Marijuana popularity

Cannabis sativa, one of the oldest plants farmed by man, has been known for its medicinal properties for at least four millennia (Peters, 1999). The psychoactive-euphoric effects of this plant, as well as its facile and wide climatic range of cultivation, have rendered it a very popular recreational drug. Today, cannabis, or marijuana, is still the focus of strong social, legal, and medical controversy over its therapeutic utility. 

One reason for this explosion in the prison population was the growing popularity of mandatory sentencing laws. However, critics argued that it was not only unjust but uneconomical to lock someone up for five years for growing marijuana plants, for example. 

President Herbert Hoover creates the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, headed by former Prohibition agent Harry Anslinger. Anslinger focuses much of his efforts on combating the growing popularity of marijuana among Mexican immigrants and jazz aficionados. 

MDMA, popularly known as ecstasy, is banned by the federal government. A synthetic nonsmoked form of marijuana, Marinol, is approved as an antinausea drug. 

In a defeat for medical marijuana advocates, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the federal Controlled Substances Act precludes a medical necessity defense on the part of the Oakland, California, Cannabis Buyers Club. February Officials at the popular drug education program DARE admit that some of the techniques they have been using may be ineffective. They begin a process of reviewing research and revising the curriculum. 

Himmelstein, Jerome L. The Strange Career of Marijuana Politics and Ideology and Drug Control in America. Westport, Conn. Greenwood Press, 1983. Drawing on both popular culture and official reports, the author provides an intriguing history of how law and policy about marijuana were shaped since the passage of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. 

THE BRAIN S OWN MARIJUANA-LIKE NEUROTRANSMITTER The very high potency and structure of the cannabinoids contained within the marijuana plant enable them to cross the blood—brain barrier and bind to a receptor for the brain s very own endogenous cannabinoid neurotransmitter system. If this were not true, then the marijuana plant would be popular only for its use in making rope, paper, and cloth. The two currently identified neurotransmitters compounds (and there are probably more) in this system are anandamide, from the Sanskrit word amnia () meaning bliss, and 2-AG (2-arachidonoyl-glycerol). Unlike the other neurotransmitters that I ve discussed, these two endocannabinoids are not stored in synaptic vesicles. 

Aspirin is not the only popular choice for the relief of minor aches and pains. Another is acetaminophen, primarily known by its trade name, Tylenol. Its pain-relief mechanism has not been fully determined, but recent evidence indicates that acetaminophen increases the brain s production of the endogenous marijuana-like neurotransmitter anandamide discussed earlier. Anandamide can, in fact, reduce the experience of pain. Patients who suffering from the pain associated with multiple sclerosis, for example, have found that a combination of marijuana and acetaminophen or aspirin provides significant relief of their symptoms. Thus, the future of pain treatment may involve a... 

Nevertheless, law enforcement efforts directed against khat use in the United States have been minimal as there is some doubt about whether khat will ever become as popular a street drug as marijuana, crack cocaine, and other drugs. However, illegal laboratories have been discovered manufacturing a synthetic form or khat s most active ingredient (cathinone), which is called methcathinone and known on the street as cat. ... 

Given the popularity of marijuana, LSD, mescaline, cocaine, and heroin, the use of ketamine in the 1970s and 1980s remained largely confined to either experimental therapeutic use, or what has been described by author Jay Stevens as the neuro-consciousness frontier, a small group of accredited and unaccredited individuals who experimented with the effects of hallucinogenic substances. 

However practical its uses, though, cannabis was always consumed recreationally. Marijuana became popular in the Moslem world, partly because the Islamic faith forbade the use of alcohol. The Sufis, a mystical Islamic sect, used marijuana as part of their religious rituals. Over the centuries, Arab traders brought cannabis to east Africa, and from there it spread throughout the continent. 

Mescaline is not a very popular street drug as exemplified by a DEA report that shows that from 1980 to 1987, 19.4 lbs (9 kg) of peyote were confiscated in drug raids compared to more than 15 million lbs (7 million kg) of marijuana confiscated during the same time period. They report no trafficking of peyote. 

PCP is easy and cheap to manufacture but not very popular, so it is often sold as another drug. Most often, it is sold on the street as THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. In fact, real THC is almost impossible to obtain on the street. PCP might also be sprayed or sprinkled on oregano, parsley, or another herb and sold as marijuana. Alternatively, lower quality marijuana might be laced with PCP to make it seem more potent. Other drugs that PCP is sold as include LSD, cannabinol, mescaline, psilocybin, amphetamine, methamphetamine, peyote, cocaine, Hawaiian woodrose, and other psychedelics. In... 

