22-Marijuana Reference Handbook

Marijuana
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CONTEMPORARY WORLD ISSUES
Marijuana
A REFERENCE HANDBOOK
Second Edition
David E. Newton
Copyright © 2017 by ABC-CLIO, LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review,
without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Newton, David E., author.
Title: Marijuana : a reference handbook / David E. Newton.
Description: Second edition. | Santa Barbara, California :
ABC-CLIO, [2017] | Series: Contemporary world issues |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016042067 (print) | LCCN 2016055665
(ebook) | ISBN 9781440850516 (alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781440850523 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Marijuana—Therapeutic use—United States. |
Marijuana—History. | Drug legalization—United States.
Classification: LCC RM666.C266 N48 2017 (print) |
LCC RM666.C266 (ebook) | DDC 615.3/23648—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016042067
ISBN: 978-1-4408-5051-6
EISBN: 978-1-4408-5052-3
21 20 19 18 17 1 2 3 4 5
This book is also available as an eBook.
ABC-CLIO
An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC
ABC-CLIO, LLC
130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911
Santa Barbara, California 93116-1911
www.abc-clio.com
This book is printed on acid-free paper
Manufactured in the United States of America
For Mary Agnes (Mickey)
With many very fond memories!
Contents
Preface to the First Edition, xv

Preface to the Second Edition, xix
1 BACKGROUND AND HISTORY, 3

Introduction, 3
What Is Cannabis Sativa?, 4
Hemp versus Marijuana, 10
The Cannabis Plant in History, 12
Cannabis in China, 12
Cannabis in India and Central Asia, 17
Cannabis in Africa (and Beyond), 21
Cannabis in Europe, 23
Cannabis in North America, 29
Industrial Hemp in the United States, 38
Industrial Hemp Worldwide, 41
Conclusion, 42
References, 42
ix
x Contents
2 PROBLEMS, ISSUES, AND SOLUTIONS, 53
History of Cannabis Prohibition, 54

Prohibitions on Cannabis: Ancient Cultures, 55
International Concerns, 1910–1925, 56
Prohibition of Cannabis: The United States, 58
Cannabis Legislation in the States, 62
Federal Cannabis Laws, 63
State Marijuana Laws, 80
Patterns of Marijuana Use in the United States, 82
Attitudes about Marijuana Use, 86
Current Controversies about Marijuana Use, 87
Legalization and Decriminalization of
Marijuana, 88
Arguments in Favor of Decriminalization
or Legalization, 89
Arguments in Opposition to Decriminalization
or Legalization, 99
Legalization of Marijuana for Medical Uses, 105
Arguments in Favor of Legalizing Medical
Marijuana, 105
Arguments in Opposition to Legalizing
Medical Marijuana, 109
Current Status of Medical Marijuana in the
United States, 110
Legalization of Recreational Marijuana, 112
Resistance to Legalization, 115
Conclusion, 116
References, 117
Contents xi
3 PERSPECTIVES, 133
Introduction, 133
Marijuana Is Not Safe and Is Not Medicine:
Peter Bensinger, 133
The Waiting Game: Mary Jane Borden, 138
An Effective Public Health Approach to Reduce
Marijuana Use: Robert L. DuPont, 141
Government Research Support and Marijuana
Legalization Brightens the Spotlight on
the Endocannabinoid System: Rachele
Hendricks-Sturrup, 147
Medical Marijuana: A Perspective: Arthur Livermore, 151
Lies and Deception: The Origins of Today’s Federal
Marijuana Policy: Duane Ludwig, 158
The Threat of Big Marijuana: Clara MacCarald, 162
Is Marijuana Medicine? The Answer Is Yes, No,
and Maybe: Kevin A. Sabet, 166
Common Sense Marijuana Policy Revisited:
Douglas McVay, 170
4 PROFILES, 177
Introduction, 177
Americans for Safe Access, 177
Harry J. Anslinger (1892–1975), 180
Steve DeAngelo (1958– ), 183
Lyster Hoxie Dewey (1865–1944), 185
Drug Free America Foundation, Inc., 186
Drug Policy Alliance, 189
xii Contents
European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and

Drug Addiction, 191
Barney Frank (1940– ), 194
Jon Gettman (1957– ), 196
Hemp Industries Association, 198
John W. Huffman (1932– ), 201
International Association for Cannabinoid Medicines, 204
Marijuana Policy Project, 206
Raphael Mechoulam (1930– ), 208
Tod Hiro Mikuriya (1933–2007), 211
Ethan Nadelmann (1957– ), 214
National Institute on Drug Abuse, 216
National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws (NORML), 218
Office of National Drug Control Policy, 219
William B. O’Shaughnessy (1809–1889), 222
Raymond P. Shafer (1917–2006), 225
Keith Stroup (1943– ), 227
UN Office on Drugs and Crime, 230
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, 232
5 DATA AND DOCUMENTS, 237

Introduction, 237
Data, 237
Table 5.1. Marijuana Use by Persons Aged
12 Years and Older in the United States,
2002–2014, Past Month, 237
Contents xiii
Table 5.2. Marijuana Use by Persons Aged

12 Years and Older in the United States,
2002–2014, Past Year, 238
Table 5.3. Marijuana Arrests 1980–2014, 239
Table 5.4. Marijuana Use by U.S. High School
Students by Gender, Ethnicity, and Grade
Level, 2013, 240
Table 5.5. 2014 Domestic U.S. Cannabis
Eradication/Suppression Program Statistical
Report, 10 Largest States, 241
Table 5.6. Attitudes and Practices Concerning
Marijuana among U.S. 12th Graders,
1975–2015, 241
Documents, 243
Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1895), 243
Marihuana Tax Act (1937), 246
The Marihuana Problem in the City of
New York (1944), 247
Leary v. United States, 395 U.S. 6 (1969), 248
Controlled Substances Act (1970), 251
In the Matter of Marijuana Medical
Rescheduling Petition (1988), 257
Interpretation of Listing of “Tetrahydrocannabinols”
in Schedule I. 21 CFR Part 1308 [DEA-204]
RIN 1117-AA55 (2001), 259
Hemp Industries Association, et al. v. Drug
Enforcement Administration, 333 F.3d 1082
(2003), 261
Gonzales, Attorney General, et al. v. Raich et al.,
545 U.S. 1 (2005), 263
Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment (2005), 266
FDA Statement on Health Effects of
Marijuana (2006), 268
xiv Contents
Memorandum for All United States

Attorneys (2013), 270
Legitimacy of Industrial Hemp Research (2014), 272
Coats v. Dish Network (Colorado Supreme
Court Case No. 13SC394) (2015), 274
United States of America, Plaintiff, v. Marin
Alliance for Medical Marijuana, and
Lynette Shaw (2015), 275
6 ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY, 279

Books, 280
Articles, 289
Reports, 300
Internet, 306
7 CHRONOLOGY, 323
Glossary, 337
Index, 343
About the Author, 371
Preface to the First Edition
Cannabis sativa is one of the oldest crop plants known to

humans. One form of the plant known as hemp has been used
for the production of textiles, rope, canvas, paper, and other
products for at least 6,000 years, and probably much longer.
Another form of the plant, known by a variety of names such as
marijuana and hashish, has been a part of religious and mysti-
cal ceremonies for just as long. It has an especially long cultural
tradition in India, where the Hindu god Siva is said to have
sought comfort after a family quarrel by resting under a canna-
bis plant and eating its leaves. The story explains Siva’s alternate
name of the Lord of Bhang (bhang being a special concoction
containing marijuana).
Marijuana has also been used for centuries as a recreational
drug, a mind-altering substance that allows users to experi-
ence a form of the world around them often very different
from that experienced in daily life. Archaeological research has
found evidence of vessels apparently used for smoking mari-
juana that date as far back as the first millennium ce in places
as widespread as China, India, Assyria, and Africa. The use of
marijuana as a recreational drug persists today, with the UN
Office on Drugs and Crime reporting in 2011 that there were
an estimated 125 to 203 million individuals worldwide who
had used the drug for recreational purposes at least once in the
previous year.
xv
xvi Preface to the First Edition
For most of human history, cannabis has been held in high

regard for all of these applications. It has been praised as one
of the most durable, attractive, and useful of all fabrics; it has
been honored as a gateway to spiritual insights; and it has been
cherished as a relaxing release from the troubles of everyday
life. Which is not to say that questions have not been raised
about possible harmful effects of the plant and its derivatives.
Indeed, at the very times cannabis was most popular in some
cultures as a source of clothing, a sacramental herb, or a healing
medication, some individuals and groups have warned about
the damage cannabis can cause to the human body and mind.
At one time in ancient China, for example, laws were passed
prohibiting the use of marijuana for certain purposes because
in people who used it the most, it tended to bring out riotous
aspects of their personalities, thus posing a possible threat to
peace and order in the general society.
Such concerns have often led to conferences, conventions,
and other meetings at which experts reassess the possible ben-
efits and risks of using various forms of cannabis (usually,
marijuana and hashish). Interestingly enough, these meetings
have almost always concluded with a renewed statement of
the many benefits provided by the cannabis plant and limited
warnings about the risks of overexposure to the drug. Commit-
tee reports, like those of the Indian Hemp Drug Commission
of 1895, almost always say that cannabis products do no physi-
cal, mental, or moral harm; may actually be good for you; and
are safe, even “far safer than many foods we commonly con-
sume,” according to one official of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) in 1988.
And yet, in the second decade of the 21st century, the use of
cannabis and its derivatives is illegal in almost every nation in
the world. Beginning in the early 20th century, a movement to
change public views about the use of cannabis products began
to develop, perhaps most strongly in the United States, but
in other parts of the world also. International meetings, such
as the International Opium Convention of 1912, were called
Preface to the First Edition xvii
to develop strategies for limiting or banning the production,

transport, and consumption of cannabis products throughout
the world. Penalties for the use of such products were severe,
sometimes more severe than penalties for other major crimes,
such as rape, assault, and armed robbery. Such penalties are
still in existence in some parts of the world; drug trafficking
can result in the death penalty in some countries, and prison
sentences of up to 20 years for possession of cannabis are still
in place in some states of the United States.
What happened to bring about this dramatic change in
official attitudes about hemp, marijuana, and other cannabis
products in the early twentieth 20th century? How did this
revered plant go from being regarded as a blessing to human
civilization to one of the most reviled products in the world?
That question is one of the themes of this book because it helps
to inform the current debate over cannabis in the world today.
This debate focuses at its most fundamental level on the ques-
tion of whether cannabis should be criminalized at all and, if
so, under what circumstances. On a somewhat more limited,
but equally important and controversial, level, the debate has
to do with the use of marijuana and related substances for med-
ical purposes.
The purpose of this book is to provide an introduction to
the topic of marijuana. Chapter 1 provides a general back-
ground about the science of the plant and its history in human
civilization. Chapter 2 focuses on the two major disputes
over cannabis in today’s world: should cannabis products be
legally available and, if so, under what conditions, and should
a special dispensation be allowed for the use of medical mari-
juana, regardless of general laws and regulations regarding the
personal use of the substance? The remaining chapters of the
book provide background information for readers who wish
to continue their study of these issues in more detail. Chap-
ter 3 provides some statements pro and con on the legality
of marijuana in general and for medical purposes. Chapter 4
offers profiles of some important individuals and organizations
xviii Preface to the First Edition
who have been involved in the debates over cannabis both in

recent years and in earlier history. Chapter 5 is a collection
of some especially important documents—laws, policy state-
ments, and court decisions—related to marijuana issues, as
well as data on production and consumption of marijuana
products. Chapter 6 provides an annotated list of books, arti-
cles, and reports, as well as electronic resources on marijuana.
Chapter 7 is a timeline of important events in the history of
marijuana, and the book ends with a glossary of basic terms
used in discussions of cannabis and related products.
Preface to the Second Edition
At the end of 2016, marijuana was still listed as a Schedule

I drug in the United States. It was placed in that category because
federal officials had decided that marijuana currently has no
accepted medical use and a high potential for drug abuse. At
the same time, eight states and the District of Columbia had
approved marijuana for recreational use of small amounts
of the drug and 28 states and the District of Columbia had
approved the use of marijuana for medical purposes. In addi-
tion, between 2009 and 2013, the U.S. Department of Justice
had issued three memoranda outlining federal policy on state
marijuana laws, one seemingly indicating that the government
would not interfere with marijuana use in those states where it
had been approved, one apparently making a different case for
federal intervention in all forms of marijuana use, and a third
(the latest) saying that the federal government would become
involved in the regulation of marijuana use in states where it
had been approved only under special circumstances. So what’s
going on here?
Americans are clearly rethinking a century-long policy of
treating marijuana as a highly dangerous drug, comparable
to heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), peyote, MDMA
(ecstasy), and methaqualone (Quaalude). A substance that not
so long ago drew multiyear prison sentences and fines ranging
in the thousands of dollars was now being reclassified, in at
least some states, as a safe and harmless form of recreation and,
xix
xx Preface to the Second Edition
even more strikingly, as a medicine that could be used to treat

pain and a variety of medical conditions.
This change seems almost like a revolution in thinking about
a controversial psychoactive substance. Yet, it is one with a long
and contentious history that dates back more than two millen-
nia. The purpose of this second edition of Marijuana: A Refer-
ence Handbook is to bring readers up-to-date on the changes
that have taken place in our understanding of the science,
technology, sociology, psychology, politics, and economics of
marijuana since the book’s first appearance less than a decade
ago. The current edition not only reviews the specific changes
that have occurred, such as the adoption of marijuana laws
in a number of states, but also updates references that readers
can use in their own research on the topic, such as new books,
articles, and Internet resource; an updated list of organization
and important figures in the field; and an updated chronology
of marijuana events. Perhaps the most important message to be
derived from the current edition is that the status of marijuana
in American society has undergone a rapid change in the past
five years but, perhaps more importantly, current indications
are that such changes are only in their earliest manifestations.
Any future third edition of the book may only confirm that,
as more data become available about the effects of legal mari-
juana, Americans’ views on marijuana are likely to evolve even
more over the next few years.
Marijuana
1 Background and History FMH
Introduction
The researchers were not quite sure what to make of their dis-
covery. The pottery shards they had found in their excavations
at Yangmingshan, close to modern Taipei, Taiwan, were obvi-
ously very old. And the decorations on the pottery had clearly
been made by some type of rope. But what was the rope made
of ? It was certainly one of the oldest woven materials the ar-
chaeologists had ever seen. Could it be that the fiber used to
decorate the pots was the oldest material of its kind in human
history?
As it turned out, this discovery was as exciting as the re-
searchers had hoped it would be. Further analysis proved that
the rope used to decorate the pottery fragments was made of
hemp, a material made from the plant now known as Can-
nabis sativa. Carbon dating of the fibers found that the hemp
was about 12,000 years old, dating back to a Neolithic society
known as the Tapenkeng culture (Booth 2005, 20). So, yes, the
hemp found in this archaeological dig may well be the oldest
fiber ever produced by humans.
A worker processes hemp in Kentucky. Hemp was first introduced to Ken-

tucky in 1775, and it was an important part of the state’s economy during
the centuries that followed. (Public Records Division, Kentucky Depart-
ment for Libraries and Archives)
3
4 Marijuana
What Is Cannabis Sativa?

This story from Neolithic Taiwan provides just a hint of the
very long history of an amazing plant, Cannabis sativa. Before
continuing that story, it is necessary to describe in more detail
that plant, now commonly known simply as cannabis (some-
times correctly spelled with a capital “C,” as Cannabis, but
more commonly spelled with a lower case “c,” as cannabis).
As its scientific name suggests, Cannabis sativa belongs to
the genus Cannabis, in the family Cannabaceae (also known
as the hemp family), the order Urticales, the class Magnoliop-
sida (the dicotyledons), and the division Magnoliophyta (the
flowering plants). The species name is often given as Cannabis
sativa L., with the capital “L” representing the name of the per-
son who originally named the plant, Linnaeus. There is some
disagreement among experts as to the number of species in the
genus Cannabis, with some authorities recognizing two other
species in addition to C. sativa: C. indica and C. ruderalis.
Many taxonomists argue that C. indica and C. ruderalis are sub-
species of C. sativa, rather than true species themselves. Many
taxonomic listings of the genus show both classifications for
C. indica and C. ruderalis. C. sativa is thought to have origi-
nated in eastern Asia, although some authorities claim that it
may also have developed in Africa or parts of the Americas.
C. sativa is an annual flowering dioecious herb with erect
stems that may reach a height of five meters (about 16 feet). The
term dioecious means that the plant may occur as male or female,
in contrast to monecious plants, which have both male and fe-
male parts on the same plant. The dioecious character of the
cannabis plant was recognized as early as the third century bce
by Chinese naturalists, who called the male plant xi and the
female plant fu. (The Chinese name for cannabis itself is ma.)
Reproduction of the cannabis plant, then, can occur only when
male and female plants are in proximity to each other so that
microspores from the male plant can be transferred to the mega-
spores of a second female plant. The plant typically flowers in
Background and History 5
the summer and produces its fruit in late summer to early fall.
It grows year-around in the tropics but is a deciduous annual
in temperate regions.
Cannabis belongs to a family of plants known as short-day
plants, plants that require some given amount of darkness in
order to flower. Flowering does not occur if nights are not long
enough, that is, if there is too much daylight within a 24-hour
period. Flowering of a short-day plant can be inhibited, for
example, simply by shining a bright light on the plant in the
middle of the night, thus interrupting the period of darkness it
requires for flowering. This characteristic explains the tendency
of cannabis plants to begin flowering later in the summer (after
the summer solstice, on or about June 21).
The C. sativa plant is often described as “leggy” because it
has long branches with large narrow-bladed leaves. The plant
also has large internodal distances. The internodal distance on
a plant is the space between two nodes on a stem (a node is the
point at which an individual leaf grows off the stem). The plant
has a large, sprawling root system.
The cannabis fruit is usually a shiny brown achene (a small,
dry fruit with a single distinct interior seed) that may be either
plain in color or marked in a variety of ways. At maturation, it
detaches from the plant and is blown away, the mechanism by
which the plant reproduces.
The subspecies C. indica differs from C. sativa in a number
of ways. First, it tends to be shorter and bushier than the main
species, with a more compact root system. Its leaves are broader,
a darker green, and more densely arranged on the plant than
in C. sativa. These traits tend to make it more popular among
growers who have a limited amount of space in which to locate
their plants, such as indoor growers. The subspecies also has
distinctly different pharmacological effects than those experi-
enced with the main species. C. indica is thought to have origi-
nated on the Indian subcontinent.
The subspecies C. ruderalis is even smaller and more compact
than C. indica. It is a scrubby plant of little interest to marijuana
6 Marijuana
growers because it has a very low concentration of THC, tend-

ing to produce headaches rather than the more pleasant ef-
fects obtained by ingesting C. sativa or C. indica. (THC is the
abbreviation for Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol, a compound that
produces the psychoactive effects associated with the ingestion
of cannabis products.) C. ruderalis is thought to have origi-
nated in Russia, Central Europe, or Central Asia, and was first
introduced to the modern world when seeds were brought to
Amsterdam in the 1980s.
The three forms of cannabis discussed thus far have been
variously called distinct species, species and subspecies, spe-
cies and strains, or species and varieties. Strains and varieties
are forms of a plant that differ from each other in important
characteristics, but that do not differ sufficiently to be assigned
distinct taxa. For example, cannabis growers typically attempt
to produce new strains (or varieties) by pollinating one form
of C. sativa, C. indica, or C. ruderalis with a second form of
one of the three varietals. The purpose of such experiments is
to produce new types of cannabis that have especially desirable
qualities favored by users of the plant. Today, there are well
over 100 different strains of the cannabis plant that have been
produced by years of this cross-breeding technology (Oner
2013, xi). Some of those strains are called Afghani, Amsterdam
Indica, Aussie Blues, Big Bud, Charas, Durban Poison, Haze
Marijuana, Island Lady, Kush, Light of Jah, Mauwie Wauwie,
New York Diesel, Purple Haze Marijuana, Super Skunk, Swiss
Miss, and White Queen. Many strains are developed because
they grow best in either indoor or outdoor settings.
Among individuals for whom the cannabis plant is a source
of a recreational drug (marijuana), probably the most interest-
ing and important part of the plant is the trichomes. A tri-
chome is a small hair or other outgrowth from the epidermis of
a plant, usually consisting of a single cell. Trichomes typically
exude a sticky, resinous substance to which bits of dust, male
sex spores, small insects, and other materials become stuck.
Botanists have hypothesized that the primary evolutionary
purpose of trichomes is, as part of the plants’ defensive system,

protecting them from attacking insects (Freeman and Beattie
2008). Research indicates that chemicals found in the exudate
of trichomes are toxic to insects that prey on the plant.
A number of important organic compounds are found at
the base of a trichome, including a number of phenols and
terpenes. Phenols are organic compounds related to phenol
(hydroxybenzene), a ring compound with one hydroxyl (-OH)
group. The chemical formula for phenol is C6H5OH. Terpenes
are organic compounds that are found commonly in plants.
They constitute a large and diverse collection of compounds
derived from the simply unsaturated hydrocarbon isoprene
(2-methyl-1,3-butadiene; C5H8). As phenols and terpenes
migrate upward from the base of a trichome to the bud at its
tip, a series of chemical reactions occur that convert these sim-
ple basic compounds into a large variety of more complex com-
pounds, the most important of which is THC. THC is a light
yellow resinous oil that is sticky at room temperature and so-
lidifies upon refrigeration. It is virtually insoluble in water, but
soluble in most organic solvents. THC is of interest both to sci-
entists and to users of marijuana because it is the most psycho-
active of the many compounds found in the cannabis plant. It is
also of interest to chemists because it is the only known psycho-
active plant material that does not contain the element nitrogen.
Overall, more than 400 distinct chemicals have been extracted
from the cannabis plant, 66 of which are unique to that plant
(“Definitions and Explanations” 2016). These 66 chemicals are
collectively known as cannabinoids. Many cannabinoids are iso-
mers of each other; that is, they have the same chemical formula
(such as that of THC: C21H30O2), but different arrangements of
atoms. Table 1.1 gives the names and abbreviations of the classes
of cannabinoids found in the cannabis plant.
One of the most interesting discoveries made by researchers
in the past few decades is that animals produce compounds
with properties similar to those of the cannabinoids that
occur in plants (the phytocannabinoids). These animal-based
8 Marijuana
Table 1.1 Cannabinoids Present in the Cannabis Plant
Class of Cannaboid Abbreviation
Δ -tetrahydrocannabinol
9
Δ9-THC; THC
Δ8-tetrahydrocannabinol Δ8-THC
Cannabichromene CBC
Cannabicyclol CBL
Cannabidiol CBD
Cannabielsoin CBE
Cannabigerol CBG
Cannabinidiol CBND
Cannabinol CBN
Cannabitriol CBT
Cannabichromanone CBCN
Isocannabinoids
compounds are called endocannabinoids. They appear to op-

erate on almost every part of an animal’s body and brain,
producing effects similar to those caused by THC and other
phytocannabinoids. Researchers believe that endocannabinoids
may have a number of medical and pharmacological applica-
tions because they stimulate the same receptors in the nervous
system as those affected by phytocannabinoids. One of the first
products intended for the commercial market of this type was a
drug called rimonabant (Acomplia), originally designed for the
treatment of obesity. The drug worked by blocking the action
of endocannabinoids produced by the brain that stimulate a
person’s appetite. Rimonabant was withdrawn from the market
in 2009, and research discontinued on the drug because of pos-
sible dangerous side effects (Acomplia 2016).
In addition to the naturally occurring cannabinoids, a num-
ber of synthetic cannabinoids have been produced by research-
ers. These compounds do not necessarily exist naturally in
plants, but they have many of the same physiological and phar-
macological properties as do naturally occurring cannabinoids.
One reason for the preparation of synthetic cannabinoids is

to study with more specificity their effects on body systems.
The result of this research may be helpful in developing syn-
thetic products that can be used to treat a variety of physical
and mental conditions. Probably the best known synthetic can-
nabinoid is a compound called dronabinol, manufactured by
AbbVie, Inc. Dronabinol is chemically identical to the active
form of THC found in cannabis. It is sold under the trade
name of Marinol and is recommended for the treatment of an-
orexia associated with weight loss in patients with HIV/AIDS
and for the nausea and vomiting associated with cancer chemo-
therapy in patients who have not responded to other treatments
(Marinol 2016). Dronabinol is listed as a Schedule III drug
because it is regarded as a non-narcotic with low risk of physi-
cal or mental dependency. That listing has drawn some atten-
tion and comment since the synthetic compound dronabinol is
chemically identical to the form of THC that is regarded as the
most psychoactive component of natural marijuana (Backes
2014, 84).
A second synthetic cannabinoid is nabilone, marketed as
Cesamet and listed as a Schedule II drug because of its high
potential for abuse. Like dronabinol, nabilone is used almost
exclusively for treating the nausea and vomiting associated with
cancer chemotherapy (“Cesamet” 2016).
Another interesting analog of THC that research chemists
developed has the chemical name 1-pentyl-3-(1-naphthoyl)
indole, although it is more commonly known as AM-678 or
JWH-018 or, commercially, as K2 or Spice. The compound
was first synthesized by John W. Huffman, an organic chemist
at Clemson University. It has essentially the same effect (except
more powerfully) on cannabinoid receptors in the body as does
THC, although its chemical structure is significantly differ-
ent. An herbal incense (“not for human consumption”) called
“Spice” that contains JWH-018 first appeared in Europe in 2004
and rapidly became popular there. When authorities analyzed
the product and found that it contained a powerful synthetic
10 Marijuana
cannabinoid, they banned it. JWH-018 has since been classi-

fied as a Schedule I in the United States (Stafford 2009).
Hemp versus Marijuana

In today’s world, two forms of cannabis are grown for quite
different purposes. Both forms are classified botanically as
C. sativa, but their physical appearances and other properties are
different from each other. The form known as hemp usually oc-
curs as a tall plant, ranging in height from one to more than five
meters (3 to nearly 20 feet). Plant appearance depends on the
conditions under which it is grown. In uncrowded conditions,
the plant has many branches and a relatively thick stalk that can
reach more than 50 millimeters (two inches) in diameter. In
crowded conditions, the hemp plant has few branches, except at
the very top. The stalk is much reduced in size, with a diameter
of no more than about 20 millimeters (about 0.75 inch).
Hemp is grown for two purposes: fibers, which are made
from the plant’s stalk and stems, and oil, which is made from
its seeds. The manufacture of fiber from the hemp plant begins
with a process known as retting, in which stalks and stems are
soaked in water that contains bacteria or special kinds of chem-
icals. These bacteria or chemicals attack the stems and stalks,
breaking them down into their component parts. One of those
parts is called bast or bast fiber, a material found between the
woody core of the plant and its outer covering (the epidermis
and cortex). Bast fibers are long stringy strands up to two meters
(six feet) in length that provide the hemp plant with strength
and that, when separated from the rest of the plant, produce
strong, durable fibers. These fibers are yellowish, pale green, or
gray in color and are not easily dyed, accounting for the pale
color associated with most hemp fibers. The fibers are used for
a host of purposes, including the manufacture of all styles of
clothing, paper, ropes and other types of cordage, sail canvas,
and netting. Hemp has long been a popular agricultural crop
because it grows quickly, requires little fertilizer or pesticide
application, produces large yields per acre compared to other

plants, and has few deleterious environmental impacts.
A second use of the hemp plant is the production of oil,
which is made from the plant’s seeds. Growing hemp for oil
production cannot be combined with growing hemp for fiber
production because in the latter process, plants are harvested
before they begin to flower; thus, no seeds are produced that
can be used for oil production. Hemp plants destined for use
in oil production must be allowed to grow a few weeks longer
than those used for fiber production, permitting the growth
of flowers and the development of seeds. When this point has
been reached, the seeds are harvested and then pressed to pro-
duce an oil that is similar to safflower, linseed, tung, and perilla
oils. Freshly prepared unrefined hempseed oil is light green to
dark green in color with a pleasant nutty aroma. It is rich in un-
saturated fatty acids and has significant nutritional value. But it
is also a fragile material that must be stored in dark, cool, oxygen-
free conditions to prevent breakdown. Because of its instability,
hempseed oil cannot be used for cooking. Its nutritional value,
however, has made it popular, especially among natural and
organic food devotees, as a nutritional supplement that can
be used as a condiment and in the preparation of sauces and
specialized foods, such as pesto.
In some ways, the most important feature of the hemp plant
is its concentration of THC. Over the centuries, the hemp
plant has been cross-bred to have low concentrations of THC,
presently about 0.3%. By contrast, cannabis plants raised for
the production of marijuana have much higher concentrations
of THC, ranging from about 2 to as much as 20%. Until re-
cently, this difference in THC content in hemp and marijuana
plants was irrelevant to federal laws in the United States, where
plants containing any amount of THC greater than zero had
long been illegal (DEA Clarifies Status of Hemp in the Fed-
eral Register 2001). That situation changed in 2014, when
the federal farm bill included a provision allowing farmers to
grow hemp in pilot programs in states where such a practice
12 Marijuana
was permitted. In the first year, crops of hemp were planted in

three states (Colorado, Kentucky, and Vermont), with plans
for expanding the number of such states in following years
(Johnson 2015).
One form of hemp that is still found in the United States is
called feral hemp or ditchweed (or ditch weed ). Feral hemp, as
the name suggests, is hemp that has self-seeded from plants that
were once grown legally in virtually every part of the United
States. They are vigorous plants that have survived many de-
cades of attempted eradication. At one point, up to 99% of
all marijuana plants eradicated annually by the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA) were not those cultivated
intentionally for the production of marijuana; rather, they were
feral plants (98 Percent of All Domestically Eradicated Mari-
juana Is “Ditchweed,” DEA Admits 2006). Since 2006, DEA
has changed that practice and no longer lists ditchweed as mar-
ijuana eradicated in the program (Green 2011).
The Cannabis Plant in History

Whatever the diverse forms in which it is currently found,
C. sativa almost certainly existed as only a single type of plant
when it was first used by humans. The date of that first use,
as noted previously, was at least 10,000 bce on the modern
island of Taiwan. Its cultivation and use later radiated outward
throughout most of the world.
Cannabis in China
Much of what we know about the early history of cannabis
comes from China, where the plant became widely popular
with the rise of Chinese civilization. Indeed, in some of the old-
est documents available, ancient China was sometimes referred
to as “the Land of Mulberry and Hemp” (Booth 2005, 20). An
archaeological find in China of some interest that is similar to
the Taiwanese discovery was reported in 1974. It consisted of
a number of artifacts indicating the use of hemp in the culture
of the time, including a design on pottery similar to that found

in Taiwan and some imprints made from hemp clothing on the
then-damp pottery (Merlin 2003, 304).
Like the Taiwan discovery, the earliest evidence for the use of
hemp in China comes from archaeological digs in which rem-
nants of cloth, seeds, rope imprints (like those from the Taiwan
site), and other visual evidence of the plant and its use are
available. For example, a fragment of cloth made from hemp
was discovered in 1972 in a grave dating to the Zhou dynasty
(1045–256 bce). The find is sometimes described as the “oldest
preserved specimen” of hemp cloth ever discovered (Hanuš and
Mechoulam 2008, 50). Many other hemp products have also
been recovered from ancient Chinese sites. Fragments of textiles
made from hemp have been discovered at a site at Anyang in
Henan Province dating to the Shan dynasty (1600–1046 bce),
and cemeteries at the same site dating to the Zhou dynasty
contain thousands of funerary objects, some of which were
made of hemp. Excavations in Gansu Province have discovered
graves dating to the Han dynasty (206 bce–220 ce) in which
corpses were wrapped in cloth made of hemp (Fleming and
Clarke 1998).
Written records of the role of hemp in Chinese culture began
to appear as early as the 16th century bce when it was listed
as an important crop in what is regarded as the oldest Chinese
agricultural manuscript, the Xia Xiao Zheng (Summer Almanac).
The role of hemp in agriculture was also mentioned and de-
scribed in a number of other early documents. These documents
include the Shi Ching (Book of Songs) and the Zhushu Jinian
(Bamboo Annals), both written between 476 and 221 bce;
Shi Jing (Book of Odes), dating to the 11th to 6th centuries bce;
Si Min Yue Ling (Eastern Han dynasty; 25 to 220 ce); and
Qi Min Yao Shu (Northern Wei dynasty; 386 to 534 ce). All of
these texts provided detailed information about the planting
and cultivation of hemp plants, indicating their essential role
in Chinese culture (Fleming and Clarke 1998, 87). An example
of the kind of instruction found in these books is the following.
14 Marijuana
If we pull out the male hemp before it scatters pollen, the

female plant cannot make seed. Otherwise, the female
plant’s seed production will be influenced by the male
hemp plants scattering pollen and during this period of
time, the fiber of the male hemp plant is the best. (Cited
in Lu and Clarke, 1995. This article contains a number of
other passages dealing with the cultivation of cannabis for
the production of hemp.)
A considerable body of evidence indicates that hemp seed

was also used as an essential part of the diet among the early
Chinese. Early histories and other documents list hemp seed as
one of the essential nine (in some references) or five (in other
references) grains that constituted a typical diet. Although it
was certainly part of the average Chinese diet for many cen-
turies, it also seems to have been a specialty food among the
royalty during certain months of the year (Li 1974a, 443). The
seed was also crushed to obtain its oil, which was used both
for frying foods and for industrial applications. Over time, the
use of hemp seed as a food and a source of oil was gradually
phased out as superior natural products became available. An
interesting side note, however, is that a resurgence of the use
of hemp seed occurred at one point in history, around 28 ce,
when a great famine caused by war and natural disasters forced
people to return to the ancient practice of eating hemp seeds
as a major part of their diets (Li 1974a, 444). As late as the
9th century ce, writers were still describing a porridge made
with cannabis seeds, but, before long, the product “was com-
pletely forgotten as a human food” (Li 1974a, 444).
Given the widespread use of cannabis as a food, it is hardly
surprising that humans would rather quickly recognize the
plant’s medical and psychoactive effects. One could hardly con-
sume cannabis seeds without experiencing at least some kinds
of mind-altering events from time to time. The first mention of
cannabis as a medical product is usually given as about 2000 bce,
when it is described in the earliest known pharmacopeia, the
Pe’n-ts’ao Ching, attributed to the legendary emperor Shen Nung.

That attribution is almost certainly wrong since Shen Nung
was probably not a real person, and the oldest known copy of
the book actually dates to the first or second century ce. How-
ever, authorities believe that the text accurately reflects prehis-
toric practices, as its “earliest” mention of medical cannabis is
usually taken as valid.
In any case, Chinese shamans used virtually every part of
the cannabis plant to treat a variety of illnesses. A 1911 text
on Chinese herbal medicine, for example, notes that “[e]very
part of the hemp plant is used in medicine; the dried flowers,
the ach’enia, the seeds, the oil, the leaves, the stalk, the root,
and the juice” (Smith 1911, 91). These materials were put to a
plethora of applications used to treat a long list of illness and
disorders, including nausea, vomiting, malaria, beriberi, con-
stipation, rheumatic pains, absent-mindedness, nervous dis-
orders, female disorders (including post-partum depression),
ulcers and other eruptions of the skin, scorpion stings, wounds,
hair loss, sulfur poisoning, dryness of the throat, and worm
infestations (an incomplete list at that!).
The cannabis plant was also used as an anesthetic for sur-
gical procedures, perhaps as early as the second century ce.
Although there is considerable dispute about the details of this
history, it appears that the famous Chinese physician Hua Tuo
used powdered cannabis in a concoction to produce numbness
during surgery. Reputedly, the product used by Hua was made
of a concoction of cannabis mixed with wine. It was called
mafeisan, which means cannabis (“ma”) + boil (“fei”) + powder
(“san”) (Hua Tuo 2014)
The use of the cannabis plant for both medical and psy-
choactive purposes in ancient history is hardly surprising.
A practitioner who purported to heal individuals of physi-
cal and mental disorders was commonly a shaman, a person
who used minerals, herbs, and other natural products to treat
the patient, but who was also in contact with the spirit world
and could thus draw on supernatural resources to bring about
16 Marijuana
cures. It has seemed clear to such practitioners perhaps since

the beginning of human civilization that the cannabis plant
produced both kinds of results: as an herb, it could directly
cure a host of physical and mental ailments; as a psychoactive
material, it could give a patient or the practitioner access to a
world of spirits who could perhaps provide cures on an entirely
different psychical plane.
References to the use of cannabis as both a medical sub-
stance and a psychoactive material date to the earliest of the
Chinese pharmacopoeias, Pen Ching. There one can find the
following admonition:
To take too much makes people see demons and throw
themselves about like maniacs. But if one takes it over a
long period of time one can communicate with the spirits
and one’s own body becomes light. (Rudgley 1998, 47)
The fact that the Chinese knew about the hallucinatory effects
of cannabis early in history comes, interestingly enough, from
linguistic studies. In a 1974 article in Economic Botany, Hui-Lin
Li of the Morris Arboretum at the University of Pennsylvania
points out that the Chinese character for “ma” (the Chinese
name for cannabis) is a combination of simpler characters that
represent “numerous” or “chaotic,” apparently from the nature
of hemp fibers themselves, and “numbness” or “senselessness,”
apparently from the plant’s physical effects. He concludes that
these linguistic clues indicate “that the stupefying effect of the
hemp plant was commonly known from extremely early times”
(Li 1974b, 296).
In spite of a number of mentions such as these in early Chi-
nese documents, use of cannabis for psychoactive purposes
was probably relatively limited. Observers note that Chinese
society was highly ordered, and activities that would disrupt
that order were frowned upon and often restricted. As Martin
Booth has written in his history of cannabis:
The use of cannabis [for recreational purposes], however,
never really became more than a passing phase. Chinese
culture, being based on social order, family values and the

reverence of ancestors and the elderly, looked down upon
drugs. (Booth 2005, 23)
Cannabis in India and Central Asia

The same cannot be said for other parts of Asia. In fact, the use
of cannabis products for psychoactive experiences has a long
history, dating back to at least 1400 bce. Historians are uncer-
tain as to the mechanism by which knowledge of the cannabis
plant worked its way from China (or, perhaps, Central Asia),
but there is no question of the central role that the plant had
in Indian culture from its earliest days. The sacred Hindu texts,
known as the Vedas, contain many references to the psychoac-
tive effects of the cannabis plant, an effect that is universally
praised and encouraged. In one segment of the Artharvaveda,
for example, cannabis is referred to as one of the herbs that
“release us from anxiety” (Rudgley 1998, 48).
According to one of the central stories told in the Vedas, the
cannabis plant first appeared on Earth when a drop of heav-
enly nectar fell to Earth, took root, and grew as a cannabis
plant. A drink prepared from the plant later became the favor-
ite refreshment of Indra, the Hindu Lord of Kings. Another
popular myth recounts the experience of Lord Shiva who, after
an angry fight within his family, wandered off into the fields
and fell asleep under the leaves of a cannabis plant. When he
awoke, he decided to slake his hunger by eating a leaf off the
plant, and found it to be delicious and refreshing. In later life,
he came to be known as the Lord of Bhang because of his love
of the plant (Gumbiner 2011).
Bhang is one of a number of forms in which cannabis was
(and is) consumed in India. It is a mixture with a variable com-
position. One that has been described consists of cannabis,
poppy seed, pepper, ginger, caraway seed, clove, cardamom,
cinnamon, cucumber seed, almonds, nutmeg, and rosebud, all
boiled together in milk (Abel 1980, Chapter 1). In this recipe,
the cannabis is taken from the large green leaves and flowering
shoots of either the male or female plant. Two other cannabis
18 Marijuana
preparations that have been popular throughout history are

ganja and charas. Ganja is made from the top leaves and the
unfertilized flower of the young female plant, which are then
dried and smoked or brewed as a tea. This preparation pro-
duces an effect similar to smoking a mild grade of marijuana
that is available today. Charas is made from the resin obtained
from the top leaves and unfertilized flower of the female plant,
which are then dried and smoked. This is the strongest prep-
aration of cannabis available and is comparable in its effects
to hashish. Hashish preparations can have some of the high-
est concentrations of THC of any form of cannabis and have
been popular in many parts of the world throughout much of
human history (Hashish 2015).
Cannabis preparations have traditionally played a role in In-
dian culture similar to that played by alcohol in Western cul-
ture. They are commonly smoked by groups of people who
are gathered for social occasions. For example, legend has it
that evil spirits hover around wedding ceremonies waiting for
an opportunity to cause misery in the lives of the bride and
groom. A gift of bhang from the bride’s father is considered a
sufficient protection against these terrible events. Bhang was
(and still is) offered to visitors to one’s home, and anyone who
ignores this tradition is usually regarded as “miserly and misan-
thropic” (Abel 1982).
Many scholars today believe that cannabis was first domes-
ticated and used not in China or India, but in Central Asia.
Martin Booth, author of Cannabis: A History, argues that the
plant’s original home may have been near the Irtysh River, which
flows from Mongolia, along the southern edge of the Gobi
Desert, into the lowlands of western Siberia or in the Takla
Makan Desert north of Tibet. The plant still grows in abundance
in these regions whenever the Earth is disturbed by floods or
erosion (Booth 2005, 3). In such a case, the plant was prob-
ably then dispersed eastward into China and southward into
India. One of the most solid pieces of evidence arguing for a
long (if not the longest) history of cannabis in Central Asia
comes from the writings of the Greek historian Herodotus,

who lived from about 484 to about 425 bce. In his work,
Histories, Herodotus tells of a popular tradition among the
Scythians in which cannabis was smoked for religious, ceremo-
nial, and perhaps recreational purposes. The Scythians thrived
from about 600 bce to about 300 ce across an extensive region
that covered most of the southern part of modern Russia. For
their ceremonies, the Scythians first built a tent with three long
wooden poles tied together at the top and covered with animal
skin. They then placed dried cannabis seeds into a hot bowl
in the center of the tent and took their places inside the tent
around the bowl. In this position, they inhaled the vapors of
the roasting cannabis seeds, experiencing such pleasure that,
according to Herodotus, “they would howl with pleasure”
(cited in Merlin 2003, 313).
Fortunately, it is not necessary to rely just on the words of
Herodotus about this custom. In 1929, the Russian archae-
ologist S. I. Rudenko visited the region in which the Scythians
once lived and found that the tradition reported by Herodotus
continues today. He reported that these modern descendants
of the Scythians follow the traditional practice not for religious
or ceremonial reasons, but simply as a form of day-to-day re-
laxation. Even more recent information about this practice be-
came available in 1993 when a group of Russian archaeologists
discovered the body of a 2,000-year-old woman buried in the
permafrost in Siberia near the location of Rudenko’s research.
The archaeologists found the woman buried in a tree trunk
along with a small cask containing cannabis seeds, which they
hypothesized were “smoked for pleasure and used in pagan
rituals” (Spicer 2002; Stanley 1994).
A few authorities have argued for a very early appearance
of cannabis in the Middle East. In a 1938 book on cannabis,
Marijuana, America’s New Drug Problem, for example, physi-
cian and reputed “authority on marijuana,” Robert P. Walton,
referred to mentions on Assyrian tablets of cannabis dating to
about 650 bce, and possibly much earlier (as cited in Brecher
20 Marijuana
and the Editors of Consumer Reports 1972, 397). Since this

early comment, there have been only a few significant discov-
eries pointing to an early history of cannabis in the Middle
East. In the early 1960s, for example, archaeologists discovered
pieces of hemp fabric in a grave mound at a dig in the region
known as Gordion that dates to the 8th bce. An even more
recent and more fascinating discovery was made in the 1990s
in the town of Beit Shemesh, near Jerusalem. The discovery
consisted of the skeleton of a young woman who was about
14 years of age and had apparently died during childbirth. In-
terred with the body was a brown material in the abdominal
region of the skeleton, whose composition was found to con-
sist of cannabis seeds, mixed with fruits and other dried seeds.
Archaeologists believe that the mixture was used as an aid in
childbirth, a custom that prevailed in the area well into the
19th century. The find raises questions as to the extent and
the purposes for which cannabis might have been used in this
early Middle Eastern culture. In spite of these recent finds,
most authorities seem to believe that cannabis came to the
Middle East relatively later than it did to Central Asia, China,
and India.
More intriguing, perhaps, has been the dispute as to whether
cannabis products are mentioned in the Bible, which would,
of course, place their use many centuries and even millennia
earlier. The basic problem is whether words used in the Old
Testament actually refer to cannabis or to some other type of
plant. In I Samuel, 14, for example, Saul places a restriction
on his people, telling them that they should not eat until they
took vengeance upon his enemies. His son Jonathan did not
hear that command, however, and when the army reached a
wooded area, he
. . . reached out the end of the staff that was in his hand
and dipped it into the honeycomb. He raised his hand to
his mouth, and his eyes brightened. (I Samuel 14: 27)
The question is whether there is more than meets the eye to

this seemingly innocuous passage. According to one histo-
rian, there may in fact be. In a 1903 article on the passage,
Dr. C. Creighton points out that the Hebrew words for “honey
comb” used here—yagarah hadebash—probably should be
translated as a type of flower stalk similar to that of cannabis, and
that the “brightened eyes” may have been Jonathan’s response to
ingesting cannabis (Creighton 1903, 241; for an extended dis-
cussion of this point, also see Benet 1975). Other scholars take
a more skeptical view of efforts to place the cannabis plant into
biblical sources. One widely respected authority, for example, has
criticized experts who have “tickled, teased, and twisted [Biblical
texts] into surrendering secret references to marijuana that it
never contained” (Abel 1982).
Cannabis in Africa (and Beyond)

The use of any form of cannabis on the African continent ap-
pears to have been a comparatively recent event. According to
the best information now available, cannabis was probably in-
troduced to the continent by Muslim sea traders who brought
the plant to the eastern coast of Africa in the first century ce,
after which it spread inland throughout most of southern
Africa. There are a few scattered reports of ancient remnants of
cannabis finds such as a discovery of prehistoric pollen samples
dating to about 2300 bce from the Kalahari Desert in Bo-
tswana, but these are rare, with most discoveries dating to only
the first century ce or much later (Merlin 2003, 315–316).
More commonly, the archeological record appears to con-
firm that tribesmen practiced a communal use of cannabis by,
for example, “throwing hemp plants on the burning coals of
a fire and staging what might today be called a ‘breathe-in’ ”
(Emboden 1972, 226, as cited in Spicer 2002).
A somewhat minor, but very interesting, note about the use
of cannabis products in Africa has to do with a modern organi-
zation known as the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church (EZCC).
22 Marijuana
Modern leaders of the church say that it has been in existence

for a long time, with roots in Africa going back hundreds of
years. Whatever its ancient history, the church was formulated
in its modern form in the 1930s during the rise of the Rafastari
movement in Jamaica. Rafastari (also known as Rasta, but not
as Rafastarianism) is a religious movement that consists almost
entirely of Christian descendants of slaves brought to the West-
ern Hemisphere. They originally worshiped Haile Selassie I,
emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974, as the reincarnation
of Christ and God incarnate. Among the tenets of the church
is a belief in the sacramental role of cannabis smoking as a way
of communicating with God. One of the early leaders of the
church, Louv Williams, said that the church was based on a
new trinity consisting of “The Man, The Herb, and The Word”
(“the herb” being cannabis) (Menelik 2009, 138). A defense for
the fundamental principles of Rafastari and its basis in bibli-
cal teachings was laid out in a 1988 publication, Marijuana
and the Bible, which contains dozens of specific citations in the
Bible that purportedly allude to the use of cannabis in religious
ceremonies. The church’s fundamental teaching is that
Herb (marijuana) is a Godly creation from the beginning

of the world. It is known as the weed of wisdom, angel’s
food, the tree of life and even the “Wicked Old Ganja
Tree.” Its purpose in creation is as a fiery sacrifice to be
offered to our Redeemer during obligations. (Marijuana
and the Bible 1988)
In 1975, a branch of the EZCC consisting primarily of white

Americans was incorporated in the state of Florida. Four years
later, members of that group were arrested while unloading a
very large shipment of marijuana from Jamaica, a shipment
they said they intended to use in religious ceremonies. The
question as to whether the use of marijuana was legal among
the members of this religious denomination worked its way
through the federal courts over a number of years. Members of
the Rafastari argued that their right to use marijuana in their

religious ceremonies was protected by the U.S. Constitution’s
“freedom of religion” clause, which prevents the government
from interfering with the religious practices of individuals and
denominations. (American Indians are permitted to use the
mind-altering drug peyote under this provision of the law.)
The U.S. and state governments responded to this argument
by saying that the constitutional right to freedom of religion
is not absolute, but is subject to overweening “public interest”
factors, such as the risk of a particular drug. In the end, the
government’s argument won out in the highest court decisions
on the Rafastari complaints, and the denomination’s right to use
marijuana in its ceremonies is not permitted (United States v.
Rush 1984).
One interesting sidelight of this story emerged when an
eminent psychiatrist Brian L. Weiss, chief of the Division of
Psychiatry at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City,
was asked to evaluate 14 members of the EZCC each in Miami
and in Jamaica to determine their psychological, physical, and
emotional states. Dr. Weiss reported that he was “surprised
by the absence of positive findings” among members of both
groups. In fact, the only positive finding he could report was
that “the American Coptics are functioning at a much better
level than they were prior to joining the Coptic Church.” He
noted that although the number of individuals examined was
small, he felt he could conclude that “some people, at least, can
smoke marijuana in high doses for sixteen hours daily for up
to fifty years without apparent psychological or physical harm”
(Weiss 1980).
Cannabis in Europe
As with other parts of the world, cannabis use appears to have a
long history in Europe. Perhaps the earliest reference to such use
dates to the third millennium bce in a grave site near modern-
day Bucharest. The grave site contained small vessels called pipe
cups that contained burned cannabis seed. Similar finds have
24 Marijuana
been recovered in other parts of Eurasia, prompting the noted

Oxford archaeologist Andrew Sherratt to observe that the prac-
tice of burning cannabis as a narcotic is a tradition that goes
back in this area some 5,000 or 6,000 years and was the focus
of social and religious rituals of the pastoral peoples of cen-
tral Eurasia in prehistoric and early historic times (Goodman,
Lovejoy, and Sherratt 2007, 27).
One of the routes by which cannabis may have come to
Europe was through the dispersion of the Scythians from
their original home in Central Asia into Eastern Europe. Pol-
ish anthropologist Sula Benet (also known as Sara Benetowa)
has studied this process in some detail. She has noted that the
Scythians carried with them the use of cannabis for funerary
ceremonies (similar to those described by Herodotus) out of
their Central Asian homelands into southern Russia and East-
ern Europe over centuries of migration. Some of those customs
have been retained into modern times. One such example is
the preparation of a soup made of cannabis seeds called semie-
niatka at Christmas time in Poland, Lithuania, and Russia as
nourishment for dead souls who have come back to their fami-
lies at the holidays (Benet 1975).
In his superb review of the history of cannabis, “Archaeo-
logical Evidence for the Tradition of Psychoactive Plant Use in
the Old World,” M. D. Merlin mentions a number of sites at
which various forms of cannabis have been discovered in pre-
historic Europe: locations of the Hallstatt and Laténe cultures
of Hungary; a site at Vallensbæk in Denmark; in a region near
Trier, Germany; and a location at Mikulčice in the Czech Re-
public, all dating to the Bronze or Iron Ages in Europe (Merlin
2003, 314).
The point at which cannabis reached Western Europe is not
known with any certainty. The date most often mentioned for
this event is about 500 bce. An urn containing burnt cannabis
seeds found near modern-day Berlin has been carbon-dated to
about that period. In any case, a number of references sug-
gest that the plant rapidly dispersed throughout the continent
following that date and by the turn of the millennium was

used in locations as far west as the British Isles. An instructive
story that is often told is that Hieron II, the ruler of Syra-
cuse from 270 to 215 bce, decided to purchase the hemp he
needed for his fleet’s sails from producers in the Rhone Valley
of Germany, rather than the much-closer Caspian Sea provid-
ers because the former were more skilled and could produce the
best hemp available. This story suggests that German growers
and producers of hemp must, even as early as the second cen-
tury bce, have become highly skilled at working with the plant
(Abel 1982).
Cannabis probably reached the British Isles in the first cen-
tury ce. Rope fragments made of hemp have been discovered
as far north on the islands as Bar Hill, located between Glasgow
and Edinburgh at a fort built by the Romans around 80 ce. By
the fourth century ce, hemp was being grown throughout the
British Isles (in contrast to its having been imported by the
Romans earlier). At about the same time, the plant was being
grown in Scandinavia, where it was being used by the Vikings
for the production of sails and ropes. Also within the same
period, hemp was apparently being grown and processed in
France. This assumption is based on a famous discovery made
in the early 1960s with the opening of tombs at the Cathedral
of St. Denis in Paris. One of those tombs contained the body
of Queen Arnegunde, second wife of King Clothar I, who died
in 561. The queen’s richly decorated body was wrapped in a
cloth made of hemp (Booth 2005, 34–35).
Cannabis arrived in Western Europe by a second route. After
the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by the Moors in 711,
the art of papermaking using hemp was brought to Europe
from China by way of the new Muslim civilization. By 1150,
the first paper mill in Western Europe that was using this
technology was constructed in the town of Xatvia in the prov-
ince of Valencia. Before long, it was exporting paper “to the
East and West” (Balfour 1873, 381). Cotton-based paper was
being developed at about the same time, but it was found to
26 Marijuana
be generally inferior to hemp-based paper that, by the end of

the century, had essentially replaced all cotton-based products.
A 19th-century historian reported that some of those earliest
hemp-based papers “possess their original qualities even to this
day” (Balfour 1873, 381).
By the 16th century, hemp had reached its zenith in Europe,
finding use in a host of applications. In the form of paper, it
was the material on which important documents such as the
Magna Carta and Gutenberg’s first Bible were printed; in
the form of canvas, it was the substance on which most great
(and not-so-great) paintings were made; it was the basic mate-
rial on which ship building depended for sails and ropes of
every description; and in many countries, it had become the
fabric of choice from which the clothing of commoners was
made. A notable observation about the importance of hemp
to the 16th-century world can be found in a 1562 book by
William Bullein, a relative of King Henry VIII’s second wife,
Anne Boleyn. Bullein wrote that “no Shippe can sayle without
Hempe. . . . No Plowe, or Carte, can be without ropes halters,
trace, &c. The Fisher and Fouler must haue Hempe, to make
their nettes. And no Archer can wante his bowe string: and the
Malt man for his sackes. With it the belle is rong, to seruice in
the Church, with many mo thynges profitable” (Shrank 2006).
The plant received some small measure of historical fame in
a notable book by the French writer François Rabelais, Gargan-
tua and Pantagruel, which devotes three whole chapters to the
plant. Rabelais begins by presenting an extended and complete
botanical description of the cannabis plant, and then provides
a paean to its uses:
Without this herb kitchens would be detested, the tables

of dining-rooms abhorred, although there were great
plenty and variety of most dainty and sumptuous dishes
of meat set down upon them, and the choicest beds also,
how richly soever adorned with gold, silver, amber, ivory,
porphyry, and the mixture of most precious metals, would
without it yield no delight or pleasure to the reposers in

them. . . . In what case would tabellions, notaries, copists,
makers of counterpanes, writers, clerks, secretaries, scriv-
eners, and such-like persons be without it? Were it not for
it, what would become of the toll-rates and rent-rolls?
Would not the noble art of printing perish without it?
Whereof could the chassis or paper-windows be made? . . .
The altars of Isis are adorned therewith, the Pastophorian
priests are therewith clad and accoutred, and whole human
nature covered and wrapped therein at its first position
and production in and into this world. All the lanific trees
of Seres, the bumbast and cotton bushes in the territories
near the Persian Sea and Gulf of Bengala, the Arabian
swans, together with the plants of Malta, do not all the
them clothe, attire, and apparel so many persons as this
one herb alone. Soldiers are nowadays much better shel-
tered under it than they were in former times, when they
lay in tents covered with skins. It overshadows the theatres
and amphitheatres from the heat of a scorching sun. It
begirdeth and encompasseth forests, chases, parks, copses,
and groves, for the pleasure of hunters. It descendeth into
the salt and fresh of both sea and river-waters for the profit
of fishers. By it are boots of all sizes, buskins, gamashes,
brodkins, gambadoes, shoes, pumps, slippers, and every
cobbled ware wrought and made steadable for the use of
man. By it the butt and rover-bows are strung, the cross-
bows bended, and the slings made fixed. And, as if it were
an herb every whit as holy as the vervain, and reverenced
by ghosts, spirits, hobgoblins, fiends, and phantoms, the
bodies of deceased men are never buried without it.
(Rabelais 1894)
In some regards, the most important application of hemp in

Western Europe was in the shipbuilding industry. Except for
the wood needed for the ship bodies themselves, arguably the
most important raw material for ships was hemp, from which
28 Marijuana
sails and ropes were made. Reflecting this importance was a

law enacted by King Henry VIII in 1535. In order to provide
an adequate supply of hemp for his fleet, Henry required that
every landowner sow at least a quarter acre of land to hemp, or
be fined for the failure to do so (see, as an example, Tudor: 1485
to 1558, 2007). Henry’s daughter, Queen Elizabeth, renewed
her father’s decree in 1563, requiring that any landowner with
more than 60 acres of land plant hemp (Deitch 2003, 12). The
practice also spread to Spain, where King Philip announced
a similar decree for the nation’s widespread lands in both the
Old and New Worlds (Cannabis Production and Markets in
Europe 2012, 20; this is a widely cited statement for which a
primary source does not appear to be readily available).
The cannabis plant arrived in Western Europe in a very dif-
ferent form—hashish—at a much later date. Hashish is a thick,
sticky, dark-colored sap—like resin made from the flower of
the female cannabis plant. It contains the highest THC con-
centration of any cannabis product, 20% or more (compared
to about 5% for the average mild marijuana preparation). As
with other aspects of the cannabis plant, little is known with
certainty about the origins of hashish, although there is little
doubt that it was first used in parts of the Middle East (Arabia),
perhaps as early as the first century ce. The use of hashish by
Qutb ad-Din Haydar (also Haidar or Haider), an early saint
of the Sufi religion, is one of the best known, if not necessarily
entirely accurate, tales of the introduction of hashish to human
society. According to that story, Haydar, an ascetic monk who
never left his home in the mountains, traveled one day into
the nearby fields and came across the cannabis plant. When
he returned to his home sometime later, his disciples hardly
recognized him because of the “air of happiness and whimsey
in his demeanor,” which was totally inconsistent with his nor-
mal personality. He later explained that this change was a result
of his having imbibed from the leaves of the cannabis plant,
a discovery he ordered the disciples to keep within Sufism
(O’Shaughnessy 1839).
In any case, the use of hashish soon spread throughout the

Arab world, where it eventually became, as one writer has said,
an “escape hatch for a large segment of Arab society,” for whom
alcohol was forbidden (Abel 1982, 56). The drug did not reach
Europe, however, until the beginning of the 19th century. Some
authorities suggest that the return of French soldiers from Na-
poleon’s army in Egypt at the end of the 18th century was an
important mechanism by which the substance was introduced
into Europe. In any case, the hashish form of cannabis has
never had quite the popularity of the weaker forms of the drug
found in marijuana cigarettes. Historically, the most famous
hashish-smoking episode has to do with a club of Parisian aris-
tocrats and writers called Le Club des Hachichins (the Hashish
Eater’s Club), who met on a regular basis at the Hotel de
Lauzun for regular hashish-smoking event. A number of famous
men, including Jacques-Joseph Moreau, Theophile Gautier,
Charles Baudelaire, Gérard de Nerval, Eugene Delacroix, and
Alexandre Dumas, were members of the group. Baudelaire ap-
parently used his experiences at the club as the basis for his later
book, Les Paradis artificiels (Artificial Paradises), in which he
described what it was like to be under the influence of opium
and hashish, and argued for drug-taking as a way for humans
to understand what a perfect world would be like (Club des
Hashischins—The Hashish Club 2008).
Cannabis in North America

