Marijuana

This article is about the term marijuana as a term used in U.S., to see the information about cannabis plant and its health effects, see cannabis.

Marijuana is a term primarily used in United States to denote the cannabis plant, often in the context when the plant is used as a psychoactive drug. The term itself was originally borrowed from Spanish by people who worked to prohibit the plant in United States.

History

Cannabis sativa, the official term for marijuana, has been cultivated from 2800 BC onward in China. Even though largely cultivated for the hempfibers (Chin:ma) for the production of rope, the Chinese ude(d) it also a medicine against virtually anything. The flowers (Chin:ma-po) used for the treatment of open wounds; the skin of the seeds (Chin:ma-len) and resin residue for the stimulation of the nervous system; the seeds themselves (hin:Ma-jen) against infections and skinrashes, and were generally regarded as stimulant, as well as restorative. laxative, and an excellent means to "deworm" baby's and dogs. The oil (Chin:Ma-yu) is used as a hairlotion and as an antidote for sulphurpoisoning The freshly pressed leaves were deemed to help against scorpion stings. and even the ash of the burnt plant has a use, it increases the functioning of fireworks.

In Europe cannabis has also been cultivated for ages in medicinal "herbalgardens" (D:Kräutergarten, NL:Kruidentuin, FR:Jardin des herbes) for the treatment of mania, hysteria, delirium tremens, hydrophobia, tentanus and cholera. ("This must have resulted not only in many happy, but also dead users", as Bill Drake wrote in his Cultivators Handbook of Marijuan (1970))

US

The use of cannabis plant in medical, spiritual, and industrial fields by humans has a long history. In United States the plant was once used extensively to produce fiber. The plant was usually called "hemp" in United States. However, in the 1920-1930s, the cannabis plant was increasingly used as a recreational drug, often by Mexican immigrants. People like Harry J. Anslinger and William Randolph Hearst began to work to prohibit the possession, cultivation, and distribution of the cannabis plant. They borrowed the term "marihuana" from Spanish to invoke the racist sentiment against Mexicans. The spelling was later changed to "marijuana" in the current form. In 1937 the Marihuana Tax Act was passed and signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, effectively prohibited the cannabis plant.

Netherlands

With the translation in Dutch of The Cultivator's Handbook of Marijuana by Bill Drake in 1972, not only did the word wiet, a sound assimilation of the English word weed, get its own lemmata in the dictionary, a new cultivationmethod was also introduced. With this method, through the use of the highly toxic plant enhancing product colchicine, it was possible to change the genetic make up of the plant, through which it was possible to achieve a significantly stronger hallucinogenic effect, which was later on denoted as the quality brand of Skunk.

Nederwiet (EN: Netherweed) is a song of the Dutch band Doe Maar (EN:"Just do it") which is a manual on music how to cultivate your own Marijuana.

Current status

Currently, "marijuana" as a term is both used officially and colloquially for cannabis plant in the United States. In the U.S. Controlled Substance Act today marijuana is listed as a Schedule I drug, meaning it has high potential of abuse and no medical value. However, there is a movement to downgrade its scheduling to allow medical use, since it has been reported that the plant has medical values to treat a variety of diseases. Twelve states have state law allowing medical use of marijuana, but the federal law still does not recognize the validity of these state laws.

Sources

• PBS: Timeline
• Father of the Drug War