Richard Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, once said, “Federal and state laws should be changed to no longer make it a crime to possess marijuana for private use.” Ironically, Nixon also claimed America’s biggest problem was drug use and tried concealing information on weed in order to start this war on drugs. The Culture High, a documentary on the journey of weed in America, explains Nixon’s role in marijuana. The documentary also covers much, much more. The Culture High is a two-hour long documentary covering everything on the criminalization of weed: from those opposing its legalization, to those making money from it, the health benefits, derailing marijuana myths, the history of the war on drugs, and more. More than just hippies …show more content…
THC causes the high feeling, but also reduces nausea, increases appetite, decreases inflammation, pain, and muscle problems. CBD can reduce pain and control epileptic seizures (“Is Marijuana Medicine”). There are dozens of other problems marijuana can help with, including: HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer’s, glaucoma, Tourette syndrome, cancers, arthritis, and more. Treating these conditions doesn’t even mean you need to smoke cannabis or eat pot brownies, you don’t even need to get high. Using the chemicals and oils, like CBD, extracted from a cannabis plant, patients only need to take a drink, like a shot of cough syrup, to get the benefits without feeling high! The Culture High shares a story about a young boy named Jayden. When Jayden was not even 4 years old yet, he was having about 500 mini-seizures every day. By 4 ½ years old, Jayden was taking 22 pills per day. By 5 years old, he had consumed over 25,000 pills. When the outlook wasn’t getting better for Jayden, his father sought emergency medical advice. His father brought up medicinal marijuana and his doctor agreed anything was worth a shot. The first day Jayden used cannabidiol as medicine, he had his first seizure-free day. Jayden continued to use medicinal marijuana and …show more content…
Those fighting for its criminalization to stay argue it’s classified as a Schedule 1 drug for a reason. Schedule 1 drugs are listed as having high potential for abuse, having no medical use, and potentially hazardous. Besides marijuana, other Schedule I drugs are: cocaine, LSD, and heroin (“Schedule”). However, marijuana is a Schedule I drug because professionals have not performed enough official tests yet. Dr. Roger Egeberg, Assistant Secretary of Health in 1971, remarked, “Since there is still a considerable void in our knowledge of the plant… marijuana be retained in Schedule 1 at least until the completion of certain studies.” Marijuana is listed in the same category as heroin not because there is evidence suggesting they are similar, but because there is a lack of evidence to put it elsewhere. Back when Dr. Egeberg made this statement, there were minimal tests on the uses and effects of marijuana. Nowadays, there are thousands of tests, reports, and statistics to support removing marijuana from Schedule 1. Also, it’s the same people that made weed illegal that classified it in Schedule 1, the same government that started this war on drugs, and the same government that is making a fortune on
CBD is just one compound in about 80 active chemicals in the marijuana plant. Unlike THC the psychoactive cannabinoid in marijuana that makes you high, CBD is non-psychoactive. Medical marijuana is grown specifically for its high concentration of THC, but hemp is bred to contain the lowest concentrations of THC. So, when you buy CBD hemp oil rather than that made from medical marijuana, you are getting oil high in CBD with practically no significant amount of THC.
Throughout history people have used marijuana for its dried leaves, flowers, stems, and seeds to relieve pain, stress, and other medical issues from one’s life. Within the recent years it has become one of the most debated issues in the United States. In the 1930s, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics (now the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs) claimed that marijuana was a “gateway” drug and was a powerful, addicting substance. During the sixties marijuana became a symbol for rebellion against authority so it became very popular by college students and “hippies”. So in 1982, Drug Enforcement Administration increased pressure on drug farms and houses which decreased the use of marijuana. In the past twenty years marijuana has become a
While cannabis still has its own risks, it’s overall a much safer option to treat chronic pain. Plus, when patients take the correct strain and dose, it doesn’t get them high. Cannabidiol (CBD) is one of the non-psychoactive elements of cannabis that balances out THC—the psychoactive component. Many strains are meant to help relieve pain as well as improve mental clarity so patients can go about their daily lives. Compared to recreational users, patients need miniscule amounts of medical cannabis to obtain relief.
Lately it seems that drug policy and the war on drugs has been in the headlines quite a lot. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the policies that the United States government takes against illegal drugs are coming into question. The mainstream media is catching on to the message of organizations and individuals who have long been considered liberal "Counter Culture" supporters. The marijuana question seems to be the most prevalent and pressed of the drugs and issues that are currently being addressed. The messages of these organizations and individuals include everything from legalization of marijuana for medical purposes, to full-unrestricted legalization of the drug. Of course, the status quo of vote seeking politicians and conservative policy makers has put up a strong resistance to this "new" reform lobby. The reasons for the resistance to the changes in drug policies are multiple and complex. The issues of marijuana’s possible negative effects, its use as a medical remedy, the criminality of distribution and usage, and the disparity in the enforcement of current drug laws have all been brought to a head and must be addressed in the near future. It is apparent that it would be irresponsible and wrong for the government to not evaluate it’s current general drug policies and perhaps most important, their marijuana policy. With the facts of racial disparity in punishment, detrimental effects, fiscal strain and most importantly, the history of the drug, the government most certainly must come to the conclusion that they must, at the very least, decriminalize marijuana use and quite probably fully legalize it.