Most historians doubt that cannabis was native to the West-
ern Hemisphere (probably not) or to North America (almost
certainly not). They tend to believe that the plant arrived in
North America by a variety of routes, one of which may have
been across the Bering Strait from Siberia. At a time when a
land bridge was available across the strait, wandering birds and
animals could certainly have carried cannabis seeds with them
to the New World (Booth 2005, 38). Some experts suggest that
cannabis seeds or hemp products could also have been brought
to North America by the Vikings or Chinese explorers dating
30 Marijuana
as far back as the first millennium. The transfer of cannabis

from the southern part of the continent (Mexico in particular)
is also thought to have been a major route by which the plant
entered the northern reaches of the continent. One of the first
goals of the Spanish conquest of South America was to estab-
lish new plantations that would provide the vast amounts of
hemp that could not be grown in the home country. Those
efforts failed in large part because the climate was not suit-
able for hemp growing, and Spanish masters soon found that
the narcotic effects of the plant provided natives with a reason-
able excuse for performing poorly in growing and harvesting
the crop (Booth 2005, 38).
A century later, a similar scenario was playing out in the
new British colonies along the Atlantic coast of North Amer-
ica. Farmers in the mother country, by the early 17th century,
could no longer supply even a fraction of the hemp Great Brit-
ain needed for its many industrial projects, especially the main-
tenance of a huge sea-going fleet. The solution seemed to be
obvious: establish extensive hemp plantations in the American
colonies. As a consequence, most colonial governments, either
acting on their own or carrying out royal decrees, established
requirements that all farmers or all land owners plant some por-
tion of their property in hemp. In one of its first decrees, for ex-
ample, the Virginia Company required all Jamestown colonists
in 1619 to set 100 cannabis plants and the governor to set an
additional 5,000 plants. The company also allotted 100 pounds
to one Gabriel Wisher to hire men from Poland and Sweden to
develop the hemp industry if they would emigrate to the new
world (Abel 1982).
Similar laws sprung up throughout the colonies. For ex-
ample, the General Court of Connecticut in 1640 ordered
all families in the colony to plant one teaspoon of hemp seed.
The rationale behind this order, interestingly enough, was not
to meet British needs, but to meet the growing demands for
hemp products in the colonies: “that we might in time have
supply of linen cloth among ourselves,” as the General Court
order put it (Bishop 1861, 300). Indeed, as with the Spanish,

the English plan to install mammoth hemp plantations in the
colonies to meet the needs of the home country failed. As the
American colonies themselves began to grow and prosper, they
found that they were able to make use of a large fraction of
the hemp they produced, with relatively little to ship back to
England. For example, by 1630, half of the colonial population
was being clothed in hemp products grown on this side of the
Atlantic (Booth 2005, 40).
Other European countries were also interested in establish-
ing hemp plantations in the New World. In 1606, the French
explorer Samuel Champlain brought with him hemp seeds on
his first trips to New France. There he assigned his botanist
and apothecary, Louis Hébert, the task of determining how
well the cannabis plant would grow in the new colony at Port
Royal, Arcadia (now Nova Scotia). In fact, the French colonists
were more concerned with growing enough food to survive,
and hemp never became a favored crop in the French colonies
(Abel 1982; also see Pickett and Pickett 2011, 164).
An ongoing question among historians is whether the can-
nabis plant was growing wild in North America when colonists
first arrived in the first decade of the 17th century. By most
accounts, it seems as if it was. For example, the French explorer
Jacques Cartier, reporting on his journeys to North America
between 1535 and 1541, noted that “the land groweth fulle of
Hempe which groweth of it selfe, which is as good as possibly
may be seen, and as strong” (The Third Voyage of Discovery
Made by Captaine Jacques Cartier, 1541 2003). Other early
explorers appeared to confirm this view. In 1719, for example, a
Dutch farmer familiar with the cannabis plant reported on his
visit to New Orleans that “hemp grows naturally on the lands
adjoining to the lakes on the west of the Mississippi. The stalks
are as thick as one’s finger, and about six feet long. They are
quite like ours in the wood, the leaf and the rind” (Le Page du
Pratz 1758, 238). Still, many modern observers believe that
such judgments were inaccurate and that the plants reported as
32 Marijuana
growing so abundantly were really other species, such as wood

nettle (Laportea canadensis) or Indian hemp (Apocynum canna-
binum) (Kirk 2014, 3).
In any case, there can be little doubt that the cannabis plant
had arrived in North America at a relatively early date and,
perhaps more to the point, its intoxicating effects were well
known to at least some cultures on the continent. For example,
researchers have found stone and wooden pipes containing
traces of cannabis dating back to 800 ce in the Ohio Valley
(Bennett, Osburn, and Osburn 2001, 267–268). And some
older members of Native American tribes recall the use of
smoked cannabis in very old rituals (Spicer 2002).
The cannabis plant played an important role in American
history in the three centuries following the foundation of the
first colonies in Virginia and Massachusetts. In fact, American
history is studded with interesting factoids about the role of
both hemp and marijuana in American culture. For example,
for a period of more than two centuries after the establishment
of the Jamestown and Massachusetts Bay settlements, hemp
was so widely grown and used that it was legal tender for pay-
ment of taxes and fines. Also, Virginia passed the Act for the
Advancement of Manufactures in 1682, allowing the use of
hemp, flax, wool, tar, and lumber as a form of remuneration,
with each product assigned a specific value per weight unit. In
the case of hemp, that value was four pence per pound of hemp.
Other colonies eventually passed similar laws—Maryland in
1706, Rhode Island in 1721, and Massachusetts in 1737—so
that hemp remained a legal form of tender for well over a cen-
tury (Nelson 2016).
Some of the nation’s leaders were so enamored of the plant
that they either grew it themselves (George Washington and
Thomas Jefferson) or used it in industries that they created
(Benjamin Franklin). In the latter case, Franklin, who was in-
strumental in the establishment of at least 18 new paper mills,
arranged for one such mill to use hemp to produce paper, thus
reducing the colonies’ dependence on England for a supply of
the paper it needed for books, documents, and other purposes

(Nelson 2011, Chapter 2). When the War of Independence
placed severe demand on the rapid production of new uni-
forms for the colonies’ soldiers, wives, sisters, and daughters
banded together to have spinning bees to make cloth for their
soldier husbands, sons, and brothers (Abel 1982).
The failure of the colonies to supply Mother England with
the hemp it so desperately needed (see earlier discussion) even-
tually had historical significance in the relationship between
the two countries. By the beginning of the 19th century, Russia
had become the world’s largest exporter of hemp, with neither
England nor Spain nor, for that matter, the United States able
to keep up with the demand for the product from their own
domestic production. That imbalance of trade eventually had
political consequences in 1807 with the signing of the Treaty of
Tilset between Napoleon and Czar Alexander of Russia. One of
the provisions of that treaty was that trade between Russia and
England was no longer to be permitted. That provision was, of
course, a disaster for England, which, at the time, was import-
ing 90% of its hemp from Russia. As a way of getting around
the provision, the English began commandeering American
ships and crews, and sending them to Russia to purchase the
hemp that the English needed. The controversy that developed
over this issue between England and the United States even-
tually led to the outbreak of the War of 1812 (Herer 2001,
Chapter 11).
As the United States developed after 1776, hemp produc-
tion moved away from the East Coast, where it was replaced
by more profitable crops, and began to develop in the Mid-
west. In particular, farms in Kentucky, Missouri, and Illinois
began to supply the necessary hemp, primarily for the nation’s
sailing ships. The first hemp farms in the region were planted
near Danville, Kentucky, in 1775, and their products were first
advertised for sale 15 years later. Hemp was first grown in Mis-
souri in 1835 and only five years later, the state was producing
12,500 tons of the product annually. The first hemp farms in
34 Marijuana
Illinois were planted somewhat later, after 1875, while other

hemp farms were also attempted in Nebraska, Indiana, Texas,
and a few other states (Dvorak 2004). By 1870, the U.S. Cen-
sus showed that the primary hemp-producing states for that
year were Kentucky (7,777 tons), Missouri (2,816 tons), and
Tennessee (1,033 tons), with no other state producing more
than 600 tons of the fiber (U.S. Census Bureau 1870, 85). The
peak era for the production of hemp in the United States dur-
ing the 19th century was probably the middle of the century.
The census for 1850 found that, at the time, there were 8,327
plantations growing hemp for cloth, canvas, cordage, and a
variety of other purposes. The total value of the hemp crop
for 1850 was said to be $5,247,480, making it the 18th most
popular agricultural crop behind corn, wheat, cotton, hay,
oats, potatoes, wool, tobacco, and a number of other products
(U.S. Census Bureau 1854, 176).
In spite of these apparently promising beginnings, hemp
farming never really became as successful in the United States
as its adherents had hoped. Growing and harvesting hemp
was a labor-intensive activity, and most farmers were barely
able to make a living growing the crop. Over time, hemp was
gradually replaced on most farms by more profitable crops,
such as cotton, jute, and sisal (Dvorak 2004). Political and
cultural factors also had their effects. Just prior to and dur-
ing the Civil War, the Confederate Congress prohibited the
exportation of cotton, negating the use of the hemp ropes that
had been a major use for hemps being grown in the Midwest.
This disturbance in the hemp market was not relieved by the
end of the war, and hemp farming never really recovered its
earlier heights nor its proponents’ most enthusiastic expecta-
tions (Abel 1980; Ehrensing 1998). By the end of the century,
hemp farming had become a minor feature of the American
agricultural industry, with the vast majority of the plant har-
vest being used to produce bird seed (still an important use of
the product) and materials made from hemp seed oil, such as
varnish.
The hemp industry in Canada ultimately did no better than

its cousin business in the United States. As noted earlier, Sam-
uel Champlain tried to encourage the growth of hemp in the
new French colony, but his hopes were not realized. His succes-
sors, usually with equal enthusiasm for a new hemp empire in
Canada, met similar discouragement, as did the English, when
they took over the North American French colonies in 1763.
The explanation for these failures was essentially the same as
it was in the United States: farmers were simply not able to
make a sufficient profit on hemp crops to justify the financial
and labor costs of growing the crop. Even after a variety of
appeals, including cash payments for raising the crops, grants
of land on which to raise it, and appeals from church pulpits
throughout the land, hemp farming continued to be a failure
in Canada, as it was turning out to be in the United States
(Abel 1980).
Hemp was not the only cannabis product that had reached
the New World from Europe. Although its history is much dif-
ferent from that of hemp, marijuana also eventually became an
important part of everyday life in the early United States dur-
ing the mid-19th century. The impetus for that situation can
be traced largely to the efforts of a single individual, the Irish
physician William Brooke O’Shaughnessy. O’Shaughnessy
served in India with the British East India Company from
1833 to 1841 and again from 1844 to 1860. While in India,
he learned about the use of marijuana among native Indians for
the treatment of a number of physical disorders. He attempted
to formalize the use of marijuana for the treatment of his own
patients by creating a variety of preparations and testing them
on animals. He eventually became convinced of their value
for the treatment of a variety of ailments, including pain and
muscle spasms, as well as the vomiting and diarrhea associated
with cholera that often led to a patient’s death (O’Shaughnessy
1839; also see Mack and Joy 2001, 15–16).
O’Shaughnessy’s research on marijuana interested and ex-
cited many of his colleagues, who designed and conducted their
36 Marijuana
own experiments on the medical effects of the drug. Much of

this research was summarized and analyzed toward the end of
the century by a special committee appointed by the British
government to study the reputed harmful effects on native In-
dians ingesting cannabis products. In their 1895 report, that
committee, the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, concluded
that the use of hemp had no injurious physical, mental, or
moral effects on users of the drug and that, in fact, it had a
number of beneficial effects in the treatment of a variety of
diseases and disorders (Young et al. 1894, 263–264).
The first medical conference in the United States devoted
to the use of marijuana for medical purposes was held by the
Ohio State Medical Society in 1860. The report of that meeting
consists of a long list of personal testimonials by doctors who
had had occasion to use the drug with patients or to perform
experiments with the drug. Those reports covered a range from
observations of frightening psychological events to almost mi-
raculous cures of medical conditions that had been resistant to
any other form of treatment (McMeens 1860).
Anecdotal reports from conferences like those of the Ohio
State Medical Society were apparently sufficient to convince
pharmaceutical companies to begin producing medications
containing cannabis. Many histories of marijuana mention
that some well-known pharmaceutical companies made avail-
able a variety of cannabis products beginning in the second half
of the 19th century (e.g., Herer 2001). But the scope of that
activity is difficult to envision. An invaluable source on this
topic is the website, http://antiquecannabisbook.com/, which
is a compendium of all known over-the-counter cannabis-
containing medications available to the American public prior
to adoption of the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act. The book lists
more than 2,000 tinctures, extracts, home brews, corn rem-
edies, anti-asthmatic cigarettes, cough syrups, migraine head-
ache products, veterinary medicines, prescription drugs, and
other products. Photographs of the containers for most of
these products are also available, providing a better explanation
as to their contents and their intended uses. A review of this

work makes it abundantly clear that the use of cannabis-related
products in the period between 1850 and 1937 was not some-
what rare and unusual but, instead, was a common component
of the collection of medicines for treating a host of disorders
(Antique Cannabis Book 2011).
From the perspective of the early 21st century, it is some-
times difficult to realize the extent to which cannabis products
permeated the American marketplace in the late century. In his
remarkable book, Cannabis: A History, Martin Booth points
out that cannabis products were widely recommended for use
by married couples in the last half of the 19th century. One
author, the “quack” doctor Frederick C. Hollis, for example,
wrote a wildly popular (more than 200 editions) book, The
Marriage Guide; Or, Natural History of Generation: A Private
Instructor for Married Persons and Those about to Marry, in
which he encouraged readers to order from him an aphrodisiac
in which hashish was a constituent (Booth 2005, 120–121).
Perhaps most ironic of all was the effort by some members of
the Women’s Temperance Movement in the late 1800s to en-
courage men to replace their consumption of alcohol with the
use of marijuana. The basis for this campaign was the belief that
men would be less likely to abuse their wives and girlfriends if
they were under the influence of marijuana rather than under
the influence of alcohol (Booth 2005, 121).
Cannabis was present in a number of seemingly less innocu-
ous products also. For example, beginning in the 1860s, the
Gunjah Wallah Company of New York City began produc-
ing a “hasheesh candy” that it called the Arabian “Gunja” of
Enchantment, which was a confectionized preparation of can-
nabis. Advertisements for the candy claimed that it was a “most
pleasurable and harmless stimulant” that cured a number of
medical conditions, including nervousness, weakness, and mel-
ancholy. It also “inspire[d] all classes with new life and energy”
and acted as “a complete mental and physical invigorator”
(Maple Sugar Hashish Candy 2016).
38 Marijuana
Industrial Hemp in the United States

Whatever appeals cannabis products may have had as patent
medicines, tonics, marriage aphrodisiacs, or confectionary
products, the greatest official public attention was always paid
to hemp as an agricultural product. And statistical evidence
suggests that that product had become a minor component
of American agriculture by the end of the 19th century. As
Table 1.2 shows, the amount of land devoted to hemp farming
in the United States and the total amount of hemp produced
remained relatively constant, and relatively small, from the
last quarter of the 19th century to 1937, when the Marihuana
Table 1.2 Acreage Devoted to Hemp Farming and Hemp Production,

1876–1940
Period Acreage (in acres) Production (in tons)
1876–1880 15,000 7,000

1881–1885 11,000 5,000
1886–1890 16,000 7,500
1891–1895 11,000 5,000
1896–1900 10,000 4,500
1901–1905 12,000 5,500
1906–1910 10,000 4,500
1911–1913 10,000 4,500
1914–1918 10,500 8,500
1919–1923 8,600 3,800
1924–1928 4,300 1,800
1929–1933 1,200 500
1934–1938 7,100 600
1940 241
Source: West, David P. “Industrial Hemp Farming: History and Practice.” http://
www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/indust/indhmpfr.htm. Accessed on May 11,
2016. West’s data were apparently derived from J. Merritt Matthews and Herbert R.
Mauersberger, Matthews’ Textile Fibers: Their Physical, Microscopical, and
Chemical Properties, 5th ed., New York: J. Wiley & Sons, 1947, which, in turn,
apparently obtained its data from a U.S. Department of Agriculture Bulletin, B. B.
Robinson and A. H. Wright, “Hemp, Its Production and Use as a Fiber Crop,” 1941.
Tax Act (Chapter 2) was passed. For most of the 20th century,
then, hemp farming was a largely insignificant component of
the U.S. agricultural system.
For all intents and purposes, adoption of the Marihuana Tax
Act of 1937 brought to an end the agricultural production of
hemp in the United States. Although that act was aimed pri-
marily at reducing the availability of marijuana as a recreational
drug in the country, a side effect was the prohibition on the
growing of cannabis plants that had any THC at all in them,
and that included hemp plants. Even though the level of THC
in hemp plants is very low (usually much less than 1%), it is
not zero. This provision of the act accounts for the production
of hemp in the country dropping to less than 250 tons by 1940.
World War II, however, created a challenge for the U.S. gov-
ernment with regard to the growing of hemp. A number of
products important to the war effort, for example, sail canvas,
rope, and military uniforms, had previously been made from
imported hemp or other fibers from countries now occupied
by the Japanese. To compensate for the loss of these fibers, the
U.S. government decided to provide waivers from the 1937 act
for farmers who were willing to start growing hemp again to
meet wartime needs. In 1942, the U.S. Department of Agricul-
ture (USDA) made a film Hemp for Victory, extolling the virtues
of hemp as a farm crop and encouraging American farmers to
start growing the crop as their contribution to the war effort.
(The USDA and Library of Congress later denied that such
a film was ever made, although they reversed that view when
copies of the film were later donated to the library.) The film is
in the public domain and can be viewed at a number of Inter-
net sites (e.g., see Evans 1942).
The USDA campaign to increase hemp production was suc-
cessful, with a huge upswing in the amount of land planted
with the crop; the amount of hemp produced peaked during
the middle of the war. (See Table 1.3.) However, the end of the
war saw the reimposition of federal controls on the planting
and harvesting of hemp, and production dropped essentially
40 Marijuana
Table 1.3 Hemp Production in the United States, 1931–1946
Acreage Production
Year Planted to Hemp (long tons)
1931 320 122

1932 200 71
1933 140 47
1934 500 190
1935 700 273
1936 1,400 453
1937 1,300 465
1938 1,390 556
1939 1,440 572
1940 2,070 738
1941 7,400 3,308
1942 14,500 6,216
1943 146,200 62,803
1944 68,200 30,130
1945 6,500 2,232
1946 4,800 1,715
Source: Agricultural Statistics. 1948. Washington, DC: Government

Printing Office, 1949, 327. Available online at http://usda.mannlib
.cornell.edu/usda/nass/Agstat//1940s/1948/Agstat-04-23-1948.pdf.
Accessed on May 11, 2016.
to zero over the following half century. A small hemp indus-

try was maintained in Wisconsin until 1958, when it too was
abandoned.
In response to pressure from producers of hemp products,
however, that trend gradually began to change over time. While
the federal government continued its ban on the production
of cannabis in any form whatsoever, individual states have
begun to consider ways in which the growing of hemp might
be permitted. They have taken essentially two approaches
to the problem, either allowing the planting of hemp crops
for industrial purposes only (and risking federal objections to
such laws and practices) or allowing the planting of such crops
exclusively for research studies on hemp. The first such law was
adopted in Vermont in 1996 when the state legislature adopted
the Industrial Hemp Research Act, which became law without
the governor’s signature (or veto). Since that time, 28 states
have taken some type of action allowing the growth of hemp
for either industrial or commercial purposes or purposes of
research on the plant (State Industrial Hemp Statutes 2016;
[State Laws] 2015).
The federal government has also begun to change its views
on industrial hemp, albeit much more slowly than have the
states. In 2005, Representative Ron Paul (R-TX), with 11 co-
sponsors, introduced the Industrial Hemp Farming Act. The
bill never made it out of committee, but was re-introduced
in 2007, 2009, and 2011, and in 2012, 2013, and 2014 in
both the House and the Senate. None of these efforts made it
through both houses of Congress, although a breakthrough did
occur in 2014 with passage of the Farm Bill of 2013. That bill
contained a section (Section 7606) that allowed states that had
already adopted industrial hemp acts to carry out research pro-
grams on the growing of hemp. As of mid-2016, efforts are still
proceeding in the Congress to adopt a more sweeping action
that would allow the growing of industrial hemp with less than
0.3% THC ([Federal Law] 2015; [Section 7606] 2015).
Industrial Hemp Worldwide

Although the cultivation of hemp in the United States is still
largely prohibited, the product is grown legally for industrial
purposes in more than 30 other countries around the world,
including Australia, Austria, Canada, Chile, China, France,
Great Britain, North Korea, Russia, and Spain. Some of these
countries never banned the growing and harvesting of hemp
products, while others had such a ban at one time in the past,
but have since revoked it (Johnson 2015). According to the
latest data available from the UN Food and Agriculture Or-
ganization of the United Nations (FAO), the largest producer
42 Marijuana
of hemp fiber in the world is China (16,000 tons in 2013),

followed by North Korea (14,000 tons), Netherlands (10,273
tons), Chile (4,250 tons), and Romania (3,000 tons). France
leads the world in the production of hempseed with a harvest of
48,264 tons in 2013, followed by China (16,000 tons), Chile
(1,450 tons), and Ukraine (1,000 tons) ([Crop Data] 2015).
Conclusion
Humans have known about and grown the cannabis plant for
more than 5,000 years. They have found a variety of uses for
the plant, including the manufacture of clothing, sails, rope,
and oils, as well as its inclusion in religious and ceremonial oc-
casions. It has also been used by many cultures for many differ-
ent medical applications. Finally, in the form of marijuana and
hashish, humans have used the cannabis plant for recreational
purposes. The United States as well as other nations and gov-
ernmental units have banned some or all of these uses at one or
another time in history. Over the centuries, the cannabis plant
has gone from being a highly respected, sometimes holy object
of veneration to one that is viewed with the greatest oppro-
brium by some cultures. Chapter 2 provides a review of how
this dramatic change came about, and the issues the change has
raised in modern societies around the world.
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2 Problems, Issues,
and Solutions
The inspection was expected to be routine. For years, the Ca-

nadian company, Kenex, Ltd., had been shipping hemp seed
to the Nutiva company in Sebastopol, California, for use in
its bird seed for years. Jean Laprise, the president of Kenex,
expected the present shipment of hemp seed to clear customs
at the U.S. border without any problems. So Mr. Laprise was
a bit shocked, to say the least, when U.S. custom agents im-
pounded all 40,000 pounds of hemp seed and shipped them
for storage in a Detroit, Michigan, warehouse. The hemp seed
contained THC, custom agents said, so it could not be ad-
mitted to the United States under a provision of the 1970
Controlled Substances Act (CSA). The news was a surprise to
Mr. Laprise at least in part because hemp growers in Canada
have long been scrupulous in ensuring that their products
contain a very low level of THC, always less than 1%. The
hemp seed in question had been analyzed and was found to
contain about 0.0014%, not enough, according to one ob-
server, to “give a bird a buzz” (Wren 1999). What was the
logic behind the decision to impound a legitimate agricultural
product from Canada that has such a modest likelihood of
being used as an illegal drug in the United States? (For addi-
tional examples of the U.S. campaign against hemp products,
also see Barnett 2006; Bonné 2002.)
A woman puffs on a fake marijuana cigarette during the NYC Pride Parade
in New York on June 26, 2016. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
53
54 Marijuana
History of Cannabis Prohibition

Throughout history, humans have had a profound love/hate
relationship with the cannabis plant. On the one hand, it has
provided a host of valuable materials in the form of hemp,
which has been used for cloth, twine, rope, cordage, sails, yarn,
body-care products, paper, pet foods, hemp seed oil, and, of
course, bird seed. In the form of marijuana and hashish, it
has provided a gateway to out-of-body experiences that have
been understood as a simple “high”—an escape from the often
less-than-pleasant humdrum of everyday life—or a window to
the sacred. But many cultures have also viewed such experi-
ences as too much of an escape from reality, too much like the
tale of Icarus, who flew too far from Earth’s surface and too
close to the heavenly orb, losing his life in the process. And so,
the history of Cannabis sativa is as much a story of caution,
risk, and prohibition as it is of anything else.
Should the use of cannabis by humans be prohibited? If so,
which forms of the plant and under what circumstances? These
questions are as controversial in the early 21st century as they
have been throughout human history. Some people argue that
the choice of using or not using hemp, marijuana, and/or hash-
ish is one that should be left to individuals; governments have
no authority to prohibit the use of a plant that humans have
used safely for millennia. Others are more cautious in their
views, suggesting that hemp is certainly a harmless and valu-
able material, although other forms of cannabis are more prob-
lematic. Still others see useful applications of marijuana as a
therapeutic agent, although its uses as a recreational drug pose
more difficult issues. Finally, other individuals argue that the
cannabis plant poses such great dangers—even to birds—that
all forms should be banned under all circumstances. Under-
standing historical attitudes about prohibitions on the use of
cannabis provides a perspective from which to understand to-
day’s debate about the plant.
Problems, Issues, and Solutions 55
Prohibitions on Cannabis: Ancient Cultures

Throughout most of human history, the use of cannabis prod-
ucts has not been a matter of controversy. Hemp has long been
almost universally considered a valuable material for making a
host of useful products. And healers of all kinds—from sha-
mans to modern physicians—have commonly turned to mari-
juana as an important tool in their materia medica. Even the
use of marijuana to achieve out-of-body experiences, as is done
in religious ceremonies, has generally been more widely praised
than condemned. In spite of this generally positive view of the
cannabis plant, there have always been cultures in which nega-
tive attitudes outweighed positive beliefs, and the plant fell into
disrepute among leaders of the society and/or the general public.
As an example, some historians believe that acceptance and/
or tolerance for the use of marijuana in achieving psychoac-
tive effects began to wane in China during the Han dynasty
(206 bce–220 ce) largely because Chinese society was devel-
oping a more rational outlook on life and saw a consequent
reduction in dependence on shamanism (and hence, on psy-
choactive drugs). This change eventually resulted in the view
that marijuana was a “disreputable” herb not worthy of use by
true healers (Touw 1981, 23).
Early Islamists also seem to have taken a somewhat neutral
view toward cannabis since it was apparently not specifically
prohibited in the Qu’ran. Indeed, in view of the Prophet’s
specific prohibition of the use of alcohol, the use of cannabis
seems to have become at first the psychoactive drug of choice
within early Islamic society. That situation changed over time,
however, as more and more scholars adopted the view that
the traditional Qu’ranic prohibition of khamr (literally, “fer-
mented grape”) referred not only to alcoholic beverages, but
also to any substance that “befogs the mind” (Naguib 2008).
That interpretation obviously added cannabis to the list of sub-
stances forbidden to believers in Islam. (The controversy over
56 Marijuana
the true interpretation of khamr and the implication of that

interpretation remains a matter of some controversy today. See,
for example, Is Marijuana Haram? 2016.) In spite of the Is-
lamic position, however, cannabis appears far more likely to
have been viewed as a beneficial (or, at least, a harmless) natural
product until the early 20th century. Its worst effects gener-
ally seemed to be seen as erratic behavior when used in excess,
especially by mentally unstable individuals already predisposed
to antisocial actions.
International Concerns, 1910–1925

That situation changed significantly during the first two de-
cades of the 20th century, when the world began to consider
the potentially harmful (to individuals) and dangerous (to so-
ciety) consequences of narcotic abuse, especially from deriva-
tives of the coca plant (cocaine) and opiates such as opium
and heroin. Similar fears about the risks and dangers of other
drugs, such as alcohol, nicotine (tobacco), and caffeine (coffee)
had largely run their course before the end of the 19th cen-
tury. Such concerns had led to the bans, among many possible
examples, on the drinking of coffee in Egypt in 1524, and on
the use of tobacco throughout Christendom in 1624 (Christen
et al. 1982, 825; Hanauer and Pickthall 2007, 291–292).
The first international meeting called to discuss and act on
the (perceived) rising threat of narcotic drugs was the Interna-
tional Opium Commission, held in Shanghai in 1909. That
meeting was held at the instigation of the U.S. government and
was attended by representatives from 12 nations in addition to
the United States: Austria-Hungary, China, France, Germany,
Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Persia (now Iran), Portugal, Russia,
Siam (now Thailand), and the United Kingdom. The meeting
was careful not to call itself a conference, which would have
permitted the drafting and signing of an official international
treaty. It did, however, unanimously adopt a statement of prin-
ciple in opposition to the trade of opium products among na-
tions of the world (The Shanghai Opium Commission 2016).
One of the recommendations produced at the Shanghai

meeting was that a follow-up conference be held to further
consider the problem of narcotics trade and use around the
world. That meeting was held in The Hague, the Netherlands,
in 1912. It was chaired by Bishop Brent of the United States,
who had also chaired the Shanghai meeting. Attendees included
the same nations that had assembled in Shanghai, except for
Austria-Hungary. The treaty entered into force two years later
in five countries: China, Honduras, the Netherlands, Norway,
and the United States. In 1919, the treaty received much wider
acceptance when it became part of the Treaty of Versailles,
which ended World War I. At that point, it took effect in 60 na-
tions worldwide. The United States remained a signatory to the
original Hague treaty, although it was not then (and never was)
a member of the League of Nations, under which the treaty was
administered.
An effort to include cannabis in the Hague Treaty had been
made by the United States, which suggested that it be included
among the narcotic drugs for which information would be ex-
changed among signatories to the treaty. (Marijuana is not a
narcotic, but it has long been so labeled, especially by indi-
viduals and organizations that support increased control over
its sale and use.) That proposal was rejected, however, as other
members of the convention were not convinced that there was
as yet enough information about the risks posed by cannabis
or its use throughout the world. They did agree, however, to
recommend that additional research be conducted on canna-
bis with a view to reconsider the U.S. recommendation at a
later date. That research was never actually carried out (The
Cannabis Problem: A Note on the Problem and the History of
International Action 2016).
Cannabis finally received attention as a potentially harmful
and dangerous drug at the international level just prior to the
1925 International Convention on Narcotics Control, spon-
sored by the League of Nations and held in Geneva, Switzer-
land. The subject of marijuana—then commonly known as
58 Marijuana
Indian hemp—was raised by delegates from Egypt and Turkey,

who told spine-tingling tales of the disastrous consequences of
its use in their countries. The Egyptian delegate, Dr. Mohamed
Abdel Salam El Guindy, for example, claimed that the use of
hashish was responsible for most of the cases of insanity occur-
ring in his country. He described the typical cannabis user as
follows:
His eye is wild and the expression of his face is stupid. He

is silent; has no muscular power; suffers from physical ail-
ments, heart troubles, digestive troubles etc; his intellec-
tual faculties gradually weaken and the whole organism
decays. The addict very frequently becomes neurasthenic
and eventually insane. (Pietschmann [2009], 54; also see
Kendell 2003, 144–145)
Warnings such as these carried the day among the Geneva

delegates, and they devoted two chapters of the final treaty
(IV and V) to recommending a ban on all uses of cannabis ex-
cept for medical and scientific uses, which were not defined.
The actual claims about the effects of cannabis put forward by
Dr. El Guindy—which differed dramatically from those con-
tained in the 1894 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission Report—
were not investigated before the Geneva delegates adopted the
final treaty. The United States never signed the Geneva Con-
vention because it was not a member of the League at the time
and also because U.S. delegates thought that the conference’s
attitudes about and approach to the control of dangerous drugs
was too lenient, certainly more lenient than policies then being
developed at home.
Prohibition of Cannabis: The United States

Indeed, by the first decade of the 20th century, a number of
U.S. politicians, law enforcement officials, social reformers,
and members of the general public had become convinced that
mind-altering drugs of all kinds posed a severe danger, not only
to the individuals who used them, but far more importantly,

to the stability of society itself. These individuals and the or-
ganizations they founded and/or represented were instrumen-
tal not only in calling the Shanghai and Hague meetings, but
also, ultimately, in the adoption of the Eighteenth Amendment
to the U.S. Constitution, prohibiting the sale of alcohol, in
1919, and adoption of the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914,
which established a tax on the production, manufacture, com-
pounding, importation, distribution, and sale of cocaine in the
United States. And, although the first federal law limiting the
use of cannabis in the United States was not passed until 1937,
a movement to label the drug as a dangerous narcotic had been
well under way many years earlier. That movement did not de-
velop in a vacuum in the United States but, instead, was deeply
associated with a more general cultural trend toward the pro-
hibition of any type of mind-altering substance. In their classic
analysis of the process by which marijuana use was criminal-
ized in the United States, Bonnie and Whitebread (1970) have
pointed out that
At each stage of its development marijuana policy has

been heavily influenced by other social issues because the
drug has generally been linked with broader cultural pat-
terns. . . . In fact, the facility with which marijuana policy
was initiated directly related to the astoundingly sudden
and extreme alteration of public narcotics and alcohol
policy between 1900 and 1920. (Bonnie and Whitebread
1970, Chapter 3)
Until the 1930s, concerns about the risks posed by “dangerous

drugs” in the United States—as in the rest of the world—focused
almost entirely on cocaine and the opiates; cannabis was rarely
mentioned. In the United States, marijuana was not mentioned
in any federal drug legislation until the Uniform Narcotics Drug
Act was adopted in 1932. That act encouraged individual states
to bring their drug laws into agreement with the 1922 Narcotic
60 Marijuana
Drug Import and Export Act, which had placed restrictions on

the distribution of cocaine and opiates. (Cannabis was not men-
tioned in the act.) At the time, state drug laws differed widely
from each other and from the restrictions included in the Nar-
cotic Drug Import and Export Act. One of the provisions of
the 1932 act dealt with cannabis, including it with cocaine and
opiates, a provision that had not been included in the 1922 act.
No explanation was given in the act as to the reason for this
broadening, and the act was adopted with the addition of can-
nabis (Bonnie and Whitebread 1970, Chapter 4).
The legal status of cannabis at the state level during the first
three decades of the 20th century was different from that at the
national level. As early as 1913, some local communities and
states had begun to adopt legislation criminalizing the grow-
ing, distribution, and/or use of cannabis products. What were
the forces, Bonnie and Whitebread (1970) have asked, that
motivated this trend toward the criminalization of marijuana,
a trend that eventually became an aggressive national move-
ment by the 1930s?
Their research points to three such factors: class and racial
prejudices; concerns that drug users would switch from more
tightly controlled drugs like cocaine and heroin to marijuana
(the theory of “substitution”); and an international trend to-
ward the criminalization of marijuana, as expressed in the 1912
Hague Convention and the 1925 Geneva Convention (Bon-
nie and Whitebread 1970, Chapter 3). Bonnie and White-
bread point out that the earliest laws criminalizing the use of
marijuana were passed in the western states, at a time when
Mexican immigration was increasing dramatically, largely be-
cause of the number of Mexican nationals who were fleeing the
revolution of 1910 through 1920. At the time, marijuana was
used almost exclusively by these immigrants, and that practice
was quickly associated with a generally agreed-upon perception
that Mexicans were poorly educated and of low moral charac-
ter. Their use of marijuana as a recreational drug was ipso facto,
an indication of the risks it posed. Bonnie and Whitebread
provide a number of specific examples in which states passed

anti-cannabis laws based on clearly racist views with little or
no public debate, or even thoughtful discussion within leg-
islatures. They cite a newspaper report of the debate in the
Montana legislature in 1929 over criminalizing marijuana use.
One legislator noted that a Mexican who has smoked mari-
juana “thinks he has just been elected president of Mexico so
he starts out to execute all his political enemies.” In response,
“[e]verybody laughed and the bill was recommended for passage”
(Bonnie and Whitebread 1970, Chapter 3). Based on the many
examples they found, Bonnie and Whitebread concluded that
“legislative action and approval [of anti-cannabis laws] were es-
sentially kneejerk responses uninformed by scientific study or
public debate and colored instead by racial bias and sensation-
alistic myths” (Bonnie and Whitebread 1970, Chapter 3). In
any case, laws prohibiting the sale of marijuana swept through
the United States between 1914 and 1931, with 26 states in-
cluding some form of prohibition in their laws.
Such laws were not restricted to the western states, although
the motivation for laws in the East was considerably different
from those in the West. The most common basis for antican-
nabis laws in the East, Bonnie and Whitebread (1970) found,
was fear that marijuana use would grow if laws related to co-
caine and opiates were tightened (as was occurring at the time).
The argument is one that is still heard today, namely that drug
users will switch to a new drug (e.g., marijuana) as other drugs
(e.g., cocaine and heroin) are more tightly controlled. This phi-
losophy, Bonnie and Whitebread believe, was the primary basis
for anticannabis laws passed in Maine, Massachusetts, Michi-
gan, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Vermont in the pe-
riod between 1914 and 1947. For example, when New York
City added marijuana to its list of prohibited drugs in 1914,
the New York Times commented that users of cannabis “are now
hardly numerous enough to count, but they are likely to in-
crease as other narcotics become harder to obtain” (Sanitary
Code Amendments 1914, 8).
62 Marijuana
Cannabis Legislation in the States

Legislators in the United States awakened to the (supposed)
threat posed by cannabis began looking for ways of dealing
with this new problem as early as the 1910s. Those efforts took
two general approaches: taxation on the production, distribu-
tion, and (less commonly) use of marijuana, as a way of reduc-
ing demand for the drug, and outright bans on cannabis in any
and all forms. The federal government was relatively timid in
acting on the cannabis problem, not passing the first national
law on the drug until 1937. A number of local communities
and states, however, had begun to take action against cannabis
much earlier. The first state law prohibiting the use of mari-
juana was adopted in California in 1913. The law was actually
a technical amendment to the state’s poison laws, proposed by
the state’s Board of Pharmacy. It was apparently inspired by
concerns over the use of narcotic drugs by the state’s Chinese
residents (Gieringer 1999, 2). The law received essentially no
public attention at the time, and historians often pass it over
and point to a law adopted in Utah in 1915 as the first state law
dealing with cannabis.
The Utah law has become the subject of considerable contro-
versy among cannabis historians. According to some authori-
ties, the motivation behind this law was somewhat different
from that leading to other anticannabis laws in the West (xe-
nophobia). These authorities suggest that a number of Mor-
mon missionaries returning from assignments to Mexico in the
mid-1910s brought with them the practice of smoking mari-
juana, a practice that they had learned in Mexico and that was
quickly condemned by the church as opposed to doctrine (as
was and is the use of all other kinds of psychoactive substances).
In any case, according to this reading of history, the synod of the
Mormon church banned the use of marijuana among all church
members in August 1915, and two months later, the state legis-
lature passed similar legislation (as was commonly the case with
other church prohibitions at the time in the state). The classic
statement of this view can be found in Whitebread (1995).
A number of observers have rejected this analysis of the ori-

gin of Utah’s early drug law. They suggest that religious attitudes
had little or nothing to do about its evolution. They argue that
the Utah law may actually have been drafted on the model
of the earlier California law, and that Utah legislators actually
were barely familiar with cannabis when they adopted the law.
According to one writer arguing for this view of history:
There is no hint whatsoever that Utah’s law—which, you

now see, did not specially target marijuana, and did not
even show any particular awareness of marijuana, but
merely incorporated the language used by other entities to
name marijuana among a whole host of regulated drugs—
was spurred by religious concerns. There is no discussion
of marijuana, no complaint about its use, no report of ar-
rest for intoxicated behavior other than alcohol or Chinese
opium use, no marijuana-related editorials, in Utah’s news-
papers before the passage of the 1915 law. (Parshell 2009)
Federal Cannabis Laws

During the first third of the 20th century, then, a movement
developed throughout the United States in which the public’s
perception of cannabis was transformed from a medically use-
ful, commercially valuable, relatively harmless recreational
drug into a highly dangerous product on a par with cocaine,
heroin, and opium. A key figure in that movement was Harry J.
Anslinger, the first commissioner of the U.S. Treasury’s Fed-
eral Bureau of Narcotics (FBN). Anslinger had attended (but
not graduated from) Altoona (Pennsylvania) Business College
and worked at the Pennsylvania Railroad. Physically ineligible
for military service in World War I (he was blind in one eye),
Anslinger volunteered instead to work at the War Department.
He was later transferred to the State Department because of
his fluency in German. After the war, he was transferred again,
this time to the Department of the Treasury, where he became
interested in problems related to the transport and use of illegal
64 Marijuana
substances, such as alcohol (then illegal because of the Eigh-

teenth Amendment), cocaine, and opiates. In 1929, Anslinger
was appointed assistant commissioner in the U.S. Bureau of
Prohibition (created by the Eighteenth Amendment), a posi-
tion he held only briefly before being selected as the first com-
missioner of the newly created Federal Bureau of Narcotics in
1930. Anslinger remained at his post until 1970, five years be-
fore his death. Throughout that time, he remained an ardent
and aggressive foe of all forms of mind-altering substances, in-
cluding marijuana.
During this period of time, Anslinger continued to carry
on an attack against the production, distribution, and use of
cannabis that was strong on invective and weak on scientific
accuracy. His broadsides against the use of marijuana carry
strong racist tones of the type identified by Bonnie and White-
bread (1970), only focusing more strongly on the supposedly
low moral character of African Americans. He also drew spe-
cial attention to other supposedly corrupt groups of individu-
als, such as jazz musicians (who were generally also African
American), whom “everyone acknowledged” as being of poor
moral character. (See, for example, Guither 2012; Harry J.
Anslinger’s Quotes/Quotations 2010; Statement of H. J. An-
slinger 2016; for an analysis of the racist basis of many of An-
slinger’s comment, see especially Moran 2011.) An example of
the image that Anslinger attempted to portray of marijuana
can be found in his testimony before the Ways and Means
Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives during its
consideration of the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act (which was
later adopted). The drug, he said, first produces feelings of
“well-being [and] a happy, jovial mood.” However, he went
on, that euphoria is soon replaced by much less salubrious
emotions, including:
a more-or-less delirious state . . . during which [users] are

temporarily, at least, irresponsible and liable to commit vi-
olent crimes . . . [and] releases inhibitions of an antisocial
nature which dwell within the individual . . . Then fol-

low errors of sense, false convictions and the predomi-
nance of extravagant ideas where all sense of value seems
to disappear.
The deleterious, even vicious, qualities of the drug ren-
der it highly dangerous to the mind and body upon which
it operates to destroy the will, cause one to lose the power
of connected thought, producing imaginary delectable
situations and gradually weakening the physical powers.
Its use frequently leads to insanity. (quoted in Taxation of
Marihuana 1937)
The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937

By the mid-1930s, Anslinger’s efforts (and those of his col-
leagues in the fight against cannabis) had begun to bear fruit.
The first concrete accomplishment in that fight was passage
in 1937 of the Marihuana Tax Act. (Note that the modern
spelling of the substance, marijuana, is of relatively recent ori-
gin, with an “h” instead of a “j” being more common histori-
cally.) Consideration of the act before the House Ways and
Means Committee (presented first as H.R. 6385 and later
re-designated as H.R. 6906) began on April 27, 1937, and
ran for a total of six days. In his analysis of the hearings on the
bill, marijuana historian and then professor of law at the Uni-
versity of Southern California Charles Whitebread has com-
mented on the relatively brief amount of time spent in hearing
testimony, “one hour, on each of two mornings,” a surpris-
ingly short time for consideration of a major bill (Whitebread
1995). During this period, testimony was received from three
groups of individuals, representatives of the U.S. government,
including especially Harry Anslinger, but also including the
consulting chemist at the Department of the Treasury and
the assistant general counsel at Treasury; representatives from
the hemp industry, including rope-making, hemp seed oil,
and other companies; and representatives from the medical
community.
66 Marijuana
This testimony was almost universally supportive of the bill,

especially, of course, from Anslinger and other government
officials. Hemp company representatives were also supportive,
arguing that they would have no problem obtaining hemp for
their products from the Far East (a proposition that proved
to be dubious with the start of World War II four years later)
and replacements for hemp seed oil (the bird seed industry
requested and received an exemption by promising to use
only “denatured” seeds, that is, those that were free of THC)
(Whitebread 1995). The only objection to the pending bill
came from Dr. William C. Woodward, a representative of the
American Medical Association (AMA), which had also sub-
mitted a letter to the committee opposing the bill. Woodward
pointed out that there was no scientific evidence suggesting
that marijuana is a harmful drug, so there was no reason to
ban its manufacture and use.
Woodward’s testimony was apparently not what the com-
mittee wanted to hear. During one of his appearances before
the committee, one member observed: “Doctor, if you can’t say
something good about what we are trying to do, why don’t you
go home?” Immediately following that observation, a second
member said, “Doctor, if you haven’t got something better to
say than that, we are sick of hearing you” (quoted in White-
bread 1995). Other testimony had apparently convinced
the committee of the validity and necessity of H.R. 6385/
H.R. 6906, and the bill was adopted on October 1, 1937.
The bill that Congress finally passed did not specifically out-
law the production, sale, or consumption of marijuana, but it
did impose a complex system of taxes and regulations. Anyone
involved in any of these activities had to register with the fed-
eral government and pay a tax for each type of activity. For ex-
ample, anyone who grew or processed a cannabis product had
to pay a tax of $24 annually (equivalent to about $360 in cur-
rent dollars). The tax for sale of a cannabis product to anyone
who already held a license was $1 per transaction (about $15
in current dollars), but $100 (about $1,500 in current dollars)
to anyone who did not hold such a license (Marihuana Tax Act
of 1937 1937, Section 2).
Federal authorities did not take long to put the Marihuana
Tax Act into effect. On October 1, 1937—the day the bill was
adopted—they arrested two men in Denver, Colorado, for pos-
session (Moses Baca) and selling (Samuel Caldwell) marijuana.
Judge Foster Symes sentenced Baca to 18 months in jail, and
Caldwell to four years at hard labor and a $1,000 fine (“The
First Pot POW” 2016). Note that some observers dispute this
story. (See, for example, Compilation of Publications, Inter-
views, Criminal Files and Photographs of Moses Baca & Samuel
Caldwell 2010.)
1951 Boggs Amendment to the Harrison Narcotic Act

In the three decades following the adoption of the Marihuana
Tax Act of 1937, Congress struggled to refine and improve
U.S. drug laws to deal with two major questions: (1) What is
the status of marijuana in comparison with other illegal drugs,
such as cocaine and the opiates?, and (2) What is the most ef-
fective mechanism for reducing the spread of marijuana use
among the general population? This struggle led to a number
of legislative acts, the next most important of which chrono-
logically was the Boggs Act, an amendment to the Narcotic
Drugs Import and Export Act of 1932. The Boggs bill was in-
spired by an apparent increase in drug use among young peo-
ple in the United States after the conclusion of World War II.
Representative Boggs introduced into the Congressional Re-
cord reports from local media and authorities documenting
this increase. He summarized these reports by saying that
“[t]he most shocking part about these figures is the fact that
there has been an alarming increase in drug addiction among
younger persons. . . . We need only to recall what we have read
in the papers in the past week to realize that more and more
younger people are falling into the clutches of unscrupulous
dope peddlers” (U.S. Congress 1951, 8198). Boggs went on
to say that the solution to the mushrooming problem of youth
68 Marijuana
drug addiction was the imposition by Congress of more severe

penalties for drug use:
Short sentences do not deter. In districts where we get

good sentences the traffic does not flourish. . . . There
should be a minimum sentence for the second offense.
The commercialized transaction, the peddler, the smug-
gler, those who traffic in narcotics, on the second offense
if there were a minimum sentence of 5 years without pro-
bation or parole, I think it would just about dry up the
traffic. (U.S. Congress 1951, 8198; for a more completion
discussion of this topic, see Bonnie and Whitebread 1970,
Chapter 6)
The Boggs Act was passed by Congress and became law on No-
vember 2, 1951, as 21 U.S.C. 174. The Boggs Act was signifi-
cant in a number of ways, primarily in the dramatic increase
in penalties it provided for drug possession and use. It estab-
lished a minimum mandatory sentence of two years for simple
possession of marijuana, cocaine, or heroin, with a maximum
sentence of five years; a minimum of 5 years and a maximum
of 10 years for a second offense; and a minimum of 10 years
and a maximum of 15 years for a third offense. In addition,
the Boggs Act was significant in that it was the first time that
marijuana, cocaine, and opiates had been included together in
a single piece of federal legislation.
The Boggs amendment was important not only as a piece of
federal legislation, but also because it served as a model that the
federal government urged states to use for their own state laws.
Many states took up the suggestion. Between 1953 and 1956,
26 states passed “mini-Boggs” bills. Some of the bills carried pen-
alties significantly more severe than those in the federal bill. The
law in Louisiana, for example, provided for a 5- to 99-year sen-
tence without the possibility of parole, probation, or suspension
of sentence for sale or possession of any illegal substance (Bon-
nie and Whitebread 1974, 210). Similarly, Virginia adopted a
mini-Boggs law that made possession of marijuana the most

severely punished crime in the state. While first-degree murder
earned a mandatory 15-year minimum sentence and rape earned
a mandatory 10-year sentence, possession of marijuana drew a
mandatory minimum of 20 years, and sale of the drug drew
a mandatory minimum of 40 years (Whitebread 1995).
Narcotics Control Act of 1956

One of the signature legislative events of the early 1950s was
the appointment of the U.S. Senate Special Committee to In-
vestigate Crime in Interstate Commerce, chaired by Senator
Estes Kefauver (D-TN) and widely known, therefore, as the
Kefauver Committee. The committee had been formed due
to a growing concern in the U.S. Congress and throughout
the United States about the growing threat posed by organized
crime. The issue of narcotic drugs became involved in the com-
mittee’s deliberations partly because a number of antidrug ac-
tivists, such as Harry Anslinger, attempted to show that drugs
were the primary cause of most crime in the United States and
half of all crime in U.S. metropolitan areas (King 1972, Chap-
ters 14 and 16).
The committee’s final report included a total of 22 rec-
ommendations for action by the federal government, and
7 additional recommendations for state action. Of those rec-
ommendations, only one was ever enacted into law, the Boggs
amendment of 1951 (discussed previously). Another, possibly
more important long-term effect of the Kefauver Committee’s
deliberations was an increasing awareness of the nation’s (sup-
posed) growing drug problem. Interestingly enough, not every-
one deemed drugs to be as much of a threat as did Anslinger,
Boggs, and a number of other legislators. In the period follow-
ing the Kefauver hearings, these individuals and the organi-
zations they represented (e.g., the American Bar Association,
the American Medical Association, and the U.S. Public Health
Service) began to call for a relaxation in the battle against illegal
drug use, even calling for the legalization of some types of drug
70 Marijuana
use. This movement produced pro-decriminalization articles,

such as “Make Dope Legal,” “Should We Legalize Narcotics?,”
“We’re Bungling the Narcotics Problem . . . How Much of a
Menace Is the Drug Menace? . . . The Dope Addict-Criminal
or Patient?,” “This Problem of Narcotic Addiction–Let’s Face
It Sensibly,” and “Let’s Stop This Narcotics Hysteria!” (King
1972, Chapter 14). These articles often called for dealing with
drug abuse as a medical, social, or psychological problem rather
than as a crime. The Bureau of Narcotics and its allies, as would
be expected, fought back vigorously against this view of sub-
stance abuse, with its own release of fact sheets, articles, and
other publications reiterating the threat that illegal drug use
posed to human health and public stability.
This battle came to a head in February 1955, when Sena-
tor Price Daniel (D-TX) submitted Senate Resolution 60,
calling for the formation of a committee to investigate ways
of expanding and improving the nation’s laws that dealt with
drug abuse. A year later, the Daniel subcommittee submitted
its report to the full Senate. That report contained much of the
verbiage that had been used when discussing drug abuse over
the preceding two decades. It said that drug abuse was spread-
ing with “cancerous rapidity” throughout the nation. It called
for more severe penalties for drug abuse and for those who
could not be cured of their habit, placement “in a quarantine
type of confinement or isolation” (King 1972, Chapter 16).
The subcommittee also devoted about half of its final report to
disputing the position that drug abuse should be considered as
something other than a criminal problem. It concluded that
to permit a governmental institution to engage in the

ghastly traffic in narcotics is to give the Government the
authority to render unto its citizens certain death without
due process of law. (quoted in King 1972, Chapter 16)
Congress was apparently convinced by these arguments, pass-

ing the Narcotic Control Act of 1956 without dissent. The act
was signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on July 18,

1956. The key provisions of the act included even more severe
penalties for the sale of and trafficking in illegal substances,
with a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years and a man-
datory maximum of 10 years for all subsequent violations. In
addition, judges were prohibited from suspending sentences or
providing probation for convicted offenders (Hudon 1956).
Finally, some of the more constructive recommendations of
the Daniel subcommittee, such as developing an educational
program to reduce youth drug use and the opening of federal
narcotics hospitals to people who were addicted to drugs, did
not make it into the final bill, essentially excluding prevention
and treatment as possible options for dealing with drug abuse
in the United States (King 1972, Chapter 16).
Controlled Substances Act of 1970

Between 1937 and 1969, the prohibition of marijuana distri-
bution and use was enshrined in a cluster of legislations that
included the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, the 1951 Boggs
Amendment to the Harrison Narcotic Act, the Narcotic Control
Act of 1956, and a hodgepodge of state and local laws. In 1969,
that system fell apart when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that
essential elements in the 1937 tax act were unconstitutional.
The relevant case, Leary v. United States, arose as the result of
the 1965 arrest of Dr. Timothy Leary, psychologist, writer,
sometime Harvard University faculty member, and vigorous
proponent of drug legalization. Leary, his girlfriend, and two
children were returning from an extended visit to Mexico when
federal agents found a small amount of marijuana in his daugh-
ter’s clothing. Leary took responsibility for his daughter’s hav-
ing the drug and was charged with possession of an illegal drug,
sentenced to 30 days in jail, and fined $30,000. Leary appealed
the sentence, and the case worked its way to the highest court
in the land, which handed down its decision on May 19, 1969.
(The case was the first time the U.S. Supreme Court had acted
on a case related to the nation’s marijuana laws.)
72 Marijuana
In its decision, the Court ruled unanimously that the mari-

juana tax act was unconstitutional because it exposed an indi-
vidual to self-incrimination, an act specifically prohibited by
the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The justices
reasoned that
the Marihuana Tax Act compelled petitioner to expose him-
self to a “real and appreciable” risk of self-incrimination . . .
[It further] required him, in the course of obtaining an
order form, to identify himself not only as a transferee of
marihuana, but as a transferee who had not registered and
paid the occupational tax under §§4751-4753. Section
4773 directed that this information be conveyed by the
Internal Revenue Service to state and local law enforce-
ment officials on request.
Petitioner had ample reason to fear that transmittal to
such officials of the fact that he was a recent, unregistered
transferee of marihuana “would surely prove a significant
link in a chain’ of evidence tending to establish his guilt”
[footnote omitted] under the state marihuana laws then
in effect. (Leary v. United States 1969, 16)
The Court then concluded that
petitioner’s invocation of the privilege against self-
incrimination under the Fifth Amendment provided a
full defense to the charge . . .
Since the effect of the Act’s terms were such that le-
gal possessors of marihuana were virtually certain to be
registrants or exempt from the order form requirement,
compliance with the transfer tax provisions would have
required petitioner, as one not registered but obliged to
obtain an order form, unmistakably to identify himself
as a member of a “selective group inherently suspect of
criminal activities,” and thus those provisions created a
“real and appreciable” hazard of incrimination . . . (Leary v.
United States 1969, 7)
For a very brief period of time, then, the United States had no
federal policy regarding the use of marijuana. That situation
was not, however, to last long. Even before the Supreme Court
decision in Leary v. United States, politicians were beginning
to grumble about the confused state of federal and state laws
relating not only to marijuana, but to other dangerous drugs as
well. In a special message delivered to Congress on February 7,
1968, for example, President Lyndon Johnson had described
the nation’s approach to drug control as “a crazy quilt of in-
consistent approaches and widely disparate criminal sanctions”
(Johnson 1968). Congress then began working on drug policy
legislation in earnest, producing the Comprehensive Drug
Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970. The act covered
virtually every aspect of drug manufacture, distribution, reg-
istration, and use in the United States. Arguably its most im-
portant part is Title II, the Controlled Substances Act of 1970
(CSA), which for nearly five decades has provided the basic
legislative framework for U.S. policy regarding illegal drug use
(The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 2015).
The CSA included provisions that represented significant
changes in the nation’s policies toward drug use. The first of
these changes was the decision to give up on taxation as a pri-
mary mechanism of drug policy and to adopt direct penalties
and punishment as a way of controlling drug use. In the act,
the United States abandoned the principle inherent in the 1937
Marihuana Tax Act that placing a tax on the manufacture, dis-
tribution, and use of drugs was an effective means of control-
ling the use of such products, and adopted the principle that
prison and jail sentences and monetary fines issued directly for
possession or distribution of drugs, instead, were likely to be
more effective in reducing (or eliminating) drug use.
In adopting the CSA, Congress also expressed a very dif-
ferent view about the severity of punishment appropriate for
drug use. Senator Thomas Dodd (D-CT) expressed this view
in hearings on the (as it was known at the time) Controlled
Dangerous Substances Act of 1969. He observed,
74 Marijuana
It had also become apparent that the severity of penalties

including the length of sentences does not affect the ex-
tent of drug abuse and other drug-related violation. The
basic consideration here was that the increasingly longer
sentences that had been legislated in the past had not
shown the expected overall reduction in drug law viola-
tions. The opposite had been true notably in the case of
marihuana. Under Federal law and under many State laws
marihuana violations carry the same strict penalties that
are applicable to hard narcotics, yet marihuana violations
have almost doubled in the last 2 years alone. (Controlled
Dangerous Substances Act of 1969 1969, 2308)
Reflecting this new view of “the drug problem,” the CSA elimi-
nated many of the most severe penalties for drug abuse, in-
cluding the harsh minimum sentences established by the Boggs
amendment. Congress had apparently come to the conclusion
that such penalties simply did not work.
The CSA also included provisions for prevention, treatment,
and research programs for drug users, a striking change in the
previous position that such individuals were dangerous crimi-
nals who needed to be punished and/or excluded from society.
As an example, the act expanded the availability of methadone
treatment for heroin addicts, which dramatically altered the
way such individuals were handled in the United States. It also
provided for the creation of the Special Action Office for Drug
Abuse Prevention, which marked a promising new avenue to
research on drug prevention and treatment.
Additionally, the act reversed a long-standing policy that in-
cluded cannabis along with cocaine and opiates in drug laws
and policies. Instead, Part F of the act established a commis-
sion to study in more detail the special and unique problems
posed by cannabis use in the United States and to offer recom-
mendations for dealing with those problems. That commission,
chaired by Raymond P. Shafer, former governor of Pennsylvania,
issued its report, “Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding,”
in 1972. The report was an about-face from previous policy

toward marijuana, recommending much more lenient penal-
ties for possession of the drug and expanded programs of treat-
ment, prevention, and research. The philosophy that motivated
the committee’s recommendations was enunciated at one point
by Shafer, who said that
we believe that the criminal law is too harsh a tool to

apply to personal possession even in the effort to discour-
age use. It implies an overwhelming indictment of the
behavior which we believe is not appropriate. The actual
and potential harm of use of the drug is not great enough
to justify intrusion by the criminal law into private be-
havior, a step which our society takes only “with the
greatest reluctance.” (U.S. Commission on Marihuana
and Drug Abuse 1972, 176)
In some respects, the most significant long-term effect of

the CSA was the creation of a system for classifying illegal
substances under one of five schedules. This system of so-
called controlled substances has dominated U.S. drug policy
throughout the more than four decades since the adoption
of the CSA. The schedules are based on three features of any
given substance: (1) its potential for abuse, (2) its value in
accepted medical treatment in the United States, and (3) its
safety when used under medical supervision. Thus, substances
placed in Schedule I were those that (1) have a high potential
for abuse, (2) have no currently accepted use for medical treat-
ments in the United States, and (3) cannot be safely used even
under appropriate medical supervision. Drugs traditionally
regarded as the most dangerous—cocaine, the opiates, and
marijuana—were (and are) all classified under Schedule I of
the act. Other examples of Schedule I drugs today are LSD,
mescaline, peyote, and psilocybin. In contrast to Schedule
I drugs, substances listed in Schedule V (1) have minimal po-
tential for abuse, (2) have accepted medical applications in
76 Marijuana
the United States, and (3) are generally regarded as safe to

use under medical supervision (although they may have the
potential to lead to addiction). Examples of Schedule V drugs
are certain cough medications that contain small amounts of
codeine and products used to treat diarrhea that contain small
amounts of opium. In the first announcement of scheduled
drugs in the Federal Register in 1971, 59 substances were
listed in Schedule I, 21 in Schedule II, 22 in Schedule III,
11 in Schedule IV, and 5 in Schedule V (Title 21: Food and
Drugs 1971, 7803–7805). Since that time, about 160 sub-
stances have been added to and dropped from one or more of
the schedules (Controlled Substances Schedules 2016).
The Shafer Report

The National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse
(“the Shafer Commission”) took its job seriously. It con-
ducted by far the most comprehensive study of marijuana
ever carried out in the United States, holding hearings that
produced thousands of pages of testimony from public of-
ficials, community leaders, law enforcement officers, acade-
micians, public health experts, and others with experience
and expertise in the field of drug abuse. It also commissioned
more than 50 studies on all aspects of marijuana use in the
United States as well as on the status and effectiveness of ex-
isting marijuana laws. It eventually came to the conclusion,
cited earlier, that the possession of marijuana by individuals
for their own use should be decriminalized, that is, not penal-
ized by either civil or criminal law (Nixon Tapes Show Roots
of Marijuana Prohibition: Misinformation, Culture Wars and
Prejudice 2002).
As in other instances before and since, the commission’s re-
port did not appear in a politically neutral climate. In fact, even
as the committee was conducting its work, President Richard M.
Nixon was making clear that he held very different views
about the nation’s drug problems. He was, in fact, envision-
ing a “war on drugs” that would be an essential element in his
campaign for re-election and a keystone of his second admin-

istration. In tapes made while he was in office, for example,
Nixon told his chief of staff, H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman, that
he wanted “a drug thing every week” during the re-election
campaign (Nixon Tapes Show Roots of Marijuana Prohibi-
tion: Misinformation, Culture Wars and Prejudice 2002). At
the same time, Nixon was warning Shafer that he could not
allow his committee to get out of hand and make recommen-
dations that ran counter to what Congress and the general pub-
lic wanted to hear. He warned Shafer to avoid adopting the
views of “a bunch of muddle-headed psychiatrists” (at the U.S.
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare) who let “their
hearts run their brains.” Nixon concluded his instructions to
Shafer by advising him:
You see, the thing that is so terribly important here is that

it not appear that the Commission’s frankly just a bunch
of do-gooders, I mean, they say they’re a bunch of old men
[who] don’t understand, that’s fine, I wouldn’t mind that,
but if they get the idea you’re just a bunch of do-gooders
that are going to come out with a quote “soft on mari-
juana” report, that’ll destroy it, right off the bat. I think
there’s a need to come out with a report that is totally
oblivious to some obvious differences between marijuana
and other drugs, other dangerous drugs . . . (Nixon Tapes
Show Roots of Marijuana Prohibition: Misinformation,
Culture Wars and Prejudice 2002, 2)
Within this setting, it is hardly surprising that the Shafer re-

port went essentially nowhere. True, the report did have some
important lasting contributions to make to the nation’s effort
to deal with drug abuse—it insisted for the first time, for ex-
ample, to describe alcohol as a dangerous drug—but it had
essentially no effect on changing the way the nation viewed
marijuana as a “dangerous drug,” a perception that has not es-
sentially changed among government officials today. Even as
78 Marijuana
the Shafer committee was conducting its studies, Nixon de-

cided to strengthen the nation’s battle against drug abuse by
creating a new administrative office to deal with the problem,
the Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention. To lead
that office, Nixon appointed a respected physician, Dr. Jerome
Jaffe, the first of a series of national drug leaders who were later
generally referred to as “drug czars.”
The Carter Years

The years from 1977 to 1981 provided a brief respite in the
“war against drugs” declared by Richard Nixon. During that
period, President Jimmy Carter took a much softer approach
to dealing with all psychoactive drugs, calling for reduced pen-
alties for their use and an expanded and improved program of
education, treatment, and prevention. With respect to mari-
juana, he notably observed in a 1977 message to Congress that
“[p]enalties against possession of a drug should not be more
damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself ”
(Carter 1977). As recently as 2011, Carter repeated that mes-
sage in an op-ed in the New York Times (Carter 2011, A35).
Dr. Peter Bourne, Carter’s drug czar, took a similar view toward
marijuana. In a 2000 interview with PBS, Bourne remembered
the Carter administration’s attitude about marijuana:
We did not view marijuana as a significant health

problem—as it was not—even though there were people
who wanted to construe it as being a public health prob-
lem. Nobody dies from marijuana smoking. (Interview
Peter Bourne 2000)
The Nixon administration’s policy toward marijuana use,

Bourne observed, was motivated by something other than pub-
lic health issues:
Smoking marijuana [in the 1960s] became very important

as a symbolic gesture against the government. . . . We’re
really talking more about cultural wars than we are talking

about drug wars. (Interview Peter Bourne 2000)
Federal Legislation since the Controlled

Substances Act, 1970–2010
The one-term Carter administration represented only a brief
interlude in the much longer aggressive campaign (the “war on
drugs”) that lasted from the Nixon administration to (arguably)
the most recent administration of President Barack Obama.
With the election of President Ronald Reagan in 1981, national
policy reverted once again to a militaristic theme in which all
of the nation’s resources were marshaled in an effort to reduce
or eliminate the use of illegal drugs in the United States. In one
of his earliest speeches in office, Reagan announced that “we’re
taking down the surrender flag that has flown over so many
drug efforts; we’re running up a battle flag” (Reagan 1982).
An indication of the sincerity with which Reagan attempted
to pursue the drug war was the words and actions of his first
drug czar, Carlton Turner. Turner argued that smoking mari-
juana was more than just a recreational activity with young
people of the 1980s. It was instead, he told an interviewer with
Government Executive magazine in 1982, a “behavioral pattern”
that “sort of tagged along” with an “anti-military, anti-nuclear
power, anti- big business, anti-authority” attitude that refused
to accept civic responsibility (quoted in Kick 2002, 150; also
see Schlosser 1997). When it was discovered in 1983 that fed-
eral agents had illegally sprayed marijuana plants from the air
with toxic paraquat herbicide, Turner appeared on television
to say that anyone who died of ingesting the herbicide prob-
ably got what he or she deserved. Two years later, at a gay pride
parade in Atlanta, Turner also suggested that convicted drug
dealers should receive the death penalty (Herer 1993, Chap-
ter 15). When Turner said a year later that marijuana caused
homosexuality which, in turn, caused HIV/AIDS, Reagan ap-
parently had heard enough and fired Turner from his position
80 Marijuana
(Herer 1993, Chapter 15; for a recent expression of Turner’s

views on marijuana, see Turner 2016).
The tenor of congressional attitudes toward drugs in general
and marijuana in particular in the 1980s was illustrated by pas-
sage of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. Apparently the pri-
mary impetus for that act was an attempt by the Democratic
Party to convince the nation that it was “tough on drugs,” a
position traditionally taken by its opponents in the Republican
Party, especially at election time (as it was in 1986). In an at-
tempt to prove that the party could be “tough on drugs,” Dem-
ocrats pushed through legislation that reinstated minimum
penalties for possession of drugs (Sterling 1999). The penalties
established for “harder” drugs, such as cocaine, heroin, and
amphetamines, were relatively large, compared to those estab-
lished for marijuana. For example, conviction for possession of
5 grams of crack cocaine, or 500 grams of powder cocaine, or
1 gram of LSD resulted in a minimum sentence of five years with-
out possibility of parole. Possession of 10 times those quantities
called for a minimum sentence of 10 years without possibility
of parole. By contrast, a five-year prison sentence without pos-
sibility of parole was established for possession of 100 cannabis
plants or 100 kilograms of marijuana, and a 10-year sentence for
1,000 plants or 1,000 kilograms of marijuana (Sterling 1999).
In addition to re-establishing minimum penalties, the law pro-
vided $1.7 billion for drug enforcement efforts, $200 million
for drug education programs, and $241 million for drug treat-
ment programs (Public Law 99-570 2016, Title IV).
By 1986, then, federal laws on possession, cultivation, and
distribution had essentially been established. The modern ex-
pression of those laws is summarized in Table 2.1.
State Marijuana Laws

As might be expected, marijuana laws vary considerably from
state to state. One way to compare these laws is simply to pre-
pare a chart like Table 2.1 for each state and try to decide which
states are “most severe” in their laws and which are “less severe.”
Table 2.1 Federal Marijuana Laws
Possession
Amount Level Incarceration Fine (in dollars)
Any (first offense) Misdemeanor 1 year 1,000

Any (second offense) Misdemeanor 15 days* 2,500
Any (third offense) Misdemeanor 90 days–3 years* 3,500
or felony
Sale or Cultivation
Less than 50 plants or Felony Not more than 250,000

50 kilograms (first offense) 5 years
50–99 plants or 50–99 Felony Not more than 1,000,000
kilograms (first offense) 20 years
100–999 plants or 100–999 Felony 5–40 years 2,000,000–
kilograms (first offense) 5,000,000
1,000 or more plants or Felony 10 years–life 4,000,000–
1,000 or more kilograms 10,000,000
(first offense)
Sale to a minor Felony Double penalty Double penalty
Sale within 1,000 feet of a Felony Double penalty Double penalty
school
*Mandatory minimum penalty.

