For the past ninety years, marijuana has been an enemy to drug agencies, government officials, and presidential administrations. Smoke Signals, a book about the oppressive and beneficial history of marijuana, is written as an effective argument while highlighting the plant in many different social settings. Cannabis use can be traced back to the Neolithic Period (10,200-4500 BC). Since then, nearly every culture continued to use marijuana for personal reasons, causing information to surge throughout the world. Some cultivate marijuana for the stems and stalk that produce cordage and cloth, while others eat the marijuana seeds for the essential fatty acids and protein.
Later, Virginia, farmers were actually fined for not growing this plant. From the 17th to the mid 20th century marijuana was considered a household drug used from treating headaches, menstrual cramps, and toothaches. Between the years 1919-1938 a stronger plant was born by American drug companies it was called Cannabis Americana. Marijuana now being a, drug soon became popular among musicians who maintained that smoking gave them the inspiration they needed to play there music. Others began to get addicted to marijuana, it spread world wide to major cities such as Chicago, New York, Paris, and London.
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.
Marijuana was a very important crop many years ago in England. During Henry VIII’s time, he required every quarter acre of land to be planted with marijuana crops for every sixty acres. (Kayla Webley 21) Eventually the crop came across the ocean and entered into the United States. Marijuana use to be legal and could be used for many forms of payment. You could even pay your ... ... middle of paper ... ...e that has not yet passed the law they may be taken to jail.
With increased popularity the use of marijuana for medical uses spread like wildfire throughout Asia, the Middle East and the coast of Africa (Stack,2009). In the 1840s a French doctor, Jacques-Joseph Moreau did research and found that marijuana could inhibit headaches, aid in sleep and increase appetite. With increased use and research by 1914 the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act was implemented to tax persons that imported and produced opium and cocoa leaves. Although not directly related this becomes a representation to a later drug regulation basis for the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. This act allowed doctors to prescribe marijuana for medical purposes but in order for them to do so they had to pay an annual tax along with registering with the federal government.
There are two theories behind how cannabis made its journey. Historians speculate that troops under Napoleon's leadership brought marijuana to Europe in 1804 and from there European immigrants brought it to the new world. The second theory was that the Spanish conquistadors brought marihuana with them and then Mexican migrant workers brought it to North America. The regulation of recreational marijuana was first limited by the state governments in Washington D.C in 1906 and was made illegal at a federal level in 1937. Although the spelling ‘marijuana’ is most common, almost all states use the alternate spelling of ‘marihuana’.
It is believed that marijuana was introduced by the Spanish in 1545 to Chile. In America the plant was first grown in Virginia and Massachusetts in the sixteen hundreds. It became a major commercial crop that was grown along with tobacco and was a source of fiber for fabric, rope and cloth. Later it was used to treat many health problems. During the 19th century many medical articles were written discussing marijuana’s value in treating conditions.
In America, most believe that the Native Americans were aware of this plant, but most likely introduced by the Spaniards. The Spaniards brought the cannabis seed to Chile around 1545. In America, the plant was first grown in Virginia and Massachusetts in the sixteen hundreds. This plant was considered legal from the 1600’s until the 19th century. There is little evidence that shows marijuana being used for recreationally use in the U.S. during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Hemp was an integral part of early Indo-European religious ceremonies for thousands of years. Records from Assyria in 650 BC referred to it as a drug called azulla that was used for making rope and cloth, and which was also used for experiencing euphoria. Hempen sails brought the Spanish, Dutch, and British conquerors to the new world (Charpentier 18). In North America, hemp was planted near Jamestown in 1611 for use in making rope. In order to keep a constant supply of hemp available, a law was passed in Massachusetts in 1639, requiring every household to plant hemp seed.
The term "marijuana" is a word with indistinct origins. Some believe it is derived from the Mexican words for "Mary Jane"; others hold that the name comes from the Portuguese word marigu-ano, which means "intoxicant". The use of marijuana in the 1960's might lead one to surmise that marihuana use spread explosively. The chronicle of its 3,000 year history, however, shows that this "explosion" has been characteristic only of the contemporary scene. The plant has been grown for fiber and as a source of medicine for several thousand years, but until 500~ AD its use as a mind-altering drug was almost solely confined in India.