Marijuana for Medicinal Purposes
In 1936 when Marijuana was made illegal it was considered a medicine in good standing with the American Medical Association. At the time Marijuana could be found in twenty eight different medical products and countless other consumer products. On November 5th, 1996 California and Arizona passed propositions allowing the return of medicinal Marijuana use.
The campaign in 1936 to make Marijuana an illegal substance was championed by two large companies, Dupont Chemicals and Hearst Newspapers, that gained financially by having Marijuana banned. For Hearst Newspapers it was to protect the investment that they had just made buying a large amount of paper trees. Marijuana can produce about 4 times the amount of paper per acre than trees, and twice as many fibers per acre than cotton. (Hempnet 1) Hearst was well aware of this and moved to ban Marijuana. Marijuana costs little to grow and can be made into cloth, canvas, and other high quality textiles.
English: DEA raid on a medical marijuana dispensar...
Marijuana
English: The Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijua...The use of Marijuana for
textile production would have seriously hurt Dupont who had invested heavily in
both paper production and the use of cotton. In 1936 Dupont joined Hearst and
Leese 2
using scare tactics and effective lobbying were able to ban the growth, sale, and use of Marijuana.
Besides denying the public of the use of Marijuana as a textile, food source, and alternative energy source, these large companies selfishly robbed many sick people of a drug that can help them. Marijuana can be used to combat glaucoma, epilepsy, Multiple Sclerosis, back pain, asthma, rheumatism, arthritis, migraines, emphysema, cystic fibrosis, and promotes appetite in some cancer and AIDS patients. Drugs like morphine, valium, lithium, and codeine are regularly given to patients and are far more addictive, having many more negative affects than Marijuana. Marijuana 'has little effect on...