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HISTORY OF CANNABIS
Marijuana has been labeled as a schedule one controlled substance and carries severe
consequences in the New York penal code. The use of the herb has been a controversial issue in
the United States for many years. Even though the possession of this drug is criminal in New
York, its medical purpose has proven that it can be used for the betterment of the health and
developmental process of improving its patients life. Even though research has shown that the
use of marijuana can cause health complication, medicinal marijuana has greater beneficial
effects on health and should be legalized in New York State and further be used to alleviate pain
and cure patients suffering with terminal and viral illnesses.
Marijuana derives from the dried buds and leaves of the two cannabis species known as
the cannabis sativa and cannabis indica plants. These plants have been known to be grown in the
regions of central Asia. The cannabis sativa plant is the plant that is mostly known for being used
for recreational use and cannabis indica is usually used for medicinal purposes. The earliest
record of the use of cannabis was in China. In this densely populated part of the world, scientist
have discovered hemp plants in villages 10,000 years old. In the early ages, Chinese farmers
grew hemp for its fibers because they were strong. The Chinese had many uses for this plant.

The ancient Chinese wove their clothes and shoes from hemp because it had sturdy
fibers. Not only did they use it for clothing, but it was also a key component in inventing paper;
which was the turning point for the advancement of the Chinese civilization. During the course
of its long history in china, hemp became one of the most components of everyday life. Ancient

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Chinese priest doctors also believe that cannabis had the power to extract evil demons from
human bodies. They would have an ill person lay on a bed and hit the bed with marijuana stalks
to force the demon out. Although the ancient Chinese relied on the use of cannabis to perform
this witchcraft, the emperor Shen Nung realized that the way they were using the drug was not a
effective way to cure people, so he introduced using cannabis as a curative substance. According
to stories told about him, he conducted a experiment of himself ingesting 70 poisons in one day
and discovering antidotes for every one of them. Shen Nung is commonly known as being the
first to use cannabis medically.
After being used by half of the world for nearly 8,000 years, marijuana traditionally
reached North America with Christopher Columbus in 1492 A.D.1 Initially the use of this drug
was only for manufacturing goods, but the recreational use began around the 19-20th century.
Soon after the rise of its recreational use, cannabis was categorized as being as harmful as heroin
or cocaine even though there were no reports of anyone dying because of an overdose. In the
17th century the production of hemp was widely encouraged because like the ancient Chinese,
hemp was used for the production of clothes, shoes, ropes and sails for ships. The Assembly of
Jamestown Colony, Virginia, passed legislation in 1619 making it compulsory for every farmer
to grow hemp(cannabis now), which was soon noted as being Americas first marijuana law.
Other states allowed hemp to be traded for goods and even be used to pay taxes.
With the use of recreational marijuana on the rise in the 19th century, other drugs came to
rise such as morphine, as it was a highly addictive drug that caused a rapid development of
tolerance and psychological dependence and was contained in a lot of over the counter
1 Cannabis now, History of Marijuana in America, https://cannabisnowmagazine.com

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medications at that time. In the response to this up rise, in 1906 the government started the FDA,
(Food and drug administration) to help addiction of morphine but not really focus on cannabis.
Like ancient China, hemp became an important aspect of everyday life in America, despite its
comparisons to heroin and cocaine. It was woven into uniforms for George Washingtons army,
and was even used in the paper that contained the first draft copies of the declaration of
independence. By the mid 19th century, the idea of using cannabis is medicine was introduced
and used in a lot of medication. It was not until the post Mexican revolution, that cannabis
started to get banned in America. Mexican immigrants came to America with cannabis that they
grew in Mexico, and started to smoke it. Many people who had strong prejudice against these
Mexican immigrants and looked at the drug as being dangerous, addictive and created violent
people and behavior. With these lies being told about the drug, the prohibition of the drug began.
State regulation of cannabis began in 1911, when Massachusetts banned the use of cannabis and
any products that contained it. In 1914 federal law got involved , and the Harrison tax act was
passed to regulate the production, importation, and distribution of cannabis along side with other
drugs.
In 1930, Harry J. Anslinger was appointed as director of The Federal bureau of Narcotics,
and he became the lead advocate of the prohibition. He realized that the law that was passed in
1914 was not enough so in 1934 he campaigned for the passage of a new law, The Uniform State
Narcotic Drug Act with the purpose of controlling the sale and use of narcotic drugs. Since the
production and use of hemp proved to be useful and brought a lot revenue but also was being
smoked and distributed illegally, Anslinger introduced the idea of taxing cannabis. In 1937, the
Marijuana Tax Act was drafted. Shortly after the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act went into effect the

