Andrew Blade
English Comp 121-007
June 24th, 2013
Medical Marijuana
Cannabis, better know as Marijuana, has been around since 2900 B.C. A Chinese Emperor Fu His, referenced the plant as being, “a popular medicine that possessed both yin and yang.”(ProCon.org) In America, the use of Marijuana and the concept of it has been kicked around and jumbled for hundreds of years. It has been generalized and put in a box. Beginning with George Washington, he grew Marijuana on his private plantation for thirty years. In the early 1900’s states began outlawing the herb, starting with Massachusetts in 1911. Ironically, the first arrest ever made for possession of Marijuana was in Colorado. Today, Colorado along with Washington has legalized the recreational use of Cannabis. In 1970, Marijuana was labeled as a schedule one drug that had “no accepted medical use.” In 2013, that myth has been thoroughly shot down as propaganda as we can see by the uprising in Medicinal Marijuana Dispensaries across the country. However, some people still believe the plant is a harmful and a dangerous drug. It is one of the oldest, and most effective natural medicines in human existence. Marijuana does not affect everybody the same way.
The vast majority of people who are opposed to Marijuana have no idea what it is and they have no desire to learn about it. A common idea by most is that Cannabis kills your brain cells if you are a consistent user of the herb. That idea was based off of the Dr. Heath/Tulane study in 1974. In the study, they pumped sixty three Columbian joints through a gasmask into monkeys over a five minute period for three months, without any additional air in the mask. They concluded that the herb kills your brain cells. They actually suffocated the monkeys, when your brain isn’t getting oxygen, your brain cells die.(“The Union.” Youtube.com) Majority of Americans continued to believe this crooked study. There is a new study being done that is showing