The History of Marijuana          

By: TRINA

  

Who would have thought that something that grows naturally in the ground would one day be illegal? I bet George and Martha Washington didn’t. For those of you who don’t know what marijuana is, it is dried leaves and female flower parts of a hemp plant. There are around 400 different chemicals in the plant. Out of the 400 chemicals THC, a compound, C₂₁H₃₀O₂, affects the brain the most.

Marijuana was legal for years and years. Why all of a sudden did it become illegal?  It dates back all the way to 7000 to 8000 B.C when the first woven fabric was made, believed to be from hemp. Even more astonishing, in 1619, Jamestown Colony, Virginia passed a law requiring all farmers to grow hemp. Our first president George Washington grew hemp as his primary crop.

 In 1096, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) formed, which was “the first occasion that drugs had any government oversight.” After the FDA formed, a lot of things started changing, which led to the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, making marijuana prescriptions illegal in the United States. The bill passed on the idea that marijuana caused “murder, insanity, and death.” The idea was explained to the U.S. Congress by Harry Anslinger. It was then introduced to the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Having marijuana in your possession or using it was not entirely wrong at that point. The act made it so that anyone who dealt commercially in marijuana would have a tax to pay around one dollar. Then the violators of the procedure would be punished with 2000 dollars in fines and/or a sentence in prison up to five years. They made this net effect so people would not take the chance in selling marijuana.

The 1970’s Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act, states that all pharmaceutical industry must keep certain drugs under strict record keeping and also have physical security making sure they stay where they intended to. This act turned marijuana into a schedule 1 drug. There are five schedules for drug classifications. Schedule 1 was made for the most harmful and dangerous drugs that have no recognized medical use.

The Institute of Medicine had a report in 1999 that stated, “The accumulated data indicate a potential therapeutic value for cannabiniod drugs, particularly for symptoms such as pain relief, control of nausea and vomiting, and appetite stimulation. The Institute of Medicine also asked itself a very important question. Would the use of medical marijuana increase the use in the general public? They responded with, “At this point there is no convicting data to support this concern.” Another good point that there research brought up is that, “Marijuana is not completely benign substance. It is a powerful drug with a variety of effects. However, except for the harms associated with smoking, the adverse effects of marijuana use are within a range of effects tolerated for other medications.”

Sitting here writing this paper I wondered if people were aware of all these things. So I decided to interview some people with some general questions. Most of the answers I got were high-quality. In some of the questions people had no idea what I was even talking about. I asked five questions and this is the data I received.

 

1)      What is marijuana?

 

“It’s an herb and a mood enhancer.”

“It is a plant that is illegal; people smoke it to get high for fun.”

 

2)      When did it become popular?

 

“The hippie era.”

“I think it really became in the 60’s; people thought it would take you to a higher consciousness.”

 

3)      When did it become illegal?

 

“1937.”

“I’m not sure exactly when.”

 

4)      Why did it become illegal?

 

“I think the main reason was because it was against some religious views.”

“Probably because people were using it for extreme recreational purposes and the government didn’t like that”

 

5)      What schedule is it classified on? (What does that mean?)

 

“Schedule 5 because it’s one of the few illegal substances that is completely natural.”

“Schedule 5 because it’s not that dangerous.”

 

           With all the information I found out I think it’s ridiculous that it’s a schedule 1 drug and that people assume its so terrible. There is not a single case of anyone dying from an overdose. With all of the drugs out there I’m almost 100% sure that there have been at least one or more cases of someone overdosing on any other drug. It is less dangerous to consume too much marijuana than it is to consume too much aspirin. It only takes 50 doses or aspirin to kill you, which doesn’t seem to compare to the 40,000 doses of marijuana to be lethal. Aspirin is a schedule 3 drug which is less dangerous and has accepted medical purposes. Does anyone see a problem here?

                                    Stereotypes For Women  

 

Stereotypes for the lady population have been around for hundreds of years. The larger known stereotype women are seen as are housewives. Remember as a young boy or girl playing house?  In this pretend game that most people participated in it was always the “daddy” coming home from work, to the “mommy” who was cooking and cleaning. Young girls playing this game didn’t know at the time that the game they were playing was actually demoralizing to their gender.  There are tons of stereo types for women. Like that their inferior to men, they are emotional all the time, their weaker than men, they are to stay home take care of the house and children and be good. This treatment of women occurs in all cultures.

 

            The Chinese had the housewife stereotype embedded in women’s. Long ago, a young Chinese girls about 6 or 7 years of age would have their feet binded. The arch of their foot was broken and their toes bent under and bound.  It was considered “beautiful” and ensured that they would have “little golden lilies” for the rest of their life. This was very painful for them and affected them for the rest of their lives. They could only hobble, not being able to walk or run properly. This practice allowed men to feel even more superior because the women couldn’t do anything due to not being able to walk. In the other cultures girls were being brainwashed by stereotypes since they were born. Fairytales, something all young girls loved and remember watching in their younger days. In most of these fairytales and stories the women are perceived as helpless housewives. For example, the story of Cinderella shows that if you are good, clean, cook and are beautiful you will be desired by all men. The step sisters she cooks and cleans for are wealthy women who don’t have to lift a finger when it came to cooking and cleaning, yet they are automatically perceived as rude, ugly and obnoxious.  Cinderella may have been sweet and good, but the truth was she was weak, and didn’t have a mind of her own.