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FBN and Denver police arrested Moses Baca for criminal possession and Samuel Caldwell for
dealing. Caldwell and Bacas arrest made them the first convicts arrested under the federal law
for not paying taxes on cannabis. Caldwell was fined $1,000 and sentenced to 4 years of hard
labor and Baca received 18 months incarceration.
In 1967, President Johnson's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of
justice stated, The Act raises an insignificant amount of revenue and exposes an insignificant
number of marijuana transactions to public view, since only a handful of people are registered
under the Act. It has become, in effect, solely- a criminal law, imposing sanctions upon persons
who sell, acquire, or possess marijuana. 2
CURRENT LAWS OF MARIJUANA IN U.S. /(NYS)
More than three decades after laws were placed that prohibited the use and distribution of
this drug, a new generation of laws have replaced them. Under federal law, cannabis is still
illegal because it is classified as a schedule I drug that is claimed to have a high potential for
abuse and has no acceptable medical use. There are 19 states that disagree (Alaska, Arizona,
California , Connecticut, D.C, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Main, Massachusetts, Michigan,
Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode island, and
Vermont) and have adapted it for medical purposes and two states, Colorado and Washington,
have legalized it for both recreational and medicinal purposes. Of those 21 states, 14 of them
have decriminalized the drug and reduced the penalty from prison to just confiscation or fines.
State Law on Marijuana in New York on the other hand is different. The NYS penal code
describes these laws in article 221. The possession of less than 2 ounces in a non public place is
2 Wikipedia, The Marijuana Tax act of 1937, http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/MarihuanaTaxactof1937
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classified as unlawful possession, which carries a fine of up to $100. The second offense is a fine
of up to $200, and the third offense is $250 and 15 days in jail 3. An arrest for the
possession of less than 2 ounces in a public place is punishable by up to 3 months in jail. An
arrest of for the possession of 2 ounces or more of marijuana or a mixture is criminal possession
in the 4th degree as is punishable by 1 year in jail. 4
With the sale of cannabis in NYS, the penalty is more serious than possession and
automatically carries a jail sentence. A person is guilty of criminal sale of Marijuana when they
sell any mixture or composition that weighs 2 grams or less or a cigarette containing marijuana.
This act is s classified as criminal possession of marijuana in the 5thdegree, a Class B
misdemeanor punishable by 3 months in jail. An arrest for selling more than 2 grams but less
than 25 grams of marijuana is classified as criminal possession of marijuana in the 5th degree, a
Class A misdemeanor punishable of up to 1 year in jail 5 . An arrest for selling 25 mg or
more of marijuana or a mixture containing marijuana is classified as criminal possession of
marijuana in the 3rd degree, a Class E felony punishable by 1 to 1 years in prison6 (221.45).A
person is guilty of criminal sale of marijuana in the 2nd degree when one sells marijuana or any
mixtures containing marijuana with a weight of more than four ounces to a person less than
eighteen years old. It is a class D felony and is punishable by up to two years in prison.

3 Penal Law of NYS (221.10)

4 Penal Law of NYS (221.15)
5 Penal Law of NYS (221.40)

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BENEFITS & EFFECTS OF MARIJUANA

