The road to Legal: a case for Cannabis

People’s misconception about marijuana has greatly contributed to the varying opinions the people have regarding its use, effect and impact that it has on the user as well as society in general. Before the drug was made illegal, the majority of Americans refrained from using it as it was associated with minority groups like Mexicans and Negros. During its inception, marijuana was introduced as an artificial Paradise drug that was smoked for pleasure in a community that valued work ethics over entertainment. This combined with the xenophobia that existed in the United States during this time discourage people especially those from the white community from indulging in its use. The misconceptions further discourage people from conducting research that would help to understand the impacts that marijuana has on the user and society and this greatly favored those seeking to abolish its use. Although there have been many attempts to control and even prevent the use of marijuana in any capacity in society its prevalence and different uses have led to the popularization of the drug to a point where its use has been made legal in a significant number of communities not only in the United States but across different countries.

Marijuana and its use faced a lot of criticism from the white community and their influence greatly contributed to the laws and restrictions that sought to control or prohibit its use in society. When the drug started being used by members of the community its use was popular among Mexicans and the Negro community (Abel 201). The White on the other hand chose to refrain from its use as they did not want to be associated with people they considered to be lesser beings especially Mexicans and Negros. The Mexicans were comprised of low-class immigrants who were regarded as crude, uneducated and loud. The Mexicans also lived in dirty shanties, spoke foreign languages, and ate strange food. Despite not being slaves, they were mostly peasants who were stereotyped as thieves and untamed savages by the whites. According to the White then, Mexicans and Negroes were largely to blame for the challenges that existed in America including the devastation that hit the American economy in the 1930s (Abel 202). Their tendency to smoke marijuana was, therefore, looked down upon by the whites and they sought to prevent its use by seeking out laws and policies that would discourage others from indulging in marijuana.

The restrictions and prohibition of marijuana use was therefore the result of the various attempts by the White to disassociate themselves from races that they considered inferior such as the Mexicans. The restrictions on marijuana use occurred unexpectedly when Hamilton Wright, who was then the chief United States delegate to the international conference at The Hague. While at The Hague, Wright included Henry J. Finger who was a California pharmacist as part of his team (Abel 203). When giving his presentation, Finger made a plea that marijuana is considered as a narcotic drug along with opium and further sought to have its use censored on a worldwide scale. His request was however influence by the desire to stop the White from being influence into marijuana use by the Hindoos (Abel 203). The decision to control the use of marijuana was therefore as a result of racial discrimination against other races and the fear that consuming the same drug will make whites the same as people from races that were considered inferior.

Italy further popularized the decision to control the use of marijuana when it stated that its participation in the conference at The Hague was dependent on whether restricting cannabis use was part of the agenda to be discussed (Abel 203). This was even though Italy was one of the major producers of fine hemp fabric in the world. The decision to control and restrict the use of cannabis came as a result of people’s dependence on the drug in the African colonies off Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. More attempts were made by the United States House Ways and Means Committee which tried to have marijuana outlawed domestically. When the call to have marijuana outlawed failed to get national support different state legislatures developed their laws and policies that made possession of marijuana illegal unless prescribed by a physician. The first law to restrict cannabis use to only individuals prescribed by physicians was passed in California followed by different states west of the Mississippi like Utah Wyoming Texas Iowa Nevada Oregon Washington Arkansas and Nebraska (Abel 203). While those seeking to outlaw cannabis had valid reasons the multiple uses of the drug made abolishment difficult especially because of its medicinal purposes.

The reliance on cannabis as a prescription drug helped to develop a better understanding of marijuana as well as its benefits. Marijuana’s ability to help people deal with depression and cure headaches greatly popularized it spread to North America and other Muslim countries. By the early 1830s cannabis products like hashish more widely in use in France and other parts of Europe where the drug was used for medicinal and recreational purposes (Atkins & Clayton 26). Cannabis also became popularly used as a painkiller to a point where Queen Victoria used it to relieve her menstrual cramps. Its continued use led to discussions in the scientific and medical literature where hundreds of articles were published to give more insight on the benefits as well as the effects associated with marijuana. A good example is a paper published by Doctor Reynolds in the British medical journal the lancet describing the therapeutic uses of cannabis (Atkins & Clayton 26). The added attention towards cannabis helped to create more awareness about the drug and discouraged people from using stereotypes and other misconceptions to mislead society about marijuana and the impact it had on the users and society in general.

The growing information about cannabis use, its effect, and its impact helped people and organizations to conduct more research on marijuana use and also criticize beliefs that were influenced by misleading and controversial information concerning its use. A good example is the investigations made by the Indian hemp drug commission. The Indian hemp drugs commission was appointed by the British government to identify whether smoking marijuana had any connections with the occupants of the people held in the lunatic asylums of India. The investigation conducted involved hearing testimonies from multiple witnesses a significant number of which were medical practitioners in over 30 cities to try and identify a connection between insanity and marijuana use (Hall 1). The investigation also sought to identify whether smoking marijuana made people prone to engaging in violent crimes.

From its findings, the commission drew the conclusion that moderate use of marijuana was in no way harmful or injurious to the user. In addition, the study revealed that alcohol was more tempting than marijuana and that moderate use of marijuana did not harm the mind in any way thereby disproving the belief that cannabis use was responsible for the high number of insane patients in the asylum (Hall 1). The Indian hemp drugs commission further recommended that any policies and laws should focus on preventing excessive use of the substance rather than abolishing it. Some of the policies suggested by the commission include taxing cannabis products, initiating a licensing system for those intending to cultivate, limiting the number of locations where the product will be sold, and also lowering the number of products that an individual could possess (Atkins &Clayton 29). The recommendations made by the Indian hemp drugs commission played a major role in the legalization of cannabis in the United States and other countries like Canada and Uruguay.

In the period between 1973 and 1978 marijuana has been legalized or decriminalized in more than 12 States in America making up a third of the nation's population (Dufton 211). The States include Oregon Colorado Ohio Alaska California Minnesota and South Dakota to mention a few. In such areas, people were allowed to possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana and the punishment for being caught smoking in public was usually a civil fine rather than criminal charges. On November 6th, 2012, the state of Colorado and Washington legalized the recreational use of marijuana (Dufton 212). People can now purchase marijuana from state-licensed stores for both medicinal and recreational purposes.

Society has greatly evolved and decisions and a longer influenced by biased information or misconceived ideologies. Policies that seek to control the use of substances are influenced by well-conducted research rather than the preferences of an influential few. Research studies conducted to understand cannabis and its impact have enabled society to come up with policies that seek to protect citizens from excessive use of marijuana without limiting them or excluding the benefits that can be reaped if the drug is used correctly. Although legalizing cannabis use has only taken place in select countries, the changes introduce act as an example for other nations to follow and this will likely results in the legalization and decriminalization of marijuana use across the globe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Work cited

Abel, Ernest. “Marihuana: The first twelve thousand years” Springer Science and Business           Media LLC. n.d

Dufton, Emily. “Parents, Peers and Pot: The rise of the Drug Culture and the birth of the Parent   movement, 1976-1980” 2013

Hall, Wayne. The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission 1893–1894. Addiction,             2019 https://doi.org/10.1111/add.14640.

Mosher, Clayton J., and Scott Atkins. In the Weeds : Demonization, Legalization, and the            Evolution of U. S. Marijuana Policy, Temple University Press, 2019. ProQuest Ebook   Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unh/detail.action?docID=5652115.