Legalizing Hemp

For many years, the United States government has prohibited drugs such as marijuana from sale in the marketplace. Yet, with prohibition, marijuana use has decreased only minimally. Because of prohibition, the media has publicized only the bad aspects of marijuana use. What many people do not realize are the many positive aspects of marijuana legalization, including new medical cures, cleaner and more efficient industry, and reduced marijuana usage. Marijuana, as most people commonly know it, is really a plant called hemp, or 'cannabis sativa'. There are other plants called hemp, but cannabis hemp is the most useful of these plants. 'Hemp' is any durable plant used since prehistory for many purposes. Cannabis is the most durable of the hemp plants, and it produces the toughest cloth, named 'canvass'. The cannabis plant also produces three other very important products that other plants do not (in usable form): seed, pulp, and medicine. To understand why hemp is illegal, it is necessary that we take a look at the law prohibiting hemp today. The law that prohibits hemp is called the "Comprehensive Drug Abuse and Control Act of 1970". The Comprehensive Drug Abuse and Control Act of 1970 (Public Law 91-513) overhauled the nation's drug regulation apparatus. Title II of the law, known as the Controlled Substances Act, established criteria for determining which drugs should be controlled, mechanisms for reducing the availability of controlled drugs, and a structure of penalties for illegal distribution and possession of controlled drugs. Marijuana, hashish, and THC are listed in Schedule I, the most restrictive classification. We also have to understand the reasons why marijuana, the drug, became illegal. In fact, it helps to go back to the beginning of the century and talk about two other drugs, opium (the grandfather of heroin) and cocaine.




Opium, a very addictive drug (but relatively harmless by today's standards) was once widely used by the Chinese....