The Legal Status of Marijuana

I will never have children. How could I bring a child into a world where most of the food we eat is full of chemicals whose names most people cannot pronounce and companies can sell cigarettes and liquor which kill the equivalent of a small country every year. Three hundred thousand people die every year in the United States due to obesity related diseases caused by the consumption of convenience food. Cigarettes and alcohol together kill more people every year than non-alcohol related traffic accidents, AIDS, Homicide, drug overdose (prescription and nonprescription), obesity and firearms combined. 443,000 people in the United States to be exact. On the other hand, cannabis, a plant that has not one hospital or mortuary recorded death, few proven negative side effects, no physically addictive potential, and who’s plant fibres could serve more industrial uses than any other plant in the world, is illegal.

Up until 1883, cannabis hemp was the most widely cultivated crop in the world. Most fabrics, paper, lighting oils and other fibres were derived from cannabis hemp. The first paper mills in the United States turned out hemp paper. As a matter of fact the United States Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper. The first “marijuana laws” in the United States actually ordered farmers to grow cannabis hemp. Present day hemp has countless uses and applications, it’s broad uses include: fabrics, biodegradable plastics, construction (cement and insulation), food, body products and even bio-fuel. As a raw material hemp is carbon-negative. It should also be noted that from the 1850s up until the 1900s, about half of all pharmaceuticals in the United States contained cannabis and cannabis hemp extracts. While hemp does not produce usable amounts of THC, other cannabinoids are still present in the oil extracts of hemp which are of medicinal value. Unfortunately, the production of hemp is not allowed in the United States because it still classifies as