With the negative history marijuana has with people illegally possessing and selling it,
the idea of using it as a medical remedy used to treat cancers and diseases has been shunned. The
truth is that marijuana has been tested and has proven that it can be used to treat and cure
diseases. The main ingredient in marijuana that causes the feel high sensation, is known as
Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). During the process of consuming marijuana, THC binds together
like a lock and key to the receptors on the nerve cells which then releases a hormone known as
dopamine that sends signals throughout your body that makes you feel high. Not all cannabis
can make you feel this way. There is another substance that is found in cannabis that accounts for
the medical purposes and it is known as cannabidiol. One of the things that cannabidiol helps
control are seizures. Seizures are behaviors that result from an episode of abnormal electrical
activity in the brain. When CBD enters your blood stream and enters your brain, it quiets down
the excessive electrical activity which then prevents the seizure. Marijuana can also be used to
treat and prevent glaucoma, which increases pressure in the eyeball, damaging the optic nerve
and causing loss of vision. Marijuana decreases the pressure inside the eye, according to Studies
done in the early 1970s. Marijuana, when smoked, lowers the pressure of the eye of someone
that has it. These effects of the drug may slow the progress of the disease, preventing blindness.
Cannabis also treats for the symptoms of Aids, Asthma, Multiple Sclerosis, hepatitis C and
Crohns disease.
RESEARCH ON MARIJUANA
In September of the 1970s , a study was done by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth
University, and was designed to evaluate the role of the receptors and function of the
body's cannabinoid system in regulating seizures. During this experiment, the team of
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researchers injected epileptic rats with extracts of marijuana, synthetic THC and CBD and
discovered that the extract of marijuana and the synthetic psychoactive drugs completely
eliminated the seizures that the rats had. Another study was done in the California Pacific
Medical Center in San Francisco in 2012 by two scientists that found that there is a compound
found in marijuana that can slow down the progression of cancerous cells potentially eliminating
the fatality of it. These scientist have tested animals and saw that no composition of the drug
would be as potent as smoking it. For this they would need real humans to test.
In a study conducted by German scientist, two test subjects have died due to heart
complications. It is known that if you mix marijuana with another drug, that it can carry a
reaction more severe than a regular high that THC can cause, but no one anticipated deaths
occurring due to the consumption of just marijuana alone. After the deaths, scientists at the
University Hospital Dsseldorf in Germany conducted experiments on the bodies to see if there
were any other factors that could have attributed to the deaths and found that it could only have
been done by the marijuana. The cause of death was specifically discovered as an irregular
change in heart rhythm known as arrhythmia. David Raynes from the UK National Drug
Prevention Alliance told Scientist: These deaths are rare and will remain rare. The real risks are
from long-term effects on the young brain.7
A new study has been conducted by the American Heart Association, and it has been said
that the use of marijuana may be connected to cardiovascular disease. The study shows that
young and middle aged men may be at risk from getting these heart related complications. The
findings are based on data from the addictovigilance system in France, which includes
7 David Raynes, National Drug Prevention Alliance, Marijuana Heart complication
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cardiovascular-related complications associated with marijuana use between 2006 and 2010. 8
in a paper written in the journal of the American Heart Association, it was found that 2%
of the test subjects that suffered from health complications from marijuana use were linked to
cardiovascular disease, and a quarter of those complications resulted in death.
PEOPLE BENIFITED FROM MARIJUANA
An interview was held with Greg Cooper, a patient that suffers from Multiple Sclerosis,
and his take on the drug was recorded. Before Cooper could have the interview, his body went
into shock and he began to experience severe muscle spasms. A marijuana bong was given to
him, and after a few puff, the spasms subsided. Cooper states that he has been using marijuana
for years and has never experienced any negative effects. Alongside with Cooper, a famous talk
show host, Montell Williams also suffers from Multiple Sclerosis. Williams takes marijuana in
many forms such liquid extracts, pills, food, and vaporization. Williams suffers extreme
neuropathic pain in his lower appendages that effects walking and sitting down for long periods
of time. Once he takes marijuana, the pain goes down exceptionally.
In 2003, Rick Simpson was diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma skin cancer. He got
surgery to remove the cancer but the procedure was unsuccessful. Rick heard of the study that
was done in the university of Virginia about the cannabis extracts that killed the cancer in the
rats and decided to try a new technique. For a year he drank oil extract from a cannabis plant and
applied the oil to bandages that he put on his skin where the cancer was. After a few days, he
removed the bandages and saw that the cancer was gone. After this miraculous finding, Simpson
8 Amanda L. Chan, The Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marijuana-heartcomplications-cardiovascular
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made numerous attempts to tell his doctors about his discovery but no one wanted to listen. He
then began growing cannabis plants on his property and producing his own oil for anyone who
needed it. Since then, he has cured over one thousand people with his discovery and is credited
for being the father of medicinal cannabis.
In 2004, shortly after Ricks story was publicized, Shona Banda was diagnosed with
Crohns disease. This disease effects the gastrointestinal tract from mouth to anal does not allow
you to absorb any nutrients from food. Shona was bedridden and could not move. Like Simpson,
surgery did not do anything for her so she decided to inhale marijuana vapor. She did that three
times a day and consumed oil like Simpson, and was able to walk within a few days.
Charlotte Figi might be one of the most miraculous stories of all. When everyone thinks
of an everyday marijuana user, they think of serene hippies strung out on the psychoactive drug,
but the only difference in this case is that Charlie is only 6 years old. Charlie was born a normal
healthy baby and twin to her sister Chase. At about the age of 3 months, her father was changing
her when he realized that her eyes rolled back and her body began to jerk. Charlie was having a
seizure. Fearing for her childs health, Charlies mom took her to the ER and all the tests that
were administered to her came back negative. Aside from the seizure, Charlies overall health
was great. She did everything her twin could do. By the time she was two, the seizures became
constant and she no longer could keep up with her sister. By that time Charlies parents got the
terrible news that she had gotten Dravet Syndrome. Dravet syndrome is a rare form of epilepsy
that begins in infancy. The initial seizures are not serious until the second year of the infants life.
Charlies parents tried everything, even life threatening medications that caused her heart to stop.

