Miami Marijuana and Politcs
Are you in favor or against the legalization of marijuana?
What is medical marijuana?
What are the effects of marijuana in your body?
How did marijuana become illegal?
Do you consider yourself educated enough to express your opinion about the subject?
If not, I created this page to educate you.
Miami Marijuana
History
Marijuana is originally from the north region of Afghanistan and is also known as cannabis, pot, weed, maconha or hemp. It has been used throughout history in many different parts of the world as a psychoactive plant and also as an agent for achieving euphoria. Marijuana is capable of changing mood, perception, and consciousness. It is also been know to help with relieving stress, increasing creativity, provoking mystical experiences, and heightening your senses, feelings and ability to share.
Miami Marijuana
Miami Marijuana
In 6000 B.C., the marijuana seed was used as a food by the Chinese. This miraculous plant has also been used to create products like fabric. The first fabric known to man is believed to have been woven from dried hemp weed in 4000 B.C., in China. Clothing, jeans, bags, shoes, rope, body lotion, ethanol fuel, etc. have also been created with the use of the hemp plant.
Miami Marijuana
Miami Marijuana
The first direct reference to a cannabis product as a psychoactive agent dates back to 2727 B.C., in the writings of the Chinese emperor Shen Nung.
The focus of this document was marijuana's powers as medication for rheumatism, gout, malaria, and absent-mindedness.
Mention was made of the intoxicating properties, but the medicinal value was considered most important.
It's use spread from Afghanistan to China to India to North Africa and then to Europe.
The hemp plant was introduced to Northern Europe by the Scythians around 500 B.C.
Marijuana grows as weed and it is cultivated all over the world in a variety of climates and soils.
After alcohol, it is the most popular of the "recreational drugs."
Though it was clearly used in a recreational manner, marijuana is one of the five sacred plants of India.
It was the Muslims who started making hashish, and its popularity spread quickly throughout 12th century Persia and North Africa.
Miami Marijuana
Miami Marijuana
Hashish is the purified resinous extract of the hemp plant that is created from the flowering tops and sprouts of cultivated female plants. Hashish was known to be used as a hallucinogen. To create hashish, the resinous secretions were collected, dried, and then compressed into various forms. Then, it could be chewed, eaten (in cakes), or smoked in ball form. Hashish contains the highest concentration of cannabinols among the preparations derived from cannabis.
Hashish is five to ten times stronger than marijuana and is produced mostly in North Africa, Pakistan, Nepal, Lebanon and Turkey
Miami Marijuana
Miami Marijuana
Around 700 B.C., the Zoroastrian Zend-Avesta, an ancient Persian religious text that was written by Zarathustra, mentions marijuana as a "good narcotic."
In 430 B.C., the first writer to mention the use of the hemp plant in ropes and fabric was the father of history, the great Greek historian, Herodotus. He also mentioned the use of marijuana by the Scythians in both ritual and recreation use.
In addition, the fiber of the hemp plant was used in Greek and Roman ships.
In 70 A.D., Dioscorides mentioned the use of cannabis as a Roman medicine.
Additionally, in 500 A.D., the Jewish Talmud mentions the euphoric properties of marijuana.
Smoking cannabis became popular in the Middle East
between 900-1000 and it's use spread throughout the Arab world. By the early 1200s, smoking marijuana had become very popular
in that region. It was popular among Muslims, who, according to the Koran, are not permitted to drink alcohol.
Also in 900 A.D., there were scholars who debated the pros and cons of eating hashish.
In 1378 A.D., Ottoman Emir Soudoun Scheikhouni issued one of the first edicts against the eating of hashish.
During the time of the inquisition, some of the so called "witches" were burned at the stake because they used marijuana among other medicinal plants to make potions. This is when the the Christians adopted a dislike for this plant.
Miami Marijuana
Miami Marijuana
In 1492, Christopher Columbus brought Cannibis Sativa to America and in 1545 the Spanish brought it to their colonies.
Moreover in 1549, Angolan slaves brought marijuana to the sugar plantations of northeastern Brazil where they were permitted to plant it between rows of cane and smoke it in between harvests.