Source: Adapted from “Federal Laws and Penalties.” 2016. NORML. http://norml
.org/laws/item/federal-penalties-2?category_id=833. Accessed on May 15,
2016, and summarized from Subchapter I—Control and Enforcement. 2016.
Office of Diversion Control. http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/21cfr/21usc/841.htm.
An excellent way of making such a comparison can be found

on the NORML website, which lists marijuana laws for all
50 states (State Laws 2016). As this site indicates, states with
the most severe penalties include those that assess a one-year
prison term for possession of a relatively small amount of mari-
juana (typically 20 to 35 grams, or about an ounce or less)
and a fine ranging from $1,000 to $5,000. States that fall into
this category include Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Mis-
souri, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and Tennessee
(State Laws 2016).
82 Marijuana
By contrast, a number of states have decriminalized the pos-

session of small amounts of marijuana. Decriminalization typi-
cally means that possession of small amounts of marijuana is
treated in the same way as a minor traffic offense. There is no
prison time or monetary fine assessed, and the offense may not
be recorded in a person’s legal records. As of 2016, states that
have decriminalized the possession of small amounts of mari-
juana include Alaska (1 ounce or less), California (28.5 grams
or less), Colorado (2 ounces or less), Connecticut (0.5 ounce
or less), Delaware (175 grams or less), District of Columbia
(2 ounces or less), Maine (usable amount with proof of phy-
sician’s prescription), Maryland (less than 10 grams), Massa-
chusetts (1 ounce or less), Minnesota (less than 42.5 grams),
Mississippi (30 grams or less), Missouri (less than 35 grams),
Nebraska (1 ounce or less), Nevada (less than 1 ounce), New
York (25 grams or less), North Carolina (0.5 ounce or less),
Ohio (less than 100 grams), Oregon (less than 1 ounce), Rhode
Island (less than 1 ounce), and Vermont (less than 1 ounce)
(States That Have Decriminalized 2016).
Most of the laws in states that have decriminalized the pos-
session of small amounts of marijuana closely follow a model
law suggested by the Marijuana Policy Project. That model
law specifies that first-time possession of less than an ounce of
marijuana by a person over the age of 18 should be considered
to be a civil offense with no jail or prison time and a fine of
$100. Individuals under the age of 18 should be assessed the
fine (without jail or prison time) only if they do not complete
a drug awareness program (Model State Civil Fine Bill 2016).
Patterns of Marijuana Use in the United States

Efforts to obtain valid and reliable estimates of the number
of boys and girls, men and women, who use marijuana in
the United States go back to the early 1970s, largely, at first,
in response to provisions of the Controlled Substances Act
of 1970, which required the collection of such statistics. Re-

search on the prevalence of marijuana use and related top-
ics originated with two studies commissioned in 1971 and
1972 by the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug
Abuse (NCMDA). Those studies were then continued by the
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) under the title of
the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDU),
which was later renamed the National Survey on Drug Use
and Health (NSDU) and which continues to carry out annual
surveys of drug use.
At the outset (and, to some extent, up to the present time),
it should be noted that such data were relatively difficult to
collect because, of course, marijuana was, and still is, an illegal
drug, so an individual might be reluctant to be entirely forth-
coming as to his or her use of the substance. (See, for example,
Gettman 2007.) Nonetheless, researchers worked diligently to
make an estimate of the number of marijuana users. Such stud-
ies commonly divided users into a number of categories, many
of which were, of course, demographic: by age, gender, and,
sometimes, racial or ethnic background. Also, researchers at-
tempted to distinguish individuals who had tried the drug only
once (“one-time users”), who used it occasionally (“within the
past year/month/week”), or who used it regularly.
Much of the earliest research focused on the use of marijuana
by young people, possibly because of the widespread publicity
at the time about the threat posed by drug abuse among teen-
agers and young adults. In a series of studies commissioned
by the NIDA, for example, researchers found in 1974 that
52.8% of 18- to 21-year-olds and 47.2% of 22- to 25-year-olds
had used marijuana at least once in their lifetime. In 1976, the
rates were 50.4% and 51.6% and they were 56.8% and 60.3%
in 1977 (Richards 1981, Table 1, 44). Researchers in 1976
and 1977 further subdivided marijuana users into finer cat-
egories of gender, race, and geographic locations, as shown in
Table 2.2.
84 Marijuana
Table 2.2 Classification of Marijuana Users by Gender, Race, and Geographic

Location, 1976 and 1977
Subgroup 1976 (in percentage) 1977 (in percentage)
Females 43.6 54.4

Males 59.8 64.5
White 53.6 60.1
Nonwhite 46.3 54.4
Large metropolitan 58.1 62.7
Other metropolitan 57.5 63.2
Nonmetropolitan 36.2 47.8
Source: Richards, Louise G, ed. Demographic Trends and Drug Abuse, 1980–1995.
NIDA Research Monograph 35. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
May 1981. Table 4, 45.
Finally, researchers asked respondents to their surveys about

the frequency of their marijuana use. The results of that ques-
tion are summarized in Table 2.3.
The longest continuing study of marijuana use and at-
titudes toward marijuana use has been the Monitoring the
Future (MTF) program, known originally as the National
High School Senior Survey, funded by the National Institute
on Drug Abuse and conducted by the Institute for Social Re-
search at the University of Michigan. The study originally fo-
cused on about 16,000 high school seniors in approximately
130 schools. In 1976, the study was expanded to include pop-
ulations beyond high school students and to cover a greater
variety of topics than drug use. Finally, in 1991, the survey
was extended again, this time to include samples of 8th and
10th graders.
As with many marijuana use studies, MTF researchers have
traditionally asked students how frequently they use the drug:
(1) at any time in their life, defined as lifetime prevalence,
(2) during the last year, defined as annual prevalence, and (3) dur-
ing the last 30 days, defined as 30-day prevalence. The long-term
trends of annual prevalence among 8th, 10th, and 12th graders
Table 2.3 Frequency of Marijuana Use, 1974, 1976 and 1977 (percentage)
Current Use* Regular Use Occasional Use
Category 1974 1976 1977 1974 1976 1977 1974 1976 1977
18- to 30.3 25.6 30.4 10.8 6.9 13.0 27.0 22.3 23.7
21-year-olds
22- to 20.4 25.7 24.2 6.7 6.5 10.7 21.6 27.4 22.6
25-year-olds
18- to 25-Year-Olds
Females ** 19.6 20.8 ** 4.4 ** ** 20.2 21.3

Males ** 31.4 35.1 ** ** 7.0 ** 29.2 25.8
White ** 26.3 20.4 ** 8.9 12.2 ** 26.2 23.7
Nonwhite ** 23.8 24.1 ** 6.5 10.5 ** 20.2 22.0
*Use within the past month.

**Not asked.
Source: Richards, Louise G, ed. Demographic Trends and Drug Abuse, 1980–1995.
NIDA Research Monograph 35. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
May 1981. Tables 10 and 12, 48–49.
have ranged from a low of 21.1% in 1992 to a high of 37.8%

in 1997. Since that year, lifetime prevalence has dropped off
to about 30%, reaching 30.0% in 2015. As one might expect,
marijuana use in all categories (lifetime, annual, and 30-day)
is always highest among 12th graders and lowest among
8th graders, with frequency of use generally about three times
as great among older students as among younger students
(Johnston et al. 2016, Tables 1 and 5, pages 54 and 58).
Data for annual and 30-day use of marijuana follow a
roughly similar pattern to those for lifetime use. The lowest
rates for all three age groups were lowest in 1992 at 14.3% and
7.7% and highest in 1997 at 30.1% and 17.9%. Since that
peak year, both annual and 30-day use has decreased among
all three age groups to the mid-20% range for annual use and
the high teen percentage in the 30-day range. In 2015, those
rates were 23.7% for annual use and 14.0% for 30-day use
(Johnston et al. 2016, Tables 2 and 3, pages 55 and 56; this
86 Marijuana
study contains detailed data on many aspects of marijuana use

among 8th, 10th, and 12th graders from 1991 through 2015).
Attitudes about Marijuana Use

A number of studies (including the Monitoring the Future
study) have also attempted to discover how adolescent and
young adult attitudes about the use of marijuana have changed
over time in the United States. One of the most comprehensive
of those studies was conducted by researchers at the University
of Texas, St. Louis University, and the University of Michigan
in 2015. In that study, subjects from the age of 12 to 25 who
were regular-, occasional-, or nonsmokers of marijuana were
asked about their approval or disapproval of using the drug.
Researchers found that younger subjects were more likely to
have increased their disapproval of the use of marijuana by a
small, but significant, amount between 2002 and 2013. For ex-
ample, 83.91% of 12-year-olds disapproved of the use of mari-
juana in 2002, a number that increased to 86.59% in 2013.
For 13-year-olds, those numbers were 75.49% in 2002 and
81.67% in 2013.
Similar trends were not observed among older subjects, how-
ever. Among subjects over the age of 16, disapproval of marijuana
use actually decreased, by a modest amount among younger sub-
jects and by large amounts by older subjects. Among 17-year-
olds, for example, disapproval of marijuana use decreased from
43.36% in 2002 to 34.92% in 2013, and among 24/25-year-
olds from 40.74% in 2002 to 21.46% in 2013 (Salas-Wright
et al. 2015, Tables 4 and 5, pages 397 and 402).
The effect of using marijuana on a regular or occasional basis
on one’s general approval or disapproval of the drug was dif-
ficult to determine from this study. In general, younger adults,
age 12 to 17, who used marijuana on either an occasional or
regular basis seemed more willing to approve of the use of the
drug in 2013 than was the case in 2002. That pattern held for
regular (“lifetime”) users of the drug among those 18 to 25,
but not for those who were only occasional (past year) users
of the drug (Salas-Wright et al. 2015, Tables 4 and 5, pages
397 and 402). Even with the extensive data in studies such
as this one, it is difficult to say how adolescents’ and young
adults’ attitudes toward the use of marijuana have changed in
the past decade, and how demographic factors have affected
that change.
The vast majority of public opinion polls about marijuana
ask a very different type of question of respondents, namely
whether they believe that the use of marijuana should be legal-
ized or not. That is, one might personally disapprove of the use
of marijuana for medical and/or recreational purposes, but still
feel that the drug should be legalized for one or the other (or
both) purposes.
The Gallup Poll, for example, has been asking in its public
opinion surveys for more than 40 years about attitudes toward
the legalization of marijuana in the United States. Those sur-
veys suggest that the public has gradually become more accept-
ing toward the legalization of marijuana. When Gallup first
asked in 1970 whether the drug should be legalized, only 12%
of respondents answered in the affirmative, with 84% express-
ing opposition to legalization. Those numbers have gradually
changed, until, in October 2011, pollsters found for the first
time a preponderance of those favoring legalization (50%) ver-
sus those opposing legalization (46%). That trend has contin-
ued through the decade, with 58% of respondents supporting
legalization of the drug for recreational purposes in 2015 (Jones
2015). Other public opinion polls have shown similar trends
over the years with regard to legalization of marijuana, with
even larger majorities supporting legalization of marijuana for
medical purposes (“Illegal Drugs” 2016).
Current Controversies about Marijuana Use

Two questions dominate most discussions about marijuana
today both in the United States and in other parts of the world.
88 Marijuana
The first question is whether or not the possession and use of

marijuana should continue to be criminalized, as it currently is
in most parts of the world. For a number of years now, many
individuals and organizations have been arguing that there are
sound reasons for changing existing policies and allowing the
possession and use of small amounts of marijuana without legal
penalty. The second question is whether the possession and use
of marijuana is decriminalized or not, whether the drug should
be permitted to be used for legitimate medical purposes.
Legalization and Decriminalization of Marijuana

In the United States and most other parts of the world today,
the possession and use of marijuana (along with its production
and distribution) are criminal acts. That means anyone who
is found in possession of marijuana can be prosecuted for a
misdemeanor or felony crime, conviction for which may result
in a jail or prison sentence along with a monetary fine. People
who object to this type of policy usually suggest that posses-
sion and use of marijuana (but generally not production and
distribution of the drug) be either decriminalized or legalized.
The terms have different meanings. Decriminalization means
that the most severe penalties currently assessed for posses-
sion of marijuana would be eliminated. A person might still be
fined or required to perform some public service, for example,
if convicted of possessing the drug, but he or she would not be
sentenced to prison. Legalization is an even more extreme ac-
tion, in which all legal penalties of any kind against use of the
drug would be eliminated. People who favor legalization often
suggest that one or more controls be established over the use
of the drug, as is the case with other addictive substances, such
as tobacco and alcohol. They might recommend special labels
on marijuana cigarettes, as is the case with tobacco cigarettes;
restrictions on all or various types of advertising; age limits for
purchasers of marijuana; or restrictions on the amount of mari-
juana that might be purchased at any one time. Individuals and
organizations that argue for decriminalization or legalization
often do not specifically say which form of reform they prefer,

but simply suggest that current sentencing policies be revised
or eliminated.
Arguments in Favor of Decriminalization or Legalization

This section lists the major arguments offered in support of
the decriminalization or legalization of marijuana possession.
Following this section is a list of arguments used to refute these
suggestions and to support existing policies on possession
of the drug.
The War on Marijuana Is Far Too Costly

The nation’s so-called war on drugs officially began in 1969
when newly elected president Richard M. Nixon submitted a
budget to the Congress requesting $81.4 million for drug treat-
ment, education, research, and law enforcement. Five years
later, that budget had increased nearly tenfold, reaching $760 mil-
lion (Goldberg 1980). Those costs continued to rise over the
next four decades, reaching a total federal expenditure in 2016
of $30.6 billion (National Drug Control Budget 2016, 2). And
these numbers reflect only federal spending. The cost of fight-
ing drug abuse on state and local levels adds substantially to
these totals. According to one study conducted in 2010, states
and local municipalities had spent $25,684,407,000 in 2008
on drug enforcement programs, almost twice the total spent
by the federal government ($13.7 billion) for that year (Miron
and Waldock 2010, Table 3, p. 35; National Drug Control
Strategy 2008, 1)
In an earlier study, Miron had focused on the cost of the
war, on marijuana in particular, and the savings that could be
achieved by legalization of the drug. That study, conducted in
2005, concluded that legalizing the possession of marijuana
would save the U.S. government about $2.4 billion per year
and state and local governments a total of $5.3 billion per year.
Miron’s calculations included all expenses involved in carrying
90 Marijuana
out laws against marijuana, including costs of police, the ju-

diciary, and corrections facilities. In an interesting extension
of the study, Miron also analyzed the economic effects of as-
sessing a tax on the purchase of marijuana at the rate used for
most other goods or, alternatively, at the usual rates for alcohol
and tobacco. He found that under the former arrangement,
marijuana taxes would annually generate $2.4 billion and
$6.2 billion in revenue annually, respectively (Miron 2005;
this study contains detailed tables for both federal and state
costs as well as potential tax returns). In response to Miron’s
report, more than 500 economists signed a petition to the
president, Congress, governors, and state legislators urging a
renewed debate on the benefits of legalizing the possession of
marijuana (Hardy 2005).
Two other studies contemporaneous with Miron’s research
also dealt with the problems of financing the war against mari-
juana. In their 2005 report, “Efficacy & Impact: The Criminal
Justice Response to Marijuana Policy in the US,” Jason Zie-
denberg and Jason Colburn pointed out that the cost of the
nation’s war against drugs had risen by about 307% between
1988 and 2003, while the rate of marijuana use had remained
essentially the same during that period. (It decreased from
about 5,000 per 100,000 individuals to less than 4,000 per
100,000 in the early 2000s, but then returned to 5,000 per
100,000 by 2003, for no net change during the period [Ziden-
berg and Colburn 2005, 7].) Also in 2005, the organization
Citizens against Government Waste (CAGW) conducted a
study, attempting to assess the success (or lack of it) of federal
campaigns against marijuana. The CAGW focused in particu-
lar on the work of the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy (ONDCP) and found that that office “burns
through tax dollars by funding wasteful and unnecessary proj-
ects.” The CAGW also concluded that “the drug czar created
a $2 billion national anti-drug campaign, produced expen-
sive propaganda ads that failed to reduce drug use among
America’s youth, and in the process, violated federal law”
(French 2005). Finally, the CAGW claimed that ONDCP

used the nation’s $226.5 million High Intensity Drug Traf-
ficking Areas Program (HIDTA) that had become a “cash cow
for members of Congress to bring home the bacon for their
constituents” (French 2005).
The War on Marijuana Has Not Been Effective

This point was discussed in some detail earlier in this chapter.
The main argument is that the United States has spent more than
$1 trillion in four decades in the battle against drugs, the most
common of which by far is marijuana, with little or no decrease
in use. During the same time, the lives of tens or hundreds
of thousands of individuals have been ruined by incarceration
for marijuana use. For probably the only time in U.S. history,
except for the administration of President Jimmy Carter, an
American president has taken a public stand on this position.
On a number of occasions, both as a candidate for the presi-
dency and as president, Barack Obama has suggested that drug
use in general and marijuana use in particular should be treated
as a public health problem, rather than a crime. In 2010,
Obama’s director of the ONDCP, Richard Gil Kerlikowske,
told reporters that “in the grand scheme, it [the U.S. drug war]
has not been successful. Forty years later, the concern about
drugs and drug problems is, if anything, magnified, intensi-
fied” (War on Drugs Unsuccessful, Drug Czar Says 2010).
(In point of fact, however, Obama’s actions did not match his
words. He raised spending on drug enforcement efforts every
year he was in office except one, 2013, and made his highest
ever request for fiscal year 2017, $31,071.4 million [National
Drug Control Budget 2016, Table 3, Page 19].)
The Use of Marijuana Is Not Associated with Serious

Health Problems
Probably the most contentious issue in the debate over legal-
ization or decriminalization of marijuana is the risk it may or
may not pose to an individual’s physical, psychological, and
92 Marijuana
social health as well as to the safety of society in general. Op-

ponents of decriminalization and legalization routinely point
to a host of negative consequences that may result from mari-
juana use, often claiming that the use of even small amounts
of the drug can have serious results. This argument is in the
long tradition of the warnings of drug prohibitionists like
Harry Anslinger in the United States and other crusaders
around the world, although today’s opponents of decriminal-
ization generally present their position in much less propa-
gandistic language and with much more scientific evidence
for their case.
By contrast, proponents of decriminalization commonly
cite a wide number of scientific studies dating back more than
a hundred years indicating that the risks to health and soci-
ety, although not zero, are acceptably low. In fact, proponents
and opponents of decriminalization sometimes cite the same
scientific research, but draw different conclusions from that
research. Some of the most comprehensive of health effects
reviews of marijuana use are the Indian Hemp Drugs Com-
mission report of 1894, the Panama Canal Zone Military
Investigations into Marijuana (1916–1929), the LaGuardia
Report of 1944, the report of the British Advisory Commit-
tee on Drug Dependency (the Wooton Report) of 1968, the
Canadian Government’s Commission of Inquiry (the Le Dain
Report) of 1970, the National Commission on Marihuana and
Drug Abuse (the Shafer Report) of 1973, the National Academy
of Sciences’ Analysis of Marijuana Policy of 1982, and the Acad-
emy’s Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base (1999),
arguably the most comprehensive review of the marijuana-
related scientific literature ever produced in the United States.
Almost without exception, these reports came to the conclusion
that moderate use of marijuana produces no serious, long-term
consequences for individuals or for the general society. Some
of the conclusions reported in the 1999 National Academy
of Sciences report (Joy, Watson, and Benson 1999), for exam-
ple, were:
• Marijuana is not a completely benign substance. It is a pow-

erful drug with a variety of effects. However, except for the
harms associated with smoking, the adverse effects of mari-
juana use are within the range of effects tolerated for other
medications. (Joy, Watson, and Benson 1999, 5)
• A distinctive marijuana withdrawal syndrome has been
identified, but it is mild and short lived. (Joy, Watson, and
Benson 1999, 6)
• There is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of mari-
juana are causally linked to the subsequent abuse of other
illicit drugs. (Joy, Watson, and Benson 1999, 6)
• The short-term immunosuppressive effects are not well es-
tablished but, if they exist, are not likely great enough to
preclude a legitimate medical use. (Joy, Watson, and Benson
1999, 5)
Proponents of legalization often focus on scientific studies

dealing with specific claims made by their opponents about the
health effects of marijuana use on the brain, the respiratory sys-
tem, or other body systems, or on the development of specific
diseases, such as cancer. For example, they sometimes point to
a study conducted in 2003 by Igor Grant, at the Department
of Psychiatry at the University of California-San Diego and his
colleagues, that showed that long-term use of marijuana ap-
parently has no permanent effect on brain function, a result
the researchers found “surprising.” In a review of 15 previous
studies on the problem, Grant’s team found “very small” im-
pairment of memory and learning (Grant et al. 2003, 686).
A similar result was reported in a 2005 study of the relationship
between marijuana use and cancer. In a retrospective review of
14 earlier studies on this relationship, Donald P. Tashkin at the
University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA), Geffen School
of Medicine, and his colleagues found no association between
marijuana use and a variety of types of cancers, a result that
they—like Grant—found “surprising.” They concluded that,
94 Marijuana
although “there is every reason to expect some adverse effect

of marijuana use on aerodigestive tract cancers, . . . results of
cohort studies have not revealed an increased risk of tobacco-
related cancers among marijuana smokers” (Hashibe et al.
2005, 273). A recent study also found that the relationship
between marijuana smoking and pulmonary function is not
strong, with marijuana smokers actually having somewhat bet-
ter lung function than cigarette smokers. The study followed
more than 5,000 individuals who smoked marijuana regularly
over a period of two decades—the equivalent of up to one joint
per day over seven years—and found that they suffered no mea-
surable impairment on a standard lung function test (Pletcher
et al. 2012).
When hundreds, if not thousands, of scientific studies on
the health effects of marijuana have been conducted over the
years, the selection of any specific group of studies may seem
somewhat arbitrary. However, these three examples do provide
a flavor of the types of results that have been obtained in many
research efforts.
The Health Effects of Marijuana Are Less of a Concern

Than Are Those of Alcohol and Tobacco
Proponents of marijuana decriminalization often point to what
might appear to be the dramatic difference in the way society
views three psychoactive substances: marijuana, tobacco, and
alcohol, the latter of two of which are legal in the United States
and most other parts of the world, at least for adults. Stud-
ies have shown that the health effects of marijuana use are no
greater than, and often are considerably less serious than, those
of tobacco use and alcohol use. For example, a review of the ex-
tant literature on alcohol and marijuana effects on brain func-
tion conducted in 2009 by researchers at the San Diego State
University/University of California-San Diego Joint Doctoral
Program in Clinical Psychology found that heavy drinking of
alcohol by adolescents resulted in significant abnormalities in
brain structure, while similar heavy use of marijuana caused
“some subtle anomalies too, but generally not the same degree
of divergence from demographically similar non-using adoles-
cents” (Squeglia, Jacobus and Tapert 2009, 31). In a similar
review of studies on the relative effects of smoking tobacco and
smoking marijuana over the period between 1988 and 1994,
researchers found that tobacco smoking was more detrimental
to respiratory health than marijuana smoking on one of nine
measures (“shortness of breath”), while marijuana smoking was
more detrimental than tobacco smoking in one other measure
(“wheezing”), with the two practices having essentially the same
effects on seven other measures (Moore et al. 2005, Table 3).
How can we justify criminalizing the use of marijuana, some
observers ask, when its health effects are no worse than those
associated with the use of other legal substances, such as to-
bacco and alcohol?
The War on Marijuana Results in an Imposition on

Individual Liberties
A quite different, but powerful, argument against the war on
drugs that the United States has been fighting for half a century
is that it has resulted in a broad and intense attack on the per-
sonal liberties of American citizens. One of the most eloquent
statements of this view has come from Steven Wisotsky, profes-
sor of law at Nova Southeastern University. In a white paper on
the drug war for the Cato Institute in 1992, Wisotsky described
the ways in which the drug war had empowered law enforcement
officials at all levels to insert themselves into the private lives of
American citizens, virtually without restriction. He noted:
the War on Drugs is necessarily a war on the rights of all

of us. It could not be otherwise, for it is directed not
against inanimate drugs but against people . . . all of whom
try to keep their actions secret. . . . And because nearly
anyone may be a drug user or seller of drugs or an aider
and abettor of the drug industry, virtually everyone has
96 Marijuana
become a suspect. All must be observed, checked, screened,

tested, and admonished—the guilty and innocent alike.
(Wisotsky 1992)
In support of his argument, Wisotsky cites a number of both

legislators and jurists, including Peter Rodino, former chair of
the House Judiciary Committee (“We have been fighting the
war on drugs, but now it seems to me the attack is on the
Constitution of the United States”) and Supreme Court justice
Anton Scalia (the “immolation of privacy and human dignity
in symbolic opposition to drug use”). Wisotsky concludes his
essay by citing another jurist, Judge William Schwarzer: “It be-
hooves us to think that it may profit us very little to win the war
on drugs if in the process we lose our soul” (Wisotsky 1992).
The War on Marijuana Has Increased Pressure

on Prison Populations
As Table 2.4 shows, the consequence of the nation’s marijuana
laws has been a significant increase in the number of men and
women in federal, state, and local prisons and jails. The most
recent report on U.S. prison populations, for example, notes
that individuals incarcerated for drug offenses account for the
largest single category of federal prisoners as of September 30,
2014, the most recent date for which information is available.
An estimated 96,500 inmates, 89,100 men and 7,400 women,
fell into that category. Drug offenders accounted for just over
half (50.1%) of all federal prison inmates, compared to those
convicted of immigration-related offenses (10.6%), sex offenses
(6.1%), burglary and related offenses (3.9%), robbery (3.8%),
and homicide, aggravated assault, and kidnaping (2.8%) (Car-
son 2015, Table 12, page 17). Of all drug-related crimes repre-
sented in the prison population, marijuana was among the least
common, accounting for a total of 11,553 arrests, or 12.4%
of all such crimes in the prison population in 2012, the most
recent year for which data are available (Taxy, Samuels, and
Adams 2015, Table 2, page 2).
Table 2.4 Arrests for Marijuana Possession in the United States, 1965–2009
Year Number of Arrests
1965 18,815
1966 31,119
1967 61,843
1968 95,870
1969 118,903
1970 188,682
1971 225,828
1972 292,179
1973 420,700
1974 445,000
1975 416,100
1976 441,100
1977 457,600
1978 445,800
1979 391,600
1980 405,600
1981 400,300
1982 455,600
1983 406,900
1984 419,400
1985 451,100
1986 361,800
1987 378,700
1988 391,600
1989 399,000
1990 326,900
1991 287,900
1992 342,300
1993 380,700
1994 481,100
1995 589,000
1996 641,600
1997 695,200
(continued)
98 Marijuana
Table 2.4 (continued)
Year Number of Arrests
1998 682,900
1999 704,800
2000 734,500
2001 723,600
2002 697,100
2003 755,200
2004 771,600
2005 786,500
2006 829,600
2007 872,700
2008 847,863
2009 858,408
Source: These data are collected from a variety of sources, including Marijuana
Research: Uniform Crime Reports—Marijuana Arrest Statistics; Drugs and
Crime Facts: Drug Law Violations and Enforcement, United States Bureau of
Justice Statistics; Marijuana Arrests Drop for First Time since 2002, Marijuana
Policy Project; Paul Armentano, Incarceration Nation—Marijuana Arrests for
Year 2009 Near Record High; Drug War Facts. Common Sense for Drug Policy.
Data for drug- and marijuana-related offenses in state pris-

ons tend to be significantly different from that in federal pris-
ons. According to the Bureau of Prisons 2015 report on federal
and state prison populations, 15.7% inmates in state prisons
had been convicted of drug-related crimes, compared to 53.2%
for violent crimes such as murder, rape and sexual assault, and
robbery; 19.3% for property crimes, such as burglary and auto
theft; and 11.0% for public order, such as driving under the
influence. (No data are available specifically for marijuana-
related offenses) (Carson 2015, Table 11, page 16).
Other Arguments
A number of other arguments have been offered for the de-
criminalization and legalization of marijuana possession and
use in small amounts. These arguments include the following:
• The war on drugs has ruined more lives than have drugs
themselves.
• Marijuana has been safely used by people all over the world
for millennia.
• Legalization of marijuana use could result in a lower price
for the drug, thus reducing crimes committed to obtain the
money needed to buy the drug.
• Drug dealers would be put out of business if marijuana were
available legally.
• The quality of marijuana, its sale and advertising, and other
commercial adjuncts to the use of marijuana could be
brought under the control of federal and state agencies, such
as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
• Individuals arrested for the possession and/or sale of small
amounts of marijuana would be less likely to become part of
the criminal system, which could ruin their lives and add to
federal, state, and local law enforcement costs.
• Smoking marijuana may be, for some people, one of “life’s
little pleasures” over which the government should have no
control.
• Legalizing marijuana may provide a significant benefit to the
environment, since the current need to grow the plant sur-
reptitiously does serious damage to the ecosystems in which
it is planted.
• In a democracy, adults should be allowed to take part in ac-
tivities (e.g., smoking marijuana) that does no demonstrable
harm to others. (Half-Baked Idea?: Legalizing Marijuana
Will Help the Environment 2011; Should Marijuana Be Le-
galized under Any Circumstances? 2011; Vance 2011)
Arguments in Opposition to Decriminalization

or Legalization
Opposition to the decriminalization and legalization of
marijuana has been strong among many individuals and
100 Marijuana
organizations. International, national, state, and local govern-

mental agencies, as well as independent organizations, such as
Drug Watch International, Drug Free American Foundation,
Keep Our Kids Off Drugs, and Save Our Society have mar-
shaled a list of reasons that marijuana and other drugs should
not be legalized. In the United States, the White House Office
of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and the National
Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) have spearheaded the drive
to counter arguments made by proponents of drug decriminal-
ization and legalization. Here are some of the arguments these
organizations have offered.
Marijuana Is Harmful to Human Health in a

Number of Different Ways
One of the most common and strongest arguments made by
those opposed to decriminalization of marijuana is precisely
the opposite of one of the arguments presented earlier in this
chapter. It is that marijuana, far from being safe to use, has
many deleterious effects on human health. Opponents of le-
galization often cite dozens or hundreds of scientific studies
indicating that the drug harms the brain, the respiratory sys-
tem, and other body systems, as well as possibly being carcino-
genic. A fact sheet produced by the NIDA, for example, claims
that the use of marijuana can cause “altered perceptions and
mood, impaired coordination, difficulty with thinking and
problem solving, and disrupted learning and memory.” The
drug also has long-term effects on brain function, according to
the NIDA, that may “last a long time or even be permanent”
(Marijuana 2014). The same NIDA fact sheet points out that
studies have detected a relationship between chronic marijuana
use and a variety of mental illnesses, such as hallucinations,
paranoia, schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts,
and personality disturbances (Marijuana 2014; other NIDA
publications with similar information are Marijuana 2015 and
Marijuana 2016b).
Statements like these are repeated in different forms by other

government agencies and private organizations at all levels of
society. For example, in its drug fact sheet on marijuana, the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reports that
marijuana use may include “sedation, blood shot eyes, in-
creased heart rate, coughing from lung irritation, increased
appetite, and decreased blood pressure . . . bronchitis, emphy-
sema, and bronchial asthma . . . suppression of the immune
system . . . increase[d] . . . risk of cancer of the head, neck,
lungs and respiratory track . . . and headache, shakiness, sweat-
ing, stomach pains and nausea, as well as behavioral signs in-
cluding restlessness, irritability, sleep difficulties and decreased
appetite.” Some effects on the brain are said to include “apathy,
impairment of judgment, memory and concentration, and loss
of motivation, ambition and interest in the pursuit of personal
goals . . . mental confusion, panic reactions and hallucina-
tions . . . an increased risk of depression; an increased risk and
earlier onset of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders”
(Drug Fact Sheet: Marijuana 2016).
A reasonable person might, at this point, ask which view
of marijuana one should accept, that is generally harmless to
human health if used in moderation, or that it has a signifi-
cant variety and range of deleterious health effects on many
body systems. Even trying to answer that question is diffi-
cult because reputable organizations have very different views,
predicated to at least some extent on their own biases about
the dangers of using marijuana. Even organizations that one
would hope and expect to be unbiased about the scientific
evidence may be selective or even imaginative about the data
they choose to present to the general public. That having been
said, a handful of sources have conducted extensive surveys
of the health effects of marijuana on the human body. Two
of those of special interest are a website that focuses on nu-
tritional and supplement products, Examine.com, and a re-
port from the state of Colorado on marijuana health effects
102 Marijuana
(Marijuana 2016a; Retail Marijuana Public Health Advisory

Committee 2015).
Marijuana Is a “Gateway” Drug, Whose Use Leads to

Increased Risk for Using Other Illegal Substances
This argument is a very old and simple one. It suggests simply
that people who start out using illegal drugs by smoking mari-
juana are more likely to then continue drug use, only with even
more dangerous substances, such as cocaine and heroin. Some
organizations, in support of this argument, cite a 1994 study
that found that adolescents who smoke marijuana are 85 times
more likely to go on to use cocaine than are those who do not
smoke marijuana, while 60% of adolescents who start smoking
marijuana before the age of 15 then move on to cocaine (The
Truth about Marijuana 2016; also see Is Marijuana a Gateway
Drug? 2016a).
The debate over marijuana’s possible role as a gateway
drug is now at least two decades old and not much closer
to resolution than it was when the 1994 study mentioned
earlier was published. In 2016, for example, the New York
Times sponsored an online debate among four experts in the
field of marijuana studies who presented their own views on
the current status of the question (Is Marijuana a Gateway
Drug? 2016b).
Legalization of Marijuana Could Lead to a Significant

Increase in Drug-Related Violent Crime
In a paper opposing the California Regulate, Control and Tax
Cannabis Act of 2010, which would have legalized the use of
small amounts of marijuana, Charles Stimson, of the Center for
National Defense, listed a number of objections to the initia-
tive, one of which was that legalizing marijuana would greatly
increase the rate of violent crime in the state. Stimson noted
that “an astonishingly high percentage of criminals are mari-
juana users,” and that, therefore, legalization of the drug would
“increase demand for the drug and almost certainly exacerbate

drug-related crime, as well as cause a myriad of unintended but
predictable consequences.” Any income that might be achieved
by taxing marijuana sales, the author goes on, would be minus-
cule compared to the costs of fighting this new wave of crime
(Stimson 2010).
Marijuana Use Cannot Be Compared to

Tobacco or Alcohol Use
Stimson goes on to say that comparisons between the effects of
marijuana and tobacco or alcohol are invalid for a number of
reasons. For example, he says, marijuana is far more addictive
than alcohol, its use usually leads to intoxication (not the case
with alcohol), it has no known health benefits (as does alco-
hol), and it is deleterious to one’s health (which alcohol is not)
(Stimson 2010). That viewpoint, while supported by many
critics of marijuana use, is by no means held unanimously or
even by the majority of experts in the area. A review of the long
and complex debate over the relative harm caused by mari-
juana, alcohol, and tobacco can be found at Boffey 2014.
The War on Marijuana Has Been Effective

Opponents of drug legalization strongly dispute critics’ claims
that programs designed to reduce marijuana use in the United
States have been a failure. They often point to a significant
decrease in the marijuana use rate among young people, as
expressed, for example, in the annual Monitoring the Future
survey. According to that survey, the percentage of high school
students who use marijuana at any level of frequency have de-
creased substantially since the 1990s. A report by the Institute
for Behavior and Health, for example, argued that “[t]he de-
cline in illegal drug use is a major public health success and
should be recognized as such” (Perspectives on Drug Policy
2012). For many years, federal and state drug enforcement
agencies also tried to support this view, sometimes pointing,
104 Marijuana
for example, to their increased success in reducing the avail-

ability of marijuana and other drugs to potential American
consumers. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA), for example, has often touted the success of its mari-
juana eradication program in reducing the supply of that drug
to the American public. (See, for example, The DEA Position
on Marijuana 2013, 54.) In recent years, such claims have,
however, become much less common as evidence for the suc-
cess of the nation’s war on drugs has become more and more
difficult to produce.
Only a Minuscule Number of Marijuana Users Ever

Receive Jail or Prison Time for Using the Drug
Proponents of decriminalization often argue that individuals ar-
rested for marijuana possession make a disproportionately large
share of federal, state, and local prison and jail inmates. Their
opponents disagree and point to statistics that would appear
to prove otherwise. In its informational booklet Speaking Out
against Drug Legalization, for example, the DEA says that only
2.7% of inmates in state prisons are there because of marijuana
offenses of all kinds, 0.7% are there because of possession con-
victions only, and 0.3% are there because of first-time possession
convictions. Statistics are similar for federal prisons, according to
the DEA, where only 186 people (2.3% of all those convicted
to of drug-related crimes) were sentenced for simple possession,
and, of that number, only 63 individuals actually spent time be-
hind bars (Speaking Out against Drug Legislation 2010, 61–62).
Other Arguments
As with the pro-legalization side of this dispute, a number of
other arguments have been presented in opposition to the le-
galization of marijuana. They include the following:
• Decriminalization or legalization of marijuana will inevita-
bly lead to increased levels of use and addiction.
• The use of illegal drugs, such as marijuana, is generally asso-
ciated with increased levels of violence and criminal activity.
• Comparisons of U.S. policies with regard to marijuana to

those of Europe are misinformed because the history, social
structures, and politics of the two regions are very different
from each other.
• Even nonusers of marijuana are placed at risk by those who
do use the drug. For example, nonusers are at risk of being
injured or killed in automotive accidents when another
driver is “high” on marijuana.
• Legalization of marijuana will increase the likelihood that
underage boys and girls may be able to gain access to the
drug, as is now the case with alcohol and tobacco.
• The notion that adults should be free to smoke marijuana or
not in a democracy is a fallacy because the practice can harm
others, and some rights do trump other rights.
• The United States and many other countries have radically
changed their approach to the use of marijuana, more strongly
emphasizing prevention and treatment programs which, how-
ever, must be accompanied by continued strong enforcement
of drug laws. (DuPont 2010; Hartnett 2005; McCrimmon
2012; Should Marijuana Be Legalized? 2010; Stimson [2010])
Legalization of Marijuana for Medical Uses

The second major issue related to marijuana in the United
States in the early 21st century is its use for a variety of medi-
cal purposes. On one side, some groups and individuals argue
that marijuana is a useful tool in treating a number of medical
problems, while, on the other side, other groups and individu-
als say that the scientific evidence for that position is weak or
nonexistent.
Arguments in Favor of Legalizing Medical Marijuana

As reported earlier in this book, marijuana has been used
in many parts of the world for thousands of years to treat
a variety of medical conditions. Many pharmacopoeia, text-
books, and other medical resources have recommended the
106 Marijuana
use of cannabis. Proponents of medical marijuana today often

point to this long history, in which some of the finest medical
minds in history have recommended using marijuana in med-
ical practice. In addition, modern physicians and researchers
also point to peer-reviewed scientific studies that appear to
support the use of marijuana for the treatment of diseases
and disorders such as glaucoma, pain due to a variety of con-
ditions, cancer, HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and
other seizure disorders, spasticity disorders, Crohn’s disease,
and hepatitis C.
The first point that needs to be made at the beginning of this
discussion is that many authorities agree that a large database of
research on the medical effects of marijuana is now available, and
there is abundant evidence to support almost any claim made in
the field, either in favor of or opposed to the use of cannabis for
medical purposes. For example, NORML has published a re-
view of some of the most important of the 22,000 peer-reviewed
studies on medical aspects of cannabis (Armentano 2016), and
the group Americans for Safe Access has published a similar
review of 15,000 such studies (Report on Medical Cannabis
Research History: What the Science Says 2016).
With such a vast array of data to choose from, it seems possi-
ble that the positions taken by individuals and groups vis-à-vis
the use of marijuana for medical purposes may be based not
only on scientific evidence, but also on other factors, such as
one’s general attitude about the use of marijuana under any
circumstances whatsoever.
A few large studies have been conducted to sort through the
myriad claims for the medical benefits of marijuana. One of
the most important of these studies was conducted by a com-
mittee of the U.S. Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 1999. The
committee’s report was also published in the form of a book
entitled Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Scientific Base
(Joy, Watson, and Benson 1999). The committee claimed to
have summarized and analyzed “what is known about the med-
ical use of marijuana.” Its report was taken as the gold standard
of scientific research on medical marijuana for a decade. Al-

though impossible to summarize briefly, the report suggests
overall that compounds present in marijuana, especially THC,
have “potential therapeutic value” for “pain relief, control of
nausea and vomiting, and appetite stimulation.” The commit-
tee points out, however, that “smoked marijuana . . . is a crude
THC delivery system that also delivers harmful substances”
(Joy, Watson, and Benson 1999, 3).
As public interest in the use of cannabis for the treatment
of medical conditions increased during the first decade of the
21st century, other research groups repeated and extended stud-
ies of the type conducted by the IOM in 1999. (See, for example,
Bagshaw and Hagen 2002; Ben Amar 2006.) The most recent
of these studies was published in JAMA, the Journal of the Amer-
ican Medical Association, in June 2015 (Whiting et al. 2015).
Space does not permit a detailed examination of these studies,
but the conclusions drawn by the JAMA researchers may be of
interest. “There was,” they said, “moderate-quality evidence to
support the use of cannabinoids for the treatment of chronic
pain and spasticity.” In addition, “[t]here was low-quality evi-
dence suggesting that cannabinoids were associated with im-
provements in nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy,
weight gain in HIV infection, sleep disorders, and Tourette
syndrome.” Finally, they observed that “[c]annabinoids were
associated with an increased risk of short-term Aes [adverse
events]” (Whiting et al. 2015).
Among the conditions for which marijuana is most com-
monly recommended are the following:
• Cannabinoids may reduce intraocular pressure, thus offering

some relief from glaucoma, although the drug’s effects are
generally no better than those produced by other available
medications.
• Smoked marijuana may provide relief from pain resulting
from injuries or surgical procedures when other more con-
ventional pain-relieving medications are ineffective.
108 Marijuana
• Marijuana may help relieve the symptoms of multiple sclerosis,

such as pain, spasticity, depression, fatigue, and incontinence.
• The use of marijuana may ameliorate some side effects of
HIV/AIDS, such as anxiety, loss of appetite, and nausea.
• Treatment with marijuana has resulted in slowing the pro-
gression of Alzheimer’s disease in some experimental animals.
• Marijuana may exhibit antibacterial action that will allow its
use in the treatment of certain infections that are resistant to
other antibiotics, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus
aureus (MRSA).
• Some patients with hepatitis C have used marijuana not only
to treat the disease itself, but also to ameliorate the side effects
of antiviral treatments used with the condition. (For citations
for these conditions and further information on the thera-
peutic effects of medical marijuana, see Armentano 2016.)
A question that often arises with regard to the use of marijuana

for medical purposes it how safe it is. Drugs used in the United
States must be proved not only to be efficacious, but also safe
for users. Studies have been conducted on this issue, none of
which appear to show that marijuana is especially risky as a
medication beyond the supposed harm it may cause in and
of itself. (See discussion earlier in this chapter about possible
physical risks associated with the use of marijuana.) For ex-
ample, the organization ProCon.org in 2005 requested from
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) data regard-
ing the relative safety in therapeutic situations of marijuana
versus 17 other FDA-approved drugs. Those data showed that
between January 1, 1997, and October 14, 2005, no deaths
related to the use of marijuana in medical treatments had been
recorded. During the same period, 10,008 deaths were at-
tributed to the use of the 17 FDA-approved drugs. A second
finding of that study was that 9,908 deaths were attributed
to the use of FDA-approved drugs for conditions for which
marijuana could have been used in its place (thus, presumably,
saving some of those 9,908 lives) (Deaths from Marijuana v. 17

FDA-Approved Drugs 2009).
Arguments in Opposition to Legalizing

Medical Marijuana
Critics of medical marijuana say that the drug is listed as a
Schedule I for a reason, namely that it (1) is harmful to individu-
als and (2) has no generally accepted use in the medical commu-
nity. One would never recommend the use of cocaine, heroin,
or methamphetamines for the treatment of medical disorders,
they say, so how can one justify the use of an equally dangerous
substance, marijuana? For example, the DEA position statement
on medical marijuana says simply that “smoked marijuana has
not withstood the rigors of science—it is not medicine, and it is
not safe” (DEA Position on Marijuana 2013, 1).
That view is echoed over and over again by opponents of the
therapeutic use of medical marijuana. For example, the ONDCP
has flatly stated its current position on medical marijuana:
Marijuana and other illicit drugs are addictive and unsafe
especially for use by young people. The science, though
still evolving in terms of long-term consequences, is clear:
marijuana use is harmful. (Strengthen Efforts to Prevent
Drug Use in Our Communities 2016)
In debates over the use of marijuana for medical purposes,
opponents of the practice tend to offer expert opinion and
peer-reviewed research that contradict the claims made by pro-
ponents of medical marijuana. They point out, for example,
that “no major medical association has come out in favor of
smoked marijuana for widespread medical use” (Strengthen
Efforts to Prevent Drug Use in Our Communities 2016).
Such statements are often accompanied by an important ca-
veat, however, namely that certain components of marijuana,
or cannabis, or their chemical analogs may have medical ben-
efit. For example, a chemical known as dronabinol may have
therapeutic effects similar to those of smoked marijuana,
110 Marijuana
without the potentially harmful side effects that many critics

associate with the drug itself. Dronabinol is a synthetic prod-
uct that contains Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the major
component of marijuana. Dronabinol has now been approved
for medical use by the FDA under the trade name of Marinol.
It is approved for use primarily for the treatment of anorexia in
patients who have HIV/AIDS and for the nausea and vomit-
ing experienced by individuals undergoing chemotherapy. In
2006, the FDA approved for limited use a similar chemical
analog of THC known as nabilone (Cesamet).
Two other THC analogs now available for use are Canasol
and Sativex, both derivatives of natural cannabis. Canasol was
first developed by two Jamaican doctors and approved for use
in that nation in 1987 for treatment of intraocular pressure in
late-stage glaucoma. The drug has since been approved also in
the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and other
Caribbean nations. Sativex was first approved in Canada in
1995 for the treatment of neuropathic pain related to muscular
sclerosis. It was later approved by the FDA, as well as a number
of European nations, to treat cancer-related pain.
Current Status of Medical Marijuana in

the United States
Marijuana is now permitted for use for at least some therapeutic
purposes in a handful of nations around the world, including
Canada, Israel, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Croatia, Mexico,
Uruguay, Romania, Germany, Jamaica, Australia, Colombia,
and Switzerland (Sherer 2015). In the United States, 28 states,
the District of Columbia, and Guam have approved the use of
marijuana for medical purposes. Those states are Alaska, Arizona,
Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida,
Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan,
Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New
Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylva-
nia, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington (State Medical
Marijuana Laws 2016; Steinmetz 2016).
A fundamental issue related to the legalization of medical

marijuana in individual states is that the drug is still listed by
the federal government as a Schedule I substance, making its
use illegal under any circumstances. Various federal officials
have attempted to deal with this conflict in one way or an-
other, either by threatening to arrest any healthcare provider
who prescribes marijuana for therapeutic purposes, or, on the
other hand, largely turning a blind eye to the practice in indi-
vidual states. The most important federal documents dealing
with this issue have been a series of memoranda from the of-
fice of the U.S. Attorney General. The first of those memos
(the Ogden Memo of October 19, 2009) seemed to lay out the
general philosophy of the Obama administration with regard
to the state-federal conflict over marijuana use. It began by em-
phasizing that the administration still held to the position that
marijuana is “a dangerous drug, and the illegal distribution and
sale of marijuana is a serious crime” which it intended to pros-
ecute. On the other hand, the memo went on, the Department
of Justice had limited resources, and it had to prioritize the
crimes it chose to pursue. In general, therefore, investigators
were directed to concentrate on marijuana-related crimes that
met certain criteria, namely those that involved
• unlawful possession or unlawful use of firearms;
• violence;
• sales to minors;
• financial and marketing activities inconsistent with the
terms, conditions, or purposes of state law, including evi-
dence of money laundering activity and/or financial gains or
excessive amounts of cash inconsistent with purported com-
pliance with state or local law;
• amounts of marijuana inconsistent with purported compli-
ance with state or local law;
• illegal possession or sale of other controlled substances; or
• ties to other criminal enterprises. (Memorandum for Se-
lected United States Attorneys 2009)
112 Marijuana
Most observers viewed the Ogden memo as a signal that fed-

eral agents would largely keep hands off legitimate use of medi-
cal marijuana in states where such use had been approved. Two
years later, however, the Obama administration felt it necessary
to issue a second memorandum clarifying (or, some say, revers-
ing) its position on the issue. That memo, the so-called Cole
Memorandum of 2011 (Cole 2011) pointed out that the Ogden
memo was not meant to imply that the federal government was
simply going to turn its back on marijuana prosecutions. It was,
Cole 2011 went on, “never intended to shield such activities
from federal enforcement action and prosecution, even where
those activities purport to comply with state law” (Memorandum
for United States Attorneys 2011) The gates appeared to be
open to more aggressive attacks by federal agents on state medi-
cal marijuana facilities, which shortly appeared to be the case as
the number of such raids soon began to increase (Riggs 2011).
Fast forward two more years, and the situation has appeared
to change one more time. In a second memorandum by Dep-
uty Attorney General James M. Cole (Cole 2013), the admin-
istration repeats the apparent message of the Ogden memo,
namely that the Department of Justice has decided to focus
its limited resources on only certain types of marijuana-related
activities, roughly corresponding with the list provided earlier
(Memorandum for All United States Attorneys 2013). This
most recent memo, then, appears to indicate that the Obama
administration has decided essentially to ignore activities re-
lated to the use of marijuana for medical purposes in states
where such use has been approved. (For a detailed background
on the history of this issue, see Grim and Reilly 2013.)
Legalization of Recreational Marijuana

Progress toward the legalization of marijuana for recreational
use has occurred more slowly than it has for medical marijuana.
The earliest steps in that direction took place in the 1970s
when a handful of states decriminalized the use of marijuana
for recreational purposes. The first such action, the Oregon
Decriminalization Bill of 1973, made possession of one ounce

of marijuana a violation (not a crime) punishable by a fine
of $500 to $1,000 (Blachly 1976). Over the next four years,
10 more states—Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Minne-
sota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, and
Ohio—followed Oregon’s lead in decriminalizing the use of
recreational marijuana (Austin [n.d.]; Scott 2010).
It took nearly 40 years, however, to take the next step:
outright legalization of marijuana. Then, in the general elec-
tions of November 2012, two states, Colorado and Washing-
ton, adopted legislation legalizing the recreational use of up
to one ounce of marijuana. Then, on November 4, 2014, two
more states, Alaska and Oregon, and the District of Columbia
also voted to legalize the use of small amounts of marijuana
for recreational purposes. A major breakthrough occurred in
November 2016, when four more states—California, Maine,
Massachusetts, and Nevada—approved the use of marijuana
for recreational purposes. (Arizona voters defeated a similar
proposal.) The precise wording of laws in each of the eight
states and the District varies to some extent (Ferner 2015; a
detailed description of marijuana laws in all 50 states and the
District of Columbia is available at State Laws 2016). A “bet-
ting game” is now going on among observers and commenta-
tors as to which states are most likely to become the next sites
where marijuana is declared to be legal for recreational pur-
poses (for example, see Rough 2016).
The legalization of recreational marijuana in these eight states
and the District states has permitted the conduct of a “grand
experiment” about certain long-standing and fundamental
questions regarding marijuana consumption, such as:
• How does legalization affect the prevalence and incidence of
marijuana use in the general population?
• What is the effect of legalization on marijuana use among
children and adolescents?
• How does legalization affect patterns of physical, mental,
and other forms of health in the general population?
114 Marijuana
• To what extent are accident rates (such as vehicle crashes)

affected by legalization?
• Are financial benefits to states, such as taxes on marijuana sales,
comparable to those predicted by supporters of legalization?
None of these questions are easy to answer, and, as of late 2016,

it is still too early to know what those answers might be. None-
theless, officials in all four states are aware of the importance
of such questions and the need to collect data about them. In
Colorado, for example, the state legislature adopted legislation
in 2013 requiring the state Division of Criminal Justice and the
Department of Public Safety to collect data and prepare a report
on the effects of marijuana legalization in a variety of fields. The
following data are summarized from a report released in March
2016 pursuant to that charge. Among the trends noted in the
report are the following (all data from Reed 2016, 5–9):
• The total number of marijuana-related arrests dropped from

12,894 in 2012 (the last year before legalization) to 7,004
(the first year after legalization), a decrease of 46%. The
number of arrests for possession was reduced by half (47%)
and for sales by a quarter (24%) with essentially no change
for production (–2%).
• The number of court filings for marijuana-related cases
dropped by 81% between 2012 and 2015, from 10,340 to
1,954. The rate for juveniles 10 to 17 fell 69%, for young
adults 18 to 20 by 78%, and for adults 21 and over, by 86%.
• The number of summons issued by the Colorado State Po-
lice for marijuana-related offenses decreased by 1% between
2014 and 2015.
• The number of marijuana-related hospitalizations increased
from 803 per 100,000 in the period 2001–2009 to 2,413
per 100,000 in the period 2014–June 2015.
• The number of marijuana-related visits to emergency de-
partments increased by 29%, from 739 per 100,000 in
the period 2010–2013 to 956 per 100,000 in the period

2014–June 2015.
• The Healthy Kids Colorado Survey found a “slight decline”
in the number of “30-day use” respondents after legalization
of the drug.
• The rate of juvenile arrests for marijuana-related crimes in-
creased by 2% (from 598 to 611) between 2012 and 2014.
• Total state revenue from taxes, licenses, and fees increased
by 77% from calendar year 2014 to 2015, going from
$76,152,468 to $135,100,465. Essentially all of this in-
crease resulted from marijuana-related activities.
• Tax revenue from marijuana-related activities in 2015 was
$35,060,590, an increase of 163% over 2014 revenues of
$13,341,001. Of the 2015 total, $8,626,922 was distrib-
uted to local schools.
Other states have prepared reports similar to Colorado’s (see

Dilley 2016; Monitoring Impacts of Recreational Marijuana
Legalization: 2015 Baseline Report 2015), with results roughly
similar to those from Colorado. Stronger statements about the
effects on society of legalization marijuana, however, await the
passage of time and more detailed studies of the issue.
Resistance to Legalization
As can be expected in the progress of any important social
issue, the adoption of new laws or decisions by courts do not
necessarily mark the end of the dispute over such issues (see,
for example, the debates over abortion and same-sex mar-
riage in the United States). Such has also been the case with
the legalization of marijuana. The adoption of legislation
permitting the use of marijuana for recreational purposes
in these entities has not meant that opponents of legaliza-
tion have ended their battle against the practice. In one in-
stance, for example, residents of Pueblo County filed a law
116 Marijuana
suit against the state because an adjacent crop of marijuana

plants allegedly blocked their view. In another suit, a Holi-
day Inn hotel in Frisco, Colorado, filed a RICO (Racketeer
Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) suit against the
state because, it claimed, a marijuana dispensary scheduled
to open next to the property would interfere with its nor-
mal business activities. In yet a third case, a group of sheriffs
and other law enforcement officials from Colorado, Kansas,
and Nebraska sued the state, claiming that the legalization of
marijuana violated state law, the Colorado constitution, and
the U.S. constitution. Plaintiffs lost in all three of these cases
(Warner 2016).
The case that perhaps drew the greatest attention nation-
ally was Nebraska and Oklahoma v. Colorado (U.S. Supreme
Court docket #220144), in which Nebraska and Oklahoma
sued Colorado. The two states argued that the legalization of
marijuana in Colorado was likely to result in an increase in
drug-related crimes in their own states and that the new Colo-
rado law was, therefore, unconstitutional. In April 2016, the
Supreme Court declined to hear the case, essentially bringing
to an end this type of complaint about the new Colorado mari-
juana law (Nebraska and Oklahoma v. Colorado 2016). While
the legal history of challenges to marijuana law have univer-
sally failed thus far, it is still early days in the history of mari-
juana legalization, and additional challenges in other states
on a variety of issues are to be expected. (See, for example,
Mapes 2015.)
Conclusion
Attitudes with regard to the use of marijuana for recreational
and medical purposes have evolved in the United States over
the past two decades at a fairly remarkable rate. Indications are
that this change is likely to continue in the near future. Still,
strong arguments exist for moving with caution in changing
the legal status of the drug that has, for more than a century,
been regarded largely as a dangerous, and probably gateway,
substance that should not be available to the general public
under any circumstances. With legalization efforts in some
states now under way, our understanding of marijuana and the
effects it has on a myriad of ways in everyday life is likely to
improve, thus making decisions about the status of marijuana
better informed in the future.
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3 Perspectives
Introduction
Marijuana is a topic that has elicited opinions over a wide range
for centuries. Individuals have written and spoken about its won-
derful healing properties, its gate to a world beyond the normal
five senses, its key to understanding that goes beyond normal intel-
ligence, its risks to physical and mental health, and many other
benefits and risks. This chapter provides a venue in which those
expressions of opinion can continue as nine authors of varying
experience and understanding about the drug present their own
specific views on some specific aspects of the topic of this book.
Marijuana Is Not Safe and Is Not Medicine

Peter Bensinger
Suggestions and legislative proposals continue to emerge on

what to do about marijuana use in the United States. Proposed
options range from full marijuana legalization to providing
marijuana as a “medicine,” to making penalties for marijuana
use and/or possession a noncriminal offense payable with a fine
like a traffic ticket. These are all bad ideas from a healthcare
A spokesperson for a marijuana retail and grow facility answers questions

as a contingent of Nevada lawmakers tour two operations for both medi-
cal and recreational marijuana in Denver, Colorado, on April 25, 2015.
(AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
133
134 Marijuana
standpoint; from a revenue perspective; and from a safety, pro-

ductivity, and crime prevention point of view.
Legalizing marijuana reminds me of the efforts in Britain in
the early 1970s to make heroin available to heroin users. Those
who registered to use heroin went to chemists shops (drug-
stores) and received their dosages at purity levels that were well
within lower nonlethal limits. The anticipated results of this
policy were to limit the negative effects of heroin use (e.g., over-
dose), to reduce heroin use, and to limit law enforcement needs.
In reality, the heroin addicts purchased the more powerful and
more lethal variety of heroin still sold on the streets. Rather than
reducing its narcotics force, Scotland Yard doubled the num-
ber of investigators because illegal heroin imports tripled. Using
this example, we must ask, if marijuana were legalized, at what
purity would it be sanctioned—at 3% THC, the typical potency
of marijuana in the 1970s; at 5–6%, typical today; or 11–12%,
found in the “sensimillia” high potency marijuana? What age
group could be buyers, 21 and older? The big market today is
between the ages of 15 and 25 (Results from the 2008 National
Survey on Drug Use and Health: National Findings 2009, 1–2).
Marijuana has 468 different chemicals and 40% more cancer-
causing agents and four times the tar of tobacco cigarettes
(Health, Education, Safety Experts Join White House Drug
Czar to Educate Parents about Risks of Youth Marijuana Use
2003). If marijuana is made more available, users will compro-
mise their lungs and incur higher rates of cancer and emphy-
sema. Any taxes collected from marijuana cigarettes will pale in
comparison to the social costs of the health and safety conse-
quences of wider use and increased dependence. State and fed-
eral taxes on tobacco cigarettes bring in $1.25–$1.85 per pack
but the social costs of smoking tobacco cigarettes exceed $7 per
pack (Speaking Out against Drug Legislation 2010).
In addition to enabling marijuana users to further compro-
mise their health, permitting marijuana users to smoke with
no criminal sanction or serious disincentive would pose major
problems on our highways and in our workplaces. A recent
Perspectives 135
epidemiological review showed that marijuana use significantly

increases the risk of motor vehicle crash (Li et al. 2011). One
of the major deterrents to using marijuana and other illegal
drugs over the last 30 years has been the adoption by employ-
ers, the military, and government agencies of fitness for duty as
a condition of employment. What would happen to workplace
safety and productivity if marijuana were legal and/or its use
acceptable or permitted for medical reasons?
In California, a state with a long history of “medical” mari-
juana, less than 10% of individuals with marijuana cards have
cancer, AIDS, glaucoma, or muscular dystrophy, the most seri-
ous and most common conditions for which “medical” mari-
juana is promised to help through these laws (Medical Marijuana
2009). Over 500,000 Californians have “medical” marijuana
cards, most of them aged between 18 and 35 and almost all of
them free of serious medical conditions. The professional asso-
ciations representing those identified by legislators as needing
smoked marijuana are all opposed to “medical” marijuana.
After my appointment as administrator of the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA) by President Ford in
1976, I received repeated requests to authorize marijuana for
individuals claiming to need it for personal use and well-being.
I asked what the view of the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) was on this issue and the answer was that marijuana was
not safe or effective as medicine and should not be made avail-
able except for special research. That view has not changed.
The World Health Organization and the United Nations Com-
mission on Drugs oppose classifying marijuana as anything
but an illicit substance (Cannabis ‘Safer Than Alcohol and
Tobacco’ 1998).
Legislators influenced by anecdotal experiences from some
constituents and by large campaign contributions from pro
marijuana organizations and lobbyists should not decide what
constitutes an acceptable medical product. That should be a
scientific determination by the agency responsible by law for
determining safe and effective medicines, the FDA.
136 Marijuana
Some believe that U.S. prisons are filled with unjustly incar-
cerated marijuana users. In fact, less than 1% of inmates in
American prisons have been sent there solely for the use or
possession of marijuana (Who’s Really in Prison for Marijuana?
2005). There are thousands of marijuana arrests each month,
but the offenders are not spending time in jail or prison unless
there are more serious charges. Cook County Jail in Chicago
houses approximately 9,500 prisoners every day; on a recent
day a total of 90 were held overnight for possession of small
amounts of marijuana, fewer than 40 others were out on elec-
tronic monitoring. Drug courts hold great promise for drug
offenders. Under drug court supervision, offenders can stay
out of jail, be subject to drug testing which will clearly dis-
courage use, and if after six months they stay clean and out of
trouble, their arrest record can be expunged. The recidivism
rate for our nation’s 2,400 drug courts is 16%, one-third the
rate for offenders who do not go through this process (Rowan,
Townsend, and Bhati 2003). Legislators should think about
the value of intervention that comes with a criminal sanction
so users can get treatment. Many drug users, including mari-
juana users, will not seek treatment unless compelled to do so.
Marijuana use has increased over the last decade as more
states have enacted “medical” marijuana laws, but there are
fewer individuals using illegal drugs today than the peak in the
late 1970s. In 1978, approximately 25 million Americans used
an illegal drug in the past month in a population of 225 mil-
lion. In 2009, there were 22 million monthly users of illegal
drugs in a population of 305 million U.S. citizens, constituting
a drop in use from 11% of our population to 7% (Results from
the 2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health 2011).
Marijuana use, particularly for American youth, is a serious
problem. It may be tempting to try to find an easy answer, call-
ing for legalization or decriminalization, but such a path would
be a fool’s choice. The leading admission category in public-
funded treatment centers in Los Angeles is for marijuana, not
alcohol, with most for patients in their teens and early 20s.
Keeping marijuana illegal and out of the hands of the youth
Perspectives 137
is in the public interest. Removing sanctions and disincentives

to use will only contribute to higher healthcare costs, contin-
ued criminal activity, expanded dependency and compromised
safety and productivity at work and at school.
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News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/58013
.stm. Accessed on June 2, 2016.
“Health, Education, Safety Experts Join White House Drug
Czar to Educate Parents about Risks of Youth Marijuana
Use.” 2003. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
http://cannabisnews.com/news/15/thread15683.shtml.
Accessed on June 2, 2016.
Li, Mu-Chen, et al. 2011. “Marijuana Use and Motor Vehicle
Crashes.” Epidemiological Reviews. 34(1): 65–72.
“ ‘Medical’ Marijuana.” 2009. Save Our Society from
Drugs. http://www.saveoursociety.org/our-issues/
medical-marijuana. Accessed on June 2, 2016.
“Results from the 2008 National Survey on Drug Use
and Health: National Findings.” 2008. Rockville,
MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration, 2009. http://www.dpft.org/resources/
NSDUHresults2008.pdf. Accessed on June 2,
2016.
“Results from the 2011 National Survey on Drug Use and
Health: Summary of National Findings.” 2011. U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. (Office of
National Drug Control Policy). https://www.whitehouse
.gov/sites/default/files/ondcp/policy-and-research/nsduh
results2011.pdf. Accessed on June 2, 2016.
Rowan, John, Wendy Townsend, and Avinash Singh Bhati.
2003. “Recidivism Rates for Drug Court Graduates:
Nationally Based Estimates, Final Report.” https://www
.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/201229.pdf. Accessed on June 2, 2016.
138 Marijuana
“Speaking Out against Drug Legalization.” 2010. U.S.