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As Charlie got older, the symptoms have gotten worse. Charlie was having 300 seizures a
week. As a last result the doctors wanted to give her a very powerful medication that was used
on epileptic dogs or put her in a coma. Charlies parents did not except those two options and
Charlies dad started doing some research on some alternative treatments. He saw a documentary
online about a young boy who had a similar problem and that his epileptic shocks were slowed
down by marijuana. Charlies parents were both skeptical about giving their young daughter this
drug but later realized that they had no other choice. Charlies mom bought a small amount of
marijuana with low a THC and high CBD, contracted the medicine from the drug into a syringe
and applied it to her daughter orally. Immediately after, the seizures have slowed down from 300
a week to one a week.
SUPREME COURT CASES
In 1975, The Ravin v. State Supreme court case allowed adults to privately own and use
small amounts of marijuana in their homes. Irwin Ravin, an attorney got himself arrested with
possession of marijuana and fought for the violation of the constitutional right to privacy. This
decision became a trademark for Alaskans, and he was looked as a legend.
When California passed its medical marijuana regulations in 1996 the US government
threatened physicians who recommended marijuana with the loss of their license.Conant v.
Walters was a major Supreme Court case decided by the United States District Court for the
Northern District of California which gave doctors the right to speak to their patients about
Marijuana or even suggest it. In this case the physicians along side with some patients who
suffered from terminal illnesses, brought up a class action suit addressing the fact of exercising
the first amendment that includes freedom of speech. Alongside with this case coinciding with

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the Compassionate Use act of 1996, the case Gonzalez v Raich made it to the supreme court.
Angel Raich used homegrown medicinal marijuana that was legal under state law but illegal
under the federal law. The DEA began raids in 2001 against patients using the drug in California.
Among those arrested was Angel Raich, who has brain cancer, and Diane Monson, who grew
cannabis in her garden to help alleviate chronic back pain. Under medical necessity, Raich
claimed that she needed to take cannabis to survive and her doctor testified that every medication
that Raich took gave her an allergic reaction. The final ruling of Gonzales v Raich stated that
Congress can ban the use marijuana, even for medicinal purposes approved by the state. It was
approved through understanding of the Commerce Clause in 2005. This grants Congress the
authority to regulate commerce among the states.
Throughout the history of the United States, there have been mixed opinions of the use,
production, and cultivation of cannabis. It has been overshadowed by lies of the early media and
has the potential to change medicine forever. Marijuana in its purest form is one of the safest,
therapeutically active substances known to man, Francis Young stated (DEAs Judge). Though
there have been reports that people have overdosed and died is a simple cover-up that the media
portrays to continue to deteriorate the name of Marijuana. The truth is California makes about
$105 million in revenue yearly from medical marijuana, and in the first month of legalizing
marijuana in the state of Colorado, $2 million was made. Marijuana not only has great medicinal
purposes but may just be one of the biggest cash crops in the history of the U.S.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY PAGE

http://ivn.us/2014/03/15/colorado-recreational-marijuana-tax-revenue-hits-2m-firstmonth/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzales_v._Raich
http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/history/first12000/1.htm
https://cannabisnowmagazine.com/cannabis/in-history/history-of-marijuana-inamerica
http://norml.org/about/item/marijuana-law-reform-timeline
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_State_Narcotic_Drug_Act
http://www.godandscience.org/doctrine/medical_marijuana_review.html
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-teenage-mind/201105/history-cannabisin-ancient-china

http://www.civilliberty.about.com/od/drugpolicy/tp/Ancient-History-ofMarijuana.htm
http://www.norml.org/laws/
http://norml.org/laws/item/new-york-penalties-2

NYS Penal Law 2012/2013

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marijuana-heart-complications-cardiovascular

http://www.studymode.com/essays/Marijuana-As-a-Social-Problem1370197.html

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