, archaeologists have excavated frozen Scythian tombs in central Asia, dated
between 500 and 300 B.C., and have found tripods and pelts, braziers and charcoal with
remains of Cannabis leaves and fruit. It has generally been accepted that Cannabis
originated in central Asia and that it was the Scythians who spread it westward to
Europe.
While the Greeks and Romans may not generally have taken Cannabis for inebriation, there
are indications that they were aware of the psychoactive effects of the drug. Democrats
reported that it was occasionally drunk with wine and myrrh to produce visionary states,
and Galen, about A.D. 200, wrote that it was sometimes customary to give Hemp to guests
to promote hilarity and enjoyment.
Cannabis arrived in Europe from the north. In classical Greece and Rome, it was not
cultivated as a fiber plant. Fiber for ropes and sails, however, was available to the
Romans from Gaul as early as the third century B.C.
The Roman writer Lucilius mentioned it in 120 B.C. Pliny the Elder outlined the
preparation and grades of hemp fibers in the first century A.C., and hemp rope was found
in a Roman site in England dated A.D. 140-180. Whether the Vikings used Hemp rope or not
is not known, but palynological evidence indicates that Hemp cultivation had a tremendous
increment in England from the early Anglo-Saxon period to late Saxon and Norman times --
from 400 to 1100.
Henry VIII fostered the cultivation of Hemp in England. The maritime supremacy of England
during Elizabethan times greatly increased the demand. Hemp cultivation began in the
British colonies in the New World: first in Canada in 1606, then in Virginia in 1611; the
Pilgrims took the crop to New England in 1632.
In pre-Revolutionary North America, Hemp was employed even for making work clothes. Hemp
was introduced quite independently into Spanish colonies in America: Chile, 1545; Peru,
1554.
There is no doubt that hemp fiber production represents an early use of Cannabis, but
perhaps consumption of its edible akenes as food predated the discovery of the useful
fiber. These akenes are very nutritious, and it is difficult to imagine that early man,
constantly searching for food, would have missed this opportunity. Archaeological finds
of Hemp akenes in Germany, dated with reservation at 500 B.C., indicate the nutritional
use of these plant products.
From early times to the present, Hemp akenes have been used as food in Eastern Europe,
and in the United States as a major ingredient of bird food. The folk-medicinal value of
Hemp -- frequently indistinguishable from its hallucinogenic properties -- may even be
its earliest role as an economic plant. The earliest record of the medicinal use of the
plant is that of the Chinese emperor-herbalist Shen-Nung who, five thousand years ago,
recommended Cannabis for malaria, beriberi, constipation, rheumatic pains,
absent-mindedness, and female disorders.
Hoa-Glio, another ancient Chinese herbalist, recommended a mixture of Hemp resin and wine
as an analgesic during surgery.
It was in ancient India that this gift of the gods found excessive use in folk medicine.
It was believed to quicken the mind, prolong life, improve judgment, lower fevers, induce
sleep, cure dysentery.
Because of its psychoactive properties it was more highly valued than medicines with only
physical activity. Several systems of Indian medicine esteemed Cannabis.
The medical work Sushruta claimed that it claimed leprosy. The Bharaprakasha of about
A.D. 1600 described it as antiphlegmatic, digestive, bile affecting, pungent, and
astringent, prescribing it to stimulate the appetite, improve digestion, and better the
voice. The spectrum of medicinal uses in India covered control of dandruff and relief of
headache, mania, insomnia, venereal disease, whooping cough, earaches, and tuberculosis!
The fame of Cannabis as a medicine spread with the plant. In parts of Africa, it was
valued in treating dysentery, malaria, anthrax, and fevers. Even today the Hotentots and
Mfengu claim its efficacy in treating snake bites, and Sotho women induce partial
stupefaction by smoking Hemp before childbirth.
Although Cannabis seems not to have been employed in medieval Europe as an hallucinogen,
it was highly valued in medicine and its therapeutic uses can be traced back to early
classical physicians such as Dioscorides and Galen. Medieval herbalists distinguished
manured hemp (cultivated) from bastard hemp (weedy), recommending the latter against
nodes and wennes and other hard tumors, the former for a host of uses from curing cough
to jaundice.
They cautioned, however, that in excess it might cause sterility, that it drieth up...
the seeds of generation in men and the milke of women's breasts. An interesting use in
the sixteenth century -- source of the name Angler's Weed in England -- was locally
important: poured into the holes of earthworms [it] will draw them forth and...fisherman
and anglers have use this feat to bait their hooks.
The value of Cannabis in folk medicine has clearly been closely tied with its euphoric
and hallucinogenic properties, knowledge of which may be as old as its use as a source of
fiber. Primitive man, trying all sorts of plant materials as food, must have known the
ecstatic hallucinatory effects of Hemp, an intoxication introducing him to an
other-worldly plant leading to religious beliefs.
