The United States of America has been in an ongoing war since the mid-19th century. The war I am referring to is not one with a foreign country, but its war on drugs. Among the many drugs targeted in this ongoing war, cannabis sativa, or marijuana is the most debated drug to be legalized and decriminalized. I personally am in favor of the position to legalize marijuana based off the counter arguments to why it was made illegal in the first place. My argument will be from the perspective of opposing the arguments of marijuana being addictive, having many dangerous health effects, and being a gateway drug. The history of marijuana in the United States has been a complicated one. Cannabis has been made illegal and legal on multiple occasions throughout the history of the United States. In fact marijuana, which is also hemp, was the largest agricultural crop in the world, even in America at one time. Hemp is the strongest natural soft fiber and has thousands of uses, such as making fabric, lighting oil, and paper. Hemp also differs from marijuana because you cannot get high from smoking or consuming it. The first law that ever enacted on cannabis in America was to order farmers to grow hemp. …show more content…
This time period was known as refer madness, when marijuana was targeted in a negative way by linking them with blacks and Mexicans who smoked and became frenzied beasts and would disrespect the readership which, to no surprise were mainly white. This led to the first law regulating the use of marijuana in the form of a stamp. This affected all types of cannabis including hemp for industrial use and the types for medical purposes. This would not have been such a big problem, but the government would not issue any stamps to people or farmers to use the crop. In cause of this, soon all forms of cannabis became illegal in the United