Marijuana Pot History

Marijuana, also known as pot in its plant form, has had many uses throughout history. The plant can be used as hemp to make rope, sacks, clothing and jewelry. As a legal drug its leaves and buds have been used in patent medicine, and as an anti-nausea drug (Narconon.org , n.pag.). As a recreational drug, its use has gone from legal, as a substitute for alcohol during prohibition, to mildly illegal in the middle part of the 20th century to being classified as a schedule 1 narcotic along with heroin and methamphetamine. Pot was there at the beginning of the jazz age in the 20’s, was a part of the 50’s beat generation and was nearly required for the late 60’s generation of love. The laws penalizing its use can run from a misdemeanor ticket for

It had many important uses in its various forms and was spread all over the world because of its versatility. It was first used as medicine in early China as a medication for malaria, gout and rheumatism. It’s referenced in the 2737 BC writings of Emperor Shen Nung, and although they acknowledge the fact that it is an intoxicant, they felt the medicinal value was more important. Since the Koran bans the use of alcohol, the Muslims used pot as an allowed alternative and they also developed pot’s concentrated form, hashish. Marijuana spread through Persia and North Africa, from where it then spread to Europe (Narconon.org, n.pag). The plant saw other uses besides as a medicine. Cannabis was used as the main source of pulp for paper from the seventh century until the use of rags took over in the eighteenth century. The Spaniards brought marijuana to Chile and Peru, and finally to North America in the mid sixteenth century. The English then introduced it to their colony in Virginia, Jamestown, in1611, as a crop to be grown with tobacco, although its main use was as a source of fiber, to be used as hemp. In the late nineteenth century, cotton replaced hemp as the major source of fiber for many of the uses that hemp had. Hemp growth would make resurgence during the Second World War as a source of fiber for maritime ropes, due to the plant’s ability to grow

It was listed as being useful for nausea, rheumatism and labor pains, among other ills. However, in the 1930’s an anti-marijuana campaign was started. Early reasons for banning marijuana had its basis in racism and progressed as a political topic. Since it was being used by black jazz musicians and jazz fans, many people saw this as an immoral pit that would entrap white women who would then be compelled to have sex with non-whites. The first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry Anslinger, has many racial slurs attributed to him which, revolve around the use of marijuana causing inter-racial relations. Marijuana use at the time, was more prevalent in the southwest United States where Mexican migrant workers would smoke the readily available weed. With the Great Depression came unbelievable unemployment, and one way to create jobs for people, even though they were subsistence level jobs, was to deport many Mexicans who came north of the border to work as migrants. By classifying pot as a dangerous drug, they could easily justify deporting the Mexicans who had worked as migrant farm workers for