Marijuana use goes back to 7000 B.C., and has been illegal for less than 1% of the time its been used. The Marijuana (hemp) plant is very useful, the earliest known fabric was woven with hemp, and it has been used for food, incense, cloth, rope, and etc. Although Marijuana has been well known since the 1600’s, it wasn’t introduced in the United States to the public as a recreational drug until the 1800’s The first law passed concerning marijuana was in Jamestown Colony, Virginia in 1619 and was an order for all farmers to grow Indian Hemp Seed. Between 1763 and 1767, you could be arrested as a farmer in Virginia for not growing hemp during the shortage, during this time hemp could be used as legal tender In the early 1900’s Western States, the first state marijuana law …show more content…
Many Mormons who travelled to Mexico in 1910 brought Marijuana back with them, and the churches reactions may have influenced the outlaw. Other states shortly followed the Marijuana prohibition laws including Wyoming, Texas, Iowa, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Arkansas, and Nebraska, these laws were often targeted against the Mexican Americans In the Eastern states, the Marijuana problem was tied to Latin Americans and jazz Musicians, when Marijuana became tightly tied to music industry when marijuana and jazz music travelled to New Orleans, Chicago, and Harlem Racism became the influence of laws against the drug again when a newspaper in 1934 wrote “Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men’s shadows and look at a white woman twice.” Other fear inducing rumours were spread saying Assassins would be given large doses of Marijuana and brought to the rulers garden to observe the paradise that awaits them after they would serve their duties, and once the effects wore off they would finish the job their ruler