Thus the plant early was viewed as a special gift of the gods, a sacred medium for
communion with the spirit world.
Although Cannabis today is the most widely employed of the hallucinogens, its use purely
as a narcotic, except in Asia, appears not to be ancient.
In classical times its euphoric properties were, however, recognized. In Thebes, Hemp was
made into a drink said to have opium-like properties. Galen reported that cakes with
Hemp, if eaten to excess, were intoxicating. The use as an inebriant seems to have been
spread east and west by barbarian hordes of central Asia, especially the Scythians, who
had a profound cultural influence on early Greece and eastern Europe. And knowledge of
the intoxicating effects of Hemp goes far back in Indian history, as indicated by the
deep mythological and spiritual beliefs about the plant.
One preparation, Bhang, was so sacred that it was thought to deter evil, bring luck, and
cleanse man of sin. Those treading upon the leaves of this holy plant would suffer harm
or disaster, and sacred oaths were sealed over Hemp. The favorite drink of Indra, god of
the firmament, was made from Cannabis, and the Hindu god Shiva commanded that the word
Bhangi must be chanted repeatedly during sowing, weeding, and harvesting of the holy
plant.
Knowledge and use of the intoxicating properties eventually spread to Asia Minor. Hemp
was employed as an incense in Assyria in the first millennium B.C., suggesting its use as
an inebriant. While there is no direct mention of Hemp in the Bible, several obscure
passages may refer tangentially to the effects of Cannabis resin or Hashish.
It is perhaps in the Himalayas of India and the Tibetan plateau that Cannabis
preparations assumed their greatest hallucinogenic importance in religious contexts.
Bhang is a mild preparation: dried leaves or flowering shoots are pounded with spices
into a paste and consumed as candy -- known as maajun -- or in tea form.
Ganja is made from the resin-rich dried pistillate flowering tops of cultivated plants
which are pressed into a compacted mass and kept under pressure for several days to
induce chemical changes; most Ganja is smoked, often with Tobacco. Charas consists of the
resin itself, a brownish mass which is employed generally in smoking mixtures.
The Tibetans considered Cannabis sacred. A Mahayana Buddhist tradition maintains that
during the six steps of asceticism leading to his enlightenment, Buddha lived on one Hemp
seed a day. He is often depicted with Soma leaves in his begging bowl and the mysterious
god-narcotic Soma has occasionally been identified with Hemp.
In Tantric Buddhism of the Himalayas of Tibet, Cannabis plays a very significant role in
the meditative ritual used to facilitate deep meditation and heighten awareness. Both
medicinal and recreational secular use of Hemp is likewise so common now in this region
that the plant is taken from granted as an everyday necessity.
Folklore maintains that the use of Hemp was introduced to Persia by an Indian pilgrim
during the reign of Khrusu (A.D. 531-579), but it is known that the Assyrians used Hemp
as an incense during the first millennium B.C. Although at first prohibited among Islamic
peoples, Hashish spread widely west throughout Asia Minor.
In 1378, authorities tried to extirpate Hemp from Arabian territory by the imposition of
harsh punishments. As early as 1271, the eating of Hemp was so well known that Marco Polo
described its consumption in the secret order of Hashishins, who used the narcotic to
experience the rewards in store for them in the afterlife. Cannabis extended early and
widely from Asia Minor into Africa, partly under the pressure of Islamic influence, but
the use of Hemp transcends Mohammedan areas. It is widely believed that Hemp was
introduced also with slaves from Malaya. Commonly known in Africa as Kif or Dagga, the
plant has entered into primitive native cultures in social and religious contexts. The
hotentots, Bushmen, and Kaffirs used Hemp for centuries as a medicine and as an
intoxicant.
In an ancient tribal ceremony in the Zambesi Valley, participants inhaled vapors from a
pile of smoldering Hemp; later, reed tubes and pipes were employed, and the plant
material was burned on an altar. The Kasai tribes of the Congo have revived an old Riamba
cult in which Hemp, replacing ancient fetishes and symbols, was elevated to a god -- a
protector against physical and spiritual harm. Treaties are sealed with puffs of smoke
from calabash pipes. Hemp-smoking and Hashish-snuffing cults exists in many parts of east
Africa, especially near Lake Victoria.
Hemp has spread to many areas of the New World, but with few exceptions the plant has not
penetrated significantly into many native American religious beliefs and ceremonies.
There are, however, exceptions such as its use under the name Rosa Maria, by the Tepecano
Indians of northwest Mexico who occasionally employ Hemp when Peyote is not available.
It has recently been learned that Indians in the Mexican states of Veracruz, Hidalgo, and
Puebla practice a communal curing ceremony with a plant called Santa Rosa, identified as
Cannabis Sativa, which is considered both a plant and a sacred intercessor with the
Virgin. Although the ceremony is based mainly on Christian elements, the plant is
worshipped as an earth deity and is thought to be alive and to represent a part of the
heart of God.