Drug Enforcement Administration. http://www.dea.gov/
pr/multimedia-library/publications/speaking_out.pdf.
“Who’s Really in Prison for Marijuana?” Office of National
Drug Control Policy. http://www.prisonpolicy.org/scans/
whos_in_prison_for_marij.pdf. Accessed on June 2, 2016.
Peter Bensinger is president and chief executive officer of Bensinger,

DuPont & Associates (BDA), a privately owned professional ser-
vices company that provides a wide range of consultation, training,
and employee assistance program services. He previously served as
the administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA), as director of the Illinois Department of Corrections, and
as chairman of the Illinois Youth Commission.
The Waiting Game

Mary Jane Borden
As I was waiting to present my testimony before the Ohio

Senate, my mind wandered back to the last time Ohioans could
make a legal claim for the medicinal use of cannabis. It was 1997
when this same body repealed a “get-out-of-jail-free” affirma-
tive defense against criminal charges, its last legislative action
on medical marijuana until today, 2016. For some, the wait
for safe, legal access has been excruciating, if not deadly. After
securing the promise of improvements to the bill—including
the affirmative defense—I left to visit my doctor, one whom
I hadn’t seen for a while. Several years ago, her exam room walls
entertained long waiting times with an abundance of accoutre-
ments from the pharmaceutical industry.
To my surprise, wait times had decreased. Just as I sat down,
the nurse called me in. She took my vitals and asked me a few
questions, typing my answers into her laptop before leaving
the room to get the doctor. I figured I’d have a few moments
to gaze at the posters on the wall. To my surprise, there were
Perspectives 139
none. Just informational guidelines from the Centers for Dis-

ease Control and Prevention and a reminder to get a flu shot.
I queried the doctor when she arrived. No pharma posters?
No logo notepads? No Celexa calendars? “No” was indeed the
answer. Apparently, the hospital had adopted a policy banning
advertising by pharmaceutical companies on its premises.
This healthcare facility, along with others, has followed suit
with the American Medical Association (AMA) and its recent
call for a ban on direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA). The
AMA said such a ban “reflects concerns among physicians
about the negative impact of commercially-driven promotions”
and that DTCA “inflates demand for new and more expensive
drugs, even when these drugs may not be appropriate” (AMA
Calls for Ban on Direct to Consumer Advertising of Prescrip-
tion Drugs and Medical Devices 2015).
DTCA is the practice whereby drugs are promoted, not only
to the physicians who prescribe them, but also directly to the
patients who use them. The theory behind DTCA holds that it
improves compliance, raises awareness of various diseases, and
increases patient flow into physician offices; this witnessed by
the 30% of Americans who have asked their doctors about the
drugs they have seen advertised. DTCA may also be responsi-
ble for the exorbitant rise in deaths and serious outcomes from
these drugs—almost 124,000 deaths in 2014 alone.
Like a thief in the night, where did DTCA go once it was
banned? Look no further than your favorite TV show. There
you will see a long legged girl brushing her hair as she whispers
soft words about her man. Or, the cute little red stuffed bladder
that likes to hold hands. Or, the jingly firefighter who happy
dances “Low Rider” because his number is down. Or, those
prancing, painting, punching body of proof people. Or, maybe
a golfing legend honing his game with a blood thinner.
And if these slow-motion smiles weren’t enough, each DTCA
pitch is followed by the drug’s side effects in excruciating detail.
That frightening “four-hour” window. Diabetes, muscle pain
and kidney failure. Fatal bleeding. Life-threatening infections,
140 Marijuana
including tuberculosis. Unusual cancers and lymphoma. Severe

fungal infections. Red, scaly patches or raised, pus-filled bumps.
Degeneration of the lower spine. Makes you wonder what all of
the prancing was about.
The United States has a drug problem. More drugs are con-
sumed here than anywhere else in the world. Americans are
spending more and getting less. While advertising directly to
consumers may build sales for pharmaceutical companies, it
carries a host of side effects for patients, families, and physicians.
In contrast, cannabis as medication has been therapeutically
used by millions for 10,000 years. More research has been con-
ducted on it than any of those drugs named by their side effects.
And its side effects are comparatively few, as one judge on the
subject ruled in 1988, “Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of
the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. By
any measure of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used
within a supervised routine of medical care” (Young 1988).
As I left my doctor’s office, I reflected on waiting, bans, and
ads. The AMA’s recent call reveals the core problem: alternative
medicines like cannabis have been banned for almost a century,
reverting medical treatment to more dangerous and deadly
drugs that must be advertised to generate consumer use. Physi-
cian concerns like those articulated by the AMA over DTCA
can be ameliorated, not only with an advertising ban, but also
by safe, legal access to alternatives like medical marijuana.
The Ohio Senate indeed passed the bill with the affirmative
defense and much, much more, allowing my home state to join
a tipping point of 25 others in legalizing the medicinal use of
this therapeutic plant. Perhaps on my next visit, I’ll ask my
doctor, not about a drug I saw advertised, but about cannabis.
For that, I can’t wait.
References
“AMA Calls for Ban on Direct to Consumer Advertising of
Prescription Drugs and Medical Devices.” 2015.
Perspectives 141
American Medical Association. http://www.ama-assn

.org/ama/pub/news/news/2015/2015-11-17-ban-
consumer-prescription-drug-advertising.page.
Young, Francis J. 1988. In the Matter of Marijuana
Rescheduling Petition. United States Department of
Justice. Drug Enforcement Administration. http://
medicalmarijuana.procon.org/sourcefiles/Young1988
.pdf. Accessed on June 14, 2016.
Mary Jane Borden is a writer, artist, advocate, and internationally

recognized expert in cannabis policy from Westerville, Ohio. She
holds a B.A. from Otterbein University, an MBA from the Univer-
sity of Dayton and the prestigious Accredited in Public Relations
(APR) certification from the Public Relations Society of America
(PRSA). Her diverse background spans 30 years and includes
9 years as a pharmaceutical industry analyst, co-authoring four
proposed medical cannabis amendments to the Ohio Constitution,
and lobbying for six medical marijuana bills, the last and the most
noted of which was signed into law in June 2016.
An Effective Public Health Approach

to Reduce Marijuana Use
Robert L. DuPont
Now that recreational marijuana is legal in some states and

medical marijuana is legal in many others, the contentious
debate about marijuana continues to make headlines. There
is continued funding from drug policy “reformers” that are
seeking to further legalize the use, sale, production, and com-
mercialization of this widely abused drug for recreational and
medical purposes. The ongoing state and national legaliza-
tion campaigns are also backed by massive new funding from
marijuana entrepreneurs. Concurrently scientific research is
showing abundant reasons why marijuana use, and marijuana
legalization, is not a good idea. There are significant social and
142 Marijuana
health costs (e.g., Volkow et al. 2014). In many states there are
criminal sanctions associated with marijuana possession, sale,
and use.
Some suggest that because marijuana is so widely used,
criminal sanctions against its use should be suspended and only
the health problems resulting from its use should be a matter of
public concern. In this view the criminal justice system should
not be involved, and thus, the answer to handling marijuana is
to legalize it (“tax and regulate”).
The consequences of such state policy changes are being
documented in the states of Colorado and Washington where
recreational and medical marijuana are legal. The Rocky Moun-
tain and Northwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas
(HIDTAs) serving these two states have released powerful
reports highlighting the significantly negative impacts of these
policies. These reports document increases in underage and
adult marijuana use, marijuana-impaired driving and traffic
deaths, marijuana-related emergency room and hospital admis-
sions, marijuana-related poison control center calls, and sig-
nificant diversion of marijuana both within and out of these
states (Northwest High Intensity Density Trafficking Area 2016;
Rocky Mountain High Intensity Density Trafficking Area
2015). In 2014 the states of Alaska and Oregon as well as the
District of Columbia legalized marijuana for adults age 21 and
older, and it is expected that similar changes will occur in these
locations.
Marijuana is not a single drug. The explosive and exploitative
commercialization of marijuana in these states has produced a
seemingly endless array of high-potency products, including
waxes/oils and edible products such as candy, cookies, and
sodas. Strong action is needed now to monitor the local, state,
and national impact of these initiatives to inform future policy
decisions for public health and safety (Institute for Behavior
and Health, Inc. 2016).
Nationally the rates of marijuana have not been static. They
have changed significantly over the last four decades, rising
Perspectives 143
sharply, then falling in response to pushback, then rising once

again. The impact is clearly documented in the high school
population. Marijuana use among 12th graders reached its
peak in 1978 when 37.1% used it in the past 30 days. This
figure reached a low in 1992 at 11.9%, reflecting an increase in
perceived risk of harm from marijuana use and a rise in social
disapproval of marijuana use. Since that time, marijuana use
has increased. In 2015, 21.2% of high school seniors reported
past month marijuana use (Johnston et al. 2016). Marijuana
use among adults has also increased in recent years (Center
for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality 2015). This rise
in marijuana use and corresponding increase in public sup-
port for legalization (Motel 2015) are no doubt the result of
the pro-marijuana campaigns which portray marijuana use as
harmless and even beneficial, as well as the increasingly permis-
sive state laws regarding marijuana, including the legalization
of marijuana for recreational and “medical” uses.
Research from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
clearly states that marijuana use is a health threat, particularly
to youth (Volkow et al. 2014). The nation’s public health mari-
juana policy must focus first on youth because almost all drug
use begins in the teenage years and, because the teen brain is
not fully developed, this age is especially vulnerable (National
Institute on Drug Abuse 2016). Marijuana policy must com-
mit to mobilizing parents, schools, health care professionals,
and others concerned with the health and well-being of youth
to help them grow up drug-free. It must set the goal for young
people to not use alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, or other drugs,
all of which are illegal for youth (DuPont 2016). A sound pub-
lic health policy limits the harm caused by drug use, includ-
ing marijuana use. The best way to do that is to dramatically
reduce drug use. Marijuana legalization makes the drug more
accessible and more socially acceptable.
Keeping marijuana illegal is an important public health
strategy that reinforces all prevention messages. The criminal
justice system is a strong force not only for prevention but also
144 Marijuana
for intervention to stop marijuana use. Few people are incar-

cerated for marijuana use now, but many are arrested each
year. I encourage modest fines and community service require-
ments for those arrested for marijuana possession or use, with
expungement of such criminal records after a few years.
For people on parole or probation for crimes other than
marijuana possession or use brief incarceration is appropriate
primarily for the criminal offenders who fail drug tests, includ-
ing for marijuana use, during the period that they are under
community supervision. This type of monitoring has been suc-
cessfully implemented in drug courts (Marlowe 2010) and by
innovative probation strategies, including HOPE Probation
for felony probationers (Hawken and Kleiman 2009; Institute
for Behavior and Health, Inc. 2015) and South Dakota’s 24/7
Sobriety for repeat DUI offenders (Kilmer et al. 2013). These
monitoring strategies produce excellent outcomes. They reduce
drug and alcohol use, they reduce criminal recidivism, and they
reduce incarceration.
A better way to deal with marijuana and other drugs has
been widely and wrongly presented as a choice between treat-
ment and incarceration. This is a false choice. The systems of
health care and criminal justice do not compete when it comes
to drugs. A better drug policy is achieved when criminal justice
and health care work together to achieve outcomes that neither
can accomplish alone (DuPont and Humphreys 2011). The
public health is best served by keeping marijuana use, produc-
tion, and sale illegal because it discourages marijuana use, an
important public health objective.
References
Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality. 2015.
“Behavioral Health Trends in the United States: Results
from the 2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.”
HHS Publication No. SMA 15-4927, NSDUH Series
H-50. Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Perspectives 145
Services Administration. http://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/

default/files/NSDUH-FRR1-2014/NSDUH-FRR1-2014
DuPont, R. L. 2016. “Drug Abuse Prevention Should Be
about Health: No Use of Alcohol, Tobacco, Marijuana
and Other Drugs for Reasons of Health.” Coalitions.
May 2016.
DuPont, R. L., and K. Humphreys. 2011. “A New Paradigm
for Long-Term Recovery.” Substance Abuse. 32(1): 1–6.
Hawken, A. and M. Kleiman. 2009. “Managing Drug
Involved Probationers with Swift and Certain Sanctions:
Evaluating Hawaii’s HOPE.” Washington, DC: National
Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S.
Department of Justice.
Institute for Behavior and Health, Inc. 2015. “State of
the Art of HOPE Probation.” Rockville, MD: Institute
for Behavior and Health, Inc. http://ibhinc.org/pdfs/
StateoftheArtofHOPEProbation.pdf. Accessed May 5,
2016.
Institute for Behavior and Health, Inc. 2016. “A Strategy
to Access the Consequences of Marijuana Legalization.”
Rockville, MD: Institute for Behavior and Health, Inc.
http://ibhinc.org/pdfs/IBHAStrategytoAssesstheConse
quencesofMarijuanaLegalization.pdf. Assessed May 5,
2016.
Johnston, L. D., et al. 2016. “Monitoring the Future
National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975–2015:
Overview, Key Findings on Adolescent Drug Use.”
Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research, The University
of Michigan.
Kilmer, B., et al. 2013. “Efficacy of Frequent Monitoring
with Swift, Certain, and Modest Sanctions for Violations:
Insights from South Dakota’s 24/7 Sobriety Project.”
103(1): e37–43.
146 Marijuana
Marlowe, D. B. 2010. “Need to Know: Research Update on

Adult Drug Courts.” Alexandria, VA: National Association
of Drug Court Professionals. http://www.nadcp.org/sites/
default/files/nadcp/Research%20Update%20on%20
Adult%20Drug%20Courts%20-%20NADCP_1.pdf.
Accessed on July 26, 2012.
Motel, S. 2015. “6 Facts about Marijuana.” Washington, DC:
Pew Research Center, April 14, 2015. http://www.pew
research.org/fact-tank/2015/04/14/6-facts-about-
marijuana/. Accessed on May 24, 2016.
National Institute on Drug Abuse. 2016. “Marijuana Abuse.”
Research Report Series, NIH Pub. Number: 16-3859.
Bethesda, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute
on Drug Abuse. https://www.drugabuse.gov/sites/default/
files/mjrrs_3_2016.pdf. Accessed on May 5, 2016.
Northwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. 2016.
“Washington State Marijuana Impact Report.” Seattle,
WA: Author. http://www.mfiles.org/home/nw-hidta/
marijuana-impact-report. Accessed on May 5, 2016.
Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.
2015. http://www.rmhidta.org/html/2015%20FINAL%20
LEGALIZATION%20OF%20MARIJUANA%20IN%20
COLORADO%20THE%20IMPACT.pdf. Accessed on
May 5, 2016.
Volkow, N.D., et al. 2014. “Adverse Health Effects of
Marijuana Use.” New England Journal of Medicine.
370(23): 2219–2227.
Robert L. DuPont, M.D. is president of the Institute for Behavior

and Health, Inc., a nonprofit organization that works to iden-
tify and promote effective new strategies to reduce illegal drug use.
He also is clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown Medical
School. He was the first director of the National Institute on Drug
Abuse and served as the second White House Drug Chief.
Perspectives 147
Government Research Support and Marijuana

Legalization Brightens the Spotlight on the
Endocannabinoid System
Rachele Hendricks-Sturrup
Introduction
Cannabis sativa, or the naturally occurring plant better known
as marijuana, has been used for thousands of years by humans
and, historically, for a multitude of living purposes that include
medicinal therapy. Marijuana’s primary and active chemi-
cal compound is called Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC).
Δ9-THC is “psychoactive” in that it has the ability to change
or manipulate brain function, resulting in alterations of per-
ception, mood, or consciousness (National Institute on Drug
Abuse 2016). Ecologists have hypothesized that Δ9-THC evo-
lutionarily served the marijuana plant as a deterrent against
its herbivore predators (Pate 1994). In the 1990s, scientists
confirmed that Δ9-THC interacts with the human endocan-
nabinoid system, and binds to receptors called CB1 and CB2
that are located on cells of almost every organ (Alger, 2013;
Matsuda et al., 1990; Munro et al., 1993).
The discovery of the endocannabinoid system triggered an
incredible amount of scientific research interest in understand-
ing how Δ9-THC can be used to produce medically benefi-
cial effects in humans, as well as commercialization efforts. For
example, Δ9-THC is currently prescribed to patients under
the brand name Marinol, a synthetic Δ9-THC compound that
is generically called dronabinol, and both state and federal
governments monetarily support exploratory endocannabi-
noid system research using other natural and synthetic forms
of Δ9-THC. Thus, this narrative describes (1) an overview of
the current prescribed use of dronabinol and current clinical
studies examining its ability to treat other medical indications,
(2) scientific research that has explored and discovered new
insights into the endocannabinoid system, and (3) examples
of how certain states and the federal government currently
148 Marijuana
support exploratory research into the endocannabinoid system

and on Δ9-THC.
Prescription Marinol
Marinol, or dronabinol, is a form of prescription medical mari-
juana that contains synthetic Δ9-THC as its active ingredient.
Today, doctors may prescribe Marinol to cancer patients suf-
fering from cancer drug-related side effects of persistent nau-
sea and vomiting, or to stimulate the lost appetite of patients
suffering from acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)
(AIDSinfo 2016; Bellum 2012;). Dronabinol is also under sci-
entific investigation to determine its drug abuse potential, and
its ability to treat other diverse ailments and disorders such as
neuropathic pain (pain from nerve damage) and obstructive
sleep apnea syndrome (ClinicalTrials.gov, 2012, 2014, 2016).
The Endocannabinoid System: New Insights

Studies show that the endocannabinoid system is a cell-signaling
system that supports homeostasis and modulates behavior in
mammals. For example, the endocannabinoid system modu-
lates stress, energy intake, storage, and utilization (metabolism),
immunity, and circadian rhythm (day/night behavior cycle)
in mammals (Hillard 2014; Mazier et al. 2015; Pandey, et al.
2009; Vaughn et al. 2010). Very recent animal studies also, and
interestingly, show that the endocannabinoid system has the
ability to modulate alcohol-induced behavior, and that alcohol
increases endocannabinoid levels (Henderson-Redmond et al.
2016). Thus, these findings open a new door in behavioral and
substance abuse research.
State and Federal Research

States that have approved medical and/or recreational mari-
juana, such as Colorado, have also taken an initiative to pro-
vide state-level funding to support medical marijuana and/or
exploratory research into the endocannabinoid system. For
Perspectives 149
example, the Colorado Department of Public Health and

Environment provided a total of $9 million in state funding
to support a diverse array of medical marijuana research proj-
ects that either are or will be conducted by various research
teams at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Chil-
dren’s Hospital Colorado, and other medical research facili-
ties. Further, the University of Michigan currently grows and
supplies medical marijuana to the National Institute on Drug
Abuse (NIDA), a federal government research institute with an
expressed mission to “lead the Nation in bringing the power of
science to bear on drug abuse and addiction” (National Insti-
tute of Health n.d.). The NIDA is responsible for providing
and allocating hundreds of millions of dollars in federal fund-
ing to support medical marijuana and endocannabinoid sys-
tem research (Seshata 2014).
Key Takeaway
As marijuana use continues, state and federal governments
must work to promote and protect the public health by con-
tinuously supporting and funding scientific research that seeks
to discover both the beneficial and adverse effects of mari-
juana on the human body via the endocannabinoid system,
and appropriately support affordable drug commercialization
of Δ9-THC.
References
AIDSinfo. 2016. “Dronabinol.” AIDSinfo Drug Database.
June 3, 2016. https://aidsinfo.nih.gov/drugs/138/
dronabinol/0/professional. Accessed June 03, 2016.
Alger, Bradley E. 2013. “Getting High on the
Endocannabinoid System.” Cerebrum: The Dana Forum on
Brain Science. Dana Foundation. http://www.ncbi.nlm
.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3997295/. Accessed on June 5,
2016.
150 Marijuana
Bellum, Sarah. 2012. “Medical Marijuana: It’s Complicated.”

NIDA for Teens. March 27, 2012. https://teens.drugabuse
.gov/blog/post/medical-marijuana-its-complicated.
Accessed June 3, 2016.
ClinicalTrials.gov. 2012. “Efficacy and Safety of the Pain
Relieving Effect of Dronabinol in Central Neuropathic
Pain Related to Multiple Sclerosis.” February 2, 2012.
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00959218.
Accessed June 3, 2016.
ClinicalTrials.gov. 2014. “A Study of the Abuse Potential
of Dronabinol in Recreational Cannabinoid Users.”
May 12, 2014. https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/
NCT02094599. Accessed June 3, 2016.
ClinicalTrials.gov. 2016. Safety and Efficacy Study of
Dronabinol to Treat Obstructive Sleep Apnea (PACE).
May 11, 2016. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/
NCT01755091. Accessed June 3, 2016.
Henderson-Redmond, Angela Net, al. 2016. “Roles for the
Endocannabinoid System in Ethanol-Motivated Behavior.”
Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological
Psychiatry. 65: 330–339.
Hillard, Cecilia J. 2014. “Stress Regulates Endocannabinoid-
cb1 Receptor Signaling.” Seminars in Immunology. 26(5):
380–388.
Matsuda, Lisa A., et al. 1990. “Structure of a Cannabinoid
Receptor and Functional Expression of the Cloned cDNA.”
Nature. 346(6284): 561–564.
Mazier, Wilfrid, et al. 2015. “The Endocannabinoid System:
Pivotal Orchestrator of Obesity and Metabolic Disease.”
Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism. 26(10):
524–537.
Munro, Sean, et al. 1993. “Molecular Characterization of a
Peripheral Receptor for Cannabinoids.” Nature. 365(6441):
61–65.
Perspectives 151
National Institute on Drug Abuse. 2016. “Marijuana.”

DrugFacts. March 2016. https://www.drugabuse.gov/
publications/drugfacts/marijuana. Accessed June 3, 2016.
Pandey, Rupal, et al. 2009 “Endocannabinoids and Immune
Regulation.” Pharmacological Research. 60(2): 85–92.
Pate, David. W. 1994. “Chemical Ecology of Cannabis.”
Journal of the International Hemp Association. 2(29): 32–37.
Seshata. 2014. “Who Funds Cannabis Research in the USA?”
Sensi Seeds. July 31, 2014. https://sensiseeds.com/en/blog/
funds-cannabis-research-usa/. Accessed June 3, 2016.
Vaughn, Linda K., et al. 2010. “Endocannabinoid Signalling:
Has It Got Rhythm?” British Journal of Pharmacology.
160(3): 530–543.
Rachele Hendricks-Sturrup is a biomedical scientist, health policy

analyst, and active member of the Association for Women in Sci-
ence, American Medical Writers Association, and National Asso-
ciation of Science Writers. She is currently pursuing a Doctor of
Health Science Degree at Nova Southeastern University. Her doc-
toral study focus involves exploring and describing how various
forms of biotechnology can be used within the scope of precision
medicine and value-based care.
Medical Marijuana: A Perspective

Arthur Livermore
During the 1970s, when I was a medical student, I was told

that marijuana (cannabis) was only a drug of abuse. The knowl-
edge of medical uses of cannabis had been lost. Thirty years
earlier, doctors were knowledgeable about medical marijuana,
but now it was a forbidden plant. It took me years of research
to discover the medical uses of marijuana.
My search through the medical school library was not help-
ful. I found some information in used book stores. There was a
copy of a 1921 Therapeutic Handbook with medications made
152 Marijuana
with cannabis. When I found Dr. Lester Grinspoon’s book,

Marihuana Reconsidered (Grinspoon 1971), it became clear
that marijuana is medicine. How it works was still unknown.
Many young people were using it in the 70s and some soldiers
returning from Vietnam found that it helped them emotion-
ally. My own experience showed that it is effective in treating
bipolar mood disorder.
When I was learning how to control my emotional body,
the psychiatric community didn’t think that marijuana was
helpful. I was given the most powerful prescription medicines
available, but my episodic mania continued. I discovered that
marijuana helped me avoid these episodes, and I began using it
instead of the standard medications.
When I discussed using marijuana with my psychiatrist, she
was not able to prescribe cannabis because the law said it wasn’t
medicine. She saw that it was effective treatment for my symp-
toms and did not object to my use of marijuana.
During the 1980s, marijuana was demonized in the “Just Say
No” campaign. At the same time the U.S. government was run-
ning an Investigational New Drug (IND) program that allows
patients to use medical marijuana. Robert Randall was the first
patient in this program after he sued the Food and Drug Admin-
istration (FDA), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA),
the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the Department
of Justice (DOJ), and the Department of Health, Education and
Welfare (now the Department of Health and Human Services,
HHS). He won this suit in November 1976 based on the medi-
cal necessity of marijuana in the treatment of his glaucoma.
The FDA’s Compassionate IND program was expanded to
include AIDS patients during the 1980s. When the George
H. W. Bush administration closed the program in 1992, there
were 30 patients receiving marijuana from the government.
Twenty-four years later, four of these patients are still receiving
marijuana from the federal government.
After the government stopped adding people to the legal
medical marijuana list, patients who responded to cannabis
Perspectives 153
therapy worked with political activists to pass medical mari-

juana laws in the United States. In 1996, California passed
the first medical marijuana law. As of June, 2016, 24 states
and the District of Columbia have made marijuana legal for
medical use.
In spite of this support for recognizing marijuana as medi-
cine, the DEA has refused to place marijuana in the medical
use category. Repeated petitions to remove marijuana from the
“no medical use” category have been denied. In 1988, the court
reviewed the science of medical marijuana and the Administra-
tive Law Judge, Francis Young, found that “Marijuana, in its
natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active sub-
stances known to man. By any measure of rational analysis
marijuana can be safely used within a supervised routine of
medical care. . . . To conclude otherwise, on this record, would
be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious” (In the Matter of
Marijuana Rescheduling Petition 1988). Why does the DEA
ignore the evidence that cannabis is a medicine? Quite simply,
it is paid to say that all use of marijuana is abuse of marijuana
(The DEA Position on Marijuana 2011).
The discovery of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) as the
active ingredient in marijuana by Ralph Mechoulam and
Yechiel Gaoni (Gaoni and Mechoulam 1964) in 1964 led to
the identification of the endocannabinoid receptor system in
1988 (Devane et al. 1988). In 1992, this previously unknown
transmitter system was found to be activated by the endog-
enous neurotransmitter, anandamide (Devane et al. 1992).
Exercise stimulates the release of anandamide so the “runner’s
high” associated with jogging is the result of elevated levels of
endocannabinoids. Cannabinoid receptors are found in higher
concentrations than any other receptor in the brain. They are
in areas associated with pain reduction, coordination of move-
ment, memory, emotions, reward systems, and reproduction
(Pertwee 2008; Pizzorno 2012; Raichlen et al. 2011).
Clinical uses of marijuana are not limited to pain reduction,
appetite enhancement, and controlling chemotherapy-induced
154 Marijuana
vomiting. Cannabis protects nerve cells from damage and is also

effective in reducing tumor growth. Multiple sclerosis patients
use cannabis to treat peripheral neuropathy. It is effective in
the treatment of movement disorders, glaucoma, asthma, bipo-
lar disorder, depression, epilepsy, post-traumatic stress disor-
der (PTSD), arthritis, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease,
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, alcohol abuse, insomnia, diges-
tive diseases, gliomas, skin tumors, sleep apnea, and anorexia
nervosa (Cannabis and Cannabinoids 2016; Common Medi-
cal Uses for Cannabis 2012; Mikuriya 2004).
After four years of review by multiple agencies, in March
2014, Dr. Sue Sisley’s research proposal on treating PTSD
with cannabis gained federal approval (Kovaleski 2014). But
the effort to begin this project faced another hurdle when
Dr. Sisley was fired by the University of Arizona. Dr. Sisley is
convinced that her outspoken support for marijuana research
was the reason (Scutti 2014). Fear of association with mari-
juana research is an irrational product of our “War on Drugs.”
Two years later, she is still waiting for the National Institute
on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to supply the marijuana she needs for
the study. In May 2016 the Phoenix Veterans Affairs hospital
blocked her from giving a lecture about marijuana’s effect on
veterans with PTSD (VA Hospital in Phoenix Blocks Presenta-
tion on Cannabis [PTSD] 2016).
A 2015 study found that treating epilepsy with a cannabis
extract that is high in cannabidiol (CBD) was effective for
patients who did not respond to other treatments (American
Academy of Neurology 2015). Many of the patients in this study
are children, and their stories have been seen on the television
news. Cannabis has been used to treat epilepsy for centuries
(Devinsky 2014). Only now are researchers beginning clinical
trials to figure out how cannabinoids reduce or stop seizures.
Cannabinoids are emerging as treatments for psychiatric
symptoms. CBD has antipsychotic effects and improves cog-
nitive function in patients with schizophrenia (Celia 2010;
Devinsky 2014).
Perspectives 155
Cannabis is a very safe medicine (In the Matter of Marijuana

Rescheduling Petition 1988; Pizzorno 2012). The side effect of
euphoria is one reason patients don’t want to use marijuana,
but most people like the feeling of well-being that cannabis
provides. When patients get too high a dose, they may feel
paranoid for a while and then fall asleep. Knowledgeable use of
marijuana prevents these negative side effects.
The irrational marijuana policy of the last 75 years needs
to end. Fear of addiction has led to common misconceptions
about marijuana. Marijuana laws that are based on the discred-
ited “gateway theory” and “reefer madness” propaganda fail
because the truth is hidden. We now know a great deal about
brain chemistry. The endocannabinoid system is an important
part of our body’s regulatory mechanisms.
Marijuana is not going to go away. We must create legal chan-
nels for the sale of marijuana so that people can use this valu-
able medicinal herb without the threat of legal consequences.
References
American Academy of Neurology (AAN). 2015. “Medical
Marijuana Liquid Extract May Bring Hope for Children
with Severe Epilepsy.” Science Daily. Available online at
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150413183743
.htm. Accessed on June 3, 2016.
“Cannabis and Cannabinoids.” 2016. National Cancer
Institute. http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/cam/
cannabis/healthprofessional/page4. Accessed on July 31,
2012.
Celia J. A., et al. 2010. “Impact of Cannabidiol on the
Acute Memory and Psychotomimetic Effects of Smoked
Cannabis: Naturalistic Study.” British Journal of Psychiatry
197(4): 285–290.
“Common Medical Uses for Cannabis.” 2016.
American Alliance for Medical Cannabis. http://www
.letfreedomgrow.com/cmu/. Accessed on July 31, 2012.
156 Marijuana
“The DEA Position on Marijuana.” January 2011. http://

www.justice.gov/dea/marijuana_position.pdf Accessed on
July 31, 2012.
Devane, W. A., et al. 1988. “Determination and
Characterization of a Cannabinoid Receptor in Rat
Brain.” Molecular Pharmacology. 34: 605–613.
Devane W. A., et al. 1992. “Isolation and Structure of a Brain
Constituent That Binds to the Cannabinoid Receptor.”
Science 258: 1946–1949.
Devinsky, Orrin, et al. 2014. “Cannabidiol: Pharmacology
and Potential Therapeutic Role in Epilepsy and Other
Neuropsychiatric Disorders.” Epilepsia. 55(6):
791–802.
Gaoni, Y., and R. Mechoulam, 1964. “Isolation, Structure
and Partial Synthesis of an Active Constituent of
Hashish.” Journal of the American Chemical Society.
86: 1646–1647.
Grinspoon, Lester. 1971. Marihuana Reconsidered.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Kovaleski, Serge F. 2014. “Medical Marijuana Research
Hits Wall of U.S. Law.” New York Times. Available online
at http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/us/politics/
medical-marijuana-research-hits-the-wall-of-federal-law
.html?_r=1.
Mikuriya, Tod H. 2004. “Chronic Conditions Treated with
Cannabis.” American Alliance for Medical Cannabis.
http://www.letfreedomgrow.com/cmu/DrTodHMikuriya_
list.htm. Accessed on July 31, 2012.
Pertwee, R.G. 2008. “The Diverse CB1 and CB2
Receptor Pharmacology of Three Plant Cannabinoids:
Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol, Cannabidiol and
Δ9-tetrahydrocannabivarin.” British Journal of
Pharmacology. 153(2): 199–215.
Perspectives 157
Pizzorno, Lara, 2012 “New Developments in

Cannabinoid-Based Medicine: An Interview with
Dr. Raphael Mechoulam.” Longevity Medicine Review.
Available online at http://www.lmreview.com/articles/
print/new-developments-in-cannabinoid-based-medicine-
an-interview-with-dr-raphael-mechoulam/. Accessed on
July 31, 2012.
Raichlen, David A., et al. 2011. “Wired to Run: Exercise-
Induced Endocannabinoid Signaling in Humans and
Cursorial Mammals with Implications for the ‘Runner’s
High.’ ” Journal of Experimental Biology. 215: 1331–1336.
Available online at http://jeb.biologists.org/content/215/
8/1331.abstract. Accessed on July 31, 2012.
Scutti, Susan. 2014. “Medical Marijuana Researcher,
Dr. Sue Sisley, Says She Was Fired for Political Reasons
Despite Gaining Federal Approval.” Medical Daily.
Available online at http://www.medicaldaily.com/
medical-marijuana-researcher-dr-sue-sisley-says-
she-was-fired-political-reasons-despite-gaining.
“VA Hospital in Phoenix Blocks Presentation on Cannabis,
PTSD.” 2016. Available online at http://www.thecan
nabist.co/2016/05/26/phoenix-va-hospital-blocks-
medical-marijuana-presentation/55052/.
Arthur Livermore has a B.A. in biology from Reed College. He

studied medicine at the University of Oregon medical school before
going into neurology and psychiatry research. He wrote software
for the DEC PDP-12 computer to analyze neurophysiological data
from schizophrenic patients. Software development projects include
data collection and analysis for the Woodcock-Johnson cognitive
abilities tests and the Gardenware plant labeling system. Arthur
has been educating people about the medical use of cannabis for
many years. He is a founding member of the American Alliance for
Medical Cannabis and is its current national director.
158 Marijuana
Lies and Deception: The Origins of

Today’s Federal Marijuana Policy
Duane Ludwig
The past two years of marijuana legalization in Washington and

Colorado have revealed many fascinating things to the rest of
America. First and foremost is the realization that despite what
the opponents of legalization have been claiming for years, a
liberalization of marijuana policy has not been a catastrophe by
any objective analysis. Statistics regarding usage rates and mari-
juana dependence are nearly unchanged. Driving accidents are
no more frequent, and even though federal rules still require all
marijuana-based commerce to be conducted entirely in cash,
robberies have not spiked in any noticeable way (Reed 2016).
What is undeniable is the significant economic boost to these
states from marijuana industry jobs and tax revenues.
The fact that the sky has not fallen after legalization shows
that the Chicken Littles of marijuana prohibition have been
misleading or deceiving us for decades. What is not as well
known is that an even more nefarious level of deception is what
led to marijuana (cannabis) prohibition in the first place, and
then upped the ante later as part of the so-called War on Drugs.
Today’s legalization proponents and opponents alike are gener-
ally unaware of the propaganda and outright lies that brought
the United States to where it is today.
The 1937 Marihuana Tax Act marks the beginning of prohi-
bition. Before that, cannabis was mainly used as an ingredient
in medicinal tinctures and salves, and for a multitude of indus-
trial purposes. Being four times more efficient than wood as a
paper source, but also an easily grown, fantastic natural fiber
for textiles, the hemp plant became a target for elimination
from the market by powerful industrialists such as William
Randolph Hearst and the DuPont Corporation. Thus began
decades of “yellow journalism” that introduced the obscure
Mexican slang term “marijuana” to the American public and
inaccurately demonized its consumption as the motivating
Perspectives 159
force behind car accidents, rapes, and murders. This was com-
pounded by associating cannabis use with Mexicans and blacks,
who were also victims of propaganda inciting fear and hated in
this era (Herer 1993).
Historians universally point to Harry J. Anslinger, the first
chief of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, as the person most
responsible for generating support for the prohibition legisla-
tion. For example, in congressional testimony, he remarked,
“Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history
of mankind” (Gerber 2004, 7). The now-infamous 1936 film
Reefer Madness portrayed marijuana causing users to become
either promiscuous or homicidal. While it is now a laugh-
able cult classic, this type of virtually unopposed propaganda
stoked public unease with the recreational drug “marihuana.”
Relying on secrecy and legislative sleight of hand, bill spon-
sors never connected marijuana to the economically significant
and biologically identical hemp plant or the cannabis used in
many medicines and supported by the American Medical Asso-
ciation. As a result, there was virtually no debate when Con-
gress overwhelmingly voted to outlaw it via a prohibitive tax
(Sloman 1979).
Over 30 years later, the Nixon administration developed the
Controlled Substances Act, and placed marijuana in Schedule I,
the category reserved for substances with no medical use and
high potential for abuse. What is most telling about this deci-
sion is the findings of the Shafer Commission, a group that
Nixon specifically charged to closely examine the issue and
produce a recommendation for marijuana. In 1972, the com-
mission’s report stated,
[T]he criminal law is too harsh a tool to apply to personal

possession even in the effort to discourage use. It implies
an overwhelming indictment of the behavior which we
believe is not appropriate. The actual and potential harm
of use of the drug is not great enough to justify intrusion
by the criminal law into private behavior, a step which our
160 Marijuana
society takes only with the greatest reluctance. . . . There-

fore, the Commission recommends . . . [that the] posses-
sion of marijuana for personal use no longer be an offense,
[and that the] casual distribution of small amounts of mar-
ihuana for no remuneration, or insignificant remuneration,
no longer be an offense. (Commission on Marihuana and
Drug Abuse, 1972, 176)
The commission was prescient in also concluding that the risks

of drug use are the result of drug policy, rather than the drugs
themselves, noting, “The Commission believes that the con-
temporary American drug problem has emerged in part from
our institutional response to drug use. . . . We have failed to
weave policy into the fabric of social institutions” (Commis-
sion on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, 1973, 37).
While the decision to label marijuana as addictive and non-
medical could be attributed to one of Nixon’s many idiosyn-
crasies, an admission by his chief domestic policy advisor, John
Ehrlichman, clarifies his action. In 1994, Ehrlichman candidly
told a reporter for Harper’s Magazine, “The Nixon campaign
in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two ene-
mies: the antiwar left and black people. We knew we couldn’t
make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by
getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and
blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we
could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their lead-
ers, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them
night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were
lying about the drugs? Of course we did” (Baum 2016). Thus
began the “War on Drugs” that escalated further in the 1980s,
has now cost taxpayers over $1 trillion, and has utterly failed
to reduce the use of marijuana or control the Mexican drug
cartel–dominated black market.
In recent decades, researchers have discovered and explored the
body’s endocannabinoid system. This explains why consumed
cannabis is so readily converted into endogenous substances
Perspectives 161
that provide relief for such a wide array of human health con-
ditions. Cannabis medicine is now a promising field of study,
and one that requires the laws relating to access to be relaxed in
even more states, as well as federally.
Of course, neither Anslinger nor Nixon was privy to this
knowledge, but one might reasonably wonder if such knowl-
edge could have overcome the dark influences of racism, greed,
and political power that drove them to demonize cannabis and
its consumers. Going forward, society must endeavor to ensure
that every argument either for or against cannabis is based only
in scientific knowledge and sound reasoning. There is no place
in public policy for the kind of deception and propaganda that
effectively delayed recent medical cannabis breakthroughs for
nearly 80 years.
References
Baum, Dan. 2016. “Legalize It All.” Harper’s Magazine.
https://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/.
Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse. 1972.
Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding. Washington,
DC: Government Printing Office. Available online at
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.390150156475
58;view=1up;seq=198. Accessed on June 15, 2016.
Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse. 1973. Drug
Use in America: Problem in Perspective. Washington, DC:
Government Printing Office.
Gerber, Rudolph J. 2004. Legalizing Marijuana: Drug Policy
Reform and Prohibition Politics. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Herer, Jack. 1993. “The Emperor Wears No Clothes.” Van
Nuys, CA: Hemp Publishing. Available online at http://
www.hampapartiet.se/25.pdf. Accessed on June 15, 2016.
Reed, Jack K. 2016., “Marijuana Legalization in
Colorado: Early Findings.” Colorado Department of
162 Marijuana
Public Safety. http://cdpsdocs.state.co.us/ors/docs/

reports/2016-SB13-283-Rpt.pdf. Accessed on June 15,
2016.
Sloman, Larry. 1979. Reefer Madness: The History of
Marijuana in America. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs Merrill.
Duane Ludwig is an aerospace engineer and advocate for com-

mon sense drug policy. He is on the Board of Directors of Virginia
NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana
Laws) and has served as its communications director. In the course
of fighting to end the criminalization of Virginia’s cannabis patients
and recreational consumers, he has come to realize that smart reg-
ulation and careful expansion of the marijuana and industrial
hemp industries holds phenomenal promise for the economy and
ecology of the nation, and the planet.
The Threat of Big Marijuana

Clara MacCarald
In 2015, legal sales of marijuana in the United States totaled

$5.4 billion. This lucrative market has grown enormously
despite the fact that only half of U.S. states have legalized mari-
juana sales in any form, and the four allowing recreational use
have only done so in the last few years. Other states are consid-
ering their own recreational laws, which could drive the growth
of the industry even faster (Huddleson 2016).
We’ve seen this before: a multibillion-dollar industry based on
a potentially addictive substance with uncertain health effects.
Without careful regulation, Big Marijuana will become the
next Big Tobacco.
Pot is less addictive than tobacco—for now. Only 9% of
marijuana users qualify as dependent on marijuana at some
point in their life, compared to 32% of tobacco users. But
some researchers point out that tobacco was once far less addic-
tive than it is today. In the early 1900s, tobacco companies
deliberately blended tobacco types and additives to make more
Perspectives 163
appealing cigarettes. These changes increased both the toxins in

cigarettes and their ability to addict more users, or, as they say
in retail, customers (Richter and Levy 2014, 400).
The same folks behind deadlier cigarettes may soon be
directly involved in engineering joints. Internal documents
show that tobacco companies have been interested in mari-
juana for decades. In the past, they’ve denied that interest to
preserve their reputation. But now, public acceptance of mar-
ijuana is climbing, while the stigma around tobacco use has
grown (Barry et al. 2014).
The new marijuana markets have so far kept tobacco compa-
nies out with rules such as license limits and residency require-
ments for investors. But the industry is hungry for investment.
In 2016, Washington and Oregon eliminated their residency
requirements, and Colorado might follow suit (Anderson 2016).
If tobacco companies can get a foot in the door, they will
bring more than just a knowledge of addictive chemistry. Big
Tobacco has the money and the influence to roll out big adver-
tising campaigns and to manipulate regulation (Barry et al.
2014). Despite the well-publicized dangers of smoking, and
widespread social disapproval, around one in five American
adults still smoked in 2014 (Richter and Levy 2014, 400).
Even if states succeed in keeping Big Tobacco out, marijuana
companies themselves may prove to be fast learners. One study
found increases in marijuana potency related to medical mari-
juana laws, particularly in states that allowed commercial can-
nabis dispensaries (Hall and Weier 2015, 610–611).
This may be just the beginning. Taxes on marijuana have
been based on weight rather than tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)
content. That gives growers an incentive to increase potency
(Hall and Weier 2015, 611). THC content relates to pleasure
as well as addiction and psychosis. The potential to attract
and addict users gives growers a second incentive (Richter
and Levy 2014, 400).
Marijuana companies are also working on new delivery sys-
tems. Vaporizing increases the THC inhaled by users (Richter
164 Marijuana
and Levy 2014, 400). The National Organization for the Reform
of Marijuana Laws (NORML) has assisted efforts to exclude
e-cigarettes from clean indoor air laws (Barry et al. 2014).
Marijuana interests have fought other regulations. They
fought to keep smoking restrictions from applying to mari-
juana clubs in Colorado (Barry et al. 2014). They originally
lobbied both Colorado and Washington State to avoid heavy
regulation of edible marijuana products (MacCoun and Mello
2015, 990).
Edibles may pose one of the biggest health threats to the
public. Familiar forms, often similar to other candies and des-
serts, make edibles attractive to children. Consumed marijuana
acts differently in the body than smoked or vaporized pot.
Adding to this, their high potency makes an overdose more
likely (MacCoun and Mello 2015, 989–990). But edibles are
big money makers for the industry (Huddleson 2016).
So how do we protect the public from Big Pot? We need to
set up controls around marijuana now, similar to those around
alcohol and tobacco, before marijuana interests become more
powerful. Since federal law still prohibits marijuana, federal
agencies which normally try to the public from unsafe products
cannot become involved (MacCoun and Mello 2015, 990).
Either this must change, or states must take their responsibility
more seriously.
Public education can help. As a result of public concern over
overdoses and accidental ingestion by children, Colorado passed
new regulations on edibles that are scheduled to go into effect
on October 1, 2016 (Borchardt 2016). We need to do more.
More research should investigate marijuana risks to personal and
public health. Products should be labeled with known health
risks, such as respiratory damage from smoking and impaired
cognitive development (Richter and Levy 2014, 400).
Without a strong push to protect public health, marijuana
interests, with or without the involvement of the tobacco
industry, will work to maximize profits regardless of the cost
to society.
Perspectives 165
References
Anderson, Rick. 2016. “How New Rules in Two States
Could Give Birth to Big Marijuana.” Los Angeles Times.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-corporate-mari
juana-20160324-story.html. Accessed on May 25,
2016.
Barry, Rachel Ann, et al. 2014. “Waiting for the
Opportune Moment: The Tobacco Industry and Marijuana
Legalization.” Millbank Quarterly. 92: 207–242. http://
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4089369/.
Borchardt, Debra. 2016. “Edible Marijuana Company
Ready for New Colorado Rules.” Forbes. http://www
.forbes.com/sites/debraborchardt/2016/06/06/edible-
marijuana-company-ready-for-new-rules/#32f20ecd
6987. Accessed on June 7, 2016.
Hall, W., and M. Weier. 2015. “Assessing the Public Health
Impacts or Legalizing Recreational Cannabis Use in the
USA.” Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. 97:
607–615. http://www.medicinalgenomics.com/
wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Assessing-the-pub-
health-impacts-of-legalizing-recreational-cannabis-
use-in-the-USA.pdf. Accessed on May 27, 2016.
Huddleson, Tom. 2016. “Legal Marijuana Sales Could Hit
$6.7 Billion in 2016.” Fortune. http://fortune.com/2016/
02/01/marijuana-sales-legal/. Accessed on June 7, 2016.
MacCoun, Robert, and Michelle M. Mello. 2015.
“Half-Baked—The Retail Promotion of Marijuana
Edibles.” New England Journal of Medicine. 372: 989–991.
http://healthpolicy.fsi.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/
maccoun_mello_2015_nejmp1416014_0.pdf. Accessed
on June 3, 2016.
Richter, Kimber, and Sharon Levy. 2014. “Big
Marijuana-Lessons from Big Tobacco.” New England
166 Marijuana
Journal of Medicine. 371: 399–401. http://dev.north

starbehavioral.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/big
marijuanaindustrynejm.pdf. Accessed on June 3, 2016.
Clara MacCarald is a freelance writer with an M.S. in biology

who lives in Central New York. She is currently writing several
educational books for children.
Is Marijuana Medicine? The Answer

Is Yes, No, and Maybe
Kevin A. Sabet
Modern science has synthesized the marijuana plant’s primary

psychoactive ingredient—THC—into pill form. This pill,
dronabinol (or Marinol, its trade name) is sometimes prescribed
for nausea and appetite stimulation. Another drug, Cesamet,
mimics chemical structures that occur naturally in the plant.
But when most people think of medical marijuana, they
don’t think of a pill with an isolated component of marijuana,
but rather the entire smoked, vaporized, or edible version of
the whole marijuana plant. Rather than isolate active ingre-
dients in the plant—as we do with the opium plant when we
create morphine, for example—many legalization proponents
advocate strongly for smoked marijuana to be used as a medi-
cine. But the science on smoking any drug is clear: smoking
marijuana, especially highly potent whole marijuana, is not a
proper delivery method, nor do other delivery methods ensure
a reliable dose. And while parts of the marijuana plant have
medical value, the Institute of Medicine said in its landmark
1999 report: “Scientific data indicate the potential therapeu-
tic value of cannabinoid drugs . . . smoked marijuana, how-
ever, is a crude THC delivery system that also delivers harmful
substances . . . and should not be generally recommended”
( Joy et al. 1999, 10).
It is not so unimaginable to think about other marijuana-
based medications that might come to market very soon. Sativex,
Perspectives 167
an oral mouth spray developed from a blend of two marijuana

extracts (one strain is high in THC and the other in CBD,
which counteracts THC’s psychoactive effect), has already
been approved in 10 countries and is in late stages of approval
in the United States. It is clear to anyone following this story
that it is possible to develop marijuana-based medications in
accordance with modern scientific standards, and many more
such legitimate medications are just around the corner.
How Does Medical Marijuana Currently

Work in the Various States?
At present in California, and in several other states, it is widely
recognized that the reality of the “medical use” of marijuana is
highly questionable. For payment of a small cash sum, almost
anyone can obtain a physician’s “recommendation” to pur-
chase, possess, and use marijuana for alleged medical purposes.
Indeed, numerous studies have shown that most customers
of these dispensaries do not suffer from chronic, debilitat-
ing conditions such as HIV/AIDS or cancer (O’Connell and
Bou-Matar 2007). Both sides of the argument agree that this
system has essentially legalized marijuana for recreational use,
at least among those individuals able and willing to buy a
recommendation.
To date many pot dispensaries are mom-and-pop operations,
although some act as multimillion dollar, professional compa-
nies. A recent documentary on the Discovery Channel, which
examined the practices of Harborside Health Center in Oak-
land, California—by its own admission, the largest marijuana
dispensary “on the planet”—the buds (which are distributed
directly to member-patients) are merely examined visually and
with a microscope. The buds are also handled by employees who
do not use gloves or face masks. Steve DeAngelo, Harborside’s
co-founder, states that they must “take it as it comes.” The doc-
umentary noted that some plant material is tested by Steep Hill
Laboratory, but there was no evidence that Steep Hill’s instru-
mentation and techniques are “validated,” that its operators are
168 Marijuana
properly trained and educated, that its reference standards are

accurate, and that its results are replicable by other laboratories
(“Weed Wars Now Streaming on Netflix” 2013).
What if We Rescheduled Marijuana?

