Today is a world like no other regarding how much things like technology, fashion, and even medicine have advanced. When my parents were growing up in the late 1960’s and early 70’s, aspirin was the number one over-the-counter painkiller for headaches, fevers, and regular aches and pains. Fast-forward to today, we have Advil, Tylenol, Aleve, Excedrin, and the list goes on. But growing up when they did, they were also familiar with the drug marijuana and all the stereotypes associated with it. It is a plant-based drug that has been considered to be forbidden and has been stereotyped with hippy culture throughout the 70’s and 80’s. It is classified as a schedule 1 drug, along with drugs like LSD and Heroin, meaning it has no medical uses and a high potential to be abused. But since that classification in 1970, scientist have not only found one way for marijuana to be used medically but many. The uses spread from managing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), sleep apnea, and even seizures, all of which have had little to no cures in the past. With all the information the scientific community has presented, I believe the benefits of medical marijuana on patients justifies its legality in medical marijuana laws across the country.
As familiar or not the word marijuana is to you, you may be shocked to know that’s not the name for the drug. Developed around the cannabis herb, it’s a slang term around the time of the Spanish American War. Cannabis is made up of a number of cannabinoids, the exact number is often disputed but is usually at least 60. The two most commonly known cannabinoids are THC and CBD. THC, also delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, is considered to be the most psychoactive cannabinoid in the plant. This is what gives the body a mental high. CBD, short for Cannabidiol is deemed to be the least psychoactive cannabinoid in the plant along with being the most anti-inflammatory. The last major part of the cannabis plant is hemp which is filled with fibers and has no drug related components, used in ropes and other products. Even though its name is genuinely Cannabis, history has most commonly referred to it as Marijuana, so I am going to continue to see to it as so.
Marijuana has been used recreationally and medically for centuries. According to the history of “Marijuana”, presented by History.com, Sir William Brooke O’Shaughnessy was an Irish doctor who was studying the effects of cannabis extracts in patients with cholera in India. In 1830, he found that the extracts could reduce the stomach pains and limit the vomiting of people infected with the disease. That was the first time in recorded history that it was studied and found to be an effective healing pharmaceutical. It later was commonly sold throughout pharmacies in Europe and the United States in the early 1900’s. Around the same time, it began gaining popularity with recreational use as the Mexican Revolution, and an influx of immigrants made their way to the United States, bringing the drug with them. However, with the Great Depression in full swing, public fear grew for the drug which resulted in the outlaw of cannabis in 29 states by the year 1931. These laws halted any scientific studies on marijuana and its effects on the human body for years. Six years later, the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 was passed, calling for an excise tax on the sale and possession of marijuana and all similar products such as hemp. This effectively criminalized almost all uses for the plant. That changed for the worse in the year 1970 when the current President, Richard Nixon signed the Controlled Substance Act of 1970 into action. This canceled the act passed in 1937, now emphasizing the retributions of possessing the plant. Just two years later the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse (NCMDA) released a report called “Marijuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding” which laid out the groundwork for only “partial prohibition” and to have lower penalties for possession. The title says it all, “…Misunderstanding”, however, the Nixon administration looked past this and ignored the findings by the NCMDA.
Ironically, only a year after signed the Controlled substance act, new uses were discovered, one of them was to reduce the interocular pressure, which is the fluid pressure within the eye. This led to a suggested use as a treatment for glaucoma. A man by the name of Robert C. Randall got a hold of this information and began growing his own marijuana in 1976. He was arrested later that year but took his case to the courts in hopes to save his vision. He won the landmark case in the D.C. Superior court case and became the first legal user of medical marijuana.