Everyone nowadays is talking about pot. Call it what you will- marijuana, cannabis, pot, mary jane, grass, weed, or gange. Marijuana has now been legalized in more than half of the United States, and the trend continues to spread. However, it remains a controversial and prominent subject today. Even though new uses and information is discovered often, the stereotypical view of a “pothead” ruins the positive effects that this drug could bring. With all of the diverse and dynamic attitudes and widespread misinformation, marijuana should be fully legalized in the US because of its cultural, economic, and medicinal benefits.
Starting off with the basics, marijuana did not always used to be looked down upon. It has been around and purposed with a variety of intentions over the …show more content…
Its legal history and how it got its place on the federal government’s most dangerous list is quite interesting, and not expected. It starts by going back to the history around the time of the Mexican Revolution when their people were migrating into the southern states of the US. They brought around the drug “marihuana” used for culture and medicine (Burnett, 1). Americans already knew about cannabis, but the new name and type of people it was associated with frightened them. Of course, the media stepped in and played up those fears to another level. It just extended the causation of mexican racism and is still around today. Continuing on, in the 1930s a rumor went around that the drug could “cause men of color to become violent and solicit sex from white women” (Burnett, 1). Even though these stories could not be backed up, they spread like wildfire and set the scene for laws to be made. The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 and the Controlled Substances Act came into
Starting off with the basics, marijuana did not always used to be looked down upon. It has been around and purposed with a variety of intentions over the …show more content…
Its legal history and how it got its place on the federal government’s most dangerous list is quite interesting, and not expected. It starts by going back to the history around the time of the Mexican Revolution when their people were migrating into the southern states of the US. They brought around the drug “marihuana” used for culture and medicine (Burnett, 1). Americans already knew about cannabis, but the new name and type of people it was associated with frightened them. Of course, the media stepped in and played up those fears to another level. It just extended the causation of mexican racism and is still around today. Continuing on, in the 1930s a rumor went around that the drug could “cause men of color to become violent and solicit sex from white women” (Burnett, 1). Even though these stories could not be backed up, they spread like wildfire and set the scene for laws to be made. The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 and the Controlled Substances Act came into