In the early part of the twentieth century, marijuana and hashish (concentrated resin from the hemp plant) became popular with artists and musicians, who felt that marijuana enhanced their creativity. Moreover, all sorts of excessive behavior, including violence and mental illness, became associated with marijuana. In 1936, a movie called Tell Your Children was financed by a small church group who wanted to deliver a strong cautionary message to parents about the evils of... 

In addition to smoking marijuana, some of the more daring users tried hashish. This stronger drug, which is usually chewed or smoked, is made by drying the resin produced in the tops of female marijuana plants before the seeds form. Hashish is not as popular in the United States as marijuana, but it was part of the drug scene long ago and continues to be so, especially in India..—... 

Marijuana is believed to be the second most popular intoxicant in the United States today, with alcohol being the first. Marijuana is a subtle drug that is the subject of many myths and controversies. About 10 million people smoke it as a cigarette (called a joint or a nail) or in a pipe (or a bong) on a monthly basis. - Marijuana is also smoked in cigars, known as blunts. 

Contrary to popular belief, most teenagers do not smoke marijuana. Studies show that in 1996, about 34 percent of tenth graders and 36 percent of high school seniors used marijuana. Although use by high school students increased after a decade of decline, marijuana use by twelve- to seventeen -year-olds dropped in 1996.f "Everyone does it," is a saying that does not apply. 

Long-term, regular marijuana smoking has adverse effects, but these were not immediately apparent to its users when the drug became popular in the 1950s and 1960s. - Since there is not a rapid onset of withdrawal, many smokers deny that it occurs. THC is retained in the fat cells of the body, and withdrawal takes place only after a period of abstinence of from several weeks to a month after a person stops..—... 

While many things about marijuana remain controversial, even the most liberal supporters consider its use by adolescents harmful. It is possible that the increased popularity of marijuana is cyclical, and that this drug will become less popular as new information about its effects on the body is discovered. More is known about marijuana today than was known when many parents smoked it as teens. Some of the most important effects are noted by Joseph Califano, president of the National Center of Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University Marijuana can savage short-term memory and adversely affect motor skills. It inhibits social and emotional development at the time when such skills and development are most critical for teens. There are very real dangers attached to marijuana s frequent use. 

Marijuana was first mentioned as a medicine in an American medical text in 1843 and in 1854 was listed in the U.S. Dispensatory. The latter year also marked the first written description by Bayard Taylor in The Atlantic Monthly of cannabis intoxication. In the 1850s, recommended medical uses for marijuana included the treatment of gout, rheumatism, tetanus, opiate and alcohol withdrawal, loss of appetite, dysmenorrhea, convulsions, depression, insanity, and asthma. Although its suggested uses were widespread, marijuana never actually achieved popular use in the medical community. The reasons for this include variations in potency of commercial preparations, variability in patients responses, slow onset of oral action, and lack of solubility preventing administration by injection. However, the drug was included in many patent medicine preparations and was officially recognized as a medicine in the U.S. Pharmacopoeia until 1937. In 1937 there were 28 pharmaceuticals that contained cannabis. 

In addition to narcotics and marijuana, the nonmedical use of anabolic steroids became increasingly popular during the 1980s. This was particularly true for athletes seeking to increase skeletal muscle mass and performance, as discussed previously. The Omnibus Anti-Substance Abuse Act of 1988 made the unlawful distribution of anabolic steroids across state lines a felony under federal law, punishable by 1 to 3 years in prison and a fine of up to 250,000. State laws governing the possession and distribution of anabolic drugs vary, but a conviction in most states carries a stiff fine and imprisonment. 

With the "Isomerizer, the process is much easier. More than 200,000 Isomerizers are said to have been sold with the expectation that the device will increase potency of weak marijuana up to six times. After five or sue years on the market, however, the isomerizing process hasn t really become popular. The main reasons appear to be because it s still too much trouble and most people don t enjoy the taste of the "Iso-hash or oil which result since there is generally a lingering odor from bicarbonate of soda that is used to neutralize the sulfuric acid. Some complain that Iso-hash doesn t get them all that high. Robert Connell Clarke s Marijuana Botany provides a fuller discussion. 

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