Argumentative Essay: The Legalization Of Marijuana

For over 10,000 years the uses of the plant Cannabis have been used in rituals, medical miracles and recreational ways. The earliest record of using cannabis dates back to 8,000 B.C and has said to be “One of the first and oldest known human agriculture crops” as explained by Richard Hamilton. (Source) In the early 1900’s with the acquiring of new lands in Texas and Louisiana and their current residents who frequently used the know plant of Cannabis. Americans used the plant by its common name but to the residents on the newly acquired land it was called “Marijuana.” Americans at the time were weary of the drug and the effects it had on the people who lived on this new land they had just acquired. Throughout history Marijuana has been a Taboo substance and current laws and regulations have restricted its full capability’s. It is upon lawmakers to include the legalization of Marijuana to open up and unlock its many benefits.

Roosevelt’s support to Congress, they passed the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, this act enabled a tax on all handling and selling of marijuana, hemp and cannabis. The act did not criminalize the possession of the drug, however, but failure to abide to the procedures enabled by this act could result in heavy fines and possibly imprisonment. (Source) The Tax Act of 1937 was later ruled out and replaced by a new Act in 1970 with the help of President Richard Nixon. He replaced the Tax Act of 1937 with the Controlled Substance Act (CSA) which established Schedules for ranking substances according to their dangerousness and potential cause of addiction. Cannabis was placed in the most restrictive category, Schedule I, supposedly as a place holder while President Nixon commissioned a report to give a final recommendation, which was long a-waited for but forgotten.