Marijuana Informative Speech

Hemp. Edibles. Hash. Marijuana. When a person hears these things they think of drugs and money. But in a time before guns, illegal smuggling, and gangs, marijuana was used for natural and normal everyday uses. Marijuana also has some more common names that include but not limited to pot, weed, grass, dope, or herb. For simplicity sakes, I’m going to call marijuana weed, pot, and herb. I am going to be writing about the history of weed, the legality of marijuana, and the different types of marijuana and the different types of consumption methods. The first recorded date of weed is a medical record in China from 2737 B.C then moved to India, and reached Europe by A.D 500. The main focus of using this as a psychoactive agent in China was for rheumatism, gout, malaria, and absent-mindedness. The medicinal value was much more valuable than the intoxicating value. In 1545 the Spanish brought over marijuana to the New World. Even
though alcohol was prohibited in Muslim establishments, they did introduce the world to hashish and it quickly spread 12th century Persia, which is now Iran, and North Africa. The English introduced it to Jamestown in 1611 where it became a direct cash crop next to tobacco and grown as a source of fiber. Marijuana was listed in the United States Pharmacopeia from 1850 until 1942 prescribed for various conditions including labor pain, nausea, and rheumatism. “It’s uses as an intoxicant were used from the 1805’s to the 1930’s (narconon.org)”. The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 made marijuana illegal. By mid 1930’s marijuana was illegal in all fifty states by the federal level by the Marijuana Tax Act. In 1996 California was the first state to legalize marijuana for medical uses, and then a majority of states then followed suit. The last state to legalize the medical uses of marijuana was Massachusetts in 2012. The first states to legalize the recreational uses for marijuana were Colorado and California for adults over twenty one in 2012. California, Maine, Nevada, Massachusetts, Florida, North Dakota, and Arkansas were the last states to legalize recreational use in 2016. Many of the towns and cities of the United States are having marijuana being decriminalized and if caught with weed, the carriers will receive a citation, as long as they don’t have a criminal record. The only time a carrier can receive a citation is if the person has the legal carrying amount or are under the amount of weed allowed in that area. In the United States, the Supreme Court has said any minor caught with weed or any other drug, can be charged as an adult. If caught with paraphernalia, the laws differ from area to area, then the carrier of said paraphernalia will receive a citation or possibly jail time. There are many different ways to inhale, ingest, and even digest marijuana.
One of the most common ways to smoke weed is to roll it in a joint or a blunt. There are slight differences between a joint and a blunt. A joint is traditionally smaller, and thinner. A joint is rolled out of rolling papers and is normally around 2-3 inches long. A blunt is rolled out of cigar papers and are the size of a cigar. A joint normally holds around a quarter of a gram. A blunt normally holds around 1-3 grams. Many people add a lot more herb to the joint or blunt to make cones or “speciality joints”. Another form of inhaling is smoking out of a pipe or a water bong. A pipe is self-explanatory. You have a on one end with a bowl two holes. One on the said called a carburetor or carb, and one on the bottom to hold smoke. Then it comes to a pipe and there’s a small hole. A water bong or bong, has a needle that holds the herb. Then at the base it’s normally round, and it’s filled with water. It extends towards the neck and there’s a large hole that inhale
from. There are two main types of marijuana, Sativa and Indica. Sativa’s are tall and thin while Indica’s are short and bushy.