Marijuana

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer notes that like alcohol, marijuana has been used as a mind-altering substance throughout the world and since the beginning of human civilization. However, the writer relates that marijuana played a far different role in European-American society than alcohol. The writer then explains that the wild cannabis weed has provided human beings with strong fibrous rope and fabric for centuries and, known as hemp, was used functionally throughout colonial American history. The writer argues that banning a weed outright seems preposterous and yet notes that the American government has for nearly a century clamped down on the recreational use of marijuana, classifying it among the most harmful narcotic substances known. The writer concludes that regulation of the drug could follow similar laws that are currently in place for alcohol, which is not available to minors and which is taxed and regulated on a state-by-state basis.

Outline:
Background
Schedule What?
We're in the Money
Un-American
Works Cited

From the Paper:

"Like alcohol, marijuana has been used as a mind-altering substance throughout the world and since the beginning of human civilization. However, marijuana played a far different role in European-American society than alcohol. The wild cannabis weed has provided human beings with strong fibrous rope and fabric for centuries and, known as hemp, was used functionally throughout colonial American history. So entrenched was cannabis to the early American economy that the colonial Virginia legislature mandated that farmers grow hemp in 1619; moreover, hemp was allowed to be exchanged as legal tender in colonial Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland. Even its functional form as hemp has been overlooked in light of prohibition and the only hemp products available on the market today are overpriced and marketed primarily toward counterculture."

Sample of Sources Used:

• "Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About Marijuana Use." Schaeffer Library of Drug Policy. Retrieved Aug 11, 2006 from http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/mjfaq1.htm
• Beatty, Phillip, Holman, Barry and Schiraldi, Vincent. "Poor Prescription: The Costs of Imprisoning Drug Offenders in the United States." Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. 2002. Retrieved Aug 11, 2006 from http://www.cjcj.org/pubs/poor/pp.html
• Bonnie, Richard & Whitebread, Charles H. "The Forbidden Fruit and the Tree of Knowledge: An Inquiry into the Legal History of American Marijuana Prohibition." Virginia Law Review. Vol. 56(70). Oct. 1970. Schaeffer Library of Drug Policy. Retrieved Aug 11, 2006 from http://www.druglibrary.org/Schaffer/LIBRARY/studies/vlr/vlrtoc.htm
• "Costs of Marijuana Prohibition: Economic Analysis." Marijuana Policy Project. Retrieved Aug 11, 2006 from http://www.prohibitioncosts.org/
• "Exposing the Myth of Smoked Medical Marijuana." DEA. Retrieved Aug 11, 2006 from http://www.dea.gov/ongoing/marijuana.html

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