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Marijuana: Legalization

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From around 1,000 B.C. until after the American Civil War, the marijuana plant was the world's largest cash crop. Fabric, rope, lighting oil, paper, medicine, food oil, and a source of protein, were just a few of its uses (Overbeck, "Billion"). It's hard to imagine a plant this great had been outlawed. There have been many misnomers and lies that have been spread about the usage of marijuana. In Bruce Goldstein's book, Psychology, three major studies were conducted on the effects of long-time marijuana usage. These studies, one in each of Jamaica, Costa Rica, and Greece, all failed to find evidence of physical or psychological damage in long-time users. But others find that there is evidence that lung damage could occur as a result of chronic use(207). It is a common belief that marijuana causes damage to the brain cells, which causes memory loss, impairment and/or difficulty learning. Lynn Zimmer and John Morgan's findings in "Exposing Marijuana Myths," have shown otherwise. According to Zimmer and Morgan, this claim was based on a study that found damage in the brains of two lab monkeys. The damage was done in an area known as the hippocampus, which is involved in learning and memory functions. Other tests conducted on rodents found similar results. These rodents had to be given the equivalent of two-hundred times the psychoactive dose for humans ("Exposing").Many agree that marijuana does affect the process of information from short-term to long-term memory, but this is only while under the influence of the drug. It has been shown that daily users who quit, do regain normal short-term memory in as little as a week, with no evidence of

long-term effects. Government studies shown that marijuana potency has increased as much as ...

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...ine. Internet. 1996. Availablehttp://www.parascope.com/mx/hemp01.htm- - -

"Reefer Madness." 1996. Online. Internet. 1996. Availablehttp://www.parascope.com/mx/hemp02.htm- - -

"Hemp for Victory." 1996. Online. Internet. 1996. Availablehttp://www.parascope.com/mx/hemp03.htm- - -

"Hemp World Order." 1996. Online. Internet. 1996. Availablehttp://www.parascope.com/mx/hemp04.htmZimmer, Lynn. and John P. Morgan. "Exposing Marijuana Myths: A Review of the Scientific Evidence." 1995. Online. Internet. 1995. Availablehttp://www.drugtext.nl/TLC/mjmyth.html or Exposing Marijuana Myths...
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