The English introduced it to Jamestown in 1611 A.D. where it became a major commercial crop alongside tobacco and was grown as a source of fiber.
In 1619, a law was passed in Jamestown, Virginia Colony, which required farmers to grow hemp. For example, if you did not grow marijuana, you could be arrested.
Marijuana also became a major trade item between Central and South Asia during this time.
In 1797, at Mount Vernon, George Washington grew hemp as his primary crop and Thomas Jefferson grew hemp as a secondary crop at Monticello.
In 1798, Napoleon declared a total prohibition of hemp in Egypt after realizing that much of the Egyptian lower class were habitual smokers and that part of the fiber production was going to England.
In the United States in 1840, hashish, medicinal preparations with marijuana, opium, or cocaine were available in pharmacies across the country. Marijuana was prescribed for various conditions including labor pains, nausea, and rheumatism.
Its use as an intoxicant was also commonplace from the 1850s to the 1930s.
In 1876, the Sultan of Turkey gave marijuana to the United States as a gift.
By 1880, Turkish smoking parlors were opened all over the northeastern U.S.
In 1890, Hashish was made illegal in Turkey had been replaced by cotton as a major cash crop in southern states.
From 1893 to 1894, the India Hemp Drugs Commission Report was issued.
In 1906, the Pure Food and Drug Act was passed and the Food and Drug Administration was formed regulating the labeling of products containing alcohol, opiates, cocaine, and cannabis. The law went into effect Jan 1, 1907.
This was the first time drugs had any government oversight.
In 1908, Henry Ford made his first Model T with hemp plastic. The car was fueled with hemp ethanol.
In the beginning of the twentieth century, marijuana was not accepted by the higher class.
In the U.S., marijuana was associated with Mexicans. In Europe, it was associated with the Arabs and Indians, and in Brazil with blacks. In other words, the upper class associated marijuana with the lowest and most rejected classes of society.
Since the beginning of time, marijuana was not considered a social threat; however, in 1915, in California, cannabis was prohibited for non-medicinal use. The same was true for Texas in 1919, Louisiana in 1924, and New York in 1927.
It was in the 1920's that marijuana gained popularity.
Some historians say its emergence was brought about by artists, jazz musicians and people in show business during the period of the prohibition.
"Reefer songs" became the rage of the jazz world. Marijuana clubs, called tea pads, sprang up in every major city. These marijuana establishments were tolerated by the authorities because marijuana was not illegal and patrons showed no evidence of making nuisances of themselves or disturbing the community.
In 1928, the recreational use of marijuana was banned in Britain.
After the stock market crash of 1929, marijuana began to be highly associated with criminality and promiscuous sex.
A campaign conducted in the 1930s by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics, now the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, sought to portray marijuana as a powerful, addictive substance that would lead users to become addicted.
In 1934, the Chinese government moved to end all cannabis cultivation and hashish production became illegal in Chinese Turkestan.
In 1936, the propaganda film "Reefer Madness" was made to scare the American youth away from using cannabis.
In 1937, cannabis was made federally illegal in the U.S. by the passage of the Marijuana Tax Act.
Miami Marijuana
In the 1950s, it was a popular accessory of the beat generation. In the 1960s, it was used by college students and "hippies" and was viewed by others as a symbol of rebellion against authority.
The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 classified marijuana along with heroin and LSD as a Schedule I drug, i.e., having the relatively highest abuse potential and no accepted medical use.
Miami Marijuana
In 1972, the Nixon-appointed Shafer Commission urged use of cannabis be re-legalized, but their recommendation was ignored. Today, medical research for the use of marijuana continues.
The 1973 Afghan government made the production and sale of hashish illegal.
Most marijuana at that time came from Mexico, but in 1975 the Mexican government agreed to eradicate the crop by spraying it with herbicide.
Then, Colombia became the main supplier.
The "zero tolerance" climate of the Reagan and Bush administrations resulted in passage of strict laws and mandatory sentences for possession of marijuana and heightened the vigilance against smuggling at the southern borders. As a result, the "war on drugs" brought a shift from reliance on imported supplies to domestic cultivation, particularly in Hawaii and California. Beginning in 1982, the Drug Enforcement
Administration increased their attention to marijuana farms in the United States resulting in a shift to the indoor growing of plants that were specially developed for small size and high yield.