Thanks to legalization advocates, an issue mostly confined to
scholarly and legal debates—that of the scheduling of drugs as
laid out in the Controlled Substances Act (CSA)—has recently
gained prominence.
In short, the reason marijuana hasn’t been rescheduled is
because no product of whole, raw marijuana has a “currently
accepted medical use” in the United States, which is part of the
legal definition of Schedule I drugs defined by the Controlled
Substances Act.
By contrast, Schedule II substances have a currently accepted
medical use in the United States or a currently accepted medi-
cal use with severe restrictions (and, like Schedule I drugs, a
high potential for abuse).
More importantly, regardless of the schedule, any substance
may be prescribed by physicians and dispensed by pharmacists
only when incorporated into specific FDA-approved products.
That is why Schedule II opioid products can be obtained in
pharmacies by prescription, but raw opium, despite being in
Schedule II, cannot be prescribed.
This fact is sometimes articulated as follows: “Schedule II
substances may be prescribed.” This abbreviated description,
however, is incomplete and has caused significant confusion.
“An approved product comprised of a Schedule II substance
may be prescribed” or even “An approved product based on
ingredients found in Schedule I substances can be prescribed”
would be accurate statements.
So why doesn’t whole marijuana have a “currently accepted
medical use”? Well, there have not been scientific studies, of
adequate size and duration, showing that a product comprised
of raw, whole marijuana (smoked or vaporized or otherwise
ingested) has medicinal value. FDA has never approved crude
Perspectives 169
plant materials as a prescription medicine, partly because there

is no way to administer it in defined doses and without any
toxic by-products. However, there have been studies showing
that components or constituents within marijuana have medi-
cal value. This is where many people get confused. That is why
both statements “marijuana has no medical value” and “mari-
juana is a medicine” are both untrue.
Which Components within Marijuana

Have Accepted Medicinal Value?
At least one, and maybe even more than that. Right now, a
capsule, Marinol, containing laboratory-made THC, the active
ingredient in marijuana (e.g., what gets you high) is in Sched-
ule III and widely available (though not often prescribed) at
pharmacies. Marinol was approved first for nausea/vomiting
from cancer chemotherapy and again during the height of
the AIDS epidemic, specifically for people who could not eat
(scientists have long known that THC boosts appetite). THC
has also been tested (but not yet approved) as an analgesic—
meaning it helps lessen severe pain (like the pain associated
with cancer).
But we know that THC isn’t the only interesting component
in marijuana. Recently scientists have discovered that CBD
(cannabidiol) has powerful anti-seizure and other therapeutic
properties. CBD does not get you high and barely exists in
the modern marijuana found on the street today. Some U.S.
state-sanctioned medical dispensaries do contain expensive,
specially grown strains of smoked/ingested/extracted (in an oil,
for example) marijuana with very high levels of CBD (and low
levels of THC—not enough to get you high). These products
have not been properly tested and standardized, however.
Medical marijuana should really only be about bringing relief
to the sick and dying, and it should be done in a responsible
manner that formulates the active components of the drug in a
nonsmoked form that delivers a defined dose. However, in most
states with medical marijuana laws, it has primarily become a
170 Marijuana
license for the state-sanctioned use of a drug by almost any-

one who desires it. Developing marijuana-based medications
through the FDA process is more likely to ensure that seriously
ill patients, who are being supervised by their actual treating
physicians, have access to safe and reliable products.
References
Joy, Janet E., et al. 1999. Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing
the Science Base. Institute of Medicine. Washington, DC:
National Academy Press.
O’Connell, T. and C. B. Bou-Matar. 2007. “Long Term
Marijuana Users Seeking Medical Cannabis in California
(2001–2007): Demographics, Social Characteristics,
Patterns of Cannabis and Other Drug Use of 4117
Applicants.” Harm Reduction Journal. http://www
.harmreductionjournal.com/content/4/1/1. Accessed
on June 9, 2016.
“Weed Wars Now Streaming on Netflix.” 2013. Harborside
Health Center. https://www.harborsidehealthcenter.com/
news/press-100713.html. Accessed on June 9, 2016.
Kevin A. Sabet, Ph.D., is assistant professor in the Division of

Addiction Studies and chief of the Drug Policy Institute at the
University of Florida and president of Smart Approaches to
Marijuana.
Common Sense Marijuana Policy Revisited

Douglas McVay
Should marijuana be legalized for adult social use? That ques-

tion has been asked at least since the Nixon administration.
Now that eight states and the District of Columbia have legal-
ized personal use, possession, and cultivation of marijuana,
and are regulating marijuana commerce, many more people
are asking that question.
Perspectives 171
There are really two policy questions here: Should there

be any criminal penalties associated with possession of mari-
juana? And, should production and distribution of marijuana
be legally regulated rather than left in the hands of criminals?
If the purpose of marijuana prohibition is to prevent mari-
juana use, then it has failed, but how badly? In 1937, when
Congress passed the Marihuana Tax Act, the market for social-
use marijuana—the so-called recreational market, as opposed
to medicinal cannabis, or hemp—was small and limited. Today,
marijuana is a multi-billion dollar industry, both legal and
illegal.
Currently, marijuana is used by millions of people every day.
Many major American politicians and other leaders have admit-
ted to using marijuana. They were fortunate to have avoided an
arrest that could have destroyed their future careers—though
looking at the numbers perhaps that’s not surprising.
According to the FBI, since 1997 in the United States there
have been more than 680,000 arrests every year for various
marijuana offenses, the vast majority of which were simple pos-
session charges (Uniform Crime Reports 2002–2015).
More than 35 million people aged 12 and over in the United
States have used marijuana at some point in the past year. In
2014, an estimated 22.2 million people aged 12 and over in the
United States were so-called current, or monthly, users of mari-
juana, and of that number, at least 9.2 million used marijuana
on 20 days or more days during the previous month (Center
for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality 2014). It’s worth
bearing in mind that the NSDUH estimate is based on the
number of people willing to admit to illegal activity on a gov-
ernment survey.
The more than 1.5 million property crime arrests made in
the United States in 2014 resulted in a clearance rate for overall
property crime of 20.2%. The nearly half a million arrests for
violent crimes in the United States in 2014 resulted in a clear-
ance rate for overall violent crime of 47.4% (Uniform Crime
Reports, 2015).
172 Marijuana
The cost of this enforcement can be measured by more than

just dollars. Researchers in 2013 found that in New York City,
a marijuana possession arrest takes from two to three hours of
police time (Levine, Siegel, and Sayegh, 2013). Jurisdictions
will vary, but for the sake of argument, say a marijuana posses-
sion arrest takes 2.5 hours of an officer’s time. In that case, in
2014, police spent more than 1.5 million hours just arresting
marijuana users, and that assumes only one officer was involved
in the arrest rather than two partners.
Laws don’t exist in a vacuum, so a comparison with other
legal drugs is in order. There are two primary legal controlled
substances that are used as social drugs, or recreationally, in
the United States: alcohol and tobacco. Though some might
argue it’s not fair to make such comparisons, a de facto level of
acceptable risk for controlled substances that are legally avail-
able for social use by adults has been established by society.
There is no question that marijuana use is well within accept-
able levels of risk since alcohol is one of the yardsticks owing
to one simple fact: it is relatively easy for a person to over-
dose fatally on alcohol. The CDC reported that in 2013 there
were 29,001 alcohol-induced deaths (Deaths: Final Data for
2013, 2016). On the other hand, it is practically impossible to
achieve a fatal overdose of marijuana (Iversen, 2002).
Leaving aside the question of lethality, alcohol is still more
dangerous than marijuana. The UK’s Advisory Council on the
Misuse of Drugs performed an objective review of the health
data regarding alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs. Ruth
Weissenborn and David Nutt wrote about the ACMD’s con-
clusions in the Journal of Psychopharmacology in 2011, noting
that “Alcohol was confirmed as the most harmful drug to oth-
ers and the most harmful drug overall. A direct comparison of
alcohol and cannabis showed that alcohol was considered to be
more than twice as harmful as cannabis to users, and five times
as harmful as cannabis to others.” They noted further that “as
there are few areas of harm that each drug can produce where
Perspectives 173
cannabis scores more highly than alcohol, we suggest that even

if there were no legal impediment to cannabis use it would be
unlikely to be more harmful than alcohol” (Weissenborn and
Nutt, 2011).
Nearly 80 years of a failed and unjustified policy is long
enough. Marijuana prohibition must come to an end.
References
Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality. 2014
National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Detailed Tables.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration, Rockville, Maryland, 2015.
“Deaths: Final Data for 2013.” 2016. Centers for Disease
Control. National Vital Statistics Reports, Volume 64,
Number 2. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr64/
nvsr64_02.pdf, last accessed June 16, 2016.
Iversen, Leslie L. 2002. “The Science of Marijuana.” https://
global.oup.com/academic/product/the-science-of-mari
juana-9780195328240?cc=us&lang=en&. Accessed on
June 16, 2016.
Levine, Harry, Loren Siegel, and Gabriel Sayegh. 2013.
“One Million Police Hours: Making 440,000 Marijuana
Possession Arrests in New York City, 2002–2012.”
https://www.drugpolicy.org/sites/default/files/One_
Million_Police_Hours.pdf. Accessed on June 16,
2016.
“Uniform Crime Reports.” 2002–2015. Federal Bureau of
Investigation. http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm. Accessed
on June 16, 2016.
Weissenborn, Ruth, and David J. Nutt. 2011. “Popular
Intoxicants: What Lessons Can Be Learned from the
Last 40 Years of Alcohol and Cannabis Regulation?”
Journal of Psychopharmacology. 2011, DOI: 10.1177/02
174 Marijuana
69881111414751. http://jop.sagepub.com/content/26/
2/213. Accessed on June 16, 2016.
Douglas McVay is a journalist, policy analyst, and longtime advo-

cate for progressive social justice reform. He is the editor of Drug-
WarFacts.org, and serves on the board of directors of Common
Sense for Drug Policy and on the advisory council of Students for
Sensible Drug Policy.
4 Profiles
Introduction
This chapter contains brief sketches of individuals and organiza-
tions who are important in understanding the history of marijuana
laws and policies in the United States and around the world. The
number of such individuals and organizations is legion, and only
some especially significant organizations and individuals, or those
typical of other organizations and individuals, are included.
Americans for Safe Access

Americans for Safe Access (ASA) was founded in 2002 by Steph
Sherer, a woman with torticollis, a neurological movement dis-
order that causes a person’s head to tilt to one side. The disorder
is sometimes known colloquially as “wry neck.” It is accompa-
nied by pain, inflammation, and muscle spasms that may be
relieved by the use of marijuana. Sherer founded ASA for the
purpose of educating the general public about the medical uses
of cannabis and combating efforts by the U.S. Drug Enforce-
ment Administration (DEA) to prevent the use of marijuana
for medical purposes in places where state law permits such
A marijuana reform advocate with the group NORML holds a clipboard

while waiting for passersby to sign a petition to get a pot club initiative on
the ballot in the next election in Denver. Legal marijuana is giving Colo-
rado a conundrum. Visitors can buy the drug, but they can’t use it in pub-
lic. Or in a rental car. Or in most hotel rooms. Some legalization advocates
believe they have a solution—pot clubs. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
177
178 Marijuana
use. ASA claims to be “the largest national member-based orga-

nization of patients, medical professionals, scientists and con-
cerned citizens promoting safe and legal access to cannabis for
therapeutic use and research.” At the time that Sherer founded
ASA, there were only 11 marijuana dispensaries in the United
States, all of which were operating illegally because no state had
yet legalized the use of marijuana for therapeutic purposes. As
of 2016, there are more than 1,000 marijuana dispensaries in
California alone, and there may be more than 120,000 dispen-
saries and other facilities where medical marijuana is distrib-
uted throughout the nation.
ASA has developed a multifaceted program to achieve its
objective of ensuring safe and legal access to anyone who needs
the substance for therapeutic or research purposes. Some ele-
ments of that program are:
• The Medical Cannabis Advocate’s Training Center, in which

individuals are trained about the history and science of mari-
juana as a therapeutic agent and are taught the skills needed
to work effectively within the political system to accomplish
ASA goals.
• The Medical Cannabis Policy Shop, which studies current
political and legislative developments with regard to thera-
peutic marijuana and offer information and advice to poli-
cymakers and legislators on relevant topics.
• The Federal Advocacy Project, run out of the Washington
office of ASA, attempts to influence policymakers and legis-
lators at all levels about the objectives of the “safe marijuana”
movement.
• The California Campaign for Safe Access, which focuses spe-
cifically on the largest state in which medical marijuana has
been legalized, dealing with patient’s rights, education about
the medical marijuana law in the state, and efforts to ensure
that the law is implemented properly.
• The Raid Center, which is a carefully organized, very spe-
cific program designed to help individuals and organizations
Profiles 179
whose activities have been subjected to raids by the DEA or

other law enforcement agencies.
• The Patient’s Rights Project, which deals directly with in-
dividuals who use marijuana therapeutically, explaining to
them on a one-to-one basis what their rights are with regard
to medical cannabis.
• The Community Support Project, an ambitious effort to
provide all stakeholders in the medical marijuana commu-
nity with the information and guidance they need to func-
tion effectively in their specific roles, with special programs
for patients, clinicians, and medical advocates.
• State Campaigns, in which the resources and skills available
among ASA staff are made available to medical marijuana
efforts in individual states across the nation.
• Peace for Patients Campaign is the most recent program,
adopted to convince the U.S. Congress to adopt legislation
to end harassment of and attacks on individuals who use
marijuana for medical purposes and their caregivers.
An important insight into the work that ASA does is its an-
nual listing of “major accomplishments.” For 2015, that listed
included such items as:
• The organization was instrumental in the passage of the

Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment in the U.S. Congress, an act
designed to reduce federal interference with the use of medi-
cal marijuana in states where it is legal.
• It promoted adoption of the Compassionate Access,
Research Expansion, and Respect States Act (CARERS) Act
of 2015, designed to remedy the state-federal conflict over
medical cannabis law.
• It contributed to a significant reduction in actions against
the legal use of medical marijuana by all federal agencies
except for the Food and Drug Administration.
• It promoted efforts to guarantee the safety and efficacy of mari-
juana products used for medical purposes in the United States.
180 Marijuana
• It promoted the adoption of improved medical marijuana

legislation at the state level throughout the nation.
• It worked on an international level to change United
Nations treaties on drugs that tend to limit or restrict the use
of marijuana for medical purposes.
ASA annually publishes a wide variety of position statements,

reports, background papers, and other documents on various
aspects of the medical marijuana issue. Among the publica-
tions currently available are the policy statements, “Cannabis
as Medicine,” “Patients’ Bill of Rights,” “Reclassifying Medical
Cannabis,” “President Obama’s Policy on Medical Cannabis,”
“Who Should Qualify as a Patient?” “Medical Cannabis Re-
search,” “Patient Cultivation,” “Medical Cannabis and Genetic
Engineering,” and “Recognition and Regulation of Distribu-
tion Centers.”
Harry J. Anslinger (1892–1975)

Anslinger was appointed the first commissioner of the Federal
Bureau of Narcotics when it was established in 1930. He held
that office for 32 years, one of the longest tenures of any federal
officials in modern history. He was consistently a strong advo-
cate for severe penalties against the manufacture, distribution,
sale, and use of certain drugs, especially marijuana.
Harry Jacob Anslinger was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania,
on May 20, 1892, to Robert J. and Rosa Christiana Fladt An-
slinger, immigrants from Switzerland and Germany, respec-
tively. Without completing high school, Anslinger attended
the Altoona Business College before taking a job with the
Pennsylvania Railroad. He received a leave of absence from
the railway that allowed him to matriculate at Pennsylvania
State College (now Pennsylvania State University), where
he received his two-year associate degree in engineering and
business management. He then returned to a full-time job at
the railroad.
Profiles 181
When World War I broke out, Anslinger was rejected for

active service because of a childhood accident that had left him
blind in one eye. Instead, he was accepted for volunteer ser-
vice at the War Department in Washington, D.C., where he
was made assistant to the Chief of Inspection of Equipment.
He remained at the War Department for only a year before
being transferred to the State Department, where his fluency in
German was a greater asset. His first overseas assignment at
State was to the U.S. mission in The Hague, The Netherlands,
in 1918, where he was made special liaison to the deposed king
of Germany, Wilhelm II. Three years later, Anslinger was trans-
ferred to the U.S. mission in Hamburg, Germany, and then,
three years later, he was transferred again, this time to the U.S.
mission in La Guaira, Venezuela.
In 1926, Anslinger received yet another assignment, this
time to Nassau, in the British Bahamas. His job in Nassau
was to try to reduce the flow of liquor from the Bahamas to
the United States, following the adoption of the Prohibition
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920. At the time,
the Bahamas were one of the major venues for the shipment
of illegal alcohol to the United States. Anslinger’s work in this
post was so impressive that the U.S. Treasury asked the State
Department to transfer him to its own offices in Washington,
D.C. His first job at Treasury was as chief of the Division of
Foreign Control. That post allowed him to become active in
the international war against illegal drugs, a war of major con-
cern to the United States, but of relatively little concern to
most other countries in the world. As official representative of
the United States, Anslinger attended the Conference on Sup-
pression of Smuggling in London in 1926; the Conference on
Suppression of Smuggling in Paris in 1927; and the Interna-
tional Congress against Alcoholism in Antwerp in 1928. In all
of these settings, Anslinger worked aggressively to promote an
American agenda for much stronger legislative and regulatory
controls over the production, transport, and use of narcotics,
including marijuana.
182 Marijuana
In 1929, Anslinger was promoted to assistant commissioner

in the U.S. Bureau of Prohibition. He held that position only
briefly before being selected as the first commissioner of the
newly created Federal Bureau of Narcotics in 1930. He began
his assignment at the bureau at a time when state and federal
officials were debating the need (or lack of need) for regu-
lations of hemp and marijuana. Both hemp and marijuana
are obtained from plants in the genus Cannabis, the former
with many important industrial applications, and the latter
used almost exclusively as a recreational drug. Historians have
discussed the motivations that may have driven Anslinger’s
attitudes about the subject, but his actions eventually dem-
onstrated a very strong opposition to the growing, processing,
distribution, and use of all products of the cannabis plant.
He was instrumental in formulating federal policies and laws
against such use that developed during the 1930s. Throughout
his career, he also continued his efforts to influence the direc-
tion of international drug policies, always working for more
severe penalties in drug trafficking and drug use. In this effort,
he served as co-observer at the League of Nation’s Opium Ad-
visory Commission between 1932 and 1939, as a delegate to
the International Conference for Suppression of Illicit Traffic
in Narcotic Drugs of the League of Nations in 1936, and as
U.S. representative to the Commission on Narcotic Drugs of
the United Nations in 1952.
Anslinger has long been criticized for the extremes with
which he pursued his campaign against drugs and his use of
racist and sexist themes in that campaign. At one time or an-
other, for example, he wrote that:
• There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and

most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers.
Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana
usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual
relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others.
Profiles 183
• Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the

eye, step on white men’s shadows and look at a white woman
twice.
• Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.
Anslinger remained in his post until 1970, staying on even

after his 70th birthday until a replacement was found. He then
served two more years as U.S. representative to the United Na-
tions Narcotic Convention. By the end of his tenure with the
convention, he was blind and suffered from both angina and
an enlarged prostate. He died in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania,
on November 14, 1975, of heart failure.
Although little definitive information is available, Anslinger
apparently earned his LL.B. from the Washington College of
Law in 1930 and was later awarded an honorary LL.D. degree
from the University of Maryland (date unknown). Among his
many awards were the Proctor Gold Medal, Alumni Recog-
nition Award of American University, distinguished alumnus
award of Pennsylvania State University, Remington Medal,
and the Alexander Hamilton Medal. He was the author or co-
author of three major books, The Traffic in Narcotics (1953),
The Murderers: The Story of the Narcotic Gangs (1961), and The
Protectors: The Heroic Story of the Narcotics Agents, Citizens, and
Officials in Their Unending, Unsung Battles against Organized
Crime in America and Abroad (1964).
Steve DeAngelo (1958– )

As his official biography claims, DeAngelo “has spent his en-
tire career at the intersection of cannabis activism and en-
trepreneurship.” He is currently CEO of Harborside Health
Center, in Oakland, California, a company he cofounded
with Troy Dayton in 2006. Harborside Center is currently
California’s largest medical marijuana facility and, by some
accounts, the most respected such facility in the state, if not
in the country.
184 Marijuana
Steve DeAngelo was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on

June 12, 1958. At an early age, he moved with his family to
Washington, D.C., where his father worked in the administra-
tion of President John Kennedy. The DeAngelo family was ac-
tive in the civil rights movement at the time, and Steve’s father
served with the Peace Corps from 1967 to 1969. The family’s
relatively liberal views did not extend to the use of marijuana,
however. When his parents learned that Steve, at the age of 13,
had begun smoking the drug, they confiscated his stash and
grounded him for a period of time. In response, Steve ran away
from home for “a few weeks.” When he returned, he had not
abandoned his interest in marijuana, and was later suspended
from school twice for smoking the drug. By the time he was 16,
DeAngelo decided that school was not an important part of his
life, and he dropped out.
That act only gave DeAngelo more time for the political ac-
tivism in which he had been involved for many years. One of
his first acts was to join the Yippies, more formally the Youth
International Party, founded by activists Abbie Hoffman and
Jerry Rubin in 1968 to carry out actions in opposition to
the Vietnam War and other national policies to which they
objected. Although still only 16 years old, DeAngelo was one of
the key organizers of a marijuana “smoke-in” on July 4, 1970,
an event that is still celebrated on that date every year. He also
became active in other venues, primarily the music industry,
where he became a record producer, nightclub manager, and
concert promoter, as well as renovated a number of concert
sites in which to produce events. Along the way, DeAngelo re-
turned to formal schooling at the University of Maryland, from
which he earned his law degree in 1984.
After completing his studies at Maryland, DeAngelo opened
a home in Washington, D.C., called The Nuthouse, to serve as
a refuge for individuals interested in the movement to legalize
marijuana. It was there that he later met Jack Herer, author of
one of the most famous books on cannabis in history, The Em-
peror Wears No Clothes. Very much impressed by the message
Profiles 185
of the book, DeAngelo decided to join with Herer on a cross-

country tour to make known the message of the book, namely
that cannabis was not the entirely evil drug that it had come to
be viewed, but that it had a number of valuable applications in
everyday life.
When the tour was completed, DeAngelo returned to
Washington, where he worked on the city’s Initiative 59, call-
ing for approval of marijuana for medical uses. Although the
proposition won by a large margin, the U.S. Congress ex-
erted its authority to invalidate the vote, which it did, much
to DeAngelo’s consternation. He decided that California was
a more receptive region for the work he wanted to accom-
plish in the field of marijuana legalization, and he returned
to the state in 2000, where he has spent essentially all of his
professional efforts in that campaign. One of his first acts in
California was to join with other interested individuals in
the formation of Americans for Safe Access, an organization
designed to educate the general public about the beneficial
effects of marijuana for a variety of medical conditions. He
also wrote and produced a film called For Medical Use Only,
also touting the medical benefits of cannabis products.
In 2006, DeAngelo applied (along with many other individ-
uals) for a license being offered by the city of Oakland for the
creation of a dispensary for medical marijuana. He was awarded
the license, which he used to found Harborside Health Center,
a facility designed to provide medical marijuana that had been
tested and certified for individuals of all income levels by a staff
of highly trained medical professionals.
Lyster Hoxie Dewey (1865–1944)

Dewey is probably best known for his lifetime commitment to
the study of useful fiber plants and weeds, including cotton,
flax, sisal, henequén, manila, and hemp. The significance of his
work to modern life came to light in 2010 when a cache of his
never-published personal diaries was discovered at a yard sale in
186 Marijuana
Amherst, New York. The diaries contained a meticulous record

of his research on a variety of hemp plants between 1896 and
1944 on a plot of land now occupied by the Pentagon. The dia-
ries were later purchased by the Hemp Industries Association
to illustrate the critical role of hemp, later to fall into disrepute
because of its association with marijuana, in an earlier period
of American history.
Lyster Hoxie Dewey was born in Cambridge, Michigan, on
March 14, 1865. He graduated from Tecumseh (Michigan)
High School in 1885 and then matriculated at Michigan Ag-
ricultural College (now Michigan State University). He then
stayed on at the college as an instructor in botany for two years
before accepting a position as assistant botanist with the U.S.
Department of Agriculture. He remained at the USDA until
his retirement in 1935, at which point he had become direc-
tor of research on all fiber plants with the exception of cotton.
After his retirement, he published a group of papers summariz-
ing much of his work at the USDA including a special section
on taxonomy of fiber plants in the department’s Standard-
ized Plant Names publication and two publications on fiber
plants, “Fibras Vegetales y su Produccion en America,” for the
Pan American Union, and “Fiber Production in the Western
Hemisphere” for the Department of Agriculture.
Dewey died at his home in Kenmore, New York, on Novem-
ber 27, 1944.
Drug Free America Foundation, Inc.

Drug Free American Foundation, Inc. (DFAF) is a 501(c)(3)
nonprofit organization that, according to its mission state-
ment, is “committed to developing, promoting and sustaining
global strategies, policies and laws that will reduce illegal drug
use, drug addiction, drug-related injury and death.” The orga-
nization was founded by Mr. and Mrs. Mel Sembler in 1995.
Mr. Sembler was chairman of the board of the Sembler Com-
pany, a developer and manager of shopping centers. He also
Profiles 187
served as U.S. ambassador to Italy and to Australia and Nauru.

In the DFAF 2010 annual report, Mrs. Sembler is listed as
founder and chair of the organization.
Mr. and Mrs. Sembler originally founded the organization
known as Straight, Inc., in 1976, as a nonprofit drug treat-
ment program that claims to have treated more than 12,000
young people with substance abuse problems in eight cities
in the United States. Straight was long the subject of intense
scrutiny for alleged abusive practices used in its drug treatment
programs. It later changed its name to Straight Foundation,
Inc., and spun off a number of drug treatment programs, such
as The Seed, Kids Helping Kids, Pathway Family Center, Life,
Growing Together, KIDS (of various cities and regions), SAFE,
and Alberta Adolescent Recovery Center (AARC). Drug Free
America Foundation is reputed to be one of the Straight
spinoffs. The DFAF website makes little or no mention of this
alleged connection.
Most of DFAF’s work is carried out through six divisions:
• The Institute on Global Drug Policy is an alliance of phy-

sicians, scientists, attorneys, and drug specialists who ad-
vocate for the adoption of public policies that curtail the
use of illicit and misuse of licit drugs and alcohol. A major
activity of the institute is co-sponsorship of the Journal
of Global Drug Policy and Practice with another division of
DFAF, the International Scientific and Medical Forum on
Drug Abuse. Relatively little information is available
online about the organization, membership, or activities of
the institute. In a statement announcing formation of
the division, its mission was described as “creating and
strengthening international laws that hold drug users and
dealers criminally accountable for their actions. It will vig-
orously promote treaties and agreements that provide clear
penalties to individuals who buy, sell or use harmful drugs.
It will push for a uniform legal requirement that marijuana
and other addictive drugs must meet the same scientific
188 Marijuana
standards as other drugs to be deemed therapeutic for

medical conditions.”
• The International Scientific and Medical Forum on Drug
Abuse is described by DFAF as a “brain trust” of researchers
and physicians concerned about substance abuse who have
an interest in dispelling incorrect depictions of the conse-
quences of drug use among the general public. The division
is a co-sponsor of the Journal of Global Drug Policy and Prac-
tice with The Institute on Global Drug Policy.
• The International Task Force on Strategic Drug Policy is
a network of professionals in the field of substance abuse
and community leaders who work together to develop and
implement drug reduction principles around the world.
The task force convenes meetings in cooperation with other
divisions of the DFAF to train individuals in methods of
drug reduction principles. The task force reports having held
eight such conferences of about 60 to 130 individuals since
2001 in locations such as London, Buenos Aires, Tampa,
and Guayaquil, Ecuador.
The Drug Prevention Network of the Americas (DPNA) is
a cooperative effort of nongovernmental agencies in North,
South, and Central America working to reduce demand for
illegal substances through conferences, training seminars,
and Internet communications.
• Students Taking Action Not Drugs (STAND) is a student-
based organization whose goal it is to distribute on cam-
puses accurate scientific information about the effects of
taking illegal drugs.
• National Drug-Free Workplace Alliance (NDWA) is a divi-
sion attempting to develop drug free work environments in
the state of Florida and, working with other agencies and
organizations, throughout the United States.
The organization’s website provides its views on a broad array

of drug topics, including marijuana, overcoming addiction,
Profiles 189
prescription drug abuse, drug policy, drug testing, prevention

of substance abuse, and international drug policy. Associated
with each topic is a PDF file or other attachment that provides
more detail on the subject such as on federal and state laws
dealing with medical marijuana, “the truth” about marijuana,
and how to get rich by suing a doctor who prescribes marijuana
for medical purposes. The organization’s website also contains
the Otto and Connie Moulton Library for Drug Prevention,
which contains more than 2,100 books and other media deal-
ing with substance abuse issues. In addition to three position
statements on substance abuse (on harm reduction, student
drug testing, and medical marijuana), DFAF offers a small
number of DVDs dealing with substance abuse issues, includ-
ing “True Compassion: About Marijuana,” “Real View Mirror:
Looking at Your Future, Leaving the Drug Culture Behind,”
“In Focus: A Clear Message about Drugs,” and “Deadly Indif-
ference: The Price of Ignoring the Youth Drug Epidemic.”
Drug Policy Alliance

The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) was created in July 2000 as
a result of the merger of the Lindesmith Center (TLC) and
the Drug Policy Foundation (DPF). The Lindesmith Center,
in turn, had been formed in 1994 as a think-tank for the con-
sideration of alternatives to existing policies and practices for
dealing with drug issues, while the Drug Policy Foundation
had been established in 1987 as an organization established to
work for drug reform, largely through the provision of grants
to advance further studies on drug policies. The DPA now
claims to be “the world’s leading drug policy reform organi-
zation of people who believe the war on drugs is doing more
harm than good.” The organization currently claims to have
nearly 35,000 members, with more than 300,000 individuals
receiving its one-line e-newsletter and action alerts.
DPA organizes its work under the rubric of about a half-
dozen major issues: reforming marijuana laws, harm reduction,
190 Marijuana
fighting injustice, protecting youth, defending liberty, making

economic sense, and global reform. Each of these general top-
ics is further divided into more specific issues. The reforming
marijuana laws topic, for example, covers issues such as devel-
oping a legal regulatory market for marijuana, helping indi-
viduals who have been arrested for marijuana possession, and
providing information about the potential health and social
effects of marijuana use. The topic of protecting youth is fur-
ther divided into efforts to deal with drug testing in schools
and zero-tolerance policies in some school districts, as well as
provides information and materials on “reality-based” drug
education. The making economic sense topic deals in more
detail with subjects such as problems of supply and demand
for marijuana, the problem of drug prohibition and violence,
and the economic benefits of legalizing and taxing the sale of
marijuana.
An important part of the DPA efforts on behalf of mari-
juana issue is a series of action alerts, through which mem-
bers and friends of the association are encouraged to contact
legislators, administrative officials, and other stakeholders
about specific issues of concern to the organization. During
2016, for example, DPA sponsored action alerts (1) directed
to members of the U.S. Senate encouraging them to roll back
harsh minimum sentences for drug offenses, (2) to members of
Congress asking for a stop to seizure of personal property
from individuals suspected of violating drug laws, (3) to
President Barack Obama to overhaul the operation of the
Drug Enforcement Administration, (4) to the U.S. Senate to
legalize medical marijuana nationwide, and (5) to President
Obama to free prisoners who have been convicted of minor
drug offenses.
The Drug Policy Alliance publishes a number of reports, fact
sheets, and other print and electronic materials on the topic of
marijuana legalization. Members receive the tri-annual newslet-
ter the Ally, which provides information on the organization’s
current activities and successes. Other publications include
Profiles 191
“Safety First: A Reality-Based Approach to Teens and Drugs,” a

tool designed to help parents evaluate and discuss strategies for
protecting teenagers from drug abuse; “Crime and Punishment
in New Jersey: The Criminal Code and Public Opinion on Sen-
tencing,” a report on the legal status of marijuana in that state;
“Drug Courts Are Not the Answer: Toward a Health-Centered
Approach to Drug Use,” an analysis of existing laws on mari-
juana possession; “Overdose: A National Crisis Taking Root in
Texas,” a report on the growing number of overdose deaths in
that state and the United States; “Arresting Latinos for Mari-
juana in California: Possession Arrests in 33 Cities, 2006–08,”
a report on the special risk faced by Latinos in California for
marijuana offenses; and “Healing a Broken System: Veterans
Battling Addiction and Incarceration,” which deals with the
special problems of marijuana use faced by veterans returning
from service in Iraq and Afghanistan.
On its website, DPA also provides an excellent resource deal-
ing with drug facts. Some of the topics covered on this page
include fundamental facts about marijuana and other drugs,
some new solutions for dealing with the nation’s drug prob-
lems, the relevance of federal and state drug laws for individu-
als, a summary of individual rights in connection with existing
drug laws, statistical information about the nation’s war on
drugs, and drug laws around the world.
European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and

Drug Addiction
The concept of an all-European agency to deal with the grow-
ing problem of substance abuse on the continent was first pro-
posed by French president Georges Pompidou in the late 1960s.
That idea languished for about two decades before it was raised
once more in 1989 by French president François Mitterrand in
1989. Mitterrand suggested a seven-step program that would
involve establishing a common method for analyzing drug
addiction in the European states: harmonizing national policies
192 Marijuana
for substance abuse; strengthening controls and improving

cooperation among states; finding ways of implementing the
1988 UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs
and Psychotropic Substances; coordinating policies and prac-
tices between producing and consuming countries; developing
a common policy dealing with drug-related money laundering;
and designating a single individual in each country responsible
for antidrug actions within that country.
Mitterrand’s suggestion led to a series of actions within the
European community that eventually resulted, in 1993, in
the creation of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs
and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) under Council Regulation
(EEC) number 302/93. The general administrative structure
was established the following year, consisting of an executive
director, a management board, and a scientific committee.
The management board is the primary decision-making body
for EMCDDA. It meets at least once a year and is composed
of one representative from each member state of the European
Union (EU), two representatives from the European Commis-
sion, and two representatives from the European Parliament.
The board adopts an annual work program and a three-year
work program that guides the organization’s day-to-day op-
erations. The three-year program is developed with input
from a wide variety of sources, including the general public
(through the organization’s website). The 2016–2018 pro-
gram focused on six strategic action areas, communicating
evidence and knowledge exchange; early warning and threat
assessment; situation, responses, and trend analysis; infor-
mation collection and management; quality assurance; and
cooperation with partners.
The scientific committee consists of 15 members appointed
by the management board for the purpose of advising the
board on scientific issues related to substance abuse. The first
meeting of the management board was held in April 1994 at
its Lisbon headquarters, where its administrative offices remain
Profiles 193
until today. Much of the work of EMCDDA takes place within

seven units of the scientific committee. The seven units focus
on prevalence, data management and content coordination;
consequences, responses, and best practices; supply reduction
and new drugs; Reitox and external partners; communication;
information and communication technology; and administra-
tion. Reitox is the name given to a network of human and com-
puter links among the 27 nations that make up the EMCDDA
operation.
The EMCDDA website is one of the richest resources
available on nearly every aspect of substance abuse issues
in the world. It contains information on a wide variety of
topics, such as health consequences (deaths and mortality,
infectious diseases, treatment demand, and viral hepatitis);
prevalence and epidemiology (general population surveys,
drug trends in youth, problem drug use, key indicators, and
wastewater analysis); best practice (prevention, treatment,
harm reduction, standards and guidelines, Exchange on
Drug Demand Reduction Action (EDDRA), and Evalua-
tion Instruments Bank (EIB)); drug profiles (amphetamine,
barbiturates, benzodiazepines, BZP and other piperazines,
cannabis, cocaine, and crack, fentanyl, hallucinogenic mush-
rooms, heroin, khat, LSD, MDMA, methamphetamine, Salvia
divinorum, synthetic cannabinoids and “Spice,” synthetic
cathinones, synthetic cocaine derivatives, and volatile sub-
stances); health and social interventions (harm reduction,
prevention of drug use, social reintegration, and treatment
of drug use); policy and law (EU policy and law, laws, and
public expenditure); new drugs and trends (action on new
drugs); supply and supply reduction (interventions against
drug supply, interventions against diversion of chemical pre-
cursors, interventions against money laundering activities,
supply reduction, markets, and crime and supply reduc-
tion indicators); resources by drug (cannabis thematic page,
cocaine and crack thematic page, and opioids and heroin
194 Marijuana
thematic page); drugs and society (crime, driving, social ex-

clusion, women and gender issues, and young people); and
science and research (addiction medicine, neuroscience, and
research in Europe).
Barney Frank (1940– )

Frank is a long-serving (1981–2013) member of the U.S.
House of Representatives from the Fourth Congressional Dis-
trict of Massachusetts. He is widely regarded as having been
one of the most liberal members of both the House and of
the Democratic Party. He is perhaps best remembered for
his legislative efforts during the economic downturn that ran
from 2006 into the middle of the 2010s. He spearheaded the
passage of legislation that led to the creation of the Troubled
Asset Relief Program (TARP) in 2008, which allowed the
U.S. Treasury to buy up bad mortgage securities. In 2010, he
was one of the two major co-sponsors (with Senator Chris-
topher Dodd, D-CT) of a bill enacting regulatory reform of
the nation’s financial structure. Frank was also a lead sponsor
of a number of bills to reform the nation’s marijuana laws, es-
sentially aimed at reducing or eliminating fines and penalties
for the use of marijuana for personal purposes. During his
tenure, Frank sponsored and co-sponsored a number of bills
designed to decriminalize marijuana and to authorize the use
of marijuana for medical purposes. Among these bills were
the States’ Rights to Medical Marijuana Act of 2001 (H.R.
2592), the Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults
Act of 2008 (HR 5843; reintroduced in 2009 as H.R. 2943),
the States’ Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act of 2011
(H.R. 1983), and the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition
Act of 2011 (H.R. 2306).
Barney Frank was born Barnett Frank on March 31, 1940, in
Bayonne, New Jersey, to Samuel and Elsie (née Golush) Frank.
Samuel Frank operated a truck stop in Jersey City, which reput-
edly had connections to crime that led to his incarceration in
Profiles 195
prison for a year. After graduating from Bayonne High School

in 1957, Frank matriculated at Harvard College, from which
he graduated in 1962. (He had taken a year off to deal with
family affairs upon his father’s death, a period during which his
father’s Mafia friends were “very helpful.”) Frank then enrolled
in the Ph.D. program in government at Harvard, but left the
program in 1968 to become chief assistant to Boston mayor
Kevin White. Although Frank eventually earned his law degree
from Harvard in 1977, he had set his path on a role in politics
by joining White’s staff. After three years with the mayor, he
joined the staff of Congressman Michael J. Harrington, Dem-
ocratic representative from the Massachusetts’s Sixth District,
as administrative assistant.
After a year with Representative Harrington, Frank ran for
and won a seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives
from Boston’s Back Bay District. He also immediately made a
name for himself crusading for liberal approaches to solving
social problems in Boston. He was easily elected to three more
terms in the Massachusetts House. In addition to his position
in the Massachusetts legislature, Frank taught part time at the
Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government,
at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and at Boston
University.
A somewhat unusual opportunity presented itself to Frank
in 1979 when Pope John Paul II decreed that members of the
Roman Catholic clergy were not allowed to hold political
office, thereby making it impossible for the sitting member of
the U.S. House of Representatives for Massachusetts’s Fourth
District, Father Robert Drinan, from continuing in office.
Frank ran for the office and won by a vote of 52% to 48%.
Two years later, Frank anticipated an even more difficult chal-
lenge when he was paired with sitting Congresswoman Mar-
garet Heckler in the newly drawn Fourth District. Frank won
the election going away, however, by 20 percentage points.
It was the closest election he was to experience during the
remainder of his career.
196 Marijuana
Jon Gettman (1957– )

Gettman has long been active in the campaign to have mari-
juana rescheduled under provisions of the Controlled Sub-
stances Act of 1970 (CSA) from its current listing as a Schedule
I substance to a less restrictive status. A Schedule I substance
is so listed because (1) it has a high potential for abuse, (2) the
substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment
in the United States, and (3) there is a lack of accepted safety
for use of the substance under medical supervision. The act
makes it illegal for any person, except with special authoriza-
tion, (1) to manufacture, distribute, dispense, or possess with
intent to manufacture, distribute, or dispense the substance,
or (2) to create, distribute, or dispense, or possess with intent
to distribute or dispense, a counterfeit of the scheduled sub-
stance. Gettman was a leader of the Coalition for Rescheduling
Cannabis, a group of organizations and individuals formed in
about 2002 seeking to have marijuana listed under a less re-
strictive CSA schedule. Members of the Coalition included the
American Alliance for Medical Cannabis, Americans for Safe
Access, California National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws (NORML), the Drug Policy Forum of Texas,
High Times magazine, the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Cen-
ter, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana
Laws (NORML), the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative,
and Patients Out of Time. Ten years later, in 2012, the District
of Columbia Court of Appeals announced that it would finally
hear oral arguments in the case.
Jon Gettman was born on August 20, 1957. He attended
the Catholic University of America, from which he received
his B.A. in anthropology in 1985; the American University
(Washington, D.C.), which awarded him his M.S. in justice
(with a specialization in drug policy) in 1992; and George
Mason University, where he received his Ph.D. in public
policy (specialization: regional economic development) in
2000. While still a young man, from 1973 to 1980, Gettman
Profiles 197
worked for the Stone Age Trading Company in wholesale and

retail management. He then became involved in the effort
to have marijuana use legalized in the United States, serving
as policy analyst, business manager, director of communica-
tions, president, and national director of NORML from 1981
to 1993. In 1994 he left NORML to work on his own. He
has been research analyst, program manager, expert witness,
and writer and columnist for public policy, business, legal,
and editorial clients. In these roles, he has testified in impor-
tant cannabis-related cases, including United States v. Phillip
Schmoll, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Ryan Free, United
States v. Timothy Perry, Commonwealth of Virginia v. Michael
Firth, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. James Almquist, Com-
monwealth of Virginia v. David May, and Commonwealth of
Virginia v. Brad Gillies. Gettman has also appeared before a
number of state and federal legislative bodies, including the
House/Senate Special Subcommittee of Agriculture, and the
House Committee of Agriculture of the Virginia legislature, and
the Senate Judiciary Committee of the Alaska legislature. In
addition to his freelance work as a consultant, Gettman has
held other work positions, such as program developer, re-
search analyst, and project manager for Mouncey & Company,
Waterford, Virginia; instructor at the College of Southern
Maryland, La Plata, Maryland; and volunteer resource person
for the Loudoun County, Virginia, Task Force to Propose a
Rural Economic Development Plan. Gettman has also served
as adjunct assistant professor in the Graduate School of Man-
agement and Technology at the University of Maryland Uni-
versity College (2008 to present); adjunct professor in public
administration at Shepherd University (2007 to present); and
senior research fellow at the School of Public Policy of George
Mason University (2003 to 2005 and 2008 to present).
Gettman has written and spoken extensively about the
reclassification of cannabis in the United States. Among
his print articles are “Marijuana Arrests in Massachusetts,”
“Marijuana Treatment Admissions,” “Marijuana Use in the
198 Marijuana
United States,” “Lost Taxes and Other Costs of Marijuana

Laws,” “Marijuana Production in the United States,” (all
Bulletin of Cannabis Reform); “Marijuana and the Controlled
Substances Act” ( Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics); and
“Decriminalizing Marijuana” (American Behavioral Scientist).
Among his conference presentations are “Medical Cannabis
and the Public Policy Process,” “Medical Cannabis and the
Public Policy Process,” “Dynamic Portfolio Variance Analysis
and the Study of Regional Economic Instability,” “Crimes of
Indiscretion: Marijuana Arrests in the United States,” “Per-
sonal Use v. Distribution of Cannabis,” and “Science and the
End of Marijuana Prohibition.”
Hemp Industries Association

The Hemp Industries Association (HIA) is a federally char-
tered 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization representing the
hemp industry in the United States, Canada, and a num-
ber of other countries, including Australia, China, Mexico,
the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
The organization was formed in 1992 to work for fair and
equitable treatment of hemp, a material produced from the
cannabis plant with a very low (usually less than 1%) concen-
tration of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the compound
responsible for the psychoactive effects associated with the
ingestion of marijuana. The mission statement of the organiza-
tion lists the following goals:
• Educate the general public about the qualities of hemp that

make it useful for a variety of consumer products.
• Facilitate the exchange of information and technology be-
tween hemp agriculturists, processors, manufacturers, dis-
tributors, and retailers.
• Maintain and defend the integrity of hemp products.
• Advocate and support socially responsible and environmen-
tally sound business practices.
Profiles 199
As of 2016, the organization had more than 320 members rep-

resenting virtually every conceivable phase of the hemp indus-
try. Some examples of HIA members and the products and
services they offer include:
• AZIDA: Body care products;

• Cannabis Basics: Producer of hempseed oil and cannabis
flower topical therapy products;
• FarmMax Biomass Harvesting Equipment: Developers of
specialized biomass harvesting equipment;
• Native Farms: Suppliers of hemp seed and raw hemp;
• Nature’s Path Organic Foods: Food products;
• Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps: Body care and food products;
• Hemp Traders: Textiles, fabric, and yarns;
• Nutiva: Books, periodicals, food products, seed oil, seeds,
and grain;
• Satori Movement, Inc.: Apparel, accessories, and skateboards;
• Ultra Oil for Pets: Animal care products and seed oil;
• Concord Minutemen Solutions Group: Consulting, lobby-
ing, promoting, and marketing.
One of HIA’s most important accomplishments was defeat of

a 2001 effort by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA) to include hemp under Schedule I of the Controlled
Substances Act of 1970 (CSA), a category under which another
cannabis product, marijuana, is currently listed. Substances
listed under Schedule I are regarded as (1) having a high poten-
tial for abuse, (2) having no currently accepted medical use in
treatment in the United States, and (3) lacking safe use under
medical supervision. The DEA argued that it had the authority
to list hemp as a Schedule I substance because in almost all cases,
the fibers and oils made from hemp contain greater than zero
concentrations of THC. Granted that those concentrations are
very low, the DEA said, they are still measurable and, therefore,
200 Marijuana
capable of being listed under Schedule I under the CSA. The

HIA brought suit against the DEA, claiming that the agency
had gone beyond the provisions laid down by the CSA. The as-
sociation was funded and supported in this effort by one of its
best-known and economically successful members, known at
the time as ALL-ONE-GOD-FAITH, Inc., doing business as
(and much better known to the public as) Dr. Bronner’s Magic
Soaps, and joined by a number of other hemp interests, includ-
ing Atlas Corporation; Nature’s Path Foods USA, Inc.; Hemp
Oil Canada, Inc.; Hempzels, Inc.; Kenex Ltd.; Tierra Madre,
LLC; Ruth’s Hemp Foods, Inc.; and the Organic Consumers
Association. Plaintiffs were eventually successful in their com-
plaint, with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in 2003
that the DEA had overstepped its authority in listing hemp as
a Schedule I substances. The material is, therefore, still legal to
grow and sell in the United States, provided that its THC level
is less than 0.3%.
HIA achieved another important breakthrough in 2010
when it purchased the diaries of Lyster Dewey, a project once
again financed by Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap. (David Bronner,
current president of Bronner’s Magic Soaps, is past president
of HIA and a current member of the organization’s board of
advisors.) Lyster Dewey has been described by hemp authority,
David P. West, as “unarguably the most significant individual
in US hemp history.” West makes that assessment because of
Dewey’s role in the study of hemp at the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) from 1890 to 1935. Dewey joined the
department as “assistant to the botanist” in 1890 and remained
with the department for all but the last two years of his life.
In 1912, he began a hemp breeding program that, by 1917,
was beginning to produce healthier, more productive variet-
ies of the cannabis plant. The interesting point that connects
Dewey with HIA was the discovery of Dewey’s notebooks at
a yard sale in Amherst, New York, in 2010. The notebooks
not only tell about Dewey’s work with the cannabis plant, but
provide photograph evidence of the success of his research.
Profiles 201
Perhaps most interesting of all, at least from a public relations

standpoint, was the discovery that Dewey conducted much of
his cannabis research on the present site of the Pentagon, the
home of the U.S. military. HIA took advantage of this dis-
covery by announcing the First Annual Hemp History Week
in May 2010, celebrating, among other things, the discovery
of Dewey’s notebooks. Reports of that event told of nearly
200 events in 32 states, including programs in support of
House Bill 1866, the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2009,
introduced by Representative Ron Paul (R-TX).
Among its activities, the HIA has developed (in conjunc-
tion with Vote Hemp) Test Pledge, a voluntary testing program
through which hemp growers pledge that the level of THC con-
tained within their products is less than can be detected by any
marijuana test. The association has also developed standards for
hemp fibers indicating whether such fibers are pure hemp (Pure
Hemp), more than half but less than pure hemp (Hemp Rich),
or more than 20% but less than 50% hemp (Hemp Content).
The HIA website also has a rich resources section that lists many
books, periodicals, reports, scientific studies, websites, and other
resources of information about hemp.
John W. Huffman (1932– )

Huffman is best known for having developed a group of syn-
thetic compounds that produce physiological effects similar
to those caused by Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the prin-
cipal psychoactive component of marijuana. These synthetic
cannabinoids are chemical analogs of THC; that is, they have
the same basic structure as THC, but differ in groups that
have been substituted on the basic molecule. The compounds
are known by abbreviations such as JWH-007, JWH-081,
and JWH-398, where the “JWH” part of the name are Huff-
man’s own initials. Huffman spent a significant portion of his
academic career working on the development of these com-
pounds, which are used primarily for two research purposes.
202 Marijuana
First, they can be used to obtain additional information about

cannabinoid receptors in the endocannabinoid system. (The
endocannabinoid system is a collection of fatty acid deriva-
tives that occur in animal bodies and the receptor sites to
which they bond. The endocannabinoid system is implicated
in a number of fundamental physiological responses, such as
appetite, pain-sensation, mood, and memory.) Scientists now
know that cannabinoids produce their psychoactive effects by
attaching to receptor sites in the brain and peripheral nervous
system, setting off a chain of chemical reactions. What they
know relatively little about is the chemical structure of those
receptors. The chemical structure of Huffman’s synthetic can-
nabinoids can be used to solve that problem by finding out
which compounds (and therefore which structures) activate
receptor sites, thereby elucidating the three-dimensional
structure of the receptor sites. The second purpose of the re-
search, arising out of these discoveries, is the development of
new pharmaceuticals that can produce cannabis-like physical
effects, such as increasing one’s appetite, reducing nausea, and
treating glaucoma.
Huffman’s research has been enormously useful in provid-
ing researchers with a better understanding of the way the
endocannabinoid system works. But that research has also
gained a level of notoriety among the general public because
of its use in developing new types of psychoactive drugs used
for recreational purposes. These drugs are incorrectly known
as synthetic cannabis when, in fact, they often consist of a
mixture of traditional herbs with mild mood-altering proper-
ties (such as Canavalia maritima, Nymphaea caerulea, and
Scutellaria nana) coated with one or more of Huffman’s syn-
thetic cannabinoids. The resulting product may have psycho-
active effects more than a hundred times greater than that
of THC. They are sold under a variety of names, including
Spice, K2, Chronic Spice, Spice Gold, Spice Silver, Stinger,
Yucatan Fire, Skunk, Pulse, and Black Mamba. When they
first became available to the general public, they were legal
Profiles 203
because they contained no THC or other banned substance.

Over time, however, a number of states in the United States
and countries around the world have banned products of
this kind.
Huffman himself has spoken out strongly about the risks
involved in using synthetic cannabinoids as recreational drugs.
The compounds were prepared, he points out, for research
purpose, and little is known about their general effects on the
body. Indeed, public health officials have reported emergency
room visits as a result of using Spice, K2, and its analogs, a
fact responsible for most of the bans now being adopted. The
problem is that most of the now-illegal compounds are still
generally available on the Internet.
John William Huffman was born in Evanston, Illinois, on
July 21, 1932. He attended Northwestern University, which
granted his B.S. in chemistry in 1954. He then continued
his studies at Harvard University, where he earned his A.M.
and his Ph.D. in chemistry in 1956 and 1957, respectively. At
Harvard, he studied under probably the century’s greatest syn-
thetic organic chemist, Robert B. Woodward. Huffman’s first
job was as assistant professor of chemistry at the Georgia In-
stitute of Technology. He left Georgia Tech in 1960 to take a
position at Clemson University as assistant professor of chem-
istry. Over time, he rose to the position of associate professor
and then, in 1967, full professor at Clemson. He remained at
Clemson until his retirement in 2005. He then continued to
work at the university as research professor until he took full
retirement in 2011. He also spent one year as visiting profes-
sor of chemistry at Colorado State University in 1982. Dur-
ing his career, Huffman published more than 100 papers in
peer-reviewed journals.
Among the honors and awards granted Huffman have
been a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Career Develop-
ment Award for 1965–1970, a Senior Scientist Award from
the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Clemson Univer-
sity Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Research
204 Marijuana
Accomplishments, and Raphael Mechoulam Annual Award in

Cannabinoid Research.
In June 2011, Huffman talked with ABC News about the
dangers of synthetic cannabinoids as recreational drugs. It
would make more sense, he said, to legalize the use of mari-
juana, which has been thoroughly studied and whose effects
are now well known. “The scientific evidence is,” he explained,
“that it’s not a particularly dangerous drug,” and, in any case, it
is much less dangerous than the poorly understood and poten-
tially highly risky synthetic cannabinoids.
International Association for

Cannabinoid Medicines
The International Association for Cannabinoid Medicines
(IACM) was founded in March 2000 for the purpose of ad-
vancing knowledge about cannabis, cannabinoids, and the
endocannabinoid system and related topics. A major mission
of the organization is to discover and distribute information
related to how information about cannabinoids can be used
for therapeutic purposes. In 2009, the organization changed its
original name, International Association for Cannabis as Medi-
cine to its current name. The change in name reflected a recog-
nition by the organization that research has found a number of
substances that affect cannabinoid receptors beyond cannabis
itself and that a wider range of researchers should be attracted
to the services that the association offers. The IACM statement
of mission identifies five primary areas of concern:
• Support for research on cannabinoid products and the endo-
cannabinoid system;
• Promotion of the exchange of information about cannabi-
noids and the endocannabinoid system among researchers,
healthcare practitioners, patients, and the general public;
• Preparation and distribution of information about the phar-
macology, toxicology, and therapeutic applications of can-
nabinoids and modulators of the endocannabinoid system;
Profiles 205
• Monitoring international and national developments related

to therapeutic applications of the cannabinoids;
• Cooperation with other organizations whose goals and mis-
sion are similar to those of the International Association for
Cannabinoid Medicines.
The three most important functions of the association are its

website, its two major publications, and its annual confer-
ence. The IACM website is a treasure chest trove of informa-
tion on the medicine, science, and law related to cannabinoids
and the endocannabinoid system. For example, the section
on medicine includes reports on medical uses of the cannabi-
noids, reported side effects of the use of cannabinoids, and a
large selection of studies and case reports. The section on sci-
ence provides definitions of important terms used in discuss-
ing cannabinoids and the endocannabinoid system, a list of
clinical studies with descriptions of their general findings, an
interactive database of clinical studies, and a comprehensive
review and commentary of studies on cannabinoids and the
endocannabinoid system between 2005 and 2014. The law
and politics section provides a general summary of the legal
status of cannabinoid therapeutics in about a dozen coun-
tries, including Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Israel,
New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United
Kingdom, and the United States. Each of these summaries
discusses laws dealing with the therapeutic uses of cannabi-
noids, court rulings, and a review of the legal and political
“realities” in each country.
IACM makes available two essential publications in the
field of cannabinoid therapeutics. One is Cannabinoids, a
peer-reviewed journal published electronically on an irregu-
lar, as-needed basis. It consists of mini reviews of recent medi-
cal and scientific research, ideas, and issues; commentaries on
other articles in the field of cannabinoid therapeutics; and
letters about relevant topics in the field. Another publication
of IACM was the short-lived Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics,
206 Marijuana
which produced 10 issues between 2001 and 2004, at which

time it discontinued publication. IACM Bulletin is a free,
bi-weekly, online publication that covers every aspect of can-
nabinoid therapeutics. All past copies of the IACM Bulletin
are available in the archives section of the organization’s
website.
The IACM’s other major activity is a biannual conference, held
in odd-numbered years at various locations. The 2017 conference
will be held in Cologne, Germany, on September 29–30, 2017.
Marijuana Policy Project

The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) was founded in 1995 by
Rob Kampia, Chuck Thomas, and Mike Kirshner, former mem-
bers of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana
Laws (NORML), after an internal disagreement about pro-
posed changes in the parent organization. MPP was chartered
in the District of Columbia as a nonprofit association lobbying
for changes in the legal status of marijuana. The organization
continues as a lobbying organization, while also maintaining
a 501(c)(4) tax-free educational foundation, the MPP Foun-
dation, to which charitable contributions can be made. MPP’s
mission statement consists of four major objectives: “(1) in-
crease public support for non-punitive, non-coercive marijuana
policies; (2) identify and activate supporters of non-punitive,
non-coercive marijuana policies; (3) change state laws to reduce
or eliminate penalties for the medical and non-medical use of
marijuana; and (4) gain influence in Congress.” Its correspond-
ing vision statement calls for a nation in which marijuana is
regulated in much the same way that alcohol currently is regu-
lated, in which education about marijuana use is “honest and
realistic,” and in which treatment for those who abuse mari-
juana is provided in a non-coercive way aimed at reduced harm
to the individual.
The work of the Marijuana Policy Project is divided into a
half-dozen major areas. In the field of legislation, it promotes
Profiles 207
the filing, consideration, and adoption of laws at the federal

and state levels designed to reduce harsh legal penalties for the
use of marijuana. It has also developed a model state medical
marijuana law for legislators’ consideration. MPP also works
at both federal and state levels to influence legislative action
on all phases of marijuana laws, including medical marijuana
policies and laws in particular. The Marijuana Policy Project
also organizes and conducts a number of marijuana-related
campaigns that deal with a changing set of themes, such as
(in 2016) Consume Responsibly, Minnesotans for Compas-
sionate Care, Marijuana Policy Coalition of Maryland, Regu-
late Rhode Island, Vermont Coalition to Regulate Marijuana,
Texans for Responsible Marijuana Policy, and Mandatory
Madness.
Another area of focus for MPP is its Patients campaign,
which collects and distributes stories of specific individuals
who require and/or have used marijuana for medical pur-
poses. The organization’s website carries these stories on its
“Patients” page. Finally, the organization’s Victims campaign
tells the stories of individuals who have become enmeshed
in the legal system because of their possession and/or use of
marijuana.
MPP also organizes its work into a number of “issues” areas
that deal with specific aspects of the marijuana legalization
effort. In 2016, those issues included medical marijuana laws
and public safety; Colorado: the economy after legalization
and regulation; medical marijuana protection in 50 states;
summary of MPP’s model medical cannabis bill; and racial
justice.
The Marijuana Policy Project is a rich source of written and
electronic articles and reports on many aspects of the legaliza-
tion of marijuana. They include items such as PDF files on
“Know the Facts,” “Marijuana Prohibition Facts,” “Marijuana
Policy Map,” “Tax & Regulate: Effective Arguments,” “Top Ten
Reasons to Tax & Regulate Marijuana,” “Dollars and Common
Sense: Summary and Arguments for MPP’s Decriminalization
208 Marijuana
Bill,” “MPP’s Model Decriminalization Bill,” “State Polling,”

“Federal Obstruction of Medical Marijuana Research Memo,”
and “Federal Enforcement Policy De-Prioritizing Medical
Marijuana.” Other articles and reports available from MPP
include “Overview and Explanation of MPP’s Model State
Medical Marijuana Bill,” “Marijuana and DUI Laws: How
Can We Best Guard against Impaired Driving,?” “Marijuana:
Myths vs. Reality,” “Implications of U.S. Supreme Court Med-
ical Marijuana Ruling,” “Common Questions about Mari-
juana,” “Treatment for Marijuana Problems: Separating Fact
from Fiction,” “Medical Marijuana Overview,” “Model State
Medical Marijuana Bill,” and “Questions and Answers about
SATIVEX® Liquid Medical Marijuana.”
Raphael Mechoulam (1930– )

Mechoulam is professor of medicinal chemistry and natural
products at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. He
is best known for having isolated, determined the chemi-
cal structure of, and synthesized Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol,
best known as THC, the primary psychoactive ingredient in
cannabis.
Raphael Mechoulam was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, on
November 5, 1930. His father was a physician and head of a
local hospital. His mother was not employed, but, as he later
told an interviewer with the Endocannabinoid System Net-
work (ESN), “enjoyed the life of a well-to-do Jewish family.”
Mechoulam attended the American Grade School in Sofia,
“the only regular schooling” he could remember, as he told
the ESN interviewer. As World War II approached, life for the
Mechoulams became much more difficult because of the
anti-Semitic laws adopted by the Nazi-leaning Bulgarian gov-
ernment. The family was forced to move from village to village
seeking enough work to survive. Eventually, Raphael’s father
was sent to a concentration camp, an experience he survived.
Mechoulam was able to obtain only one year of secondary
Profiles 209
education, at Sofia’s First Male Gymnasium, where he had his

first exposure to chemical engineering, an experience that he
later said he did not enjoy.
As circumstances in Bulgaria became ever more difficult for
Jewish families, the Mechoulams finally decided to emigrate
to Israel in 1949. There Raphael enrolled at the Hebrew Uni-
versity at Jerusalem, from which he received his M.Sc. in bio-
chemistry in 1952. It was not until he began his military service
a year later, however, did that he really become interested in
scientific research. His assignment in the military involved a
research project on insecticides. It was as a result of that ex-
perience, he later told an ESN interviewer, that he “found the
independence of research to be an addiction from which I do
not want to be cured.”
Upon completing his military service in 1956, Mechoulam
decided to return to academia, beginning his doctoral studies
at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel. He completed his
studies and was granted his Ph.D. in steroid studies in 1958.
After a two-year postdoctoral program at the Rockefeller In-
stitute in New York, Mechoulam returned to Israel, where he
served first as junior scientist, and later as senior scientist, at the
Weizmann Institute from 1960 to 1965. His research assign-
ments at Weizmann involved the study of natural products,
such as alkaloids, terpenes, and cannabinoids. It was during
his tenure at Weizmann that Mechoulam and his colleagues
first identified THC as the primary psychoactive compound in
cannabis and then were able to synthesize the substance in the
laboratory. The accomplishment was significant because can-
nabis was at the time one of the most poorly understood of
all psychoactive compounds. Laws against its possession made
research difficult and without access to the pure substance,
learning more about its chemical structure and properties was
difficult. Mechoulam’s research changed that scenario and made
it possible for researchers to mount an aggressive campaign to
understand more about the compound and the mechanisms by
which it acts in animal bodies.
210 Marijuana
Mechoulam’s discoveries about THC marked only the be-

ginning of a lifelong study of the whole cannabinoid family.
He eventually isolated and identified a large number of natu-
rally occurring members of the family. In 1992, Mechoulam’s
research took a somewhat different direction when his research
team identified the first endocannabinoid, which they named
anandamide (which means “bliss” in Sanskrit). Endocannabi-
noids are substances produced by animal bodies that activate
cannabinoid receptors in the body and, thus, have psychoactive
effects similar to those of natural cannabinoids like THC. In
1995, Mechoulam’s research team discovered a second endo-
cannabinoid, arachidonoyl glycerol (2-AG), which occurs in
the intestines. Today, Mechoulam remains a major figure in
research on cannabinoids and endocannabinoids.
In 1966, Mechoulam accepted an appointment at Hebrew
University, where he was later promoted to associate professor
in 1968 and full professor in 1972. In 1975, he was named
Lionel Jacobson Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, a post he
continues to hold. From 1979 to 1982, he was named rec-
tor (academic head) of Hebrew University; and from 1983 to
1985, he served as prorector of the university. From 1993 to
1994, Mechoulam was also visiting professor in the Depart-
ment of Pharmacology at the Medical College of Richmond,
in Richmond, Virginia.
During his career, Mechoulam has received a number of
honors and awards, including the Somach Sachs Prize for the
best research by a scientist under the age of 35 at the Weiz-
mann Institute (1964); the Kolthof Prize in Chemistry from
The Technion, Haifa, Israel (1994); elected as a member of the
Israel Academy of Sciences (1994); the Hanus Medal of the
Czech Chemical Society (1998); the David R. Bloom Prize of
the Center for Pharmacy at Hebrew University (1998); the
Israel Prize in Exact Sciences (2000); the Heinrich Wieland
Prize, endowed by Boehringer-Ingelheim (2004); the Henri-
etta Szold Prize for achievements in medical research, awarded
by the city of Tel-Aviv (2005); the Lifetime Achievement
Profiles 211
Award of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacol-

ogy (2006); a Special Award of the International Association
for Cannabinoids in Medicine (2007); the Israel Chemical
Society Prize for Excellence in Research (2009); Lifetime
Achievement Awards from Hebrew University (2010) and
the Eicosanoid Research Society (2011); and the NIDA
[National Institute on Drug Abuse] Discovery Award (2011).
In 1999, in Mechoulam’s honor, the International Canna-
binoid Research Society established an annual award to be
named The R. Mechoulam Annual Award in Cannabinoid
Research. Mechoulam has also received honorary doctorates
from Ohio State University and Complutense University,
Madrid. In addition to numerous peer-reviewed scientific
papers, Mechoulam has edited four books, has published
numerous book chapters, and has been awarded 25 patents
for his new discoveries.
Tod Hiro Mikuriya (1933–2007)

