Marijuana legal history

The legal history of marijuana laws is unusual. The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 established the federal prohibition of marijuana. The drug was placed in Schedule I, which defines a substance as having a high potential for abuse, a lack of accepted safety for use under supervision, and no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States. Doctors are banned from writing prescriptions for marijuana. Opiate-based medications, which are stronger than marijuana, are in Schedule II and were never banned.,—... 

Richard J. Bonnie and Charles H. Whitebread II, The Forbidden Fruit and the Tree of Knowledge An Inquiry into the Legal History of American Marijuana Prohibition, Virginia Law Review 56, no. 6, October 1970, p. 53. 

Ephedra has a long history of legal use in the United States and around the world. Today, the laws that apply to ephedra cover sales, formulation, and labeling by manufacturers they do not outlaw its use by consumers as with street drugs such as marijuana and cocaine. Because ephedrine can be used to manufacture methamphetamine, companies that sell bulk ephedrine and ephedrine tablets are subject to laws... 

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