Cannabis (drug)

:This article is about cannabis used as a drug. For other uses, see cannabis.

History of cannabis usage

Cannabis has been known as a medicinal and psychoactive compound since early times, and was used in this fashion without stigma until its criminalization in the early 20th century.

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Ancient history

Cannabis was well known to the Scythians, as well as by the Thracians/Dacians, whose shamans (the kapnobatai - "those who walk on smoke/clouds") used to burn cannabis flowers in order to induce trances. The cult of Dionysus, which is believed to have been originated in Thrace, has also been linked to the effects of cannabis smoke. The most famous users of cannabis though were the ancient Hindus. According to legend, Shiva, the destructive aspect of the Hindu trinity, told his disciples to use the hemp plant in all ways possible. Cannabis is also thought by some to be the ancient drug soma, mentioned in the Vedas as a sacred intoxicating hallucinogen, although a number of advocates for different psychoactive substances such as Amanita muscaria and Salvia divinorum make this claim as well.

Related Topics:
Scythia - Thracians - Dacia - Shamans - Kapnobatai - Dionysus - Thrace - Hindu - Shiva - Soma - Veda - Amanita muscaria - Salvia divinorum

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Recent history

Under the name cannabis 19th-century medical practitioners helped to introduce the herb's drug potential (usually as a tincture) to modern English-speaking consciousness. It was famously used to treat Queen Victoria's menstrual pains, and was available from shops in the US. By the end of the 19th century its medicinal use began to fall as other drugs such as aspirin took over.

Related Topics:
Tincture - Queen Victoria - Aspirin

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The name marijuana is Mexican or Latin American in origin and associated almost exclusively with the herb’s drug potential. That marijuana is now well known in English as a name for drug material is due largely to the efforts of US drug prohibitionists during the 1920s and 30s, who used a hispanic name for cannabis in order to turn the populace against the idea that it should be legal.

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Although cannabis has been used for its psychoactive effects since ancient times, it first became well known in the United States during the jazz music scene of the late 1920s and 30s. Louis Armstrong became one of its most prominent and life-long devotees. Cannabis use was also a prominent part of 1960s counterculture

Related Topics:
Jazz - 1920s - 30s - Louis Armstrong - 1960s

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Today in America, there are 10 states that provide some legal protection for patients who use marijuana with the consent or recommendation of a doctor. Most recently, Vermont became the 10th state to pass medical marijuana legislation.

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Prohibition and criminalization in the US

Until 1937, consumption and sale of cannabis was legal in most American states. In some areas it could be openly purchased in bulk from grocers or in cigarette form at newsstands, though an increasing number of states had begun to outlaw it. In that year, federal law made possession or transfer of cannabis (without the purchase of a by-then-incriminating tax stamp) illegal throughout the United States. This was contrary to the advice of the American Medical Association at the time. Legal opinions of the time held that the federal government could not outlaw it entirely. The tax was $100 per pound of hemp, even for clothes or rope. The expense, extremely high for that time, was such that people stopped openly buying and making it.

Related Topics:
1937 - American Medical Association

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The decision of the U.S. Congress was based in part on testimony derived from articles in the newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst, who was heavily interested in DuPont Inc. Some analysts theorize DuPont wanted to boost declining post-war textile sales, and wished to eliminate hemp fiber as competition. Many argue that this seems unlikely given DuPont's lack of concern with the legal status of cotton, wool, and linen; although it should be noted that hemp's textile potential had not yet been largely exploited, while textile factories already had made large investments in equipment to handle cotton, wool, and linen. Others argue that Dupont wanted to eliminate cannabis because its high natural cellulose content made it a viable alternative to the company's developing innovation: modern plastic. Still, others could argue that hemp could never truly compete with the high strength and elasticity of synthetics, such as nylon. Furthermore, hemp would have been an easy target due to its intoxicating effect, while no rational justification could have been made for outlawing cotton, wool, or linen.

Related Topics:
William Randolph Hearst - DuPont Inc - Hemp - Cellulose - Plastic - Nylon

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During this period, Henry (Harry) Anslinger alleged that the drug could provoke criminal behavior in previously solid citizens. Anslinger also popularized the word marihuana for the plant, using a Mexican derived word (believed to be derived from an archaic Brazilian Portuguese term for inebriation, "Maria Joana") in order to associate the plant with increasing numbers of Mexican immigrants, creating a negative stereotype which persists to this day.

Related Topics:
Henry (Harry) Anslinger - Mexican - Brazilian Portuguese

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The 1937 federal marijuana tax act was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1969. In a case brought by Timothy Leary, the Court held that the law's requirement that a would-be possessor of marijuana register with the local bureau of the IRS, thereby placing his name and address on a file available to local law enforcment, violated the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, given the fact that at the time all 50 states had state laws on the books outlawing marijuana outright. In 1970, the Controlled Substances Act made possession of marijuana illegal again on a federal level, without the Fifth Amendment issues that scuttled the 1937 act, and without apparent concern for the issues which required the Eighteenth Amendment to effect the prohibition of alcohol. Several petitions for cannabis rescheduling in the United States have been filed, since the Act permits legalization of marijuana through the executive branch.

Related Topics:
Supreme Court - 1969 - Timothy Leary - IRS - Fifth Amendment - 1970 - Controlled Substances Act - Eighteenth Amendment - Prohibition of alcohol - Cannabis rescheduling in the United States

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