Mikuriya was possibly the best-known medical professional
working for the legalization of marijuana for medical pur-
poses. He first became interested in the topic during the
1960s, during which time he was briefly director of non-
classified marijuana research at the National Institute of
Mental Health Center for Narcotics and Drug Abuse Studies
(1967). He came to the conclusion that government officials
and many medical researchers were largely ignoring a vast
body of research on the medical benefits of marijuana and
were focusing instead on any and all research reporting the
harmful effects of the plant. In 1972, he self-published the
book for which he is perhaps best known, Marijuana Medi-
cal Papers, 1839–1972. The book contained about two dozen
studies dealing with the medical effects of marijuana, per-
sonal experiences with the drug, discussions of the therapeu-
tic value of marijuana, recent clinical studies, chemical and
pharmacological research, and a social history of the origin of
212 Marijuana
marijuana laws. Among the papers included in the book are

an early (1839) scientific paper on the medical effects of mari-
juana by W. B. O’Shaughnessy, a report on the medical effects
of Cannabis indica by the Ohio State Medical Committee on
Cannabis Indica in 1860, a review of the LaGuardia Com-
mittee report on marijuana of 1944, a section from the
Dispensatory of the United States for 1918 that contains a
description of the medical uses of marijuana, a paper on the
relative effects of alcohol and marijuana on driving ability
(1969), and an analysis of the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act as a
commentary on the social origins of marijuana laws.
Tod Hiro Mikuriya was born on September 20, 1933, in
Bucks County, Pennsylvania, to Tadafumi Mikuriya, a former
Japanese samurai who had converted to Christianity and be-
come a civil engineer who specialized in bridge design, and
Anna Schwenk Mikuriya, a German immigrant who taught
special education. Tod received his secondary education at
George School in Newtown, Pennsylvania (1948–1951),
and then matriculated at Haverford College, in Haverford,
Pennsylvania, both Quaker institutions. In 1954, Mikuriya
was expelled from Haverford for allegedly being involved in
panty raids at nearby Bryn Mawr College (an act to which
he later admitted his guilt), and he transferred to yet another
Quaker institution, Guilford College in Greensboro, North
Carolina. He remained at Guilford for only one semester be-
fore changing institutions once more, this time to Reed Col-
lege, in Portland, Oregon, from which he finally received his
bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1956. He is reported to
have earned his way through college by writing and singing
folk songs, an interest he retained throughout his life. After
graduating from Reed, Mikuriya was drafted into the U.S.
Army, where he served as a neuropsychiatric technician until
he was discharged in 1958. He then continued his studies at
Temple University, from which he received his M.D. in 1962.
He later reported that his lifelong interest in marijuana was
Profiles 213
triggered by an article about the medical uses of marijuana

that he read at Temple. Mikuriya completed his internship at
Southern Pacific Hospital (later Harkness Community Hos-
pital and now closed) and his psychiatric residencies at the
Oregon State Hospital, in Salem, and the Mendocino State
Hospital, in Talmage, California.
In October 1966, Mikuriya was appointed director of the
Drug Addiction Treatment Center at the New Jersey Neuro-
Psychiatric Institute in Princeton, New Jersey, a post he held
for 10 months. He then accepted a job as director of marijuana
research at the Center for Narcotics and Drug Abuse Studies of
the National Institute of Mental Health. He left that post after
only three months because he had become convinced that his
superiors were interested only in marijuana research with nega-
tive connotations. Mikuriya then moved to the West Coast,
where he served as consulting psychiatrist at the Alameda
County Alcoholism Clinic and the county Health Department
Drug Abuse Program in 1968 and 1969. In 1970, he went into
private practice in Berkeley while also acting as attending staff
psychiatrist at the Gladman Hospital in Oakland, California.
He remained active until a few weeks before his death on
May 20, 2007, in Berkeley.
In addition to his private practice, Mikuriya was active in
organizations that were interested in the use of marijuana for
medical purposes, as well as a number of professional organi-
zations, including the Drug Use and Abuse Committee of the
Northern California Psychiatric Society, the National Com-
mission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, the Biofeedback So-
ciety of California, and the Society of Cannabis Clinicians, of
which he was founder. For a major part of his life, Mikuriya
was essentially the only physician who advocated publicly
and enthusiastically for the use of marijuana to treat a variety
of medical conditions. In 1996, he helped draft California
Proposition 215, which legalized the use of marijuana for
medical conditions.
214 Marijuana
As part of the campaign in support of Proposition 215,

Mikuriya distributed a list of medical conditions for which
marijuana could be used in treatment, a list compiled from
the historic medical literature. After the proposition passed,
U.S. Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey held a press conference
threatening to prosecute any California doctor who wrote
prescriptions for marijuana under the recently adopted Cali-
fornia law. At that conference, where he was joined by Sec-
retary of Health, Education, and Welfare Donna Shalala
and Alan Lesher of the National Institute on Drug Abuse,
McCaffrey said of Mikuriya’s list of medical conditions, “This
isn’t medicine. This is a Cheech and Chong Show.” (Cheech
and Chong were two stand-up comedians from the 1970s
and 1980s who supposedly typified the strange behavior of
marijuana-addicted hippies.)
In 2000, the California Medical Board investigated Mikuriya
for using marijuana in the treatment of some of his patients.
The complaint was brought not by the patients, but by law
enforcement officers. The board fined him $75,000 and placed
him on probation, but he continued to practice under super-
vision. He announced that he would continue to appeal the
board’s decision, and did follow that path until his health made
it impossible for him to pursue the issue further. Mikuriya
had announced plan for an updated and expanded version of
Marijuana Medical Papers, a project he was unable to complete
before his death.
Ethan Nadelmann (1957– )

Nadelmann is widely considered to be one of the most influ-
ential individuals in the campaign to legalize the use of mari-
juana for medical and recreational purposes in the United
States. For more than two decades, he has argued that the so-
called war on drugs, especially in the case of marijuana, has
been a social, political, economic, and personal failure. It has
cost the nation untold billions of dollars, sent far too many
Profiles 215
otherwise harmless individuals to prison for extended periods

of time, and created a host of other crime-related problems.
To put his beliefs into action, Nadelmann founded the Drug
Policy Alliance in 2000. He remains executive director of the
organization today.
Ethan Nadelmann was born in New York City on March 13,
1957. His father was a rabbi, and he grew up in a strict
Jewish setting. He attended Harvard College and Harvard
University, from which he received his B.A. degree (1979),
J.D. degree (1984) and Ph.D. degree (1987). He also spent
a year at the London School of Economics, from which he
earned an M.S. degree in 1980. In 1987 Nadelmann accepted
an offer to teach politics and public affairs at Princeton Univer-
sity, where he remained until 1994. He then left Princeton to
found the Lindemith Center, a drug policy instituted founded
by philanthropist George Soros. Six years later, the Lindemith
Center merged with the Drug Policy Foundation to form the
Drug Policy Alliance.
Rolling Stone magazine has called Nadelmann “the driving
force for the legalization of marijuana in America.” He has
spoken and written about issues relating to the legalization of
marijuana for most of his professional life, arguing primarily
from the standpoint of marijuana’s legalization being an issue
of compassionate concern for individuals and sound public
health policy rather than a matter of criminal justice and law
enforcement. He has recommended that marijuana be ap-
proved for appropriate medical use and that the recreational
use of the drug be legalized and regulated as with other psycho-
active substances such as alcohol and tobacco.
Nadelmann is the author of two books, Cops across Borders:
The Internationalization of U.S. Criminal Law Enforcement
(Pennsylvania State University Press, 1993) and Policing the
Globe: Criminalization and Crime Control in International Re-
lations (with Peter Andreas; Oxford University Press, 2006).
He has also developed a popular TED talk on marijuana issues,
“Why We Need to End the War on Drugs.”
216 Marijuana
National Institute on Drug Abuse

The origins of the federal government’s interest in drug abuse
issues can be traced to 1935 with the establishment of a re-
search facility at the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS)
hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. Originally called the U.S.
Narcotics Farm, the facility was a joint project of the USPHA
and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. It eventually underwent a
number of name changes. In 1948, the facility became the
Addiction Research Center and in 1967, the National Insti-
tute of Mental Health Clinical Research Center. The National
Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) was created in 1972 by Public
Law 92-255, the Drug Abuse Office and Treatment Act of
1972, to become operational in 1974 as a division within
the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). NIDA’s
mission was to be responsible for developing a national
community-based treatment system and a program for treat-
ment of narcotic addicts. A year later, a reorganization act
created the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Admin-
istration (ADAMHA), an umbrella organization of NIDA,
NIMH, and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism. In 1992, another reorganization act moved the
NIDA from ADAMHA to the National Institutes of Health,
where it resides today.
The primary responsibility of the NIDA is to sponsor and
conduct research on all aspects of substance use and abuse.
This charge includes research on topics such as the genetic,
neurobiological, behavioral, and social mechanisms underly-
ing drug abuse and addiction; the causes and consequences of
substance abuse, including issues of concern to special popu-
lations such as ethnic minorities, youth, and women; the re-
lationship of substance abuse to other forms of mental illness
and to related issues such as unemployment, low socioeco-
nomic status, and violence; effective methods of prevention
and treatment, including new medications and behavioral
therapies for drug addiction; the relationship of substance
Profiles 217
abuse to cultural and ethical issues such as health disparities;

and the relationship of substance abuse to the acquisition,
transmission, and clinical course of diseases such as HIV/
AIDS, tuberculosis, and other diseases.
NIDA’s work is carried out through nine divisions and of-
fices concerned with specific aspects of the organization’s mis-
sion. For example, the Division of Epidemiology, Services,
and Prevention Research is responsible for a broad extramu-
ral research program on topics such as the nature, patterns,
and consequences of drug use among general, special, and
community-based populations; prevention of substance abuse
and addiction; behavioral and social science research among
communities and specialized populations; and economic
modeling and structuring of treatment systems. The Division
of Basic Neuroscience and Behavioral Research focuses on
studies of the neurobiological and behavioral actions of legal
and illegal drugs. The Division of Clinical Neuroscience and
Behavioral Research deals with applications of neurobiologi-
cal research to real-life substance abuse issues. The Division
of Pharmacotherapies and Medical Consequences of Drug
Abuse is responsible for the design, development, FDA
approval, and marketing of new medications for the treat-
ment of drug-related disorders and addictions.
One of NIDA’s signature programs is its Monitoring the
Future survey, conducted annually since 1975 by the Institute
for Social Research at the University of Michigan. The survey is
designed to provide an overview of drug use by high school
students and their attitudes toward drug abuse. Originally
aimed at 12th graders throughout the United States, in 1991,
the survey was extended to include 8th and 10th graders
in 1991. Another important NIDA function, its Research
Monographs Series, was also initiated in 1975. The series is
designed to make available to specialists in the field the most
recent information about scientific research on substance
abuse and related issues. A third important NIDA program,
the Drug Abuse Information and Treatment Referral Hotline,
218 Marijuana
was initiated in 1986 and continues to be an essential feature

of the agency’s services.
National Organization for the Reform

of Marijuana Laws (NORML)
NORML (the name by which the organization is almost uni-
versally known today) was founded in 1970 by attorney Keith
Stroup with a $5,000 grant from the Playboy Foundation. Ac-
cording to NORML’s Policy on Personal Use, the organization
“supports the removal of all penalties for the private possession
of marijuana by adults, cultivation for personal use, and the
casual nonprofit transfers of small amounts. NORML also sup-
ports the development of a legally controlled market for mari-
juana.” Although NORML is not a tax-deductible organization,
its sister association, the NORML Foundation, is a 501(c)(3)
tax-deductible organization. The NORML Foundation was
established in 1997 with the goal of educating the American
public about the costs associated with prohibiting marijuana
use and the benefits of pursuing alternative policies. The foun-
dation also provides legal support and assistance to individuals
who have been or are being persecuted under existing laws.
NORML has its main headquarters in Washington, D.C.,
with more than 100 chapters in every state of the union,
plus international chapters in Australia, Colombia, England,
France, Ireland, Norway, Spain, South Africa, and New Zealand
(five chapters). Depending on the geographic region served,
chapters are designated as regional chapters, chapters, or
subchapters.
NORML’s work focuses on four major areas: research on
marijuana use, the use of marijuana for medical purposes, legal
assistance for individuals arrested for marijuana-related crimes,
and public education. In the area of research, the organization
has been collecting information on the personal, medical, and
industrial uses of cannabis products for more than 40 years.
A collection of that information is now available on the
Profiles 219
organization’s website at http://norml.org/library. The web-

site also contains detailed information about laws dealing with
marijuana production, transport, and use. The area of the site
for doctors and patients deals with all aspects of the medical
marijuana issue, including a general overview of the topic, re-
ports on the use of marijuana for medical purposes, health re-
ports, and a detailed review of the legal availability of medical
marijuana in various parts of the country. A guide to marijuana
dispensaries is also available on the website through an external
source at http://legalmarijuanadispensary.com/.
The organization’s “Legal” page provides a list of lawyers
with special interest and expertise in the field of marijuana is-
sues, including the field of medical marijuana. It also has a
“Legal Brief Bank” page with special resources on topics such as
constitutional challenges to marijuana laws, medical marijuana
issues, search and seizure, challenges to marijuana laws based
on religious arguments, state laws on marijuana, drug testing,
drug scheduling laws and regulations, and a variety of miscel-
laneous issues. NORML’s page on “Busted?” provides practi-
cal information for individuals who have been arrested for a
marijuana-related crime. In addition to providing suggestions
for attorneys and legal defenses, the page suggests immediate
actions that one can take in response to a recent arrest. Historical
data on arrests are also provided.
Another section of the organization’s website deals with drug
testing issues, including a general overview of the philosophy be-
hind drug testing and the methodologies used in the procedure.
It also provides detailed information about the process involved
in carrying out a drug test, along with advice for individuals who
may be required to undergo drug testing for marijuana.
Office of National Drug Control Policy

The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) was es-
tablished in 1989 as a provision of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of
1988. Attached to the director’s office are administrative units
220 Marijuana
that include the offices of the Legal Counsel, Research and

Data Analysis, Legislative Affairs, Management and Admin-
istration, Public Affairs, Performance and Budget, and Inter-
governmental Public Liaison. The three programmatic offices
attached to the director’s office deal with demand reduction;
supply reduction; and state, local, and tribal affairs. The office’s
mission is to advise the president on drug-control issues, co-
ordinate drug-control activities and related funding across the
federal government, and produce the annual National Drug
Control Strategy. This document outlines efforts by the fed-
eral government to reduce illicit drug use, manufacturing and
trafficking, drug-related crime and violence, and drug-related
health consequences.
Under the administration of President Barack Obama,
ONDCP took a somewhat different approach to the nation’s
drug control problem than that of earlier administrations.
It announced on its website that it would be focusing on
“community-based prevention programs, early intervention
programs in healthcare settings, aligning criminal justice poli-
cies and public health systems to divert non-violent drug of-
fenders into treatment instead of jail, funding scientific research
on drug use, and, through the Affordable Care Act, expanding
access to substance abuse treatment.”
Much of the office’s work is organized under one of about a
half-dozen initiatives and key policies areas: prescription drug
abuse, drugged driving, community-based drug prevention,
healthcare, marijuana, methamphetamine, and public lands.
The office takes among the strongest and most aggressive
stands on the use of marijuana of any American organization.
It warns that marijuana is “addictive and unsafe,” especially for
adolescents. Cannabis contains, the office warns, chemicals
that “can change the way the brain works,” and is associated
with a host of mental and physical disorders, including “addic-
tion, respiratory and mental illness, poor motor performance,
and cognitive impairment.” The office also campaigns strongly
against the use of smoked marijuana for medicinal purposes.
Profiles 221
It acknowledges that, although some orally administered com-

ponents of cannabis may have medicinal value, “smoking mari-
juana is an inefficient and harmful method for delivering the
constituent elements that have or may have medicinal value.”
It also reiterates the fact that, while a number of states have le-
galized the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, possession
and use of the drug are illegal under federal law, and anyone
who uses marijuana for medicinal purposes in any part of the
nation is liable for arrest and prosecution under the Controlled
Substances Act of 1970.
ONDCP has also developed a number of programs for
populations that it regards as being at special risk for drug
abuse: military, veterans, and their families; women, children,
and families; college\s and university students; and Native
Americans and Alaskan Natives. The office argues, for exam-
ple, that men and women who have served in the military
are at special risk for drug abuse both while they are in active
service and after they have been discharged. They point to the
high proportion of veterans who are currently serving prison
terms (60% of 140,000 men and women) and who are “strug-
gling with substance abuse.” The office reminds members of
the military and veterans of the host of services available for
assistance with substance abuse, such as the U.S. Department
of Veterans Affairs; the Veterans Suicide Prevention Hotline
of SAMHSA; the “Dealing with Effects of Trauma” self-help
guide provided by SAMHSA; and the federal government’s
Veterans Employment Website of the Office of Personnel
Management.
President Obama’s emphasis on prevention and treatment
has been reflected in a number of well-developed programs
for the general public. The major focus of the ONDCP
National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, for example,
is a program called Above the Influence, which includes
both national-level advertising and targeted efforts at the
local community level. A similar program is the ONDCP
Drug-Free Communities Support Program, which provides
222 Marijuana
federal grants to community-based coalitions working to

prevent and reduce youth substance abuse. The other prong
of President Obama’s approach to substance abuse is treat-
ment, with an emphasis on getting young substance abusers
into treatment programs rather than prison systems. Existing
federal and state services, as well as new programs, are avail-
able to achieve this objective.
The two primary components of supply reduction efforts by
the office are international agreements and a strong enforce-
ment program. The international programs involve agreements
with Afghanistan, the Andean region, Canada, the Caribbean,
Central America, Europe, Mexico, and Russia to reduce the
production, processing, and distribution of illegal substances
within and through these areas. The enforcement aspect of
ONDCP’s work focuses on the range of activities through
which illegal substances are distributed in the United States.
One of the major programs in this area is the High Intensity
Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Program, which targets re-
gions where the transport and distribution of illegal substances
is especially high.
William B. O’Shaughnessy (1809–1889)

O’Shaughnessy was an Irish-born physician who introduced
the use of cannabis products to Western medicine. Although
he is probably best known for this accomplishment, he made
other important contributions in a variety of fields, including
laying the first telegraph system in Asia, developing a treat-
ment for cholera, and inventing a system for laying telegraphic
systems under water. (Although he was trained as a physician
and made important contributions to the field of medicine, he
also developed an interest in electric telegraphy. At first only a
hobby, that interest eventually led to important discoveries and
inventions in that field also.)
William Brooke O’Shaughnessy was born in Limerick,
Ireland, in 1809 to Daniel O’Shaughnessy and his wife (whose
Profiles 223
first name is not recorded, although her maiden name was

Boswell). Little is known about his early life, but it is known
that he was admitted to the University of Edinburgh in 1827,
where he studied medicine, chemistry, anatomy, and forensic
science. He received his medical degree from Edinburgh in
1829 but was unable to obtain a medical practice in London,
where he had hoped to practice. Instead, he established his own
forensic toxicology laboratory, where he carried out chemical
analyses of blood, feces, urine, and tissue for doctors, hospitals,
and the courts. In 1831, O’Shaughnessy made an important
discovery concerning cholera. Cholera was (and still is) one
of the most devastating of all diseases, in which death occurs
because of persistent diarrhea and vomiting. O’Shaughnessy
made what in retrospect appears to be a relatively simple sug-
gestion, but one that had not yet been employed by the medi-
cal profession. Supplying a cholera victim with water and salts
to replace those lost by vomiting and diarrhea, he said, could
sustain their bodies and perhaps save their lives. In fact, when
the practice was introduced in the treatment of cholera, up to
half of all patients survived the disease.
In 1833, O’Shaughnessy accepted an appointment as assis-
tant surgeon in the East India Company, with an assignment
in Calcutta (present-day Kolkata). His life in India was a
busy one in which he not only served in his medical post, but
also helped to found the Calcutta Medical College, where he
also served as professor of chemistry and materia medica. He also
became very interested in the use of native materials for the
treatment of diseases. In 1839, he read a 40-page paper on
the subject to the Medical and Physical Society of Calcutta;
this is sometimes said to be the first modern paper on the
medical uses of cannabis. That paper is now considered a clas-
sic in the field of medicine, and certainly in the field of medi-
cal applications of cannabis. It is available online at http://
www.lycaeum.org/~sputnik/Ludlow/Texts/gunjah.html. In the
paper, O’Shaughnessy discusses the botanical and chemical
characteristics of the plant, its popular uses, something of
224 Marijuana
its known history, and six experiments he conducted to test

its physical and medical effects on animals and humans. He
concludes the paper with a review of the use of cannabis in
the treatment of rheumatism, hydrophobia, cholera, infantile
convulsions, and tetanus, the last of these perhaps the most
influential portion of the paper for medical observers. In a
short section at the end of the paper, he also reviews a type of
delirium that results from overuse of the drug which, he says, is
“easily treated.”
During this period, O’Shaughnessy also became interested
in the recently invented telegraph and pushed his superiors
for permission to construct a telegraph system in India. At the
time, he received no encouragement from the governor gen-
eral, Lord Ellenborough. Instead, exhausted by his many en-
deavors in the country, O’Shaughnessy requested and received
a furlough that allowed him to return to England. During his
visit home, he brought with him samples of cannabis used for
medicinal purposes and began to write and speak about the
potential applications of the drug. His work swept through the
medical profession, and more than a hundred scientific papers
on the medical applications of cannabis were written between
1839 and 1900. In recognition of his work, Queen Victoria
(who had taken cannabis for menstrual cramps) eventually
knighted O’Shaughnessy (in 1856), and he was elected a mem-
ber of the Royal Society in 1843.
In 1844, O’Shaughnessy returned to India and threw his
energies into a new endeavor: working on a national telegraph
system for India. By this time, a new governor general had been
installed in India, Lord Dalhousie, who was much more re-
ceptive to O’Shaughnessy’s plans for the telegraph. Dalhousie
appointed O’Shaughnessy superintendent of telegraphy, and
the cannabis proponent began work on the project. The chal-
lenges he faced were profound as he sought to lay down wires
across inhospitable land using untrained laborers working with
primitive equipment. Yet he was successful in his efforts, open-
ing the first 27-mile segment of the system from Alipore to
Profiles 225
Diamond Harbor in 1852. At the time, the longest telegraph

line in England was only two-thirds as long, 18 miles. Even-
tually, O’Shaughnessy oversaw the completion of more than
4,000 lines of the telegraph system before he returned to
England in 1855.
O’Shaughnessy’s furlough in England was interrupted in
1857 when he returned once more to India in order to deal
with the restoration and rebuilding of much of the telegraph
system that had been destroyed during the Sepoy Mutiny
of 1857. He ended his last tour of duty in India in 1861,
when he retired from the East India Company and settled
in the south of England. Almost nothing is known about the
last 28 years of his life. He died in Southsea, England, on
January 10, 1889.
Raymond P. Shafer (1917–2006)

Shafer was appointed in 1970 by then president Richard M.
Nixon to chair a commission studying the legal status
of marijuana and drug abuse, the National Commission on
Marihuana and Drug Abuse, a committee established by
the U.S. Congress in October 1970. Nixon selected Shafer
because he had a solid reputation as a strong antidrug person
who was very likely to produce a report that pointed out the
harmful effects of marijuana and to call for severe restrictions
on the drug’s production, transport, and use. As it turned out,
events did not develop in just that way as committee members
from a wide variety of backgrounds—health experts, judges,
probation officers, and clinicians—took seriously the charge
of Public Law 91-513 and assembled an impressive collection
of research, reports, and expert opinions on the topic. In the
end, the commission produced a recommendation precisely
the opposite of that expected by Nixon, calling for the legal-
ization of marijuana. Whatever Shafer’s own personal views
on marijuana were, the commission’s report ultimately rep-
resented the majority view of the best scientific information
226 Marijuana
on the dangers (or lack of dangers) posed by legalization of

marijuana.
Raymond Philip Shafer was born on March 5, 1917, in New
Castle, Pennsylvania, to the Reverend David P. and Mina Belle
Shafer. The family moved to Meadville, Pennsylvania, in 1933
when Rev. Shafer was offered a position at the First Chris-
tian Church there. Raymond graduated from Meadville High
School in 1934, where he was valedictorian of his class and
active in a variety of sports. He then matriculated at Allegh-
eny College, where he served as class president for four years
and president of the Allegheny Undergraduate Council. Shafer
then went on to Yale Law School, where he was a member of an
illustrious class that included future president Gerald Ford and
Supreme Court justices Potter Stewart and Byron White. He
was granted his LL.B by Yale in 1941. During World War II,
Shafer served in Naval Intelligence and as captain of a PT
boat in the South Pacific. For his role in the war effort, he was
awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart.
After the war, Shafer returned to Meadville, where he set up
a law practice. In 1948, he made his first attempt at elected of-
fice, and won the post of Crawford County District Attorney,
a post in which he served until 1956. He then decided to run
for statewide office and was elected a senator from the Fiftieth
District in 1958. He served in that post until 1962, begin-
ning to establish himself as a moderate Republican on most
issues. In March 1962, William M. Scranton, candidate for
governor of the state, asked Shafer to join him on the ticket
as candidate for lieutenant governor, an offer that Shafer ac-
cepted. The Scranton-Shafer ticket won the general election
by almost a half million votes. Four years later, with Scranton
prevented from serving a second term by the state constitu-
tion, Shafer became the Republican candidate for governor.
He won that election also, this time by an even larger mar-
gin than in 1962. Shafer also served the one term permitted
by the constitution, leaving office in 1971. Shafer’s record as
governor features his two special areas of interest: reform of
Profiles 227
the state constitution and development of the state’s high-

way system, especially construction of the state’s portion of
the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways (the
Interstate Highway System). Today, the portion of Interstate
79 that runs through Pennsylvania is known as the Raymond P.
Shafer Highway.
After leaving the governor’s office, Shafer remained active
in the Republican Party, a stalwart member of its moderate
wing. In 1968, he gave the nominating speech for the presiden-
tial candidacy of Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York,
thereby earning the enmity of the eventual nominee, Richard
Nixon. When searching for a chair of the marijuana commis-
sion, however, Nixon apparently overlooked his earlier con-
cerns about Shafer, certain that the commission would produce
the result that he wanted and anticipated, which, as it turns
out, was not the case.
After a brief foray into the private sector as chief execu-
tive officer (CEO) of the TelePrompter corporation, Shafer
returned to federal service in 1974, when he served as
special council to newly appointed Vice President Nelson
Rockefeller. At the end of that tenure, he returned to private
business permanently, serving as partner in the accounting
firm of Coopers & Lybrand from 1977 to 1988. Shafer also
served briefly as president of his alma mater, Allegheny Col-
lege, from 1985 to 1986.
Shafer died in Meadville on December 12, 2006. In a some-
what ironic tribute to his work on marijuana, a 2011 bill deal-
ing with medical marijuana use in Pennsylvania, House Bill
1652, was named “The Governor Raymond P. Shafer Compas-
sionate Use Medical Marijuana Act.” The bill did not pass the
legislature.
Keith Stroup (1943– )

Stroup is founder of the National Organization for the Reform
of Marijuana Laws (NORML). He is an attorney and has spent
228 Marijuana
most of his adult life on efforts to legalize the use of marijuana

in the United States. He served as president of NORML from
its founding in 1970 to 1979 and then returned to the orga-
nization as executive director from 1995 to 2004 and as legal
counsel from 2005 to the present.
Keith Stroup was born in Dix, Illinois, on December 27,
1943. His parents were Russell Stroup, who had come from
a farming family, and was then a successful building contrac-
tor and unofficial head of the regional Republican Party, and
Vera Stroup, whose father was a miner who died of black
lung disease. Keith’s childhood has been described by his bi-
ographer Patrick Anderson in his book High in America: The
True Story behind NORML and the Politics of Marijuana as
“as American as apple pie.” Keith and his older brother Larry
were brought up in a strict Southern Baptist tradition in
which all types of immoral behavior, such as smoking, drink-
ing, and dancing, were prohibited. As the boys grew older,
according to Anderson, Larry developed into the a success-
ful conservative businessman who married his high school
sweetheart and remained loyal to the Pleasant Hill Baptist
Church, while Keith began to rebel against the strictures of
his parent’s beliefs.
The turning point for Keith, according to Anderson, came
when he entered high school in nearby Mount Vernon. Al-
though he was very successful academically and socially at
Mount Vernon, Keith gradually grew further and further
apart from his family. The final break seemed to come just
after graduation when his parents angrily expelled a group of
Keith’s friends from the family home for playing poker and
drinking beer. Outraged at this turn of events, Keith left for
Yellowstone National Park without telling his family, and
returned to Illinois only to enter the University of Illinois in
the fall of 1961. Only a short time into his college years at
Illinois, he was expelled for violating university regulations
at an off-campus party. The following year was one of un-
certainty and confusion, spent as a furniture repossessor at
Profiles 229
a Portland (Oregon) loan company, a short-lived candidate

for the Peace Corps, and a student for one term at a small
college in Kentucky. He was finally readmitted to Illinois,
from which he graduated with a B.A. in political science
and sociology in 1965. He then continued his studies at the
Georgetown University Law Center, from which he received
his law degree in 1968. While at Georgetown, Stroup had a
part-time job working for Senator Everett Dirkson (R-IL),
earning $50 a week and gaining invaluable experience in
the wheelings and dealings of Washington politics. Ironi-
cally, it is said that he got the job because of the influence of
his father, who had remained a powerful voice in southern
Illinois politics.
In the last few months before graduating from George-
town, Stroup noticed an advertisement on a bulletin board
for positions at the federal Consumer Product Safety Com-
mission (CPSC). He applied for and received a job with
the CPSC, where he came into contact with activist Ralph
Nader. This experience provided Stroup with the opportu-
nity to learn more about political activism and encouraged
him to form a new organization devoted to the legalization
of marijuana. Based on that background and with a grant of
$5,000 from the Playboy Foundation, Stroup and a group of
friends founded NORML in 1970. He continued to serve as
executive director of the organization until 1979, when he
was asked to leave by the organization’s board of directors.
The explanation for Stroup’s removal from his post was that
he had “outed” Dr. Peter Bourne, special advisor for health
to President Jimmy Carter and de factor “drug czar” in the
Carter administration, for using cocaine at a 1977 party they
had both attended. Stroup, in turn, had been relieved of his
NORML job apparently because the board of directors did
not approve of “snitches” in its organization. Many years
later, Stroup was to tell a Washington Post reporter that this
episode was “probably the stupidest thing I ever did.” By in-
volving Bourne in a drug-related incident (which Bourne has
230 Marijuana
always denied), Stroup lost a valuable contact with a presi-

dential administration that was, in fact, open to the possibil-
ity of changing federal regulations concerned with marijuana
possession.
In any case, Stroup then cofounded his own law firm,
Stroup, Goldstein, Jacobs, Jenkins, Pritzker, and Ware, which
specialized in the defense of citizens charged with drug-
related crimes. He left that firm in 1983 to become a lobbyist
for the American Agriculture Movement, an organization that
represents farmers and ranchers in rural areas of the United
States. In that capacity, he also represented James Nichols,
then secretary of agriculture for the state of Minnesota. After
working for four years as a lobbyist, Stroup then took a
position as executive director of the National Association of
Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), a bar association for
criminal defense attorneys in the United States, where he re-
mained until 1993. For the next two years, he was employed
in Alexandria, Virginia, as staff counsel for the National Cen-
ter on Institutions and Alternatives (NCIA), an organization
that works to keep nonviolent offenders (such as individu-
als arrested for marijuana possession) out of prison. In 1995,
Stroup returned once more to NORML, where he resumed
his post as executive director before leaving that post in 2005
to become legal counsel for the organization, a post he still
holds today.
UN Office on Drugs and Crime

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) was created
in 1997 as the Office for Drug Control and Crime Preven-
tion by the merger of two preexisting United Nations (UN)
organizations, the United Nations International Drug Control
Programme and the Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice
Division of the United Nations office at Vienna, Austria. The
organization’s name was changed to its present name in 2002.
Profiles 231
UNODC is one of 32 funds, programs, agencies, departments,

and offices that make up the United Nations Development
Group (UNDG) and whose goal it is to provide more effective
and more efficient support to nations attempting to achieve
certain internationally agreed-upon development goals. A few
other members of the UNDG are the United Nations Chil-
dren’s Fund, United Nations Population Fund, World Food
Programme, Office of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, and
the World Health Organization.
UNODC has adopted a wide ranging list of topics with
a connection to drug production and consumption and/or
crime, including alternative development (development of
crops other than those for the production of illegal drugs);
corruption; crime prevention and criminal justice; drug
prevention, treatment, and care; drug trafficking; firearms;
fraudulent medicines; HIV and AIDS; human trafficking
and migrant smuggling; money laundering; organized crime;
maritime crime and piracy; terrorism prevention; and wildlife
and forest crime. The agency has developed comprehensive
research, educational, and outreach programs in each of these
areas.
UNODC also regularly sets out a strategic plan for its work
on drugs and crime, usually on a three-year basis but, most re-
cently, for only one year. The 2016–2017 strategic framework
calls for a series of subprograms designed to help member states
enhance their responses to the problems of drug use, illicit drug
trafficking, trafficking in human beings and firearms and, trans-
national crime, corruption, and terrorism. The subprograms
selected for 2016–2017 are countering illicit drug trafficking
and transnational organized crime; prevention, treatment, and
reintegration, and alternative development; countering corrup-
tion; terrorism prevention; justice; research and trend analysis
and forensics; policy support; technical cooperation and field
support; and provision of secretariat services and substantive
232 Marijuana
support to the governing bodies and the International Narcot-

ics Control Board.
The agency provides a host of resources for member states at-
tempting to deal with specific drug and/or crime issues in their
own territories. Among these resources are:
• Campaigns, designed to raise public awareness about spe-

cific issues in the field of drugs and crime, such as the annual
International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking
and the International Anti-Corruption Day;
• Commissions appointed to work on specific problems in
the field of drugs and crime, such as the Commission on
Narcotic Drugs and the Commission on Crime Prevention
and Criminal Justice;
• An annual conference on Crime Prevention and Criminal
Justice;
• Research programs on topics such as transnational organized
crime, synthetic drugs, trafficking in persons, drug produc-
tion and trafficking, and wildlife;
• Laboratory and forensic science services that are made avail-
able to member states for dealing with issues specific to those
states;
• Legal tools for dealing with drug and crime problems,
including a legal library, the SHERLOC knowledge man-
agement portal, a human trafficking case law database, and a
model laws and treaties resource center; and
• A collection of international and regional treaties dealing
with drugs and crime.
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration

The U.S. government has had a succession of agencies de-
signed to deal with substance abuse problems in general,
and marijuana, in particular. The earliest of these agencies
was the Narcotics Division, established within the Bureau of
Profiles 233
Internal Revenue in 1921. The agency was created to carry

out mandates of the Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914. A year
later, a second agency was created, the Federal Narcotics
Control Board, whose mandate it was to make and publish
regulations concerning the import and export of narcotic
substances. These two agencies were consolidated in 1930 to
form the Bureau of Narcotics within the U.S. Department of
the Treasury. In yet another reorganization act, the Bureau
of Narcotics and the Bureau of Drug Abuse Control (created
within the Food and Drug Administration in 1965) were
combined to form the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous
Drugs within the Department of Justice. The final step in this
sequence of events occurred on July 28, 1973, when Presi-
dent Richard Nixon signed the Reorganization Plan No. 2
of 1973, bringing under one roof all agencies in the federal
government with some responsibility for substance abuse, in-
cluding the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs and
a number of smaller agencies in a variety of cabinet depart-
ments. The new agency, which still exists today, was the Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA). The first administrator of
the DEA was John R. Bartels, Jr., a former federal prosecu-
tor. The current DEA administrator is Michele M. Leonhart,
a career DEA agent.
As specified on its website, the mission of the DEA is
to enforce the controlled substances laws and regulations

of the United States and bring to the criminal and civil
justice system of the United States, or any other compe-
tent jurisdiction, those organizations and principal
members of organizations, involved in the growing,
manufacture, or distribution of controlled substances
appearing in or destined for illicit traffic in the United
States; and to recommend and support non-enforcement
programs aimed at reducing the availability of illicit con-
trolled substances on the domestic and international
markets.
234 Marijuana
DEA activities fall into one of about 20 major categories,

including:
• Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces

(OCDETF): This program involves the participation of a
number of federal agencies to attack major drug trafficking
and money laundering activities related to the importation
and sale of illegal drugs to the United States.
• Demand reduction: In addition to apprehending and pros-
ecuting substance abusers and their enablers, the agency
works to reduce the use of illegal drugs by working with
state, regional, and local agencies to help individuals under-
stand the dangers posed by substance abuse and to find ways
of avoiding involvement in drug activities.
• Asset forfeiture: Federal law provides that profits from
drug-related activities collected by drug enforcement activi-
ties are forfeited to the government and may be used to sup-
port worthy causes through the Asset Forfeiture Fund.
• Aviation program: Since 1971, the DEA has provided air
support for ground activities of the agency’s agents, helping
to detect, locate, identify, and assess narcotics-related traf-
ficking activities.
• Diversion control: This program is aimed at monitoring and
controlling the illegal use of prescription drugs, the fastest-
growing substance abuse problem in the United States today.
The program involves the arrest of physicians who sell pre-
scriptions to drug dealers, pharmacists who falsify records
and sell prescription drugs to dealers, employees who steal
from inventories and/or falsify records, and individuals who
obtain prescription drugs by illegal activities.
• Forensic sciences: The DEA forensic science laboratory
provides assistance to prosecutors who need evidence for
the conduct of criminal cases involving the use of illegal
substances.
Profiles 235
• Foreign cooperative investigations. Since almost all illegal

substances (except for marijuana) are grown or produced
outside the United States, cooperation with foreign govern-
ment where drugs are produced is an essential feature of the
U.S. drug control program.
The DEA Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Pro-

gram (DCE/SP) is of special interest largely because marijuana
is the only major Schedule I drug grown in the United States.
One of the major goals of DCE/SP, then, is to eliminate the
supply of marijuana in the United States by finding and de-
stroying farms where the cannabis plant is being grown. In
2014, for example, DEA agents identified and eradicated a total
of 6,796 outdoor marijuana growing sites with an estimated
total of 3,904,213 individual plants. In addition, 2,283 indoor
sites were identified and eradicated, with a loss of 396,620
plants. Total estimated value of all the destroyed plants was
$27,342,950. In addition to plant destruction, DEA agents
made 6,310 arrests of individuals associated with plant growth
and collected 4,989 weapons.
Each year, the DEA schedules special operations to carry out
the agency’s mission. In 2011, for example, those operations in-
cluded Operation Fire and Ice, a five-year investigation of an
international drug trafficking organization called La Oficina de
Envigado, based in Medellín, Colombia; Operation Pill Nation,
which involved the arrest of 22 individuals and the seizure of
more than $2.2 million in cash from rogue pain clinics in South
Florida; and the 38th Street Gang Roundup, in which federal
agents seized more than seven kilograms of cocaine, one pound
of methamphetamine, and about $250,000 cash from a notori-
ous gang located in south Los Angeles.
5 Data and Documents
Introduction
This chapter provides some relevant data and documents dealing
with cannabis and related products. The “Data” section provides
basic information on current and historical trends in marijuana
use as well as arrests in the United States. The “Documents” sec-
tion, which follows, is arranged in chronological order and in-
cludes excerpts from important committee and commission reports;
from bills, acts, and laws; and from important legal cases.
Data
Table 5.1 Marijuana Use by Persons Aged 12 Years and Older in the United
States, 2002–2014, Past Month1
Age Group
Year 12 and older 12 to 17 18 to 25 26 and older
2002 8.3 11.6 20.2 5.8

2003 8.2 11.2 20.3 5.6
2004 7.9 10.6 19.4 5.5
2005 8.1 9.9 20.1 5.8
2006 8.3 9.8 19.8 6.1
(continued)
LivWell store manager Carlyssa Scanlon shows off some of the products
available in the marijuana line marketed by rapper Snoop Dogg in one of
the marijuana chain’s outlets south of downtown Denver. LivWell grows
the Snoop Dogg pot alongside many other strains on its menu. (AP Photo/
David Zalubowski)
237
238 Marijuana
Age Group
2007 8.0 9.6 19.8 5.8

2008 8.1 9.3 19.7 5.9
2009 8.7 10.1 21.4 6.3
2010 8.9 10.1 21.6 6.6
2011 8.7 10.1 21.4 6.3
2012 9.2 9.5 21.3 7.0
2013 9.4 8.8 21.5 7.3
2014 10.2 9.4 22.0 8.3
1
Percent of respondents
Source: Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality. 2015. Behavioral
Health Trends in the United States: Results from the 2014 National Survey on
Drug Use and Health. HHS Publication No. SMA 15-4927, NSDUH Series H-50,
Tables A.1B–A.4B, pages A-1–A-5. Available online at http://www.samhsa.gov/
data/sites/default/files/NSDUH-FRR1-2014/NSDUH-FRR1-2014.pdf. Accessed on
May 2, 2016.
Table 5.2 Marijuana Use by Persons Aged 12 Years and Older in the United
States, 2002–2014, Past Year1
Age Group
2002 1.8 4.3 6.0 0.8

2003 1.8 3.8 5.9 0.7
2004 1.9 3.9 6.0 0.8
2005 1.7 3.6 5.9 0.7
2006 1.7 3.4 5.7 0.8
2007 1.6 3.1 5.6 0.7
2008 1.7 3.4 5.6 0.8
2009 1.7 3.4 5.6 0.8
2010 1.8 3.6 5.7 0.9
2011 1.6 3.5 5.7 0.7
Data and Documents 239
Age Group
2012 1.7 3.2 5.5 0.8

2013 1.6 2.9 5.4 0.8
2014 1.6 2.7 4.9 0.9
1
Percent of respondents
Source: Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality. 2015. Behavioral
Health Trends in the United States: Results from the 2014 National Survey on
Drug Use and Health. HHS Publication No. SMA 15-4927, NSDUH Series H-50,
Tables A.11B–A.14.B, pages A-9–A-12. Available online at http://www.samhsa
.gov/data/sites/default/files/NSDUH-FRR1-2014/NSDUH-FRR1-2014.pdf. Accessed
on May 2, 2016.
Table 5.3 Marijuana Arrests 1980–2014
Percentage of All Drug Arrests
Year Trafficking Possession All Marijuana Trafficking Possession
1980 63,318 338,664 — — —

1990 66,460 260,390 — — —
1995 85,614 503,356 39.9 5.8 34.1
1996 94,891 546,751 42.6 6.3 36.3
1997 88,682 606,591 43.9 5.6 38.3
1998 84,191 598,694 43.8 5.4 38.4
1999 85,641 630,626 46.0 5.5 40.5
2000 88,455 646,042 46.5 5.6 40.9
2001 82,519 641,109 45.6 5.2 40.4
2002 83,096 613,896 45.3 5.4 39.9
2003 92,300 662,886 45.0 5.5 39.5
2004 87,329 686,402 42.6 4.9 37.7
2005 90,471 696,074 42.6 4.9 37.7
2006 90,711 738,916 43.9 4.8 39.1
2007 97,583 775,137 47.4 5.3 42.1
2008 93,640 754,224 49.8 5.5 44.3
(continued)
240 Marijuana
Percentage of All Drug Arrests
Year Trafficking Possession All Marijuana Trafficking Possession
2009 99,815 758,593 51.6 6.0 45.6

2010 103,247 750,591 52.1 6.3 45.8
2011 94,937 663,032 49.5 6.2 43.3
2012 91,593 658,231 48.3 5.9 42.4
2013 84,058 609,423 46.2 5.6 40.6
2014 81,184 619,809 44.9 5.2 39.7
Source: “Get the Facts.” 2016. DrugWars.org. Table information calculated from
Federal Bureau of Investigations. Crime in the United States, annual publication,
1989–2010. http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/Marijuana#Prevalence. Accessed on
May 3, 2016.
Table 5.4 Marijuana Use by U.S. High School Students by Gender, Ethnicity,
and Grade Level, 2013
Ever Used Marijuana Current Marijuana Use1
Category Female Male Total Female Male Total
Race/ethnicity
White 34.8 38.6 36.7 18.0 22.8 20.4
Black 45.4 48.2 46.8 27.1 30.6 28.9
Hispanic 47.6 50.0 48.8 27.4 27.7 27.6
Grade
9 29.0 31.1 30.1 17.6 17.7 17.7
10 37.4 40.7 39.1 22.7 24.3 23.5
11 45.1 47.8 46.4 22.8 28.4 25.5
12 46.4 50.9 48.6 24.6 30.9 27.7
Total 39.2 42.1 40.7 21.9 25.0 23.4
1
Use within 30 days prior to survey.
Source: “Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance—United States 2013. 2014. MMWR
63(4): whole, Table 49, page 98, and Table 51, page 100. http://www.cdc.gov/mm
wr/pdf/ss/ss6304.pdf. Accessed on May 3, 2016.
Table 5.5 2014 Domestic U.S. Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program

Statistical Report, 10 Largest States1
Outdoor Indoor
State Sites Plants Sites Plants Arrests Value
California 2,013 2,405,49 682 279,145 2,442 $10,174,103

Kentucky 986 458,133 76 3,410 564 $1,036,903
Texas 37 255,201 31 6,562 53 $191,714
West Virginia 302 195,548 34 1,025 152 $349,524
Tennessee 296 110,496 12 865 53 $119,513
Indiana 370 70,726 159 13,802 279 $657,944
Arkansas 11 75,988 2 45 10 $269,526
Michigan 355 64,234 212 11,193 307 $2,015,146
Washington 50 49,027 38 8,236 37 $1,465,076
Florida 217 10,642 382 20,762 520 $245,506
National total 6,796 3,904,213 2,283 396,620 6,310 $27,342,950
1
By number of plants destroyed.
Source: “2014 Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program Statistical
Report.” Drug Enforcement Administration. http://www.dea.gov/ops/cannabis_
2014.pdf. Accessed on May 3, 2016.
Table 5.6 Attitudes and Practices Concerning Marijuana among U.S.

12th Graders, 1975–2015
Percentage of “Disapproving”1
Smoking Smoking Used Marijuana

Trying Marijuana Marijuana Marijuana within the Past
Year Once or Twice Occasionally Regularly 30 Days
1975 47.0 54.8 71.9 27.1

1976 38.4 47.8 69.5 32.2
1977 33.4 44.3 65.5 35.4
1978 33.4 43.5 67.5 37.1
1979 34.2 45.3 69.2 36.5
1980 39.0 49.7 74.6 33.7
1981 40.0 52.6 77.4 31.6
(continued)
242 Marijuana

1982 45.5 59.1 80.6 28.5

1983 46.3 60.7 82.5 27.0
1984 49.3 63.5 84.7 25.2
1985 51.4 65.8 85.5 25.7
1986 54.6 69.0 86.6 23.4
1987 56.6 71.6 89.2 21.0
1988 60.8 74.0 89.3 18.0
1989 64.6 77.2 89.8 16.7
1990 67.8 80.5 91.0 14.0
1991 68.7 79.4 89.3 13.8
1992 69.9 79.7 90.1 11.9
1993 63.3 75.5 87.6 15.5
1994 57.6 68.9 82.3 19.0
1995 56.7 66.7 81.9 21.2
1996 52.5 62.9 80.0 21.9
1997 51.0 63.2 78.8 23.7
1998 51.6 64.4 81.2 22.8
1999 48.8 62.5 78.6 23.1
2000 52.5 65.8 79.7 21.6
2001 49.1 63.2 79.3 22.4
2002 51.6 63.4 78.3 21.5
2003 53.4 64.2 78.7 21.2
2004 52.7 65.4 80.7 19.9
2005 55.0 67.8 82.0 19.8
2006 55.6 69.3 82.2 18.3
2007 58.6 70.2 83.3 18.8
2008 55.5 67.3 79.6 19.4
2009 54.8 65.6 80.3 20.6
2010 51.6 62.0 77.7 21.4

2011 51.3 60.9 77.5 22.6

2012 48.8 59.1 77.8 22.9
2013 49.1 58.9 74.5 22.7
2014 48.0 56.7 73.4 21.2
2015 45.5 52.9 70.7 21.3
1
Answer alternatives were: (1) Don’t disapprove, (2) Disapprove, and (3) Strongly
disapprove. Percentages are shown for categories (2) and (3) combined.
Source: Johnston, L. D., et al. 2016. Monitoring the Future National Survey Results
on Drug Use, 1975–2015: Overview, Key Findings on Adolescent Drug Use. Ann
Arbor: Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan, Table 7, page 72
and Table 14, pages 92–93. Available online at http://www.monitoringthefuture
.org/pubs/monographs/mtf-overview2015.pdf. Accessed on May 4, 2016.
Documents
Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1895)
In 1893, the British House of Commons, concerned about reported
harmful effects of the use of marijuana by Indian natives, commis-
sioned a study of the use of marijuana in India. The report of the
commission, completed in 1894 and issued in 1895, was 3,281
pages long and contained the views of more than 1,200 witnesses
from every level of society. The main conclusions reached by the
commission were as follows (typographical errors in the cited source
have been corrected at †):
552. The Commission have now examined all the evidence be-
fore them regarding the effects attributed to hemp drugs. It
will be well to summarize briefly the conclusions to which they
come. It has been clearly established that the occasional use of
hemp in moderate doses may be beneficial; but this use may be
regarded as medicinal in character. It is rather to the popular
244 Marijuana
and common use of the drugs that the Commission will now
confine their attention. It is convenient to consider the effects
separately as affecting the physical, mental, or moral nature.
In regard to the physical effects, the Commission have come
to the conclusion that the moderate use of hemp drugs is
practically attended by no evil results at all. There may be
exceptional cases in which, owing to idiosyncracies of con-
stitution, the drugs in even moderate use may be injurious.
There is probably nothing the use of which may not possibly
be injurious in cases of exceptional intolerance. There are also
many cases where in tracts with a specially malarious climate,
or in circumstances of hard work and exposure, the people
attribute beneficial effects to the habitual moderate use of
these drugs; and there is evidence to show that the popular
impression may have some basis in fact. Speaking generally,
the Commission are of opinion that the moderate use of
hemp drugs appears to cause no appreciable physical injury
of any kind. The excessive use does cause injury. As in the
case of other intoxicants, excessive use tends to weaken the
constitution and to render the consumer more susceptible to
disease. In respect to [†] particular diseases which according
to a [†] considerable number of witnesses should be associ-
ated directly with hemp drugs, it appears to be reasonably es-
tablished that the excessive use of these drugs does not cause
asthma; that it may indirectly cause dysentery by weakening
the constitution as above indicated; and that it may cause
bronchitis mainly through the action of the inhaled smoke
on the bronchial tubes.
In respect to the alleged mental effects of the drugs, the
Commission have come to the conclusion that the moderate
use of hemp drugs produces no injurious effects on the mind.
It may indeed be accepted that in the case of specially marked
neurotic diathesis, even the moderate use may produce mental
injury. For the slightest mental stimulation or excitement may
have that effect in such cases. But putting aside these quite
exceptional cases, the moderate use of these drugs produces
no mental injury. It is otherwise with the excessive use. Exces-

sive use indicates and intensifies mental instability. It tends to
weaken the mind. It may even lead to insanity. It has been said
by Dr. Blanford that “two factors only are necessary for the
causation of insanity, which are complementary, heredity, and
stress. Both enter into every case: the stronger the influence of
one factor, the less of the other factor is requisite to produce
the result. Insanity, therefore, needs for its production a certain
instability of nerve tissue and the incidence of a certain distur-
bance.” It appears that the excessive use of hemp drugs may,
especially in cases where there is any weakness or hereditary
predisposition, induce insanity. It has been shown that the
effect of hemp drugs in this respect has hitherto been greatly
exaggerated, but that they do sometimes produce insanity
seems beyond question.
In regard to the moral effects of the drugs, the Commission
are of opinion that their moderate use produces no moral in-
jury whatever. There is no adequate ground for believing that
it injuriously affects the character of the consumer. Excessive
consumption, on the other hand, both indicates and intensi-
fies moral weakness or depravity. Manifest excess leads directly
to loss of self-respect, and thus to moral degradation. In re-
spect to his relations with society, however, even the excessive
consumer of hemp drugs is ordinarily inoffensive. His excesses
may indeed bring him to degraded poverty which may lead
him to dishonest practices; and occasionally, but apparently
very rarely indeed, excessive indulgence in hemp drugs may
lead to violent [†] crime. But for all practical purposes it may
be laid down that there is little or no connection between the
use of hemp drugs and crime.
Source: Young, W. Mackworth, et al. Report of the Indian

Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. [n.p.]: Government Cen-
tral Printing Office, 1894, vol. 1, 263–264. Also available on-
line at http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/effects.htm.
246 Marijuana
Marihuana Tax Act (1937)

This act was the first effort by the U.S. government to regulate the
use of marijuana, hemp, and other forms of cannabis. It did not
actually make such use illegal, but it did assess a tax on the use
of such materials. The tax was modest—about $1 for each type
of use—but the penalties for not paying the tax were severe. The
Congress hoped, apparently, to “tax out of existence” the use of
cannabis products in the United States.
Section 1 of the act consists of definitions of terms used in the
act. The two most important sections of the act are Section 2,
which defines the individuals who are required to pay a tax and
the amount of the tax, and Section 12, which defines the penalties
for nonpayment of the tax.
SEC. 2. (a) Every person who imports, manufactures, pro-

duces, compounds, sells, deals in, dispenses, prescribes, admin-
isters, or gives away marihuana shall (1) within fifteen days
after the effective date of this Act, or (2) before engaging after
the expiration of such fifteen-day period in any of the above
mentioned activities, and (3) thereafter, on or before July 1 of
each year, pay the following special taxes respectively:
(1) Importers, manufacturers, and compounders of mari-

huana, $24 per year.
(2) Producers of marihuana (except those included within
subdivision (4) of this subsection), $1 per year, or fraction
thereof, during which they engage in such activity.
(3) Physicians, dentists, veterinary surgeons, and other prac-
titioners who distribute, dispense, give away, administer,
or prescribe marihuana to patients upon whom they in
the course of their professional practice are in attendance,
$1 per year or fraction thereof during which they engage in
any of such activities.
(4) Any person not registered as an importer, manufacturer,
producer, or compounder who obtains and uses marihuana
in a laboratory for the purpose of research, instruction, or

analysis, or who produces marihuana for any such purpose,
$1 per year, or fraction thereof, during which he engages in
such activities.
(5) Any person who is not a physician, dentist, veterinary
surgeon, or other practitioner and who deals in, dis-
penses, or gives away marihuana, $3 per year: Provided,
That any person who has registered and paid the special
tax as an importer, manufacturer, compounder, or pro-
ducer, as required by subdivisions (1) and (2) of this sub-
section, may deal in, dispense, or give away marihuana
imported, manufactured, compounded, or produced by
him without further payment of the tax imposed by this
section.
. . .
SEC. 12. Any person who is convicted of a violation of any
provision of this Act shall be fined not more than $2,000 or
imprisoned not more than five years, or both, in the discretion
of the court.
Source: The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. Pub. 238, 75th Con-
gress, 50 Stat. 551 (August 2, 1937).
The Marihuana Problem in the City of New York (1944)

In 1939, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia appointed a committee from
the New York Academy of Medicine to study “the marihuana prob-
lem in the city of New York.” The committee’s final report dealt
with the sociological, medical, psychological, and pharmacological
consequences of marijuana use. The committee’s major conclusions
were as follows:
1. Under the influence of marihuana the basic personality

structure of the individual does not change but some of the
more superficial aspects of his behavior show alteration.
248 Marijuana
2. With the use of marihuana the individual experiences

increased feelings of relaxation, disinhibition and self-
confidence.
3. The new feeling of self-confidence induced by the drug
expresses itself primarily through oral rather than through
physical activity. There is some indication of a diminution
in physical activity.
4. The disinhibition which results from the use of marihuana
releases what is latent in the individual’s thoughts and emo-
tions but does not evoke responses which would be totally
alien to him in his undrugged state.
5. Marihuana not only releases pleasant reactions but also
feelings of anxiety.
6. Individuals with a limited capacity for effective experience
and who have difficulty in making social contacts are more
likely to resort to marihuana than those more capable of
outgoing responses.
Source: The LaGuardia Committee Report on Marihuana.

Summary and discussion. Available online at http://www.drug
library.org/schaffer/library/studies/lag/sumdis.htm. Accessed
on May 4, 2016.
Leary v. United States, 395 U.S. 6 (1969)

This case is important because it was the first successful test, at the
highest level, of the constitutionality of the Marihuana Tax Act of
1937. The syllabus for the case provided here describes the circum-
stances of the case and the major decisions held unanimously by
the Supreme Court. Shortly after the decision was issued, the U.S.
Congress repealed the 1937 act and replaced it with the Controlled
Petitioner, accompanied by his daughter, son, and two oth-

ers, on an automobile trip from New York to Mexico, after
apparent denial of entry into Mexico, drove back across the In-
ternational Bridge into Texas, where a customs officer, through
a search, discovered some marihuana in the car and on petition-
er’s daughter’s person. Petitioner was indicted under 26 U.S.C.
§ 4744(a)(2), a subsection of the Marihuana Tax Act, and
under 21 U.S.C. § 176a. At petitioner’s trial, which resulted in
his conviction, petitioner admitted acquiring the marihuana in
New York (but said he did not know where it had been grown)
and driving with it to Laredo, Texas, thence to the Mexican
customs station, and back to the United States. The Marihuana
Tax Act levies an occupational tax upon all those who “deal in”
the drug, and provides that the taxpayer must register his name
and place of business with the Internal Revenue Service. The
Act imposes a transfer tax “upon all transfers of marihuana”
required to be effected with a written order form, and all except
a limited number of clearly lawful transfers must be effected
with such a form. The Act further imposes a transfer tax of
$1 per ounce on a registered transferee and $100 per ounce on an
unregistered transferee. The forms, executed by the transferee,
must show the transferor’s name and address and the amount
of marihuana involved. A copy of the form is “preserved” by
the Internal Revenue Service, and the information contained
in the form is made available to law enforcement officials. Pos-
session of marihuana is a crime in Texas, where petitioner was
arrested, in New York, where petitioner asserted the transfer
occurred, and in all the other States. Section 4744(a)(2) pro-
hibits transportation or concealment of marihuana by one who
acquired it without having paid the transfer tax, which peti-
tioner conceded that he had not done. Petitioner claimed in his
motion for a new trial that his conviction under the Marihuana
Tax Act violated his privilege against self-incrimination, and
he argues that this Court’s subsequent decisions in Marchetti v.
United States, 390 U.S. 39, Grosso v. United States, 390 U.S.
62, and Haynes v. United States, 390 U.S. 85, require rever-
sal. The Government contends that the Act’s transfer tax pro-
visions do not compel incriminatory disclosures because, as
250 Marijuana
administratively construed and applied, they permit prepay-

ment of the tax only by persons whose activities are otherwise
lawful. Title 21 U.S.C. § 176a makes it a crime to transport or
facilitate the transportation of illegally imported marihuana,
with knowledge of its illegal importation, and provides that
a defendant’s possession of marihuana shall be deemed suffi-
cient evidence that the marihuana was illegally imported or
brought into the United States, and that the defendant knew
of the illegal importation or bringing in, unless the defendant
explains his possession to the satisfaction of the jury. The trial
court instructed the jury that it might find petitioner guilty
of violating § 176a (1) solely on petitioner’s testimony that
the marihuana had been brought back from Mexico into the
United States and that, with knowledge of that fact, petitioner
had continued to transport it, or (2) partly upon his testimony
that he had transported the marihuana from New York to Texas
and partly upon the § 176a presumption. Petitioner contends
that application of that presumption denied him due process
of law.
Held:
1. Petitioner’s invocation of the privilege against self-

incrimination under the Fifth Amendment provided a
full defense to the charge under 26 U.S.C. § 4744(a)(2).
Pp. 395 U.S. 12-29.
[The Court then provides five reasons for this decision, the first
of which was as follows:]
(a) Since the effect of the Act’s terms were such that legal
possessors of marihuana were virtually certain to be
registrants or exempt from the order form requirement,
compliance with the transfer tax provisions would have
required petitioner, as one not registered but obliged to
obtain an order form, unmistakably to identify himself
as a member of a “selective group inherently suspect of
criminal activities,” and thus those provisions created a
“real and appreciable” hazard of incrimination within

the meaning of Marchetti, Grosso, and Haynes. Pp. 395
U.S. 16–18.
. . . .
2. In the circumstances of this case, the application of that
part of the presumption in 21 U.S.C. § 176a which pro-
vides that a possessor of marihuana is deemed to know of
its unlawful importation denied petitioner due process of
law in violation of the Fifth Amendment. Pp. 395 U.S.
29–53.
[The Court provides four explanations for this part of the
decision.]
Source: Leary v. United States, 395 U.S. 6 (1969).
Controlled Substances Act (1970)

Leary v. United States (discussed in the preceding section) essen-
tially invalidated U.S. policy for the control of marijuana produc-
tion, trade, and use. A replacement for the Marihuana Tax Act of
1937 was passed only a year after the Supreme Court’s decision in
Leary v. United States. The new act was the Controlled Substances
Act of 1970, now a part of the U.S. Code, Title 21, Chapter 13.
That act established the system of “schedules” for various catego-
ries of drugs that is still used by agencies of the U.S. government
today. It also provides extensive background information about the
domestic and international status of drug abuse efforts. Some of
the most relevant sections for the domestic portion of the act are
reprinted here.
Section 801 of the act presents Congress’s findings and declara-
tions about controlled substances, with special mention in Section
801a of psychotropic drugs:
§ 801. Congressional findings and declarations: controlled

substances
252 Marijuana
The Congress makes the following findings and declarations:

(1) Many of the drugs included within this subchapter have a
useful and legitimate medical purpose and are necessary to
maintain the health and general welfare of the American
people.
(2) The illegal importation, manufacture, distribution, and
possession and improper use of controlled substances have
a substantial and detrimental effect on the health and gen-
eral welfare of the American people.
. . .
(7) The United States is a party to the Single Convention on
Narcotic Drugs, 1961, and other international conven-
tions designed to establish effective control over interna-
tional and domestic traffic in controlled substances.
§ 801a. Congressional findings and declarations: psychotropic

substances
The Congress makes the following findings and declarations:
(1) The Congress has long recognized the danger involved

in the manufacture, distribution, and use of certain psy-
chotropic substances for nonscientific and nonmedical
purposes, and has provided strong and effective legisla-
tion to control illicit trafficking and to regulate legiti-
mate uses of psychotropic substances in this country.
Abuse of psychotropic substances has become a phenom-
enon common to many countries, however, and is not
confined to national borders. It is, therefore, essential
that the United States cooperate with other nations in
establishing effective controls over international traffic
in such substances.
(2) The United States has joined with other countries in ex-
ecuting an international treaty, entitled the Convention on
Psychotropic Substances and signed at Vienna, Austria, on

February 21, 1971, which is designed to establish suitable
controls over the manufacture, distribution, transfer, and
use of certain psychotropic substances. The Convention is
not self-executing, and the obligations of the United States
thereunder may only be performed pursuant to appropri-
ate legislation. It is the intent of the Congress that the
amendments made by this Act, together with existing law,
will enable the United States to meet all of its obligations
under the Convention and that no further legislation will
be necessary for that purpose.
. . .
[Section 802 deals with definitions used in the act, and section
803 deals with a minor housekeeping issue of financing for the act.
Section 811 deals with the Attorney General’s authority for clas-
sifying and declassifying drugs and the manner in which these steps
are to be taken. In general:]
§ 811. Authority and criteria for classification of substances
(a) Rules and regulations of Attorney General; hearing
The Attorney General shall apply the provisions of this sub-
chapter to the controlled substances listed in the schedules
established by section 812 of this title and to any other drug or
other substance added to such schedules under this subchapter.
Except as provided in subsections (d) and (e) of this section,
the Attorney General may by rule—
(1) add to such a schedule or transfer between such schedules
any drug or other substance if he—
(A) finds that such drug or other substance has a potential
for abuse, and
(B) makes with respect to such drug or other substance the
findings prescribed by subsection (b) of section 812 of
this title for the schedule in which such drug is to be
placed; or
254 Marijuana
(2) remove any drug or other substance from the schedules if

he finds that the drug or other substance does not meet the
requirements for inclusion in any schedule.
. . .
[Section (b) provides guidelines for the evaluation of drugs

and other substances. The next section, (c), is a key element of
the act:]
(c) Factors determinative of control or removal from schedules
In making any finding under subsection (a) of this section

or under subsection (b) of section 812 of this title, the Attor-
ney General shall consider the following factors with respect
to each drug or other substance proposed to be controlled or
removed from the schedules:
(1) Its actual or relative potential for abuse.

