Weed as a Medicine!

Even though there are many medical marijuana dispensaries all over the country, the US still classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 controlled substance. This means that it has no accepted medical uses and is nothing more than a drug. Marijuana has been used as medicine since before recorded history and continues to be used as such today, even if our government doesn’t want us to. It’s about time we start looking to the past to see what marijuana can really do for those in pain.

Marijuana in the Early Years

Marijuana was added to the United States Pharmacopeia in 1850. It was clear that this was a powerful form of treatment capable of treating many ailments and diseases. Many physicians during this time would prescribe cannabis as their first choice for many conditions. Smoking weed has been helping man kind get through the day since before we can all remember. The Poison act in 1913 was one of the first steps to outlawing cannabis which made it illegal to produce or to be in possession of marijuana extracts and other narcotic forms of the plant. California was the first of many states to outlaw cannabis in the United States and it remains this way to this day.

Fear and Ignorance

Even though marijuana had proven to be a great tool in the medical field, there were people who wanted it gone because of the effect it had on big businesses like paper and cotton. Outlawing cannabis was not done because it does not have medical benefits, it was done because people were afraid. Here is a letter from Henry J. Finger to Hamilton Wright, the lead architect of the US drug policy. Finger wrote, “Within the last year we in California have been getting a large influx of Hindoos and they have in turn started quite a demand for cannabis indica; they are a very undesirable lot and the habit is growing in California very fast…the fear is now that they are initiating our whites into this habit… We were not aware of the extent of this vice at the time our legislature was in session and did not have our laws amended to cover this matter, and now have no legislative session for two years (January, 1913). This matter has been brought to my attention a great number of time[s] in the last two months…it seems to be a real question that now confronts us: can we do anything in the Hague that might assist in curbing this matter?” (canorml.org)

Where Do We Go from Here?

This just shows how misinformed some people really are. Our country used to be full of people like this, It’s sad, but it’s the truth. If we want to get back to our roots and to move on in the most logical way possible, then we need to legalize marijuana. The medical marijuana programs certainly help, but these programs are constantly scrutinized and raided by the federal government. If we could have legal marijuana in the US, I think it would be a much happier place to live.