In 1988, the D.E.A. administrative law judge Francis Young found after conducting several thorough hearings, that marijuana had clearly established medical uses and should be re-classified as a prescriptive drug. Unfortunately, his recommendations were ignored.
After over a decade of a decline in use, marijuana smoking began an upward trend once more. In the early 1990s, this was especially true among teenagers.
In 1993, the effort to eradicate cannabis resumed in Morocco, but by 1995 hashish-making equipment and locally produced hashish began appearing in Amsterdam's coffee shops.
On Oct 23, 2001, British secretary, David Blunkett, proposed the relaxation of the classification of cannabis from a class B to class C drug.
Moreover, in June of 2003 Canada was first country in the world to offer medical marijuana to its patients once again.
Miami Marijuana
Miami Marijuana
Portugal On July 1, 2001 became the first European country to abolish criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs.
At the recommendation of a national commission, jail time was replaced with the offer of therapy.
The fear of prison drives addicts underground and incarceration is more expensive than treatment was the conclusion of the comission.
People found guilty of possessing small amounts of drugs have the option to be sent to a psychologist for treatment.
At the time, the country had some of the highest levels of hard-drug use in Europe , critics said that decriminalizing drugs would make Lisbon a drug mecca and it would exacerbate Portugal's drug problem.
Except for some far-right politicians, very few domestic political factions are agitating for a repeal of the 2001 law.
There is no real debate about whether drugs should once again be criminalized.
The results of a report commissioned by the Cato Institute (www.cato.org), found that in the five years after personal possession was decriminalized, illegal drug use among teens
in Portugal declined and rates of new HIV infections caused by sharing of dirty needles dropped from nearly 1,400 in 2000 to about 400 in 2006, the number of deaths from street drug overdoses dropped from around 400 to 290 annually, while the number of people seeking treatment for drug addiction more than doubled.
Decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding success.
It has enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem far better than other Western countries.
The Cato paper reports that between 2001 and 2006 in Portugal, rates of lifetime use of any illegal drug among seventh through ninth graders fell from 14.1% to 10.6%; drug use in older teens also declined. Lifetime heroin use among 16-to-18-year-olds fell from 2.5% to 1.8% (although there was a slight increase in marijuana use in that age group). New HIV infections in drug users fell by 17% between 1999 and 2003, and deaths related to heroin and similar drugs were cut by more than half. In addition, the number of people on methadone and buprenorphine treatment for drug addiction rose to 14,877 from 6,040, after decriminalization, and money saved on enforcement allowed for increased funding of drug-free treatment as well.
Portugal's case study is of some interest to lawmakers in the U.S.
The U.S. imposes on its citizens some of the world's harshest penalties for drug possession and sales. Yet America has the highest rates of cocaine and marijuana use in the world,
and while most of the European Union (including Holland) has more liberal drug laws than the U.S., it also has less drug use.
Anti-user enforcement isn't having much influence on our drug consumption.
But there is a movement afoot in the U.S. to reconsider our overly punitive drug laws.
Congress should create a national commission, like Portugal's, to deal with prison reform and drug-sentencing policy.
The U.S. is home to 5% of the global population but 25% of its prisoners.
A major problem with most American drug policy debate is that it's based on "speculation and fear mongering," rather than empirical evidence on the effects of more lenient drug policies.
In Portugal, the effect was to neutralize what had become the country's number one public health problem.
Decriminalization in Portugal has met its central goal. Drug use did not rise. However, Portugal is a small country and that the cyclical nature of drug epidemics — which tends to occur no matter what policies are in place — may account for the declines in heroin use and deaths.
The Cato report shows that decriminalization does not result in increased drug use.
Drug legalization removes all criminal penalties for producing, selling and using drugs; no country has tried it. In contrast, decriminalization, as practiced in Portugal, eliminates jail time for drug users but maintains criminal penalties for dealers. Spain and Italy have also decriminalized personal use of drugs and Mexico's president has proposed doing the same.
Drug trafficking in Portugal continues to be prosecuted as a criminal offense.