(2) Scientific evidence of its pharmacological effect, if known.
(3) The state of current scientific knowledge regarding the
drug or other substance.
(4) Its history and current pattern of abuse.
(5) The scope, duration, and significance of abuse.
(6) What, if any, risk there is to the public health.
(7) Its psychic or physiological dependence liability.
(8) Whether the substance is an immediate precursor of a sub-
stance already controlled under this subchapter.
[Section (d) is a lengthy discussion of international aspects of the

nation’s efforts to control substance abuse. Sections (e) through
(h) deal with related, but less important, issues of the control
of substance abuse. Section 812 is perhaps of greatest interest to
the general reader in that it establishes the system of classifying
drugs still used in the United States, along with the criteria for
classification and the original list of drugs to be included in each

schedule (since greatly expanded):]
§ 812. Schedules of controlled substances
(a) Establishment
There are established five schedules of controlled substances,
to be known as schedules I, II, III, IV, and V. Such schedules
shall initially consist of the substances listed in this section.
The schedules established by this section shall be updated and
republished on a semiannual basis during the two-year period
beginning one year after October 27, 1970, and shall be up-
dated and republished on an annual basis thereafter.
(b) Placement on schedules; findings required
Except where control is required by United States obliga-
tions under an international treaty, convention, or protocol, in
effect on October 27, 1970, and except in the case of an imme-
diate precursor, a drug or other substance may not be placed in
any schedule unless the findings required for such schedule are
made with respect to such drug or other substance. The find-
ings required for each of the schedules are as follows:
(1) Schedule I.—
(A) The drug or other substance has a high potential for
abuse.
(B) The drug or other substance has no currently accepted
medical use in treatment in the United States.
(C) There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or
other substance under medical supervision.
(2) Schedule II.—
(A) The drug or other substance has a high potential for
abuse.
(B) The drug or other substance has a currently accepted
medical use in treatment in the United States or a cur-
rently accepted medical use with severe restrictions.
256 Marijuana
(C) Abuse of the drug or other substances may lead to

severe psychological or physical dependence.
(3) Schedule III.—
(A) The drug or other substance has a potential for abuse less
than the drugs or other substances in schedules I and II.
(C) Abuse of the drug or other substance may lead to
moderate or low physical dependence or high psycho-
logical dependence.
(4) Schedule IV.—
(A) The drug or other substance has a low potential for
abuse relative to the drugs or other substances in
schedule III.
(C) Abuse of the drug or other substance may lead to limited
physical dependence or psychological dependence rela-
tive to the drugs or other substances in schedule III.
(5) Schedule V.—
(A) The drug or other substance has a low potential for
abuse relative to the drugs or other substances in
schedule IV.
(C) Abuse of the drug or other substance may lead to lim-
ited physical dependence or psychological dependence
relative to the drugs or other substances in schedule IV.
(c) Initial schedules of controlled substances
Schedules I, II, III, IV, and V shall, unless and until
amended . . . pursuant to section 811 of this title, consist of
the following drugs or other substances, by whatever official
name, common or usual name, chemical name, or brand name

designated: [The initial list of drugs under each schedule follows.]
Source: U.S. Code, Title 21, Chapter 13.
In the Matter of Marijuana Medical

Rescheduling Petition (1988)
In 1972, NORML submitted a petition to the U.S. Drug Enforce-
ment Administration (DEA) asking that marijuana be transferred
from Schedule I to Schedule II under provisions of the Controlled
Substances Act of 1970. Sixteen years later, DEA administrative
judge Francis L. Young announced his decision on this request.
Young reviewed and commented on the use of marijuana to treat
certain specific medical conditions: cancer, glaucoma, multiple
sclerosis, spasticity, and hyperparathyroidism. His general conclu-
sions are as follows:
IX. Conclusion And Recommended Decision

Based upon the foregoing facts and reasoning, the administra-
tive law judge concludes that the provisions of the Act permit
and require the transfer of marijuana from Schedule I to Sched-
ule II. The Judge realizes that strong emotions are aroused on
both sides of any discussion concerning the use of marijuana.
Nonetheless it is essential for this Agency, and its Administra-
tor, calmly and dispassionately to review the evidence of re-
cord, correctly apply the law, and act accordingly.
Marijuana can be harmful. Marijuana is abused. But the
same is true of dozens of drugs or substances which are listed
in Schedule II so that they can be employed in treatment by
physicians in proper cases, despite their abuse potential.
Transferring marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule II will
not, of course, make it immediately available in pharmacies
throughout the country for legitimate use in treatment. Other
government authorities, Federal and State, will doubtless have
to act before that might occur. But this Agency is not charged
258 Marijuana
with responsibility, or given authority, over the myriad other

regulatory decisions that may be required before marijuana
can actually be legally available. This Agency is charged merely
with determining the placement of marijuana pursuant to the
provisions of the Act. Under our system of laws the respon-
sibilities of other regulatory bodies are the concerns of those
bodies, not of this Agency, [sic]
There are those who, in all sincerity, argue that the transfer
of marijuana to Schedule II will “send a signal” that marijuana
is “OK” generally for recreational use. This argument is spe-
cious. It presents no valid reason for refraining from taking
an action required by law in light of the evidence. If mari-
juana should be placed in Schedule II, in obedience to the
law, then that is where marijuana should be placed, regardless
of misinterpretation of the placement by some. The reasons
for the placement can, and should, be clearly explained at
the time the action is taken. The fear of sending such a signal
cannot be permitted to override the legitimate need, amply
demonstrated in this record, of countless suffers for the relief
marijuana can provide when prescribed by a physician in a
legitimate case.
The evidence in this record clearly shows that marijuana
has been accepted as capable of relieving the distress of great
numbers of very ill people, and doing so with safety under
medical supervision. It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and
capricious for DEA to continue to stand between those suffer-
ers and the benefits of this substance in light of the evidence
in this record.
The administrative law judge recommends that the Ad-
ministrator conclude that the marijuana plant considered as a
whole has a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the
United States, that there is no lack of accepted safety for use of
it under medical supervision and that it may lawfully be trans-
ferred from Schedule I to Schedule II. The judge recommends
that the Administrator transfer marijuana from Schedule I to
Schedule II.
Drug Enforcement Administrator John Lawn declined to carry

out Judge Young’s recommendation, and marijuana was not re-
scheduled. In 1994, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals
upheld Lawn’s authority to act as he did.
Source: “In the Matter of Marijuana Rescheduling Petition.”

Docket No. 86-22. Available online at http://www.druglibrary
.org/olsen/MEDICAL/YOUNG/young1.html. Accessed on
May 5, 2016.
Interpretation of Listing of “Tetrahydrocannabinols”

in Schedule I. 21 CFR Part 1308 [DEA-204]
RIN 1117-AA55 (2001)
In 2001, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is-
sued a group of three rules reinterpreting the regulation of any
product containing THC. In essence, the new rules prohibited the
growing, importation, or use of any cannabis product that contains
any level of THC whatsoever. This regulation is considerably more
severe than earlier interpretations of the Controlled Substances Act
of 1970. The regulations were later overturned by a decision of the
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (whose decision follows) in 2003.
SUMMARY: For the reasons provided herein, the Drug

Enforcement Administration (DEA) interprets the Controlled
Substances Act (CSA) and DEA regulations to declare any
product that contains any amount of tetrahydrocannabinols
(THC) to be a schedule I controlled substance, even if such
product is made from portions of the cannabis plant that are
excluded from the CSA definition of “marihuana.”
[The DEA next provides a lengthy justification for the action it
is taking in this rule, followed by this conclusion:]
Conclusion
By stating that “any material, compound, mixture, or prepara-
tion, which contains any quantity of . . . Tetrahydrocannabinols”
260 Marijuana
is a schedule I controlled substance, the plain language of

the CSA leads to the conclusion that all products containing
any amount of THC are schedule I controlled substances.
The legislative history supports this conclusion by revealing
that Congress wrote the definition of marijuana intending to
control all parts of the cannabis plant that were believed to
contain THC. When the CSA was enacted, the implement-
ing regulations did not simply adopt, verbatim, the prior
regulations that were expressly limited to synthetic forms
of THC. Rather, the word “Tetrahydrocannabinols” was
inserted in the regulations at the top of the listing, thereby
including all forms of THC (natural and synthetic). DEA
therefore interprets the CSA and DEA regulations such that
any product that contains any amount of THC is a schedule
I controlled substance, even if such product is made from
portions of the cannabis plant that are excluded from the
definition of marijuana. DEA recognizes that this interpre-
tive rule, standing alone, would effectively prohibit the use
of an assortment of industrial products made from the can-
nabis plant (such as certain paper products, fiber, rope, and
animal feed) that Congress intended to allow under the 1937
Marihuana Tax Act. Although the intent of the now-repealed
1937 Act is no longer controlling, DEA is issuing today, in
a separate Federal Register document that accompanies this
document, an interim rule that will except from CSA con-
trol the types of industrial products that were allowed under
the 1937 Act, provided such products do not cause THC to
enter the human body. See [insert Federal Register cite for
interim rule]. [The rule mentioned here is found at 21 CFR Part
1308, page 51539; http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/get
doc.cgi?dbname=2001_register&docid=01-25024-filed.pdf ] As
explained further in the interim rule, all other products made
from any of the excluded portions of the cannabis plant (such
as edible “hemp” products) remain controlled substances if
they cause THC to enter the human body.
Source: “Interpretation of Listing of ‘Tetrahydrocannabinols’

in Schedule I.” Federal Register. Volume 66, Number 195.
October 9, 2001. Rules and Regulations, 51530, 51533.
Hemp Industries Association, et al. v. Drug Enforcement

Administration, 333 F.3d 1082 (2003)
The DEA’s listing of new rules for the regulation of cannabis, outlined
in the preceding document, was challenged by a group of companies,
including Hemp Industries Association; All-One-God-Faith, Inc.
(dba Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps); Atlas Corporation; Nature’s Path
Foods USA, Inc.; Hemp Oil Canada, Inc.; Hempzels, Inc.; Kenex
Ltd.; and Tierra Madre, LLC. The case was argued and decided in
two parts, called Hemp I and Hemp II. The court’s final decision
about the DEA’s action as outlined in Hemp II included the follow-
ing conclusion. (Citations are omitted and indicated by ellipses.)
[7] Congress was aware of the presence of trace amounts of

psychoactive agents (later identified as THC) in the resin of
non-psychoactive hemp when it passed the 1937 “Marihuana
Tax Act,” and when it adopted the Tax Act marijuana defini-
tion in the CSA. As a result, when Congress excluded from the
definition of marijuana “mature stalks of such plant, fiber . . . ,
[and] oil or cake made from the seeds,” it also made an exception
to the exception, and included “resin extracted from” the ex-
cepted parts of the plant in the definition of marijuana, despite
the stalks and seeds exception. . . . Congress knew what it was
doing, and its intent to exclude non-psychoactive hemp from
regulation is entirely clear. The DEA’s Final Rules are inconsis-
tent with the unambiguous meaning of the CSA definitions of
marijuana and THC, and the DEA did not use the appropriate
scheduling procedures to add non-psychoactive hemp to the
list of controlled substances.
[The court then notes that it has already determined in Hemp I
that nonpsychoactive hemp is not banned under Schedule I.]
262 Marijuana
We find unambiguous Congress’ intent with regard to the

regulation of non-psychoactive hemp. Therefore, we reject the
Final Rules at step one of the Chevron test and need not reach
Chevron step two. [“Chevron” refers to a case whose precedent is
cited in this decision.]
IV. Conclusion
[9] The DEA’s Final Rules purport to regulate foodstuffs con-
taining “natural and synthetic THC.” And so they can: in keep-
ing with the definitions of drugs controlled under Schedule I
of the CSA, the Final Rules can regulate foodstuffs contain-
ing natural THC if it is contained within marijuana, and can
regulate synthetic THC of any kind. But they cannot regu-
late naturally-occurring THC not contained within or derived
from marijuana—i.e., non-psychoactive hemp products—
because non-psychoactive hemp is not included in Schedule I.
The DEA has no authority to regulate drugs that are not sched-
uled, and it has not followed procedures required to schedule
a substance.
[10] The DEA’s definition of “THC” contravenes the un-
ambiguously expressed intent of Congress in the CSA and
cannot be upheld. DEA-205F and DEA-206F [the two new
rules proposed by the DEA] are thus scheduling actions that
would place non-psychoactive hemp in Schedule I for the
first time. In promulgating the Final Rules, the DEA did
not follow the procedures in §§ 811(a) and 812(b) of the
CSA required for scheduling. The amendments to 21 C.F.R.
§ 1308.11(d)(27) that make THC applicable to all parts of
the Cannabis plant are therefore void. We grant Appellants’
petition and permanently enjoin enforcement of the Final
Rules with respect to non-psychoactive hemp or products
containing it.
Source: Hemp Industries Association v. DEA. 333 F.3d 1082

(2003).
Gonzales, Attorney General, et al. v. Raich et al.,

545 U.S. 1 (2005)
In 1996, voters in California approved Proposition 215, permit-
ting the use of marijuana for medical purposes. An obvious problem
created by that action was possible conflict between the new permis-
sive state law and federal law, which prohibits the use of marijuana
for any purpose whatsoever. When two California women, Angel
Raich and Diane Monson, had their marijuana stashes confiscated
by federal officials in 2002, the two filed suit against the Attorney
General of the United States, John Ashcroft. (Ashcroft was replaced
by Alberto Gonzales as attorney general in 2005, thus accounting
for the final title of the case.) The petitioners’ case was that the seized
marijuana had been grown in the state of California and was
used only within the state; the federal government had, therefore,
no basis for taking action in the matter. The federal government
claimed that there was a possibility that the marijuana being grown
in California might be sold or transported out of the state, and
therefore the federal government had authority over the case because
of the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The Court ruled
in favor of the government by a 6 to 3 vote. In their decision, the
majority relied heavily on a 1942 case, Wickard v. Filburn (317
U.S. 111), which established the right of the federal government to
control wheat grown by a farmer in Ohio strictly for his own use.
The main elements of the decision and the dissenting opinions are as
follows (References are omitted, as indicated by ellipses.):
For the majority:

Respondents in this case do not dispute that passage of
the CSA [Controlled Substances Act of 1970], as part of the
Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act, was
well within Congress’ commerce power. . . . Nor do they con-
tend that any provision or section of the CSA amounts to an
unconstitutional exercise of congressional authority. Rather,
respondents’ challenge is actually quite limited; they argue
that the CSA’s categorical prohibition of the manufacture and
264 Marijuana
possession of marijuana as applied to the intrastate manufac-

ture and possession of marijuana for medical purposes pursu-
ant to California law exceeds Congress’ authority under the
Commerce Clause.
[The court next shows how the issue in the present case is similar
to the one posed in Wickard v. Filburn.]
Even respondents acknowledge the existence of an illicit
market in marijuana; indeed, Raich has personally participated
in that market, and Monson expresses a willingness to do so in
the future. More concretely, one concern prompting inclusion
of wheat grown for home consumption in the 1938 Act was
that rising market prices could draw such wheat into the inter-
state market, resulting in lower market prices. . . . The parallel
concern making it appropriate to include marijuana grown for
home consumption in the CSA is the likelihood that the high
demand in the interstate market will draw such marijuana
into that market. While the diversion of homegrown wheat
tended to frustrate the federal interest in stabilizing prices by
regulating the volume of commercial transactions in the in-
terstate market, the diversion of homegrown marijuana tends
to frustrate the federal interest in eliminating commercial
transactions in the interstate market in their entirety. In both
cases, the regulation is squarely within Congress’ commerce
power because production of the commodity meant for home
consumption, be it wheat or marijuana, has a substantial ef-
fect on supply and demand in the national market for that
commodity.
[An important element in the dissents written by Justices
O’Connor, Thomas, and Rehnquist leaned heavily on states’ rights
arguments. For example, Justice O’Connor writes:]
We enforce the “outer limits” of Congress’ Commerce

Clause authority not for their own sake, but to protect
historic spheres of state sovereignty from excessive federal
encroachment and thereby to maintain the distribution
of power fundamental to our federalist system of govern-

ment. . . . One of federalism’s chief virtues, of course, is
that it promotes innovation by allowing for the possibil-
ity that “a single courageous State may, if its citizens
choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and
economic experiments without risk to the rest of the
country.” . . .
This case exemplifies the role of States as laboratories. The

States’ core police powers have always included authority to de-
fine criminal law and to protect the health, safety, and welfare
of their citizens. . . . Exercising those powers, California (by
ballot initiative and then by legislative codification) has come
to its own conclusion about the difficult and sensitive ques-
tion of whether marijuana should be available to relieve severe
pain and suffering. Today the Court sanctions an application
of the federal Controlled Substances Act that extinguishes that
experiment, without any proof that the personal cultivation,
possession, and use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, if
economic activity in the first place, has a substantial effect on
interstate commerce and is therefore an appropriate subject of
federal regulation.
[Justice Thomas offered an even more strongly worded dissent
on the same basis].
Respondents’ local cultivation and consumption of mari-
juana is not “Commerce . . . among the several States.” . . . By
holding that Congress may regulate activity that is neither in-
terstate nor commerce under the Interstate Commerce Clause,
the Court abandons any attempt to enforce the Constitution’s
limits on federal power.
. . .
If the Federal Government can regulate growing a half-dozen
cannabis plants for personal consumption (not because it is
interstate commerce, but because it is inextricably bound up
with interstate commerce), then Congress’ Article I powers—as
266 Marijuana
expanded by the Necessary and Proper Clause—have no mean-

ingful limits.
. . .
If the majority is to be taken seriously, the Federal Govern-
ment may now regulate quilting bees, clothes drives, and pot-
luck suppers throughout the 50 States. This makes a mockery
of Madison’s assurance to the people of New York that the
“powers delegated” to the Federal Government are “few and
defined,” while those of the States are “numerous and indefinite.”
Source: Gonzales v. Raich, 545 U.S. 1 (2005).
Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment (2005)

The disconnect between federal prohibitions against the sale and use
of marijuana expressed in the Controlled Substances Act of 1970
and the action by certain states permitting the use of marijuana for
medical purposes has continued now for more than a decade. One
expression of this disconnect has been a series of efforts by the U.S.
Congress to prohibit federal authorities from carrying out punitive
actions against individuals who sell or use medical marijuana in
states where it has been approved. These actions in the U.S. House
of Representatives go back to 2003, when Representative Barney
Frank (D-MA) introduced the States’ Rights to Medical Mari-
juana Act, which failed in a 273 to 152 floor vote. Similar bills
and amendments were introduced again in 2004 through 2007,
2012, 2014, and 2015. The later versions of these bills were in-
troduced by Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and his
colleagues Representative Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and Repre-
sentative Sam Farr (D-CA). The bill finally passed the House by
a 219–189 vote in 2014 and again by a 242–186 vote in 2015.
The relevant portion of the 2015 bill is reproduced here, followed
by Representative Rohrabacher’s comments about the purpose of
the amendment. Following this section is an excerpt from a court
case dealing with the interpretation of the amendment.
I have an amendment at the desk. . . .

At the end of the bill (before the short title), insert the
following:
Sec. __. None of the funds made available in this Act to the
Department of Justice may be used, with respect to any of the
States of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Con-
necticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa,
Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mich-
igan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada,
New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North
Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina,
Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and
Wisconsin, or with respect to either the District of Columbia
or Guam, to prevent any of them from implementing their
own laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or
cultivation of medical marijuana.
. . .
Today, I ask my colleagues to make a practical as well as a
principled vote. My amendment would prohibit any Federal
funds from being used to supersede State law in those States
that have legalized the use of medical marijuana.
Let’s be clear. The intent of this amendment is to make it
illegal for Federal employees to engage in efforts to enforce
Federal law that makes the medical use or distribution of medi-
cal marijuana illegal in States where the use of marijuana for
medical purposes has been made legal.
The practical aspect of this vote is based on the realization
that, at a time of severely limited resources, it makes sense to
target terrorists, criminals, and other threats to the American
people rather than use Federal law enforcement resources to
prevent suffering and sick people from using a weed that may
or may not alleviate their suffering.
There are many examples—yes, anecdotal—in which the
use of marijuana has helped end severe suffering.
Trying to prevent this use of marijuana once it has been
legalized by a State government is a travesty, an inexcusable
268 Marijuana
waste of our limited resources. That is the practical reason to

vote for my amendment.
As for the principle, we Republicans claim to base our deci-
sions on individual freedom, on states’ rights as mandated by
the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, and especially on
the doctor-patient relationship.
Don’t bother to use rhetoric about those principles on other
issues if you vote for the Federal Government to supersede
individual rights, states’ rights, and the doctor-patient relation-
ship when it comes to marijuana.
Source: H.Amdt.332 to H.R.2578. 2015. Congress.gov. https://

www.congress.gov/amendment/114th-congress/house-am
endment/332/text. Accessed on May 6, 2016.
FDA Statement on Health Effects of Marijuana (2006)

By the early 2000s, many claims were being made about the medi-
cal benefits of smoking marijuana. At that point, the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) apparently felt it necessary to
issue a statement about these claims. On April 20, 2006, the
agency issued the following news release on the medical benefits of
marijuana.
Claims have been advanced asserting smoked marijuana has

a value in treating various medical conditions. Some have ar-
gued that herbal marijuana is a safe and effective medication
and that it should be made available to people who suffer from
a number of ailments upon a doctor’s recommendation, even
though it is not an approved drug.
Marijuana is listed in schedule I of the Controlled Sub-
stances Act (CSA), the most restrictive schedule. The Drug En-
forcement Administration (DEA), which administers the CSA,
continues to support that placement and FDA concurred be-
cause marijuana met the three criteria for placement in Sched-
ule I under 21 U.S.C. 812(b)(1) (e.g., marijuana has a high
potential for abuse, has no currently accepted medical use in

treatment in the United States, and has a lack of accepted safety
for use under medical supervision). Furthermore, there is cur-
rently sound evidence that smoked marijuana is harmful. A
past evaluation by several Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) agencies, including the Food and Drug Admin-
istration (FDA), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration (SAMHSA) and National Institute for Drug
Abuse (NIDA), concluded that no sound scientific studies sup-
ported medical use of marijuana for treatment in the United
States, and no animal or human data supported the safety or
efficacy of marijuana for general medical use. There are alterna-
tive FDA-approved medications in existence for treatment of
many of the proposed uses of smoked marijuana.
FDA is the sole Federal agency that approves drug prod-
ucts as safe and effective for intended indications. The Fed-
eral Food, Drug, and Cosmetic (FD&C) Act requires that
new drugs be shown to be safe and effective for their in-
tended use before being marketed in this country. FDA’s
drug approval process requires well-controlled clinical trials
that provide the necessary scientific data upon which FDA
makes its approval and labeling decisions. If a drug product
is to be marketed, disciplined, systematic, scientifically con-
ducted trials are the best means to obtain data to ensure that
drug is safe and effective when used as indicated. Efforts that
seek to bypass the FDA drug approval process would not
serve the interests of public health because they might expose
patients to unsafe and ineffective drug products. FDA has
not approved smoked marijuana for any condition or disease
indication.
A growing number of states have passed voter referenda (or
legislative actions) making smoked marijuana available for a
variety of medical conditions upon a doctor’s recommenda-
tion. These measures are inconsistent with efforts to ensure
that medications undergo the rigorous scientific scrutiny of the
FDA approval process and are proven safe and effective under
270 Marijuana
the standards of the FD&C Act. Accordingly, FDA, as the fed-

eral agency responsible for reviewing the safety and efficacy of
drugs, DEA as the federal agency charged with enforcing the
CSA, and the Office of National Drug Control Policy, as the
federal coordinator of drug control policy, do not support
the use of smoked marijuana for medical purposes.
Source: “Inter-Agency Advisory Regarding Claims That

Smoked Marijuana Is a Medicine.” Available online at http://
www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/
2006/ucm108643.htm. Accessed on May 5, 2016.
Memorandum for All United States Attorneys (2013)

The decision by many states to approve the use of marijuana for
medical purposes has created a problem for the federal government.
Since marijuana is still a Schedule I drug under the Controlled
Substances Act of 1970, should or must federal law enforcement
agencies follow federal law or state law in dealing with individuals
who use the drug in states where it has been approved for medical
use? The administration of President Barack Obama made up its
mind on this issue early on in his term of office, deciding essentially
not to prosecute people who were using marijuana for medical pur-
poses in states that had adopted laws permitting such use. Perhaps
the most famous statement on the issue was announced to U.S. at-
torneys in a memorandum from Deputy Attorney General James M.
Cole in August 2013, a portion of which is reprinted here.
As the Department noted in its previous guidance, Congress

has determined that marijuana is a dangerous drug and that the
illegal distribution and sale of marijuana is a serious crime that
provides a significant source of revenue to large-scale criminal
enterprises, gangs, and cartels. The Department of Justice is
committed to enforcement of the CSA consistent with those
determinations. The Department is also committed to using its
limited investigative and prosecutorial resources to address the
most significant threats in the most effective, consistent, and

rational way. In furtherance of those objectives, as several states
enacted laws relating to the use of marijuana for medical pur-
poses, the Department in recent years has focused its efforts on
certain enforcement priorities that are particularly important
to the federal government:
• Preventing the distribution of marijuana to minors;

• Preventing revenue from the sale of marijuana from going to
criminal enterprises, gangs, and cartels;
• Preventing the diversion of marijuana from states where it is
legal under state law in some form to other states;
• Preventing state-authorized marijuana activity from being
used as a cover or pretext for the trafficking of other illegal
drugs or other illegal activity;
• Preventing violence and the use of firearms in the cultivation
and distribution of marijuana;
• Preventing drugged driving and the exacerbation of other
adverse public health consequences associated with mari-
juana use;
• Preventing the growing of marijuana on public lands and the
attendant public safety and environmental dangers posed by
marijuana production on public lands; and
• Preventing marijuana possession or use on federal property.
These priorities will continue to guide the Department’s en-

forcement of the CSA against marijuana-related conduct.
Thus, this memorandum serves as guidance to Department
attorneys and law enforcement to focus their enforcement re-
sources and efforts, including prosecution, on persons or or-
ganizations whose conduct interferes with any one or more of
these priorities, regardless of state law. [Footnote omitted here.]
Outside of these enforcement priorities, the federal gov-
ernment has traditionally relied on states and local law en-
forcement agencies to address marijuana activity through
272 Marijuana
enforcement of their own narcotics laws. For example, the

Department of Justice has not historically devoted resources
to prosecuting individuals whose conduct is limited to posses-
sion of small amounts of marijuana for personal use on private
property. Instead, the Department has left such lower-level or
localized activity to state and local authorities and has stepped
in to enforce the CSA only when the use, possession, cultiva-
tion, or distribution of marijuana has threatened to cause one
of the harms identified above.
The enactment of state laws that endeavor to authorize mari-
juana production, distribution, and possession by establishing
a regulatory scheme for these purposes affects this traditional
joint federal-state approach to narcotics enforcement. The
Department’s guidance in this memorandum rests on its expecta-
tion that states and local governments that have enacted laws
authorizing marijuana-related conduct will implement strong
and effective regulatory and enforcement systems that will ad-
dress the threat those state laws could pose to public safety,
public health, and other law enforcement interests. A system
adequate to that task must not only contain robust controls
and procedures on paper; it must also be effective in practice.
Jurisdictions that have implemented systems that provide for
regulation of marijuana activity must provide the necessary re-
sources and demonstrate the willingness to enforce their laws
and regulations in a manner that ensures they do not under-
mine federal enforcement priorities.
Source: Memorandum for All United States Attorneys. 2013.

U.S. Department of Justice. https://www.justice.gov/iso/
opa/resources/3052013829132756857467.pdf. Accessed on
May 7, 2016.
Legitimacy of Industrial Hemp Research (2014)

An important breakthrough occurred in 2014 with regard to the
legal status of hemp growing in the United States. After a very long
period in which the cultivation of hemp was prohibited under any
circumstances in the United States, the U.S. Congress decided to

permit pilot programs for the growing of hemp in states that had
approved such programs. As part of the 2014 Department of Ag-
riculture funding act, it included the following brief section on
the topic:
(a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding the Controlled Sub-

stances Act of 1970 (21 U.S.C. 801 et seq.), the Safe and
Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act (20 U.S.C.
7101 et seq.), chapter 81 of title 41, United States Code,
or any other Federal law, an institution of higher education
(as defined in section 101 of the Higher Education Act of
1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001)) or a State department of agricul-
ture may grow or cultivate industrial hemp if—
(1) the industrial hemp is grown or cultivated for purposes
of research conducted under an agricultural pilot pro-
gram or other agricultural or academic research; and
(2) the growing or cultivating of industrial hemp is allowed
under the laws of the State in which such institution of
higher education or State department of agriculture is
located and such research occurs.
(b) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:
(1) AGRICULTURAL PILOT PROGRAM.—The term
“agricultural pilot program” means a pilot program to
study the growth, cultivation, or marketing of indus-
trial hemp—
(A) in States that permit the growth or cultivation of
industrial hemp under the laws of the State; and
(B) in a manner that—
(i) ensures that only institutions of higher educa-
tion and State departments of agriculture are
used to grow or cultivate industrial hemp;
(ii) requires that sites used for growing or cultivat-
ing industrial hemp in a State be certified by,
274 Marijuana
and registered with, the State department of

agriculture; and
(iii) authorizes State departments of agriculture to
promulgate regulations to carry out the pilot
program in the States in accordance with the
purposes of this section.
(2) INDUSTRIAL HEMP.—The term “industrial hemp”
means the plant Cannabis sativa L. and any part
of such plant, whether growing or not, with a
Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol concentration of not more
than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis.
Source: Agricultural Act of 2014. U.S. Congress. https://www

.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-113hr2642enr/pdf/BILLS-113hr
2642enr.pdf. Accessed on May 8, 2016.
Coats v. Dish Network (Colorado Supreme

Court Case No. 13SC394) (2015)
Brandon Coats was a customer service representative for Dish Net-
work. Coats is a quadriplegic who has been in a wheelchair since
he was a teenager. He obtained a license in Colorado in 2009
for the use of marijuana for medical purposes. In 2010, Coats
failed a test for THC conducted by Dish, the result of his having
used marijuana during his off hours. He sued the company on the
basis of Colorado law which prohibits a company from firing a
person for carrying on legal activities while not on the job. Coats
noted that medical marijuana was legal in Colorado at the time
of his firing, so the company’s action violated state law. The district
court, appeals court, and Supreme Court all disagreed with Coats,
as the following decision indicates. Ellipses indicate omitted text.
We review de novo the question of whether medical marijuana

use prohibited by federal law is a “lawful activity” protected
under section 24-34-402.5 [the relevant state law on which
Coats bases his claim]. . . .
We still must determine, however, whether medical mari-

juana use that is licensed by the State of Colorado but pro-
hibited under federal law is “lawful” for purposes of section
24-34-402.5. Coats contends that the General Assembly in-
tended the term “lawful” here to mean “lawful under Colorado
state law,” which, he asserts, recognizes medical marijuana use
as “lawful.” . . . We do not read the term “lawful” to be so re-
strictive. Nothing in the language of the statute limits the term
“lawful” to state law. Instead, the term is used in its general, un-
restricted sense, indicating that a “lawful” activity is that which
complies with applicable “law,” including state and federal law.
We therefore decline Coats’s invitation to engraft a state law
limitation onto the statutory language. . . .
Echoing [appeals court] Judge Webb’s dissent, Coats argues that
because the General Assembly intended section 24-34-402.5 to
broadly protect employees from discharge for outside-of-work
activities, we must construe the term “lawful” to mean “lawful
under Colorado law.” . . . In this case, however, we find nothing
to indicate that the General Assembly intended to extend sec-
tion 24-34-402.5’s protection for “lawful” activities to activi-
ties that are unlawful under federal law. In sum, because Coats’s
marijuana use was unlawful under federal law, it does not fall
within section 24-34-402.5’s protection for “lawful” activities.
Source: Coats v. Dish Network. Colorado Supreme Court.

Case No. 13SC394. https://www.courts.state.co.us/userfiles/file/
Court_Probation/Supreme_Court/Opinions/2013/13SC394
United States of America, Plaintiff, v. Marin Alliance

for Medical Marijuana, and Lynette Shaw (2015)
The Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment adopted by the U.S. Congress
in 2015 appeared to be fairly straightforward: It forbade the Drug
Enforcement Administration from pursuing individuals for the use
of medical marijuana in states where the practice was legal. The
276 Marijuana
DEA, however, had a different view of the amendment; it believed

that the agency was prohibited from acting only against states in
which medical marijuana was legal, not against individuals in
those states. The question as to which interpretation was correct
was first resolved later in 2015 when a case arose between a medi-
cal marijuana group in Marin County, California, and the DEA.
The court concluded that “the Government’s contrary reading so
tortures the plain meaning of the statute” that it had to be rejected
virtually out of hand. Specifically, it explained:
The plain reading of the text of Section 538 forbids the

Department of Justice from enforcing this injunction against
MAMM to the extent that MAMM operates in compliance
with California law.
. . .
. . . this Court is not in a position to “override Congress’
policy choice, articulated in a statute, as to what behavior
should be prohibited.” . . . On the contrary: This Court’s
only task is to interpret and apply Congress’s policy choices,
as articulated in its legislation. And in this instance, Con-
gress dictated in Section 538 that it intended to prohibit the
Department of Justice from expending any funds in con-
nection with the enforcement of any law that interferes with
California’s ability to “implement [its] own State law that
authorize[s] the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation
of medical marijuana.”
. . .
[The court then noted that the sponsors of the amendment had
addressed this very issue in offering it to the House:]
In fact, the members of Congress who drafted Section 538
had the opportunity to respond to the very same argument that
the DOJ advances here. In a letter to Attorney General Eric
Holder on April 8, 2015, Congressmen Dana Rohrabacher
and Sam Farr responded as follows to “recent statements indi-
cating that the [DOJ] does not believe a spending restriction
designed to protect [the medical marijuana laws of 35 states]
applies to specific ongoing cases against individuals and busi-

nesses engaged in medical marijuana activity”:
As the authors of the provision in question, we write to

inform you that this interpretation of our amendment is
emphatically wrong. Rest assured, the purpose of our
amendment was to prevent the Department from wasting
its limited law enforcement resources on prosecutions and
asset forfeiture actions against medical marijuana patients
and providers, including businesses that operate legally
under state law. In fact, a close look at the Congressional
Record of the floor debate of the amendment clearly
illustrates the intent of those who sponsored and sup-
ported this measure. Even those who argued against the
amendment agreed with the proponents’ interpretation of
their amendment.
Conclusion
For the foregoing reasons, as long as Congress precludes the
Department of Justice from expending funds in the manner
proscribed by Section 538, the permanent injunction will only
be enforced against MAMM insofar as that organization is in
violation of California “State laws that authorize the use, distri-
bution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.”
Source: United States of America, Plaintiff, v. Marin Alliance

for Medical Marijuana, and Lynette Shaw. United States Dis-
trict Court for the Northern District of California. https://
cases.justia.com/federal/district-courts/california/candce/3:19
98cv00086/116898/277/0.pdf?ts=1445324671. Accessed on
May 6, 2016.
6 Annotated Bibliography
Marijuana is a very contentious issue about which volumes have

been written in books, articles, reports, pamphlets, brochures,
white papers, and other print documents, as well as on the Internet.
Many of these resources provide relatively unbiased information on
the history of cannabis, its physical and psychological effects, and
efforts to establish legal controls (or to remove such controls) over
the centuries. This chapter provides a sampling of that literature.
The chapter is divided into four major sections, books, articles, re-
ports, and Internet resources. Given the ubiquity of Internet refer-
ences today, some items could be assigned to more than one category
and where that is possible, it is so noted in the listing. The reader
should be aware that a very large body of research is now available
on the physical, mental, emotional, and moral effects of cannabis
use that often produces ambiguous and contradictory results. The
studies listed here must be regarded as no more than the tip of the
iceberg of this research. An additional source of bibliographic refer-
ences in this book can be found in the References section at the end
of Chapters 1 and 2.
Competitors evaluate marijuana samples during the fifth annual Canna-

bis Cup, a competition for best marijuana, in Montevideo, Uruguay. The
contest was held at a private building where bands played rock music while
competitors smoked joints and vendors sold food and marijuana parapher-
nalia. Alcohol was banned. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico)
279
280 Marijuana
Books
Abel, Ernest L. 1980. Marihuana, the First Twelve Thousand
Years. New York: Plenum Press.
An older book that remains virtually without peer in its
treatment of the history of the cannabis plant.
Anderson, Patrick. 1981. High in America: The True Story Be-
hind NORML and the Politics of Marijuana. New York: Viking
Press. Also available online at http://www.druglibrary.org/
special/anderson/highinamerica1.htm. Accessed on May 24,
2016.
Anderson presents a detailed and fascinating story about
one of the major groups fighting for the decriminalization
of marijuana use in the United States.
Armentano, Paul. 2016. The Citizen’s Guide to State-by-State
Marijuana Laws. Atlanta, GA: Whitman Publishing.
This book, by the deputy director of NORML, provides
detailed information about the legal status of marijuana
in all states.
Barbour, Scott. 2011. Should Marijuana Be Legalized? San
Diego, CA: ReferencePoint Press.
This book for young adults presents all sides of the ques-
tion of the legalization of marijuana.
Barcott, Bruce, 2015. Weed the People: The Future of Legal
Marijuana in America. New York: Time Books.
The author reviews the history of marijuana in the United
States, discusses changes that have been occurring in the
past decade with regard to legalization of the drug, and
attempts to lay out the type of future that may develop if
the current trade continues.
Bennett, William J., and Robert A. White. 2016. Going to Pot:
Why the Rush to Legalize Marijuana Is Harming America. New
York: Center Street.
Annotated Bibliography 281
Bennett is the former director of National Drug Con-

trol policy under President George H. W. Bush. He and
White explain why the legalization of marijuana poses
a serious threat to fundamental values of American
society.
Bonnie, Richard J., and Charles H. Whitebread. 1999. The

Marijuana Conviction: A History of Marijuana Prohibition in
the United States. New York: Lindesmith Center.
This edition is a reprint of the original 1974 book, now
widely considered to be one of the great classics in the
literature of marijuana criminalization. The book de-
scribes in well-written detail the process by which mari-
juana went from a highly regarded medical substance to a
banned drug in the United States.
Booth, Martin. 2005. Cannabis: A History. New York: Picador.

This book is the gold standard for an account of the his-
tory of marijuana.
Brown, Jeff. 2012. Marijuana and the Bible, 2nd ed. Clermont,
FL: Createspace. Also available online at http://www.erowid.org/
plants/cannabis/cannabis_spirit2.shtml. Accessed on May 29,
2016.
At the time this work was written, the author was a
member of the Ethiopian Zion Coptic church, which
used marijuana as part of its sacraments. The church no
longer exists, but the work is of considerable interest in
that it attempts to show references in the Bible that ap-
parently refer to the use of marijuana as a psychotropic
substance.
Casarett, David J. 2015. Stoned: A Doctor’s Case for Medical

Marijuana. New York: Current.
Casarett makes his case for the legalization of medical
marijuana based on a number of specific cases in which
the drug has been used to treat physical problems.
282 Marijuana
Castle, David J., Robin Murray, and Deepak Cyril D’Souza.

2012. Marijuana and Madness, 2nd ed. Cambridge, UK; New
York: Cambridge University Press.
This book provides a highly technical and detailed review
of the existing scientific evidence about the relationship
between marijuana use and mental illness. It includes
chapters on the endocannabinoid system, recent changes
in the potency of cannabis, cannabis and psychoses, and
the effects of cannabis on the brain.
Caulkins, Jonathan P., et al. 2016. Marijuana Legalization:

What Everyone Needs to Know. New York: Oxford University
Press.
This book provides information on virtually every con-
ceivable aspect of marijuana, from methods by which the
drug is produced and distributed, risks associated with its
use, possible effects of legalizing the drug, possible medi-
cal benefits, and ways in which the legalization of mari-
juana differs from that of other drugs.
Chasteen, John Charles. 2016. Getting High: Marijuana through

the Ages. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Chasteen focuses primarily on the history of marijuana
in the United States, but also provides an interesting dis-
cussion of the drug’s place in other parts of the world
throughout history.
Clarke, Robert Connell, and Mark David Merlin, eds. 2013.

Cannabis: Evolution and Ethnobotany. Berkeley: University of
California Press.
The essays in this book provide a fairly technical, yet quite
readable, review of the history of the cannabis plant, in-
cluding its many uses as hemp and recreational and medi-
cal marijuana.
Compton, Michael T., ed. 2016. Marijuana and Mental Health.

Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association Publishing.
The papers in this collection deal with a variety of issues

related to marijuana and its legalization, such as the ef-
fects of the drug on the body and mind, medical mari-
juana, legalization of the drug, synthetic cannabinoids,
and treatment and prevention of marijuana misuse.
Dach, Jeffrey, Elaine A. Moore, and Justin Kander. 2015.

Cannabis Extracts in Medicine: The Promise of Benefits in Sei-
zure Disorders, Cancer, and Other Conditions. Jefferson, NC:
McFarland & Company.
The authors focus on cannabidiol (CBD), a common
component of Cannabis sativa, rather than THC in this
book, exploring its method of production and its medical
effects on the human body.
Derrickson, Jason, ed. 2014. Marijuana Legalization: State

Initiatives, Implications, and Issues. New York: Nova Science
Publishers.
The articles in this anthology examine federal policies on
marijuana, trends in legalization of the drug at the state
level, conflicts between the two, and issues that arise when
marijuana use becomes a legitimate business.
Dijkstra, Valentin, ed. 2013. Recreational and Medical Mari-

juana: Legalization Conflicts and Questions. New York: Nova
Science Publishers.
The four essays in this book discuss selected legal issues
involved in the state legalization of marijuana use, con-
flicts between federal and state medical marijuana laws,
the Controlled Substances Act, and fines and imprison-
ment conditions relating to marijuana convictions.
Duvall, Chris S. 2015. Cannabis. London: Reaktion Books.

Without ignoring marijuana, this book focuses its atten-
tion on hemp, its history in human culture, and its many
potential applications in everyday life.
284 Marijuana
Fox, Steve, Paul Armentano, and Mason Tvert. 2013. Mari-

juana Is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink? White
River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing.
The essence of this book is expressed in the title of one
of its chapters: “Not Adding a Vice, but Providing an
Alternative.”
Geluardi, John. 2016. Cannabiz: The Explosive Rise of the Medi-

cal Marijuana Industry. Abingdon, UK; New York: Routledge.
The author focuses on the business aspects of dealing
with marijuana that have arisen as the result of increased
levels of legalization for recreational and medical purposes.
Gogek, Ed. 2015. Marijuana Debunked: A Handbook for Par-

ents, Pundits and Politicians Who Want to Know the Case against
Legalization. Asheville, NC: Chiron Publications.
The author makes the argument that the American public
has been sold on the safety of marijuana, even for teenag-
ers, by the press and the “marijuana lobby.” He reviews
the scientific and medical evidence for the drug’s effects
on the human body and explains why parents should
become better informed and better organized to prevent
further legalization of the drug.
Gold, Mark S. 2014. Marijuana. New York: Springer Verlag.

This book provides a somewhat more technical approach
to the subject of marijuana, focusing on topics such as can-
nabinoid pharmacology, medical and psychiatric problems
associated with marijuana use, diagnosis of marijuana
dependency, and treatment and prevention of marijuana
abuse.
Hageseth, Christian, and Joseph D’Agnese. 2015. Big Weed:

An Entrepreneur’s High-Stakes Adventures in the Budding Legal
Marijuana Business. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
This book provides a personalized view of the develop-
ment of legalized marijuana as a major business endeavor,
written by the founder of Green Man Cannabis, reputed

to be the largest marijuana business operation in the
United States.
Herer, Jack. 1994. The Emperor Wears No Clothes, 11th ed.

Anaheim, CA: AH HA Publishing, 2001. Also available online
at http://www.hampapartiet.se/25.pdf.
The publisher claims that this book is the “authorita-
tive history of hemp’s myriad uses and of the war on this
plant.” The book certainly contains a wealth of detailed
information about the history of the plant, its many
uses, and efforts to make its use for recreational purposes
illegal.
Jacquette, Dale, ed. 2010. Cannabis: Philosophy for Everyone:

What Were We Just Talking About? Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
This collection of essays deals with a variety of cannabis-
related topics, including cannabis phenomenology, mari-
juana and spiritual enlightenment, effects of cannabis use
on creativity, psycho-social dimensions of the cannabis
culture, and ethics and politics of cannabis use.
Lee, Martin A. 2012. Smoke Signals: A Social History of Mari-

juana: Medical, Recreational, and Scientific. New York: Scribner.
The author provides a readable and comprehensive review
of the use of cannabis products throughout history from
the earliest ages to the present day.
Maguire, Mary, and Kim Schnurbush, ed. 2015. Annual Edi-

tions: Drugs, Society, and Behavior, 30th ed. Boston: McGraw-
Hill Higher Education.
Annual Editions is regularly updated to provide expert
views on the most important social topics of the day. Each
book, written for the layperson, contains articles from
newspapers, magazines, and journals written by experts
in the field. The book comes with a resource guide and
relevant testing materials.
286 Marijuana
[n.a.]. Marijuana reform. 2014. Ipswich, MA: H. W. Wilson.

This collection of articles focuses on the changes that have
been taking place in Americans’ attitudes about the use
of marijuana. Articles cover topics such as decriminal-
ization versus legalization, issues relating to the taxing of
marijuana commerce, comparing the safety of marijuana
and alcohol, shifting student attitudes about marijuana,
the medicinal value of marijuana, and the reclassification
“quagmire.”
Marion, Nancy E., and Joshua B. Hill. 2016. Legalizing Mari-

juana: A Shift in Policies across America. Durham, NC: Carolina
Academic Press.
The 12 papers in this anthology discuss a variety of topics
related to the changing status of marijuana in the United
States, including a brief history of the status of marijuana
throughout history in the nation, the role of cannabis on
campuses, the legal implications of legalizing marijuana,
and legalization campaigns in Washington and Colorado.
Martin, Alyson, and Nushin Rashidian. 2014. A New Leaf: The

End of Cannabis Prohibition. New York: The New Press.
The authors are journalists who write about the process by
which marijuana legalization has started to become popu-
lar throughout the country.
Mills, James H. 2000. Madness, Cannabis and Colonialism: The

“ ‘Native Only’ ” Lunatic Asylums of British India, 1857–1900.
London: Palgrave Macmillan.
The author tells the fascinating story of the creation of
lunatic asylums by the British government following the
Indian rebellion of 1857 as a way of keeping itinerant
natives under control. The asylums were apparently occu-
pied almost exclusively by individuals who had been users
of cannabis products.
Nores, John, and James A. Swan. 2010. War in the Woods: Com-
bating Marijuana Cartels on America’s Public Lands. Guilford,
CT: Lyons Press.
The authors, a warden for the California Fish and Game
Commission and a columnist for ESPN, describe epi-
sodes that have occurred during efforts to find and destroy
marijuana crops on public lands. They discuss the threat
to human life and the environmental damage caused by
illegal marijuana farms.
Robinson, Rowan. 1996. The Great Book of Hemp: The Com-

plete Guide to the Environmental, Commercial, and Medicinal
Uses of the World’s Most Extraordinary Plant. Rochester, VT:
Park Street Press.
This book provides an excellent history of the role of hemp
in human civilization, with a good introduction to social
and economic issues associated with its use in the past
and present. The book itself has an interesting history, ap-
parently having been written to a considerable extent by
Robert A. Nelson. For the background of the book and
a copy of the original manuscript, see Nelson, Robert A.
2016. “Hemp & History.” http://rexresearch.com/hhist/
hhicon.htm. Accessed on May 30, 2016.
Rubin, Vera D., ed. 1975. Cannabis and Culture. The Hague,
The Netherlands: Mouton, 1975.
This book includes papers presented at the IXth Ninth
International Congress of the International Union of
Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences held in Chi-
cago in 1973. It contains articles on a whole range of
cannabis-related topics, including “Early Diffusion and
Folk Uses of Hemp,” “The Origin and Use of Cannabis
in Eastern Asia: Their Linguistic-Cultural Implications,”
“The Social Nexus of Ganja in Jamaica,” “The Ritual Use
of Cannabis in Mexico,” “Traditional Patterns of Hashish
288 Marijuana
Use in Egypt,” “Social and Medical Aspects of the Use of

Cannabis in Brazil,” “Sociocultural and Epidemiological
Aspects of Hashish Use in Greece,” “Memories, Reflec-
tions and Myths: The American Marihuana Commission,”
and “Sociocultural Factors in Marihuana Use in the
United States.”
Smith, Gregory L. 2016. Medical Cannabis: Basic Science &

Clinical Applications: What Clinicians Need to Know and Why.
Beverly Farms, MA: Aylesbury Press.
The publishers of this book claim that it is “the first, single
source for concise, up-to-date information about which
conditions respond to cannabis, dosing guidance, and the
safe use of cannabis by your patients.” Although intended
for medical professionals, it contains extensive informa-
tion of interest to the lay person.
Tate, Katherine, James Lance Taylor, and Mark Q. Sawyer.

2014. Something’s in the Air: Race, Crime, and the Legalization
of Marijuana. New York: Routledge.
In the first half of this book, the authors attempt to iden-
tify the factors that are driving current attempts to legal-
ize marijuana in the United States, using the battle over
California Proposition 19 as an example of this study. In
the second half of the book, they turn to the special re-
lationship of the war on drugs (especially marijuana) and
the potentials for legalization on minority groups in the
United States.
Tyson, Victor P., ed. 2015. Marijuana: Emerging Legal Issues

and Federal Tax Proposals. New York: Nova Science Publishers.
This short book deals with the two marijuana-related top-
ics mentioned in its title.
Wilbur, Alicia K., Lori J. Glauser, and David M. Sipper. 2015.

Medical Marijuana Desk Reference. Las Vegas, NV: Signal Bay
Research.
This book is intended for medical providers. It includes

the most recent scientific information on the use of mari-
juana for the treatment of more than 200 diseases and
medical conditions.
Articles
Acworth, Alex, Nicolas de Roos, and Hajime Katayama. 2012.
“Substance Use and Adolescent Sexual Activity.” Applied Eco-
nomics. 44(9): 1067–1079.
The authors explore the relationship between early drug
use and initiation of sexual activity among adolescents
and find a strong correlation between the two for males,
but no correlation for females.
Allen, Jadie, and Mark D. Holder. 2014. “Marijuana Use and

Well-Being in University Students.” Journal of Happiness Stud-
ies. 15(2): 301–321.
This meta-analysis of studies on positive and negative
well-being effects of smoking marijuana found complex
and contradictory results that suggest additional research
is needed to obtain definitive results on the article’s
hypotheses.
Anderson D. Mark, and Daniel I. Rees. 2014. “The Legaliza-

tion of Recreational Marijuana: How Likely Is the Worst-Case
Scenario?” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. 33(1):
221–232.
The authors attempt to predict the effects of marijuana
legalization on alcohol use patterns, driving accidents,
and patterns of marijuana use among youth. They con-
clude that the net results of marijuana legalization are
likely to be positive.
Barry, Rachel Ann, Heikki Hiilamo, and Stanton A. Glantz.

2014. “Waiting for the Opportune Moment: the Tobacco
290 Marijuana
Industry and Marijuana Legalization.” The Milbank Quarterly.

92(2): 207–242.
The tobacco industry has been interested in the commer-
cial consequences of marijuana legalization for at least
50 years. Now that such an event is beginning to occur,
it and large food corporations and other businesses are
likely to become heavily involved in the production and
distribution of marijuana products, a turn of events whose
consequences the authors discuss.
Birdsall, Shauna M., Timothy C. Birdsall, and Lucas A. Tims.
2016. “The Use of Medical Marijuana in Cancer.” Current On-
cology Reports. 18(7): 1–9.
The authors review recent reports on the use of marijuana
to treat cancer and summarize possible effects of such
treatments as well as risks and benefits of using them.
Bonnie, Richard J., and Charles H. Whitebread, II. 1970.
“The Forbidden Fruit and the Tree of Knowledge: An Inquiry
into the Legal History of American Marijuana Prohibition.”
Virginia Law Review. 56(6): 971–1203. Also available online
at http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/LIBRARY/studies/vlr/
vlrtoc.htm.
This article is the basis for a book written by Bonnie and
Whitebread on the history of the criminalization of can-
nabis in the United States (see “Books” earlier in this
chapter). It is widely regarded as one of the most (if not
the most) complete reports and analyses of this story.
Brunner, Theodore F. 1973. “Marijuana in Ancient Greece and
Rome? The Literary Evidence.” Bulletin of the History of Medi-
cine. 47(4): 344–355.
The author uses a number of literary sources to make his
case that the Greeks and Romans were familiar with the
medical uses of cannabis and included it in their materia
medica, but that there is no evidence that they knew of or
took advantage of its psychoactive effects.
Caulkins, Jonathan P., Michael A. C. Lee, and Anna M. Kasunic.

2012. “Marijuana Legalization: Lessons from the 2012 State
Proposals.” World Medical & Health Policy. 4(3–4): 4–34.
The authors point out that the question of legalizing
marijuana is not a “yes” or “no” proposition, but can be
expressed in many different formats, each of which has
a distinct set of possible outcomes for retail prices, tax
income, availability, risk for arrest, and public and per-
sonal health. The paper discusses how these varieties of
expression and their possible consequences differ from
each other.
Cooper, Ziva D., Sandra D. Comer, and Margaret Haney.

2013. “Comparison of the Analgesic Effects of Dronabinol and
Smoked Marijuana in Daily Marijuana Smokers.” Neuropsycho-
pharmacology. 38(10): 1984–1992.
The study was designed to compare the analgesic effects
of smoked marijuana versus orally ingested dronabinol
(Marinol). Researchers concluded that both products
“decreased pain, with dronabinol producing longer-
lasting decreases in pain sensitivity and lower ratings of
abuse-related subjective effects than marijuana.”
Fattore, Liana, and Walter Fratta. 2011. “Beyond THC: The

New Generation of Cannabinoid Designer Drugs.” Frontiers of
Behavioral Neuroscience. 5: 60. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2011.00060.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3187647/.
The authors provide an excellent general overview of the
invention, development, distribution, and use of syn-
thetic cannabinoids with psychoactive properties similar
to those of THC.
Gerra, Gilberto, et al. 2010. “Pharmacology and Toxicology of

Cannabis Derivatives and Endocannabinoid Agonists.” Recent
Patents on CNS Drug Discovery. 5(1): 46–52.
292 Marijuana
This paper provides an excellent introduction to the topic

of marijuana derivatives with a discussion of their possible
future applications as therapeutic agents.
Ghosh, Tista, et al. 2016. “The Public Health Framework of
Legalized Marijuana in Colorado.” American Journal of Public
Health. 106(1): 21–27.
The authors report on an analysis that has been conducted
on the potential effects of marijuana legalization on pub-
lic health policy and activities in Colorado, at least partly
as a possible guide to other states that may take similar
actions in the future.
Hasin, Deborah S., et al. 2015. “Prevalence of Marijuana
Use Disorders in the United States between 2001–2002 and
2012–2013.” JAMA Psychiatry. 72(12): 1235–1242.
The authors compare data from the National Epidemi-
ologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions for
2001–2002 and 2012–2013 and find that the rate of
marijuana users more than doubled, from 4.1% to 9.5%,
while the rate of individuals who can be classified under
the category of cannabis use disorder decreased from
35.6% to 30.6% over the same period. They discuss the
implications of these findings for current trends in the
legalization of marijuana use for recreational purposes.
Kamin, Sam. 2015. “The Battle of the Bulge: The Surprising
Last Stand against State Marijuana Legalization.” Publius: The
Journal of Federalism. 45(3): 427–451. Also available online at
http://publius.oxfordjournals.org/content/45/3/427.full.pdf+
html. Accessed on May 30, 2016.
The author notes that current trends toward the legaliza-
tion of recreational marijuana use by the states are strong.
He discusses some of the few remaining forces that can
act against this trend, such as actions by the federal gov-
ernment and lawsuits by opposing states and professional
organizations, such as police unions.
Kendell, Robert. 2003. “Cannabis Condemned: The Proscrip-

tion of Indian Hemp.” Addiction. 98(2): 143–151.
The author provides some very interesting history about
the process by which marijuana became criminalized in-
ternationally, beginning with a 1925 League of Nations
conference on opium, in which marijuana was declared
by Egyptian representatives to represent a threat as serious
as that posed by opium.
Kramer, Joan L. 2015. “Medical Marijuana for Cancer.” CA:

A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. 65(2): 109–122.
This article provides a review of studies on various aspects
of the use of marijuana in the treatment of cancer and
cancer-related conditions, such as pain management. It
also reviews some of the best available data on hazards of
smoking marijuana.
Mason, Brittany L., et al. 2016. “Novel Pharmacotherapeutic

Interventions for Cannabis Use Disorder.” Current Addiction
Reports. 3(2): 214–220.
No medications have yet (as of 2017) been approved for
the treatment of cannabis use disorder. However, a few
promising candidates for treatment are being studied for
possible therapeutic use.
Maxwell, Janet Carlisle, and Bruce Mendelson. 2016. “What

Do We Know Now about the Impact of the Laws Related to
Marijuana?” Journal of Addiction Medicine. 10(1): 3–12.
This article summarizes what is known about the effects
of legalizing the use of recreational marijuana as of early
2016, based on surveys conducted among medical pro-
viders in Denver and Seattle.
McGuire, Jo. 2016. “Trends in Marijuana Legalization:

A Wake-Up Call for Employers.” Occupational Health & Safety.
85(2): 35–37.
294 Marijuana
The author points out that marijuana legalization poses

issues for employers, about which they may not have
thought thus far.
Merlin, M. D. 2003. “Archaeological Evidence for the Tradi-

tion of Psychoactive Plant Use in the Old World.” Economic
Botany. 57(3): 295–323.
The author provides an extensive and detailed review of
the ways in which psychoactive drugs, including mari-
juana, were used for a variety of purposes perhaps as far
back as 12,000 years ago.
Metts, Julius, et al. 2016. “Medical Marijuana: A Treatment

Worth Trying?” Journal of Family Practice. 65(3): 178–185.
The authors outline conditions for which marijuana might
be helpful as a form of treatment and cautions to observe
for each condition listed.
Morningstar, Patricia J. 1985. “Thandai and Chilam: Tradi-

tional Hindu Beliefs about the Proper Uses of Cannabis.” Jour-
nal of Psychoactive Drugs, 17(3): 141–165.
The author points out that cannabis has some diverse
and contradictory effects on the human body, which may
make it difficult for a society to know how to classify the
use of the substance. She demonstrates how traditional
Indian culture has resolved this problem over centuries
of use of the drug for a variety of purposes, always tak-
ing advantage of its benefits while placing restrictions on
its risks.
Myles, Nicholas, et al. 2012. “The Association between Can-

nabis Use and Earlier Age at Onset of Schizophrenia and Other
Psychoses: Meta-Analysis of Possible Confounding Factors.”
Current Pharmaceutical Design. 18(32): 5055–5069.
This meta-study found that there is “robust evidence” for
the possibility that, in some individuals, cannabis smoking
may be a causative factor in the development of psychotic

disorders such as schizophrenia.
Nahas, Gabriel G. 1982. “Hashish in Islam: 9th to 18th Cen-

tury.” Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine. 1982.
58(9): 814–831. Also available online at http://www.ncbi.nlm
.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1805385/pdf/bullnyacadmed
00095-0056.pdf.
The author offers a superb review of the use of hashish
in the Muslim Middle East during the time period men-
tioned in the article title.
Neavyn, Mark J., et al. 2014. “Medical Marijuana and Driv-

ing: A Review.” Journal of Medical Toxicology. 10(3): 269–279.
The authors review a number of studies on the effect of
marijuana use on driving and find that results from labo-
ratory studies differ from those of field studies. They sug-
gest that individuals who consume marijuana should wait
at least eight hours before driving.
Nickles, Dean M. 2016. “Federalism and State Marijuana Leg-

islation.” Notre Dame Law Review. 91(3): 1253–1285.
This article provides an excellent general overview of the
main legal issues created by the adoption of marijuana
legislation in various states over the past decade.
Palamar, Joseph Jay, Lily Lee, and Michael Weitzman. 2015.