For over seventy years, marijuana has been a growing problem in our society. Due to all of the controversy over this drug, there have been countless battles fought concerning marijuana's capabilities. In the 1930's, a moral panic surfaced with regard to the use of marijuana. The movie Reefer Madness is a perfect example of how the media stereotyped and distorted this new drug in order to construct it as a social problem, convincing society that this narcotic was single handedly destroying humanity.
Any type of drug should be classified as a schedule I drugs or as another scheduled substance. The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 was signed by Richard Nixon and it defines schedule I drugs to have a high potential for abuse. There is no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the U.S. for marijuana. There is a lack of accepted safety for the use of the drug under medical supervision. Marijuana should be classified as a schedule I drug. I will tell you why by using three different fallacies which are: personal attack, genetic fallacy and circumstantial ad hominem.
While Nixon made it a major crime to possess and distribute drugs, including marijuana, several states went against his belief and decriminalized the use of marijuana. However, presidents weren’t done with their say in the use of drugs. President Ronald Re...
Ever since the federal criminalization of marijuana in the United States in 1937, there has been a large underground drug market (Paul). Much like how the prohibition of alcohol simply forced imbibers underground, those who chose to partake in marijuana are forced to stay away from the prying eye of the law because of present marijuana laws. This means the drug world is concealed from the average citizen, hiding the dangers of drug deals gone wrong, police shootings, and other dangerous occurrences. In a way this allows the government to mask the fact that their well-funded ‘War on Drugs’ is ineffective, a ‘War’ with a budget of roughly twenty billion dollars; which is not profoundly effective in the curbing the use of drugs (Jillette). If the average citizen does not know what is happening, in the eyes of the American zeitgeist, it is not happening. Criminalizing a harmless drug to cut down on its use simply turns its users into criminals, making the crime rate go up and clogging prisons with non-violent criminals. Marijuana is less harmful than alcohol and tobacco and the laws pertaining to it should reflect that.
The legalization of marijuana is a smoldering topic that sparks a debate anytime someone brings up the controversial subject. It is listed on the top of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) drug schedule listing as a controlled Schedule I substance. According to the DEA, “Schedule I drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Schedule I drugs are the most dangerous drugs of all the drug schedules with potentially severe psychological or physical dependence.” Yet, the United States has allowed 20 states to legalize it for medicinal purposes; and, two of those states are legally allowed to use it recreationally. That makes 40% of the country obtain a prescription, while the other 4% are stoners. Why such a discrepancy? Because someone always has to make the rules, while others are just trying to break them.
There are at least two active chemicals in marijuana that have medicinal benefits. One chemical is cannabidiol (CBD), which appears to impact the brain without a high. The second chemical is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which has pain relieving and other properties.
The effects of marijuana are minimal. The high has a feeling of euphoria, peacefulness and well-being. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the active chemical in marijuana. It’s estimated that a person would have to ingest a dose 20,000 to 40,000 times the average dose before death would occur. In the early 1990’s sophisticated research on marijuana began. The scientists discovered THC stimulates special receptors in the brain. Researchers have now isolated a natural substance that appears to produce the same effects as THC in the brain. Recently the medical uses of marijuana are being more and more accepted, and many marijuana smokers wonder how it can be harmful if it helps/treats patients.
Marijuana use and possession has been illegal across all states since the passing of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. However, its usage and abuse were relegated more to the minority populations and had little to do with most of mainstream America. Laws were in place to punish offenders and since most were minorities at the time, there was little to no sympathy for the sentences being handed out from the courts. The outcry from those in mainstream America didn’t come until the 1970’s during President Richard Nixon’s proclaimed “War on Drugs.” This followed a massive increase in drug use during the 1960’s. People blamed the music of the era, politics and mostly the war in Vietnam for the sudden spike in users and ultimately abusers. The difference was that this time it wasn’t just isolated to the minority communities. Educated Caucasian students and even professionals had begun to use drugs and were very open about it. Thi...
The first law that regarded marijuana in America required farmers to grow hemp in the year 1619 for clothing, rope, and other materials, but “as early as 1840, doctors recognized the medical applications of marijuana, and the drug was freely sold in pharmacies for over a century.” (Rich and Stingl). In 1937, the use and possession of marijuana was made illegal, but “before 1937 marijuana was freely bought, sold, grown, and used.”(Rich and Stingl). In 1970 the congress decided to classify marijuana as a schedule one drug, which has made the legalization more difficult, “schedule one drugs are considered dangerous, addictive, and have no medical benefits.”(Rich and Stingl). Marijuana fits the schedule one drug classification because marijuana is dangerous to people’s health, has been found to be addictive if used daily, and also has no medical benefits because marijuana can cause more health problems than it can cure.
Marijuana has more benefits of it being federally legalized than keeping it illegal. The amount of money that can be generated from the marijuana plant is astonishing and would really help America’s economy. Also the best way to prevent teenagers and adolescents from using drugs or alcohol is to inform them on the truth. By classifying marijuana a schedule one drug and cocaine a schedule two the United States government is promoting that cocaine is bad but not as bad when compared to marijuana.
THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the chemical responsible for most of marijuana’s psychological effects. It acts much like the cannabinoid chemicals made naturally by the body. Cannabinoid receptors are concentrated in certain areas of the brain associated with thinking, memory, pleasure, coordination, and time perception. THC attaches to these receptors and activates them and affect’s a person’s memory, pleasure, movements, thinking, concentration, coordination, and sensory and time perception. The main benefit is the pleasure it brings. Not only is it enormously relaxing, but can greatly enhance the pleasure of sensory activities, such as eating, listening to music, and having sex.