The participants in this cult believe that the plant can be dangerous and that it can
assume the form of a man's soul, make him ill, enrage him, and even cause death. Sixty
years ago, when Mexican laborers introduced the smoking of marijuana to the United
States, it spread across the south, and by the early 1920s, its use was established in
New Orleans, confined primarily among the poor and minority groups.
The continued spread of the custom in the United States and Europe has resulted in a
still unresolved controversy.
Cannabis Sativa was officially in the United States Pharmacopoeia until 1937, recommended
for a wide variety of disorders, especially as a mild sedative. It is no longer an
official drug, although research in the medical potential of some of the cannabinolic
constituents or their semi-synthetic analogues is at present very active, particularly in
relation to the side-effects of cancer therapy.
The psychoactive effects of Cannabis preparations vary widely, depending on dosage, the
preparation and the type of plant used, the method of administration, personality of the
user, and social and cultural background. Perhaps the most frequent characteristic is a
dreamy state.
Long forgotten events are often recalled and thoughts occur in unrelated sequences.
Perception of time, and occasionally of space, is altered. Visual and auditory
hallucinations follow the use of large doses. Euphoria, excitement, inner happiness --
often with hilarity and laughter -- are typical. In some cases, a final mood of
depression may be experienced. While behavior is sometimes impulsive, violence or
aggression is seldom induced.
In relatively recent years, the use of Cannabis as an intoxicant has spread widely in
Western society -- especially in the United States and Europe -- and has caused
apprehension in law-making and law-enforcing circles and has created social and health
problems. There is still little, if any, agreement on the magnitude of these problems or
on their solution.
Opinion appears to be pulled in two directions: that the use of Cannabis is an extreme
social, moral, and health danger that must be stamped out, or that it is an innocuous,
pleasant pastime that should be legalized. It may be some time before all the truths
concerning the use in our times and society of this ancient drug are fully known.
Since an understanding of the history and attitudes of peoples who have long used the
plant may play a part in furthering our handling of the situation in modern society, it
behooves us to consider the role of Cannabis in man's past and to learn what lessons it
can teach us: whether to maintain wise restraint in our urbanized, industrialized life or
to free it for general use. For it appears that Cannabis may be with us for a long time.
A fifteenth-century manuscript of Marco Polo's travels depicts the Persian nobleman
Al-Hassan ibn-al-Sabbah, who was known as the Old Man of the Mountain, enjoying the
artificial paradise of Hashish eaters.
His followers, known as ashishins, consumed large amounts of Cannabis resin to increase
their courage as they slaughtered and plundered on behalf of their leader. The words
assassin and hashish were derived from the name of this band
The Cuna Indians of Panama use Cannabis as a sacred herb. This mola of applique work
depicts a Cuna council meeting. An orator is shown addressing two headmen, who lounge in
their hammocks and listen judiciously; one smokes a pipe as he swings. Spectators wander
in and out, and one man is seen napping on a bench.
The Cora Indians of the Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico smoke Cannabis in the course of
their sacred ceremonies. Rarely is an introduced foreign plant adopted and use in
indigenous religious ceremonies, but it seems that the Cora of Mexico and the Cuna of
Panama have taken up the ritual smoking of Cannabis, notwithstanding the fact that, in
both areas, it was brought in by the early Europeans.
In the nineteenth century, a select group of European artists and writers turned to
psychoactive agents in an attempt to achieve what has come to be regarded as
mind-expansion or mind-alteration. Many people, such as the French poet Baudelaire,
believed that creative ability could be greatly enhanced by the use of Cannabis.
In fact, Baudelaire wrote vivid descriptions of his personal experiences under the
influence of Cannabis. At the upper left is Gustave Dore's painting Composition on the
Death of Gerard de Nerval, inspired probably by the use of Cannabis and Opium. At the
upper right is a contemporary American cartoon humorously epitomizing the recurrence of
this belief (it shows caveman around a fire, one saying Hey, what is this stuff? It makes
everything I think seem profound.).
It was not only among the French literati that psychoactive substances raised
expectations. In 1845, the French psychiatrist Moreau de Tours published his
investigation of Hashish in a fundamental scientific monograph Du hachisch et de
l'alienation mentale. Moreau de Tours's scientific study was on the effects of Cannabis.
He explored the use of this hallucinogen in Egypt and the Near East and experimented
personally with it an and other psychoactive plant substances. He concluded that the
effects resemble certain mental disorders and suggested that they might be used to induce
model psychoses.
This marvelous experience often occurs as if it were the effect of a superior and
invisible power acting on the person from without....This delightful and singular
state...gives no advance warning. It is as unexpected as a ghost, an intermittent
haunting from which we must draw, if we are wise, the certainty of a better existence.
This acuteness of though, this enthusiasm of the senses and the spirit must have appeared
to man through the ages as the first blessing.