 

So the question I leave to men and women of all ages are what kind of stereotypes do they see women as and if they believe any of them? To answer some these questions I interviewed 5 women and 5 men. The five women, Bird (17) Caitie (21) Jamie (43) Carol (70) and Ashlee (21) all had the same answers along the same lines. The main stereotype they hear used against women were that women are only meant to be housewives. Stay at home moms cooking and cleaning for their husbands before they come home from their big time careers. Carol, age 70 was a young woman back when it the only goal for a woman was to be married with lots of children.  Most had no interest or goals in having a career. The younger women have heard the stereotype of being a slut if you have slept with two or more partners. While guys who do this are considered pimps, and are “oh so cool”. All of these women have been victims of these stereotypes at one point or another. After interviewing these five women, I decided to interview five men. When I asked them what kind of stereotypes they have heard used against women all them answered that “women are suppose to be home with the children.”  Augie, age 15 stated that he “thinks it’s awesome that women are out there doing jobs that use to be only meant for a man”. He also stated that he doesn’t believe any of these ridiculous stereotypes that are pointed towards women.  Austin, age 16 also doest believe any of these stereotypes. He stated that it’s split down the middle between women and men. “There are things women can do that men can’t and there are things men can do that women cant.”  Wes, age 29 stated that at one point in time he probably used a stereotype, but can’t remember what it was about. However, he doesn’t believe there are any stereotypes that have truth to them and regrets the times he ever used one. Rubin and Wes both believe that women are not inferior to men just “different”.

 

The interviewed women answered the questions I used during the interview with more of an angry response. The men answered them with an unsure attitude and really had to think about the questions. That to me shows improvement in our society about stereotyping women. If these questions were asked back in the day the men would have had quick answers to these questions that would have been stereotypical. Let’s hope that it keeps improving and that women don’t ever feel like their inferior to men.  

The Rockies played a terrible game yesturday. The game ended 15-2 and was a sad defeat for not only the Rockies but for the fans. Being a spectator yesturday in section 146 row 38 seat 1, I was impressed with both teams efforts. I was a little disappointed that player 25 wasnt present for the Giants. The Rockies however, think they may have hit something good trading righty Byung-Hyun Kim for righty Jorge Julio from Flordia.

For more info on the game see: http://www.longmontfyi.com/sports-story.asp?id=16352

WORLD, the died on April, 26^th, 2007. It was around 4.57 billion years old. The world was born in the Milky Way Galaxy. Scientists say from the theory of the “big bang.” The world had countless numbers of children. Some who were very respectful and some who were not. The world was a very respectful place it let people walk all over it. In its free time the world loved spinning on its axis and visiting his friends: the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. The world loved to be photographed. The ceremony will be held in a black hole on May 2, 2007. Donations are being accepted at this time, you can make your donations at the asteroid belt.

A trailor caught on fire trapping six dogs and two cats inside. Neighboors tried to help with hoses and extinguishers. Firefighters got to the scene, and saved all but two animals: one cat and one dog. They tried to resuscitate them, but failed. The rest of the animals were taken to the vet, and then to the Longmont Humane Society until the family can get them back. 

A man by the name of Yahya Jammeh (President of Gambia) claims to have cured AIDS. His cure consists of praying over his patients with a plastic tube, and then smearing a green paste on there rib cage. He then has them drink a yellowish liquid, followed by eating two bananas. He also insists that they stop taking their AIDS medication; he doesn't want any bad drug interactions. He sent nine blood samples from his first patients to be tested for HIV in a Senegal labratory. Four had undetectable viral loads, three had high viral loads, and one had a moderate viral load. Many people seem skeptic, but Jammeh says "I can cure AIDS, and i will."

New Stonhenge discoveries have been made about 2 miles away from the original monument. It seems to be some type of ancient living quarters. Some places are dirtied with broken pots and bones, and some are spotless. The dirty places are seen as a place of gathering, and the clean places are seen as a living plalce for someone important. There also apear to be markings of roads. The road leading to the River Avon. Another fairly new discovery was in Egypt, where they beleieve an ancient lake was.  

Baby hostage

A hospital in Indonesia is holding a baby because the parents can't pay thier fees. They owe about 2.2 million rupiah(which is about $320) of the 3.5 million rupah fee. Mr Sutrisno, 33, is a pedicab driver, and dosent know how he is going to get the money. The clinic says that the parents initially agreed to the deal, and say that "we didnt take the baby hostage."

 Wii News

On saturday, the Wii News Channel will come online, and people with an internet equipped Wii will be able to access news in 7 different languages. They have a contract with the associated press and will soon have multimedia news. There is an interactive map so you can concentrate on one part of the world.

 

This story is about a guy who has a really, really nice garage.  It's a nice feature, but why did it get sooooo much space in the paper?  You should certainly check out the article; I'd love to have a garage like that!

 

 

Welcome to this Elgg installation.