“Prevalence and Correlates of Hashish Use in a National Sam-
ple of High School Seniors in the United States.” American
Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse. 41(3): 197–205.
The authors note that most studies on the use of mari-
juana do not discriminate among the various forms in
which the drug may be used. They claim that this demo-
graphic study of hashish use among high school seniors
in the United States is the first such study to do so in the
United States.
296 Marijuana
Pardini, Dustin, et al. 2015. “Unfazed or Dazed and Confused:

Does Early Adolescent Marijuana Use Cause Sustained Impair-
ments in Attention and Academic Functioning?” Journal of Ab-
normal Child Psychology. 43(7): 1203–1217.
The authors explore the long-term effects of low or mod-
erate marijuana use among adolescents on attention skills
and academic performance. They conclude that such
users experience “an increase in observable attention and
academic problems, but these problems appear to be min-
imal and are eliminated following sustained abstinence.”
Popovici, Ioana, et al. 2014. “Cannabis Use and Antisocial Be-

havior among Youth.” Sociological Inquiry. 84(1): 131–162.
The authors find, “[a]s expected,” that antisocial behavior
is strongly correlated with heavy users of marijuana, and
the more frequent the use of the drug, the greater the an-
tisocial behavior.
Rieder, M. J. 2016. “Is the Medical Use of Cannabis a Thera-

peutic Option for Children?” Paediatrics & Child Health. 21(1):
31–34. Also available online at http://www.cps.ca/en/docu
ments/position/medical-use-of-cannabis. Accessed on May 31,
2016.
This position statement from the Canadian Paediatric So-
ciety suggests that there is insufficient evidence to make
strong statements about the use of medical marijuana
among children, but the data that are available suggest
that the drug be used in only very specific ways and as
infrequently as possible.
Russo, Ethan. 2002. “Cannabis Treatments in Obstetrics and

Gynecology: A Historical Review.” Journal of Cannabis Thera-
peutics. 2(3/4): 5–34. Also available online at http://www.can
nabis-med.org/membersonly/mo.php?aid=2002-03-04&fid=
2002-03-04-1&mode=p&sid=.
The author points out that there is a long history associ-

ated with the use of cannabis for a variety of obstetrical
and gynecological problems. He concludes from his own
studies that cannabis may have applications in dealing
with a variety of female disorders, including dysmenor-
rhea, dysuria, hyperemesis gravidarum, and menopausal
symptoms.
Saper, Anthony. 1974. “The Making of Policy through Myth,

Fantasy and Historical Accident: The Making of America’s Nar-
cotics Laws.” British Journal of Addiction to Alcohol and Other
Drugs. 69(2): 183–193.
The author argues that drug laws in the United States dur-
ing the first three quarters of the 20th century were made
on the basis of “myth, fantasy, historical accident; inter-
woven with occasional rationality.”
Schrot, Richard J., and John R. Hubbard. 2016. “Canna-

binoids: Medical Implications.” Annals of Medicine. 48(3):
128–141.
The authors provide an excellent review of the current
state of information about conditions for which canna-
binoids may be an effective medical treatment, with a re-
view of harmful side effects that should be considered.
Schwartz, David S. 2013. “High Federalism: Marijuana Legal-

ization and the Limits of Federal Power to Regulate States.”
Cardozo Law Review. 35(2): 567–642.
This article provides a detailed and sophisticated legal
analysis of the issues raised by state laws that permit the
use of marijuana for medical and/or recreational purposes,
in conflict with federal laws and regulations that restrict
such use of psychoactive drugs.
Sherman, Brian J., and Aimee L. McRae-Clark. 2016. “Treat-

ment of Cannabis Use Disorder: Current Science and Future
298 Marijuana
Outlook.” Pharmacotherapy: The Journal of Human Pharmacol-

ogy and Drug Therapy. 36(5): 511–535.
Cannabis use disorder (CUD) is a condition defined in
the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disor-
ders (DSM-5) as the continued use of marijuana despite
clinically significant impairment, ranging from mild to
severe. This article provides an excellent overview of cur-
rent research on the condition and possible methods of
treatment.
Small, Ernest. 2015. “Evolution and Classification of Cannabis

sativa (Marijuana, Hemp) in Relation to Human Utilization.”
Botanical Review. 81(3): 189–294.
The author provides a very detailed review of the botani-
cal characteristics of C. sativa, as well as a story of its use
throughout human history.
Tashkin, Donald P. 2013. “Effects of Marijuana Smoking

on the Lung.” Annals of the American Thoracic Society. 10(3):
239–247.
The author reviews some of the acute and chronic effects
of smoking marijuana on the lung and finds anatomical
changes immediately after smoking, but relatively mod-
est changes as a result of long-term use of marijuana. He
concludes that “the accumulated weight of evidence im-
plies far lower risks for pulmonary complications of even
regular heavy use of marijuana compared with the grave
pulmonary consequences of tobacco.”
Temple, E. C., R. F. Brown, and D. W. Hine. 2011. “The ‘Grass

Ceiling’: Limitations in the Literature Hinder Our Under-
standing of Cannabis Use and Its Consequences.” Addiction.
106(2): 238–244.
The authors discuss methodological problems that limit
the usefulness of the vast amount of research that has
been done on cannabis use. Of special interest are two
responses to these articles: Earleywine, Mitch. “The El-

ephant in the Room with the ‘Grass Ceiling.’ ” Addiction.
106(2): 245–246; and Copeland, Jan. “The Glass Ceiling
on Evidence of Cannabis Related Harms: Flawed or Just
False?” Addiction. 106(2): 249–251.
Van Gundy, Karen, and Cesar Rebellon. 2010. “A Life-Course
Perspective on the ‘Gateway Hypothesis.’ ” Journal of Health
and Social Behavior. 51(3): 244–259.
The researchers investigate the common belief among
drug researchers and policymakers that marijuana is a
“gateway” drug, that is, one that leads to increased risk
for other forms of substance abuse later in life. They con-
clude that, in the most general terms, the hypothesis may
be correct, but confounding factors make the relation-
ship much more complex. For example, they discover
a low correlation between early marijuana use and later
substance abuse among those who are employed early in
life. They also find that the conversion from marijuana to
other drugs is often quite short-lived, and that users often
discontinue substance abuse quite early in life.
Wanlund, William. 2015. “Will Growth Continue Despite the
Challenges?” CQ Researchers. 25(37): whole.
This issue of the journal explores expected trends in the
marijuana business in light of recent legalization of the
drug in four states and the District of Columbia.
Whiting, Penny F., et al. 2015. “Cannabinoids for Medical
Use: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” JAMA. 313(24):
2456–2473. Also available online at http://jama.jamanetwork
.com/article.aspx?articleid=2338251.
Researchers examined 79 studies attempting to determine
the efficacy and safety of using marijuana to treat a vari-
ety of medical conditions. They concluded that there was
“moderate-quality evidence to support the use of canna-
binoids for the treatment of chronic pain and spasticity.
300 Marijuana
There was low-quality evidence suggesting that cannabi-

noids were associated with improvements in nausea and
vomiting due to chemotherapy, weight gain in HIV in-
fection, sleep disorders, and Tourette syndrome.” They
also found that cannabinoids “were associated with an
increased risk of short-term AEs” (adverse events).
Wilkinson, Samuel T., et al. 2015. “Marijuana Legalization:

Impact on Physicians and Public Health.” Annual Review of
Medicine. 67: 453–466.
The authors review some of the issues that arise for physi-
cians as more states begin to adopt legalization of mari-
juana. They point out that sound evidence for the drug’s
therapeutic effects is still fairly limited, and that further
research on those effects is needed.
Zhang, Li Rita, et al. 2015. “Cannabis Smoking and Lung

Cancer Risk: Pooled Analysis in the International Lung Can-
cer Consortium.” International Journal of Cancer. 136(4):
894–903.
Reporting on a meta-analysis of 2,159 lung cancer cases
and 2,985 controls, researchers found “little evidence
for an increased risk of lung cancer among habitual or
long-term cannabis smokers.”
Reports
Caulkins, Jonathan P., et al. 2015. “Considering Marijuana
Legalization: Insights for Vermont and Other Jurisdictions.”
Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation. Available online at
file:///C:/Users/David/Downloads/RAND_RR864.pdf. Accessed
on May 30, 2016.
This report was prepared for the Secretary of Adminis-
tration for the state of Vermont in anticipation of the
state’s possible legalization of marijuana for recreational
use. RAND researchers recommend the report for use by
other states as well. It covers a range of topics, such as
consequences of marijuana use; taxation and other sources

of revenue; regulation; and possible effects on consump-
tion rates, tax income, and public budgets.
“Conflicts between State and Federal Marijuana Laws.” 2013.

Hearing before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States
Senate. One Hundred Thirteenth Congress, First Session.
September 10, 2013. Available online at https://www.gpo
.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-113shrg93426/html/CHRG-113shrg
93426.htm. Accessed on May 26, 2016.
This hearing was held to allow discussion of conflicts that
have arisen as a result of certain states’ having adopted
laws that permit the use of marijuana for recreational pur-
poses, a policy that stands in contrast to federal law with
regard to use of the drug.
Dilley, Julia, et al. 2016. “Marijuana Report: Marijuana Use,

Attitudes and Health Effects in Oregon.” Oregon Health Au-
thority. https://public.health.oregon.gov/PreventionWellness/
marijuana/Documents/oha-8509-marijuana-report.pdf.
This report summarizes information collected on the ef-
fects of the state’s legalization of recreational marijuana in
fields such as youth and adult use of the drug, attitudes
toward marijuana, and public health and social conse-
quence of legalization of marijuana.
Eddy, Mark. 2010. “Medical Marijuana: Review and Analysis

of Federal and State Policies.” Congressional Research Service.
https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33211.pdf. Accessed on
June 3, 2016.
This report was issued in response to the growth of legal
medical marijuana in the states. The question before the
author involved the consequences of the conflict between
state laws and federal law about the use of marijuana for
medical purposes. The report is especially useful because
302 Marijuana
of the detailed history of U.S. policies and legislation with

regard to the use of marijuana.
Ekins, Gavin, and Joseph Henchman. 2016. “Marijuana Legal-

ization and Taxes: Federal Revenue Impact.” Tax Foundation.
http://taxfoundation.org/sites/taxfoundation.org/files/docs/
TaxFoundation_SR231.pdf. Accessed on June 3, 2016.
This report attempts to estimate the effects of the legaliza-
tion of marijuana for recreational and medical purposes
on federal tax income.
Franco, Celinda. 2010. “Federal Domestic Illegal Drug En-

forcement Efforts: Are They Working?” Washington, DC: Con-
gressional Research Service.
Congress asked the Congressional Research Service (CRS)
to assess the effectiveness of the nation’s efforts to reduce
illegal drug use in the United States. The CRS report
points out that efforts to solve this problem have not
changed since the mid-1980s, although the nature of the
nation’s “drug problem” has changed significantly over
that period of time. The report concludes that there is
not enough good research evidence on which to answer
the original question, although overall, the nation’s drug
problem does not appear to have improved very much
in spite of the time, money, personnel, and other efforts
expended to reduce substance abuse.
“The Health and Social Effects of Nonmedical Cannabis Use.”

2016. World Health Organization. http://www.who.int/sub
stance_abuse/publications/msb_cannabis_report.pdf ?ua=1.
This extensive report attempts to summarize all that is
currently known about the nonmedical use of cannabis
with regard to its use, disorders, and treatments; neuro-
biological effects; short-term effects of cannabis use; men-
tal health and psychosocial outcomes of long-term use;
long-term use and noncommunicable disease; and pre-

vention and treatment protocols.
Hedden, Sarra L., et al. 2015. “Behavioral Health Trends in

the United States: Results from the 2014 National Survey on
Drug Use and Health.” Rockville, MD: Center for Behavioral
Health Statistics and Quality. Available online at http://www
.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/NSDUH-FRR1-2014/
NSDUH-FRR1-2014.pdf. Accessed on May 28, 2016.
This report is issued annually and provides complete
statistical data on the use of legal and illegal drugs by
individuals of all ages, both genders, and all ethnic back-
grounds in the United States.
Joy, Janet E., Stanley J. Watson, and John A. Benson. 1999.

Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base. Washing-
ton, DC: National Academy Press.
Although now somewhat dated, this report is one of the
most important studies ever conducted on the risks and
benefits associated with the use of marijuana, especially
for medical purposes.
Koppel, Barbara S., et al. 2014. “Systematic Review: Efficacy

and Safety of Medical Marijuana in Selected Neurologic Dis-
orders.” Neurology. 82(17): 1556–1563. Available online at
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4011465/.
This report reviewed 34 studies conducted from 1948 to
November 2013 on the effects of marijuana on a variety
of neurological conditions. Researchers listed conditions
for which THC and oral cannabis extract (OCE) were
each effective. They recommended caution in using the
product because of the relatively high rate (about 1%) of
serious adverse psychopathological events.
“The Legalization of Marijuana in Colorado—The Impact.”

2013/2014/2015. Rocky Mountain High Density Drug
304 Marijuana
Trafficking Area. http://www.yumacountysheriff.net/wp-con

tent/uploads/2016/03/3-Legalization-of-MJ-in-Colorado-
the-Impact-vol-1.pdf; http://www.yumacountysheriff.net/wp-
content/uploads/2016/03/4-Legalization-of-MJ-in-Colo
rado-the-Impact-vol-2.pdf; http://www.yumacountysheriff.net/
wp-content/uploads/2016/03/5-Legalization-of-MJ-in-Colo
rado-the-Impact-vol-3.pdf. Accessed on May 28, 2016.
The Rocky Mountain High Density Drug Trafficking
Area plans to produce regular reports on the effects of
marijuana legalization in Colorado, the first three of
which are listed here. The reports summarize informa-
tion about topics such as impaired driving, youth mari-
juana use, adult marijuana use, emergency department
and hospital-related admissions, treatment, and diver-
sion of Colorado marijuana.
“Lessons after Two Years of Marijuana Legislation: A Short
Report.” 2015. Smart Approaches to Marijuana. https://learn
aboutsam.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/FINAL-REPORT-1
.pdf. Accessed on June 3, 2016.
This brief report highlights the major trends that appear
to have developed in the 2+ years since recreational mari-
juana use was first approved in Colorado and Washington.
“The Marihuana Problem in the City of New York.” 1944.
Mayor’s Committee on Marihuana. New York Academy of
Medicine. http://hempshare.org/pdfs/laguardia.pdf. Accessed
on June 3, 2006.
This report is the first formal study in the United States
on the effects of smoking marijuana. It was inspired by
reports reaching Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia of New York
City “of the smoking of marihuana by large segments of
our population and even by school children.” Among
more than a dozen conclusions reached by the investigat-
ing committee was that “[t]he publicity concerning the
catastrophic effects of marihuana smoking in New York
City is unfounded.”
National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse. 1972.

Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding. Washington, DC:
U.S. Government Printing Office.
This so-called Shafer Report is one of the most famous
reports on marijuana in U.S. history, producing results
very much in conflict with view of the administration
of President Richard M. Nixon who, in any case, de-
cided to ignore the commission’s recommendations for
the legalization of recreational use of the drug in small
amounts.
“National Drug Control Strategy.” 2015. The White House.
https://www.whitehouse.gov//sites/default/files/ondcp/pol
icy-and-research/2015_national_drug_control_strategy_0.pdf.
The president of the United States annually sends to
Congress a report on the current status of drug use in
the United States and federal plans for dealing with that
problem in the coming year. Among the 2015 goals
were strengthening efforts to prevent drug use, seek-
ing early intervention opportunities in health care, in-
creasing access to treatment and supporting long-term
recovery, and disrupting domestic drug trafficking and
production.
“National Drug Threat Assessment.” 2015. U.S. Depart-
ment of Justice. National Drug Intelligence Center. Avail-
able online at http://www.dea.gov/docs/2015%20NDTA%20
Report.pdf.
This annual publication is published for the purpose of
providing policymakers and counterdrug executives with
information about the potential threat from drugs as well
as from gangs and violence associated with drug use. The
2015 report, for example, focused on the major drugs of
abuse, such as cocaine, heroin, prescription drugs, and
marijuana; transnational criminal organizations, and il-
licit financing of drug operations.
306 Marijuana
“Report of the Special Senate Committee on Marijuana.”

2016. Massachusetts Senate. https://www.scribd.com/doc/
303174588/Report-of-the-Special-Senate-Committee-on-
Marijuana. Accessed on May 30, 2016.
This report was prepared for consideration by the Mas-
sachusetts Senate in light of the possibility that the state
would vote in November 2016 on legalizing the use of
small amounts of the drug for recreational purposes.
“The State of the Drugs Problem in Europe.” 2012. Euro-

pean Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Abuse. Luxem-
bourg: Publications Office of the European Union. Available
online at http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/attachements.cfm/
att_190854_EN_TDAC12001ENC_.pdf.
This annual report provides a broad and detailed sum-
mary of the status of substance abuse within the 27 na-
tions that make up the European Union. The publication
is an essential up-to-date guide of statistical data and anal-
ysis on the issue.
“Washington State Marijuana Impact Report.” 2016. North-

west High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. https://drive
.google.com/file/d/0Bxs3xMLjUamANHhRRkluWkRobXM/
view?usp=sharing. Accessed on June 4, 2016.
As part of the legalization of marijuana process ap-
proved by voters in 2012, the state is required to issue
regular reports on the impact of marijuana legalization
in Washington State. This report is the most recent avail-
able. It covers topics such as adult and youth impacts,
impaired driving, diversion data and patterns, marijuana-
related crimes, and current and future markets for the
drug.
Internet
“The Antique Cannabis Book.” 2016. http://antiquecannabis
book.com/. Accessed on May 29, 2016.
This website provides one of the most complete and de-

tailed descriptions of the history of cannabis and its uses
in the medical field and everyday life. It is a treasure chest
of interesting and valuable information.
Armentano, Paul. 2016. “Emerging Clinical Applications for

Cannabis and Cannabinoids,” 7th ed. NORML. http://norml
.org/pdf_files/NORML_Clinical_Applications_for_Canna
bis_and_Cannabinoids.pdf. Accessed on May 29, 2016.
This regularly updated publication reviews the most recent
scientific evidence on potential applications of cannabis
and cannabinoids in the treatment of medical conditions.
Aydin, Ani. 2015. “Cannabinoid Poisoning.” Medscape. http://

emedicine.medscape.com/article/833828-overview. Accessed
on May 29, 2016.
This website provides a technical review of the physical,
psychological, and other effects of cannabinoids on the
human body.
Berman, Douglas A. 2016. “US House Votes to Give Medi-

cal Marijuana to Veterans.” Marijuana Law, Policy & Reform.
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/marijuana_law/medical-
marijuana-commentary-and-debate/. Accessed on June 2, 2016.
This article reports and comments on the House of Rep-
resentatives vote to prevent the Veterans Administration
from using any funds to prevent its medical personnel
from prescribing medical marijuana for veterans who
would appear to benefit from use of the drug. The same
blog carries a story reporting that Representative Dana
Rohrabacher (R-CA) became the first member of Con-
gress to report that he was currently using marijuana to
treat his medical problems.
Bertoli, Andrea. 2016. “It’s Time to Rethink Hemp Produc-

tion in the US.” Green Living Ideas. http://greenlivingideas
.com/2016/04/21/hemp-production-in-the-us/. Accessed on
May 31, 2016.
308 Marijuana
The author provides four reasons that the United States

should once more begin growing industrial hemp.
Birkner, Christine. 2015. “How Marijuana Marketers Are

Busting Stoner Stereotypes.” American Marketing Association.
https://www.ama.org/publications/MarketingNews/Pages/
high-times.aspx. Accessed on May 31, 2016.
This article looks in depth at the business issues involved
in the legalization of recreational marijuana. The title of
the article suggests the basic problem of overcoming the
long moral opprobrium associated with the drug’s use.
Blanchard, Sean, and Matthew J. Atha. 2016. “Indian Hemp

and the Dope Fiends of Old England.” UKCIA.org. http://www
.ukcia.org/culture/history/colonial.php. Accessed on May 29,
2016.
The authors provide an interesting sociopolitical history
of cannabis in the British Empire between 1840 and 1928.
Buddy T. 2016. “The Health Effects of Marijuana.” VeryWell.

https://www.verywell.com/the-health-effects-of-marijuana-
The effects of marijuana on the brain, heart, and lungs are
discussed along with other health issues related to the use
of marijuana.
“Canna Law Blog.” 2016. Canna Law Group. http://www.can

nalawblog.com/. Accessed on May 31, 2016.
This website is maintained by a group of 10 attorneys that
focuses on practical issues related to the growing of can-
nabis. It is an excellent source of the most recent informa-
tion regarding the legalization of medical and recreational
marijuana.
“Cannabis.” 2016. The Vaults of Erowid. http://www.erowid

.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis.shtml. Accessed on May 29, 2016.
The Vaults of Erowid are one of the most extensive and

useful sources of information on all aspects of substance
use and abuse issues. This website has a very large collec-
tion of essays on all aspects of cannabis, including bo-
tanical information, history of use, drug tests, medical
marijuana, and hashish.
“Cannabis and Cannabinoids (PDQ®).” 2016. National Can-

cer Institute. http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/
cam/patient/cannabis-pdq#section/all. Accessed on May 29,
2016.
The primary focus of this website is the medical appli-
cations of cannabis and cannabinoids. It provides infor-
mation on current clinical trials, general questions and
answers about the use of cannabis and cannabinoids for
treating cancer, and general information on the topic.
“Cannabis and Mental Health.” 2016. Royal College of Psychi-

atrists. http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mentalhealthinfo/problems/
alcoholanddrugs/cannabis.aspx. Accessed on May 29, 2016.
This website contains a great deal of information on pos-
sible mental effects of using cannabis, along with a discus-
sion of its current legal status in the United Kingdom. In
general, the discussion is based on the assumption that
the use of cannabis for recreational purposes is dangerous
and generally a bad idea.
“Cannabis Drug Profile.” 2015. European Monitoring Centre

for Drugs and Drug Addiction. http://www.emcdda.europa
.eu/publications/drug-profiles/cannabis. Accessed on May 29,
2016.
This website provides extensive detailed information about
cannabis, including topics such as its chemistry, physical
form, pharmacology, origin, mode of use, other names,
analysis, typical purities, control status, prevalence, street
price, and medical use.
310 Marijuana
“Cannabis sativa L.” 2016. Natural Resources Conservation

Service. http://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=casa3. Ac-
cessed on June 2, 2016.
This website provides extensive technical information
about the cannabis plant, along with many useful links to
other resources on the species.
Chemerinsky, Erwin. 2016. “Why Legalizing Marijuana Will

Be Much Harder Than You Think.” The Washington Post. https://
www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2016/04/27/
why-legalizing-marijuana-is-much-harder-than-you-think/.
This article reviews the legal problems involved in making
marijuana legal nationwide.
Davison, Janet. 2016. “Marijuana Derivative ‘Shatter’ Poses

Risks, Policy Challenges.” CBC News. http://www.cbc.ca/news/
canada/marijauna-shatter-1.3383095. Accessed on June 2,
2016.
This article describes a new derivative of marijuana,
known as shatter, which may contain up to 80% canna-
binoid content, with the attendant potent effect on users.
The occurrence of the new derivative raises new issues for
the monitoring of marijuana use in the country.
DiNicholas, Michelle. 2016. “How to Find the Best Marijuana

Recovery Center.” Recovery.org. http://www.recovery.org/top
ics/marijuana-recovery/. Accessed on June 2, 2016.
This website provides a good general overview of mari-
juana abuse treatment programs, including the types of
programs that are available, the strengths and weakness of
each kind of program, the cost of programs, their effica-
cies, and how to find various types of programs.
“Drug Facts: Synthetic Cannabinoids.” 2015. National Insti-

tute on Drug Abuse. https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/
drugfacts/synthetic-cannabinoids. Accessed on May 30, 2016.
This website provides general information on a class of

synthetic psychoactive substances with properties similar
to those of natural cannabis.
Ehrensing, Daryl T. 1998. “Feasibility of Industrial Hemp

Production in the United States Pacific Northwest.” Oregon
State University Extension Service. https://catalog.extension
.oregonstate.edu/sites/catalog.extension.oregonstate.edu/files/
project/pdf/sb681.pdf. Accessed on May 29, 2016.
This brochure provides one of the best available descrip-
tions on the Internet of the general botany, history, and
potential applications of hemp in the United States.
“The Endocannabinoid System.” 2016. Fundación CANNA.

http://www.fundacion-canna.es/en/endocannabinoid-system.
This website provides a good general introduction to the en-
docannabinoid system and its functions in the human body.
Featherstone, Steve. 2015. “Spike Nation.” The New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/magazine/spike-nation
.html?_r=0. Accessed on June 5, 2015.
This article discusses in detail the epidemic of synthetic
marijuana (called “spike” in the city involved, Syracuse, New
York) abuse in the city, with the attendant public health
issues that have developed as a results of the epidemic.
Genen, Lawrence. 2014. “Cannabis-Related Disorders.” Med-

scape. http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/286661-overview#
showall. Accessed on May 29, 2016.
This website provides detailed information on the medi-
cal and psychiatric aspects of marijuana use with sections
on pathophysiology, epidemiology, clinical presentation,
physical signs and symptoms, causes, differential diagno-
sis, workup, treatment and management, consultation,
medications, outpatient care, deterrence and prevention,
complications, prognosis, and patient education.
312 Marijuana
[Gibson, Arthur C.] 2016. “The Weed of Controversy.” http://

www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/botanytextbooks/economicbot
any/Cannabis/index.html. Accessed on May 29, 2016.
This essay is part of a series on economic botany produced
by Gibson, who taught a course on plants and civilization
at University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) for many
years. It provides an excellent general introduction to the
history of cannabis in human civilization.
Griffing, George T. 2015. “Endocannabinoids.” Medscape.

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1361971-overview.
This article provides a thorough review of endocannabi-
noids that includes a history of their discovery and re-
search, their chemistry and pharmacology, and their roles
in living organisms. The article includes an excellent list
of references.
Grinspoon, Lester. 205. “History of Cannabis as a Medicine.”

http://www.maps.org/mmj/grinspoon_history_cannabis_
medicine.pdf. Accessed on May 29, 2016.
This statement was prepared for a legal case in which a
patient was suing the Drug Enforcement Administra-
tion (DEA) for not allowing him to use marijuana for the
treatment of a medical condition. It describes in detail the
long history of the use of marijuana for the treatment of
medical conditions.
Guither, Peter. 2016. “Why Is Marijuana Illegal?” DrugWarRant

.org. http://www.drugwarrant.com/articles/why-is-marijuana-
illegal/. Accessed on May 29, 2016.
The author provides a very interesting history of the
process by which the U.S. government (and other gov-
ernments) pushed for the criminalization of marijuana
during the early part of the 20th century.
“Hash Marijuana, & Hemp Museum.” 2016. http://hashmu

seum.com/en. Accessed on June 2, 2016.
This museum has two physical sites, one in Amsterdam
and one in Barcelona. Both are good sources of the his-
tory and culture of these substances with special exhibits
also available online on the history of marijuana smoking,
the process of making hash, the history of hemp, medical
marijuana, and opposition to the use of hemp and mari-
juana. Related topics, such as the place of cannabis in the
arts, are also available.
Horvath, A. Tom, et al. 2016. “The Diagnostic Criteria For
Substance Use Disorders (Addiction).” AMHC. http://www
.amhc.org/1408-addictions/article/48502-the-diagnostic-
criteria-for-substance-use-disorders-addiction. Accessed on
May 31, 2016.
This article describes the condition known as marijuana
(cannabis) use disorder (MUD/CUD) and the symp-
toms by which it can be recognized, as taken from the
fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders (DSM-5) of the American Psychiatric
Association.
“How Cannabis Was Criminalized.” 2016. Independent Drug
Monitoring Unit. http://www.idmu.co.uk/historical.htm. Ac-
cessed on May 29, 2016.
This website tells the story of the criminalization of mari-
juana in the United Kingdom in the middle years of the
20th century.
Jaeger, Kyle. 2016. “The Secret Enemy of the Marijuana Le-
galization Movement.” http://www.attn.com/stories/8478/
marijuana-reform-and-the-drug-testing-industry. Accessed on
June 1, 2016.
The author notes that the drug testing business is a large
industry in the United States with a significant stake in
314 Marijuana
keeping marijuana illegal to use. He discusses the impact

of this fact on legalization efforts in the states.
Livingston, Ben. 2013. “Don’t Call Him ‘Pot Czar.’ ” The

Stranger. http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/don’t-call-him-the-
pot-czar/Content?oid=16460452. Accessed on May 28, 2016.
In this interview, the new advisor on marijuana to the
Washington State Liquor Control Board warned of the
worst possible consequences of legalizing the drug, which
would include “more ‘heavy drinking,’ ‘a massive increase
in use by minors,’ or ‘carnage on our highways.’ ”
“Marijuana.” 2016. MedlinePlus. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/

medlineplus/marijuana.html. Accessed on May 29, 2016.
This website, maintained by the U.S. National Library
of Medicine, is a reliable source of information about
every aspect of marijuana, including basic information,
research, directories, organizations, and resources.
“Marijuana.” 2016. National Institute on Drug Abuse. https://

www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/marijuana. Accessed on May 29,
2016.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse is one of the most
reliable sources of information on drug addiction and
abuse available in the United States. This web page provides
a general introduction to the topic of marijuana and to
publications on the subject available from the institute.
“Marijuana Cannabis Research.” 2016. Medical Marijuana Inc.

http://medicalmarijuanainc.com/category/cannabis-research/.
This website reviews recent and current research on all
aspects of marijuana, related synthetic products, and de-
rivatives. Some applications discussed include research on
sleep disorders, tumors, hepatic encephalopahty, Ehlers-
Danlos syndrome, schizophrenia, retinal damage, and
neurological and liver disorders.
“The Marijuana Report.org.” 2016. http://themarijuanareport

.org/. Accessed on May 31, 2016.
This website is a project of National Families in Action. It
contains daily updates of important national events relat-
ing to marijuana, including legalization, federal laws and
other actions, treatment and prevention programs, use
data and statistics, and court actions.
“Marinol.” 2016. AbbVie, Inc. http://www.marinol.com/. Ac-

cessed on June 5, 2016.
This is the official website of Marinol (dronabinol), a syn-
thetic form of THC approved by the U.S. government
for the treatment of specific and limited medical conditions.
Martijn. 2015. “The Long and Rich History of Cannabis

Sativa L.” Sensi Seeds. https://sensiseeds.com/en/blog/the-
long-and-rich-history-of-cannabis-sativa-l/. Accessed on June 2,
2016.
This website provides an unusually interesting and well-
illustrated history of marijuana.
“Medical Marijuana.” 2016. DrugWarFacts.org. http://drug

warfacts.org/cms/?q=node/54. Accessed on May 29, 2016.
2012.
This is an enormously valuable website because of the ex-
tensive list of references it provides for all aspects related
to the therapeutic use of marijuana.
Nelson, Robert A. “A History of Hemp.” rexresearch.com http://

www.rexresearch.com/hhist/hhist1.htm. Accessed on Decem-
ber 12, 2011.
This website provides an excellent introduction to the his-
tory of hemp uses dating from the Neolithic period to the
early Renaissance.
Noonan, David. 2016. “A New Era in Medical Marijuana

Research?” Scientific American. http://www.scientificamerican
316 Marijuana
.com/article/a-new-era-in-medical-marijuana-research/. Accessed
on June 4, 2016.
This article discusses the problems created for marijuana
researchers by federal restrictions on the drug (listed as
a Schedule 1 drug), and changes that might occur in re-
search if the drug were to be reclassified.
Pannoni, Alexandra. 2014. “3 Ways High Schools Are Com-

bating Marijuana Use.” U.S. News High School. http://www
.usnews.com/education/blogs/high-school-notes/2014/09/15/
3-ways-high-schools-are-combating-marijuana-use. Accessed
on June 3, 2016.
This article describes three approaches to the prevention
of marijuana use by high school students: drug preven-
tion programs, zero tolerance policies, and school-based
marijuana treatment programs.
“Preventing Youth Marijuana Use: An Annotated Bibliogra-

phy.” 2014. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administra-
tion. http://www.samhsa.gov/capt/sites/default/files/resources/
bibliography-youth-marijuana-use.pdf. Accessed on June 3,
2016.
This publication brings together some of the most highly
regarded research dealing with ways of preventing young
people from becoming involved in the use of marijuana.
“Prevention Programs That Address Youth Marijuana Use.”

2014. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administra-
tion. http://www.samhsa.gov/capt/sites/default/files/resources/
prevention-youth-marijuana-use.pdf. Accessed on June 3,
2016.
This publication brings together summaries of some of
the programs that have been found to be most effective
in the prevention of young adults’ developing an un-
healthy dependence on marijuana use.
“Public Health’s Approach to Youth Marijuana Prevention.”

2016. Oregon Health Authority. https://public.health.oregon
.gov/PreventionWellness/marijuana/Documents/HB3400-Leg
islative-Report-Youth-Prevention-2016.pdf. Accessed on June 5,
2016.
In connection with legalization of recreational marijuana
use in Oregon, the state legislature mandated actions by
a variety of state agencies to monitor impacts of the new
law on marijuana use in the state. This website reports
on trends in marijuana use among youth in the state
and outlines recommendations for programs that can be
used to reduce the rate of marijuana use among young
people.
“Recreational Marijuana.” 2016. Oregon.gov. https://www

.oregon.gov/olcc/marijuana/Pages/Frequently-Asked-Ques
tions.aspx#top. Accessed on May 30, 2016.
This website was prepared by the state of Oregon after the
use of marijuana for recreational purposes was approved
in 2014. It provides answers to a wide range of questions
related to marijuana, such as licensing of dispensaries,
personal use laws, tax regulations, research on the drug,
and water rights.
“A Review of Potential Pharmacological Treatments for Can-

nabis Abuse.” 2015. American Society of Addiction Medicine.
http://www.asam.org/magazine/read/article/2015/04/13/a-
review-of-potential-pharmacological-treatments-for-cannabis-
abuse. Accessed on June 5, 2016.
As of early 2017, only psychosocial therapies, such as cog-
nitive behavioral therapy and family-based therapies, are
available for use in treating cannabis misuse, dependence,
and addiction. This article reviews some possible chemi-
cal treatments for those disorders, such as Marinol, Nabi-
lone, and gabapentin.
318 Marijuana
“Risk and Protective Factors Associated with Youth Marijuana

Use.” 2014. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Ad-
ministration. http://www.samhsa.gov/capt/sites/default/files/
resources/risk-protective-factors-marijuana-use.pdf. Accessed
on June 3, 2016.
This publication summarizes an extended list of research
studies on factors that may place youth at risk for, or that
may help protect youth against, the abuse of, dependence
on, and addiction to marijuana.
“The Science of the Endocannabinoid System: How THC Af-
fects the Brain and Body.” 2011. Scholastic. http://headsup
.scholastic.com/students/endocannabinoid. Accessed on June 5,
2016.
This presentation explains how the endocannabinoid sys-
tem works in the human body, and how THC affects the
functioning of that system.
“60 Peer-Reviewed Studies on Medical Marijuana.” 2016. Pro
Con.org. http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.resource
.php?resourceID=000884. Accessed on May 29, 2016.
This excellent resource lists 60 scientific studies on mari-
juana conducted between 1990 and 2014, providing a de-
scription of each study, its journal reference, and whether
the report produced results in favor of or opposed to the
use of marijuana for medical purposes.
“Smart Approaches to Marijuana.” 2016. https://learnabout
sam.org/. Accessed on June 3, 2016.
Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) is a group of pro-
fessionals from a variety of fields whose mission it is to
“to educate citizens on the science of marijuana and to pro-
mote health-first, smart policies and attitudes that decrease
marijuana use and its consequences.” The organization
has produced a number of helpful brochures, pamphlets,
and other productions that are available at https://www
.scribd.com/user/201501730/learnaboutsam.
Stebbins, Sam, Thomas C. Frohlich, and Michael B. Sauter.

2015. “The Next 11 States to Legalize Marijuana.” USA Today.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2015/08/18/
24-7-wall-st-marijuana/31834875/. Accessed on June 1, 2016.
The authors attempt to predict the next states most likely
to legalize marijuana and the reasons that they have been
selected to do so.
Sullum, Jacob. 2014. “How Is Marijuana Legalization Going?

The Price of Pot Peace Looks Like a Bargain.” Forbes. http://
www.forbes.com/sites/jacobsullum/2014/07/10/how-is-mari
juana-legalization-going-so-far-the-price-of-pot-peace-looks-li
ke-a-bargain/#42327659167c. Accessed on June 1, 2016.
The writer reviews public opinion and studies on the ef-
fects of marijuana legalization in Colorado and finds that
the results are less harmful than critics had predicted be-
fore the November 2012 referendum.
“10 Pharmaceutical Drugs Based on Cannabis.” 2013. ProCon

.org. http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.resource.php?
resourceID=000883. Accessed on June 2, 2016.
This web page provides information on 10 drugs that have
been approved for one or more specific medical purposes
in the United States and other countries.
“24 Legal Medical Marijuana States and DC.” 2016. ProCon

.org. http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.resource.php?
resourceID=000881. Accessed on April 25, 2016.
This website provides basic information on the status of
medical marijuana in states where it is now legal, includ-
ing the enabling legislation or vote, possession limits, and
qualified users.
Varlet, Vincent, et al. 2016. “Drug Vaping Applied to Canna-

bis: Is ‘Cannavaping’ a Therapeutic Alternative to Marijuana?”
Scientific Reports. 6: 25599. http://www.nature.com/articles/
srep25599. Accessed on June 3, 2016.
320 Marijuana
The authors ask whether the administration of marijuana

components by means of electronic cigarettes is an effec-
tive means of ingesting the material for therapeutic pur-
poses. They raise a number of technical problems with
such a form of delivery, but indicate that it is not without
its possibilities.
Walton, Alice G. 2014. “Why Synthetic Marijuana Is More
Toxic to the Brain Than Pot.” Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/
sites/alicegwalton/2014/08/28/6-reasons-synthetic-marijuana-
spice-k2-is-so-toxic-to-the-brain/#2547471249eb. Accessed on
June 5, 2016.
This article provides a general overview of synthetic mari-
juana, also known as spice and K2, with explanations of
the ways in which the substance affects the brain’s endo-
cannabinoid system.
West, David P. 1998. “Hemp and Marijuana: Myths and Re-
alities.” North American Industrial Hemp Council. http://
www.naihc.org/hemp_information/content/hemp.mj.html.
This white paper was presented in 1998 on behalf of the
North American Industrial Hemp Council to clarify the
essential differences between hemp and marijuana and as
well as to argue for the importance of hemp as an indus-
trial product in the modern world.
“What Are the Differences between Cannabis Indica and
Cannabis Sativa, and How Do They Vary in Their Potential
Medical Utility?” 2012. ProCon.org. http://medicalmarijuana
.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000638. Accessed
on June 2, 2016.
This website provides a variety of articles that explain the
difference between two species of Cannabis.
“What Is Spice/K2? The Facts on Synthetic Marijuana.” 2016.
Spice Addiction Support. http://spiceaddictionsupport.org/
what-is-spice/. Accessed on May 30, 2016.
This website provides extensive information on the form

of synthetic marijuana known as spice or K2. It also pro-
vides access to a book called Synthetic Marijuana: The De-
finitive Guide to the World’s Worst Drug, where it is for sale
for $39 per copy.
7 Chronology
Introduction
Marijuana and the cannabis plant from which it comes have been
known to humans for thousands of years. During that time, the
plant has had a variety of uses, for the production of fibers, in the
form of hemp; for the manufacture of oil, from the plant’s seeds;
and as a recreational drug, produced from the dried leaves, seeds,
and stems of the plant. The history of these three classes of products
is long, complex, and often in dispute. The chronology provided
here lists some of the most important of those dates, with points of
dispute mentioned where they are appropriate.
ca. 6000 BCE Reports exist of cannabis seeds being used for
food.
ca. 4000 BCE Reports are available of hemps being used for
the production of textiles in China and Turkmenistan. Some
authorities argue that hemp is the first plant material cultivated
specifically for use in the production of textiles.
2737 BCE Claims are made that cannabis products are used
for medicinal purposes. The Chinese emperor Shen Nung
is reputed to have recommended the drug for treatment of
beri-beri, gout, constipation, “female weakness,” malaria, and
The buds on a marijuana plant, like the one shown here, contain the highest
concentration of THC in the plant. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
323
324 Marijuana
other medical conditions. Most evidence suggests that Shen

Nung was a mythological character, and that what is reputed to
be his most important work, Shen-nung pen ts’ao ching (Divine
Husbandman’s Materia Medica), dates instead to the fourth
century bce.
ca. 2000 BCE Egyptian healers reputedly recommend
marijuana for the treatment of sore eyes.
ca. 1700 BCE Archaeological evidence suggests that smoked
marijuana was used as an aid during childbirth in Judea, with
the practice probably being widespread at the time throughout
the Middle East.
ca. 1000 BCE The first recorded use of the drink known as
bhang tells of the products being made from the leaves and
flowers of the female cannabis plant, during Hindu religious
ceremonies. The drink is still popular today for its mild
intoxicant effects.
ca. 500 BCE The first certain identification of hemp, in any
form, is recorded near Stuttgart, Germany. Cultivation and
use of the fiber begins to spread throughout Europe shortly
thereafter and eventually becomes an essential textile material.
446 BCE The Greek historian Herodotus writes of a Scythian
ceremony in which participants throw hemp seed on a hot
stone inside a tent and inhale the fumes produced, causing
them such joy that “they would howl with pleasure.”
ca. 200 BCE This period marks the first reported use of hemp
for the production of paper during the Western Han dynasty
in China. By this time in history, the plant was also being used
widely for the manufacture of canvas sails, the name of which,
“canvas,” comes from the Latin word cannabis, the Greek word
kannabis, and even earlier terms for “hemp.”
70 CE Pedacius Dioscorides, a physician in the army of the
Roman emperor Nero, compiles a pharmacopeia that lists
marijuana as a useful herb for the treatment of a variety of
disorders, including earache.
Chronology 325
ca. 100 CE Chinese scholar and government official Ts’ai Lun

manufactures paper out of “rags, fish nets, bark of trees, and hemp
well prepared,” earning him the title of “the inventor of paper.”
Second century CE The famous Roman physician, Galen,
writes about cannabis in his De Alimentorum Facultatibus
(On the Properties of Foodstuffs), pointing out that when toasted
and eaten with drinks, the substance is difficult to digest, but,
upon absorption by the body, the drug “hits the head, if it is
ingested in too much quantity in a short time, and sends hot,
in the meantime pharmaceutical fumes to it.”
ca. 400 Cannabis is cultivated for the first time in England at
Old Buckeham Mare in Norfolk County.
1151 The first paper mill using hemp as a raw material is
built by Moorish officials at Xatvia, Spain. Papermaking using
hemp spreads throughout Europe with the first mills opening
in France in 1189, Italy in 1268, Germany in 1390, Holland in
1428, Switzerland in 1433, and England in 1494.
1533 King Henry VIII decrees that all landowners who farm
more than 60 acres of land are required to include at least a
quarter of an acre for the growing of hemp.
1545 The Spaniards introduce cannabis growing to the
world, establishing a hemp farm in Chile for the production
of hemp for use in rope-making. By 1564, King Philip of
Spain decrees that hemp is to be grown in Spanish possessions
throughout the New World.
1606 French apothecary Louis Hébert plants the first com-
mercial crop of Cannabis sativa in Nova Scotia.
1619 The first law in the United States mandating that farm-
ers plant hemp is adopted in Jamestown Colony, Virginia. The
law is imposed because of the huge demand for hemp in Great
Britain. Similar laws are soon passed in Connecticut (1637)
and Massachusetts (1639).
1753 Cannabis sativa is first classified by the Swedish tax-
onomist Linnaeus.
326 Marijuana
1758 French biologist Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck classifies a

second species of cannabis, Cannabis indica. Most biologists
now considered C. indica to be a subspecies of C. sativa.
1790s Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson
promote the growth of hemp because of its many uses.
1839 Irish-born, Calcutta-based physician William Brooke
O’Shaughnessy publishes the first scientific article on the
medical uses of cannabis, based on his experiences with use of
the drug among native Indians.
1860 The Ohio State Medical Society establishes a committee
to study the medical effects of C. indica. The committee reports
on the beneficial effects of the drug, including the cure of
neuralgic pain, dysmenorrhea, uterine hemorrhage, hysteria,
delirium tremens, mania, palsy, whooping cough, and infantile
convulsions.
1870 For the first time, the United States Pharmacopeia lists
cannabis as a medicine. The book is a collection of standards
for chemical and biological drug substances, dosage forms,
compounded preparations, excipients (inactive substances
added to drugs), medical devices, and dietary supplements.
1895 The India Hemp Commission issues a report on the
use of cannabis by native Indians and finds that it has some
medical benefits and “no evil results at all.”
1895 Historians attribute the first use of the word marihuana
for the cannabis plant to supporters of Pancho Villa in Sonora,
Mexico. Subsequently the word is spelled as marihuana or
marijuana.
1906 The U.S. Congress passes the Pure Food and Drug Act,
the first major piece of legislation designed to provide some
monitoring of foods and drugs sold in the United States. The
minimal requirement established for many drugs, including
marijuana, was that products containing such drugs be labeled
to indicate the drug’s presence.
Chronology 327
1911 South Africa bans the use of cannabis, largely because its
use by mine workers resulted in a reduction in their productivity.
1911 Massachusetts becomes the first state in the United
States to ban the use of cannabis.
1912 The First International Opium Conference is held in
The Hague, Netherlands, at which the first international drug
control treaty (The International Opium Convention, or “The
Hague Convention”) is adopted. A ban on cannabis is consid-
ered, but not included in the final treaty.
1913 California outlaws marijuana. The law was inspired
at least to some extent by anti-Chinese immigrant feelings. It
seems largely to have been ignored by the government and or-
dinary citizens.
1914 The U.S. Congress passes the Harrison Narcotics Tax
Act, which regulates and sets taxes on the production and use
of opiates. No mention of marijuana is made in the act. (But
see 1934.)
1915 The state of Utah passes an anti-marijuana law, appar-
ently based on the tendency of young Mormon missionaries
returning from their time in Mexico to bring back the custom
of marijuana smoking with them.
1916 The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issues
Bulletin 404, which calls for greater cultivation of hemp,
pointing out that each acre planted to hemp produces as much
pulp as would be obtained from more than four acres of trees.
1919 Texas outlaws marijuana.
1923 South African delegates to the United Nations ask that
cannabis be added to the list of dangerous drugs included in
the Hague Convention. Support for this position comes from
Italy, Egypt, and Turkey.
1924 The Second International Opium Conference in Geneva
agrees to list cannabis as a narcotic under terms of the Hague
Convention.
328 Marijuana
1928 The UK Dangerous Drugs Acts make the use of mari-

juana illegal in the United Kingdom.
1931 Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon appoints
Harry J. Anslinger first commissioner of the new Federal
Bureau of Narcotics. Over the next three decades, Anslinger
becomes the foremost proponent for the criminalization of
marijuana use.
1933 A report commissioned by the commanding general
of the U.S. Panama Canal Department concludes that “[mari-
ajuana] is not a ‘habit forming’ drug in the sense that the de-
rivatives of opium and cocaine are such drugs, as there are no
symptoms of deprivation following its withdrawal.”
1934 Because marijuana was not mentioned in the Harrison
Act of 1914, the National Conference of Commissioners on
Uniform State Laws recommends a Uniform State Narcotic
Drug Act, which they suggest that all states adopt so that there
will be a common policy on marijuana prosecutions throughout
the nation. At first, only nine states adopt the act, and it is soon
superseded by the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act.
1936 An international conference in Geneva adopts the
Convention for the Suppression of the Illicit Traffic in Danger-
ous Drugs (the “Trafficking Convention”). The United States
declines to sign the treaty because it regards its conditions as
too weak.
1936 The film Tell Your Children, describing the conse-
quences of marijuana use, is released. The film eventually be-
comes famous under the title Reefer Madness and is re-created
in a 2005 made-for-television film and a 2011 Broadway
musical.
1937 The U.S. Congress passes the Marihuana Tax Act,
imposing a tax on anyone who “imports, manufactures,
produces, compounds, sells, deals in, dispenses, prescribes,
administers, or gives away marihuana.” Among other effects, the
act essentially ends the growing of hemp in the United States.
Chronology 329
1941 Cannabis is delisted from the United States Pharmaco-

peia, ending its designation in the United States as a legitimate
medicine. The reason for this change has never been completely
explained.
1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an order allowing
production of hemp for industrial uses during World War II.
The ban on hemp production is restored at the end of the war
in 1945.
1943 The U.S. government produces a film and begins a
campaign called “Hemp for Victory,” urging farmers to in-
crease their production of hemp for war uses.
1944 The LaGuardia Report, named after the mayor of
New York City, concludes, among other findings, that “[t]he
practice of smoking marihuana does not lead to addiction
in the medical sense of the word . . . [m]arihuana is not the
determining factor in the commission of major crimes . . . and
[t]he publicity concerning the catastrophic effects of marihuana
smoking in New York City is unfounded.”
1951 The U.S. Congress passes the Boggs Amendment to
the Harrison Act of 1914 (dealing with cocaine and opiates),
providing for severe mandatory sentencing for the possession,
sale, or use of narcotic drugs, including marijuana.
1956 The Narcotics Control Act increases mandatory fines
and sentences beyond those set by the Boggs Amendment of
1951.
1957 The tax consequences of growing hemp become so
onerous that the last hemp farm in the United States, located
in Wisconsin, ceases cultivation of the product.
1968 A U.K. report on marijuana use chaired by the
Baroness Wootton concludes that marijuana use does no more
harm than tobacco or alcohol use and recommends that all
penalties for possession and use of small amounts of the drug
be repealed.
330 Marijuana
1969 In Mill Valley, California, the first organization in

the United States to decriminalize marijuana is formed.
The organization, originally called Le Mar (for “Legalize
Marijuana”), later merges with another group with similar
objectives, Amorphia, which, in turn, morphs into the
California chapter of NORML.
1970 The U.S. Congress passes the Controlled Substances
Act. The act is an effort to revise and update the complicated
series of laws that deal with illegal drugs. One of its main
provisions is the creation of drug “schedules” that specify
the potential for abuse and medical value of various drugs.
Marijuana is listed as a Schedule I drug, the highest and most
dangerous category.
1970 Public interest attorney R. Keith Stroup founds the
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
(NORML) in Washington, D.C.
1971 The English government ignores the recommendations
of the Wootton Committee (see 1968) and classifies marijuana
as a Class B drug, banning its use for all medical purposes.
1972 The National Commission on Marijuana and Drug
Abuse (the Shafer Commission), created by Public Law 91-513
to study marijuana abuse in the United States, issues its final
report, entitled “Marijuana, A Signal of Misunderstanding.”
The commission recommends the decriminalization of
marijuana.
1972 Amorphia sponsors state Proposition 19 in California,
calling for the decriminalization of small amounts of
marijuana for personal use. The proposition fails with a vote of
35.5 percent “yes” to 66.5 percent “no.”
1972 Oregon becomes the first state in the United States to
decriminalize the use of marijuana. Decriminalization differs
from legalization in that it maintains the illegal status of
the drug, but removes most of the penalties for using small
amounts of the drug for recreational purposes.
Chronology 331
1973 President Richard Nixon issues Reorganization

Plan No. 2 of 1973, transferring most responsibility for the
enforcement of federal drug laws from the Department of the
Treasury to a new entity, the Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA) in the Department of Justice.
1974 Amorphia becomes the California chapter of NORML.
1976 President Gerald Ford bans all federal funding for re-
search on the medical benefits of marijuana. The ban remains
in effect today.
1976 The U.S. government establishes the Compassionate
Investigational New Drug program that allows a select group
of patients to use marijuana for medical purposes. President
George W. Bush terminates the program in 1992 and, as of
2016, four patients remained in the program, which is admin-
istered by the University of Mississippi.
1976 The Dutch government adopts a “policy of expedi-
ency” with regard to the use of marijuana, which, while not
legalizing the drug, instructs police and prosecutors to ignore
retail sale to adults as long as the circumstances of the sale do
not constitute a public nuisance.
1977 In a message to the U.S. Congress on August 2, 1977,
President Jimmy Carter endorses the findings of the Shafer
Commission and famously says that “penalties against posses-
sion of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual
than the use of the drug itself.”
1982 Newt Gingrich, later speaker of the House of Rep-
resentatives, writes to the Journal of the American Medical
Association ( JAMA) to say that “patients have a right to obtain
marijuana legally, under medical supervision, from a regulated
source.”
1983 According to marijuana researcher Jack Herer, the ad-
ministration of President Ronald Reagan encourages all aca-
demic researchers to destroy all research on cannabis conducted
between 1966 and 1976.
332 Marijuana
1988 U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) law

judge Francis Young finds that marijuana “in strict medical
terms is far safer than many foods we consume” and, therefore,
the drug should be transferred from Schedule I to Schedule II.
1991 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Colum-
bia upholds Judge Young’s decision on marijuana, but DEA
administrator Robert C. Bonner exercises his right to reject the
recommended decision “with a vengeance.”
1996 Voters in Arizona and California approve initiatives al-
lowing the use of marijuana for the treatment of medical con-
ditions. Officials of the Clinton administration announce that
the actions in Arizona and California are in conflict with fed-
eral law, and any person acting under the provisions of either
act will be subject to federal prosecution.
1997 The Arizona legislature passes legislation prohibiting
any physician from acting under the recently passed medical
marijuana bill until the use of marijuana had been approved by
federal legislation, essentially invalidating voters’ actions in the
1996 election.
1997 An editorial in the prestigious New England Journal of
Medicine calls the prohibition on the use of marijuana for treat-
ing certain medical conditions “misguided, heavy-handed, and
inhumane.”
1998 Voters in Alaska, Oregon, and Washington approve
ballot measures removing state penalties for the use of mari-
juana for medical purposes.
1999 The U.S. Institute of Medicine issues its report called
Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base on the medi-
cal uses of marijuana.
2001 Portugal decriminalizes the use of marijuana for per-
sonal use.
2001 Canada becomes the world’s first country to regulate
the use of marijuana, as legislation that allows people with seri-
ous illnesses to possess marijuana comes into force.
Chronology 333
2004 The citizens of Montana vote about two-to-one to

allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes. In 2011,
both houses of the state legislature vote to repeal that vote,
essentially eliminating the use of medical marijuana in the
state.
2005 In the case of Gonzales v. Raich, the U.S. Supreme Court
rules that the U.S. Congress may criminalize the production
and use of home-grown marijuana, even in states where the use
of the drug for medical purposes is legal.
2006 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issues
a policy statement saying that there are “no sound scientific
studies” that marijuana has any medical benefits and that, in
fact, the drug has “high potential for abuse.”
2009 Mexico decriminalizes the use of marijuana for
personal use.
2010 The Czech cabinet approves decriminalization of drug
possession for personal use.
2011 Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) introduces
legislation (H.R. 2306) that would remove marijuana from the
list of controlled substances (i.e., decriminalize marijuana in
the United States).
2011 Representative Frank also introduces legislation
(H.R. 1983) requiring the Secretary of Health and Human
Services to recommend a relisting of marijuana under some
category other than Schedule I or II and declares that federal
regulations shall not be construed to conflict with the decisions
of individual states to permit the medical use of marijuana.
2011 In response to a petition filed in 2002 requesting that
marijuana be rescheduled as a drug of less than Schedule I,
Michele M. Leonhart, administrator of the Drug Enforcement
Administration, denies the request, indicating that marijuana
has “a high potential for abuse. . . . no currently accepted
medical use in treatment in the United States. . . . [and] lacks
accepted safety for use under medical supervision,” all of which
334 Marijuana
are criteria for listing a drug under Schedule I of the Controlled

2012 Voters approve the Massachusetts Medical Marijuana
Initiative by a vote of 63 percent to 37 percent, making it the
19th state to approve the use of marijuana for medical pur-
poses. Connecticut approves the use of medical marijuana
during the same election cycle.
2012 Voters in the state of Colorado approve Amendment
64, which permits the personal use of marijuana in the state.
“Personal use” includes the cultivation of three immature and
three mature cannabis plants and possession of one ounce
of marijuana by individuals over the age of 21. Voters in
Washington adopt a similar law that permits possession, but
not growing, of marijuana.
2013 Illinois and New Hampshire approve the use of mari-
juana for medical purposes.
2013 The legislature of Uruguay approves the creation of a
state-regulated marijuana industry, allowing citizens to grown,
sell and buy, and consume cannabis products. It is the first
country in the world to create such a comprehensive legal
approach to the use of marijuana.
2014 The states of Nebraska and Oklahoma bring suit against
the state of Colorado in the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that
the state’s marijuana laws conflict with federal laws on the
growing and consumption of marijuana. (Also see 2016.)
2014 Maryland, Minnesota, and New York approve the use
of medical marijuana. The use of recreational marijuana is
approved in both Alaska and Oregon, with both laws taking
effect over time at later dates (2015 and 2016).
2016 The state legislature of Pennsylvania approves the use
of marijuana for medical purposes, bringing to 24 the number
of states (and the District of Columbia) that have taken such
actions by one action or another.
Chronology 335
2016 The U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear the suit

brought by the states of Nebraska and Oklahoma with regard
to the legality of Colorado’s marijuana laws. (See 2014.)
2016 A review of the impact of new marijuana laws pub-
lished in the Journal of Addiction Medicine finds an increase
in the number of adults using marijuana over the past decade,
no change in the number of adolescents using the substance,
a decrease in marijuana-related arrests, and an increase in the
number of treatment admissions for the drug.
2016 Voters in California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada
approve the legalization of marijuana for recreational use;
Arizona voters defeat a similar proposal. Medical marijuana is
approved for the first time in Arkansas, Florida, and North
Dakota, while Montana voters expand the circumstances under
which the drug can be used for medical purposes.
Glossary
Introduction
Discussions of marijuana may involve terminology that is
unfamiliar to the average person. In some cases, the terms used are
scientific, technical, or medical expressions used most commonly by
professionals in the field. In other cases, the terms may be part of
the “street slang” that users themselves employ in talking about the
drugs they consume, the paraphernalia associated with drugs, or
the experiences that accompany marijuana use. This glossary lists
and defines a few of the terms needed to understand explanations
provided in this book.
accepted medical use A term used in the Controlled Sub-

stances Act of 1970 not defined in the act, but later defined
by the Drug Enforcement Agency to mean any drug (1) whose
chemistry is known and is reproducible; (2) that has had ad-
equate safety studies; (3) for which there are adequate and
well-controlled studies proving efficacy; (4) that has been ac-
cepted by qualified experts; and (5) for which scientific evi-
dence is widely available.
access point A designated and approved physical location
at which individuals can purchase marijuana for medical use.
Also called a dispensary.
337
338 Glossary
antiemtic A substance with a tendency to reduce or inhibit

vomiting.
blind trial A research study in which a patient does not know
whether he or she is receiving the experimental treatment or a
placebo. Also see double blind trial.
cachexia General physical wasting, usually associated with a
chronic disease.
cannabinoid Any one of a group of compounds that include
cannabinol and the active constituents of cannabis.
cannabinol A psychoactive substance found in plants in
the genus Cannabis. Its systematic name is 6,6,9-trimethyl-3-
pentyl-benzo[c]chromen-1-ol, and its chemical formula is
C21H26O2.
clinical trial A research study conducted to determine the
effect of some new experimental treatment, such as a new drug
or a new vaccine.
concentrate A physical form of a substance, such as mari-
juana, that contains an unusually high concentration of some
desired component, such as a marijuana preparation with a
high concentration of THC.
controlled substance Any substance listed under Schedules
I through V of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, or a
precursor of one of those substances.
decriminalization Removal or reduction of penalties asso-
ciated with some previously illegal act, such as reductions in
penalties for possession or use of marijuana.
dispensary. See access point.
double blind trial A research study in which neither patients
nor researchers know whether subjects of the study are receiv-
ing the experimental treatment or a placebo.
dronabinol A synthetic cannabinoid used for anorexia with
patients suffering from HIV/AIDS as well as nausea and vom-
iting associated with chemotherapy. Trade name: Marinol.
Glossary 339
drug diversion Providing a drug to an individual who is not

authorized to use it.
efficacy The degree to which a substance produces some
effect expected of it.
endocannabinoid A cannabinoid that occurs naturally in
the brain.
gateway theory The hypothesis that the use of one drug
increases one’s tendency to experiment with other drugs.
hashish A product made from compressed trichomes (resin
glands) of the cannabis plant, usually made available in the form
of a sticky, often thick, paste that can be burned, smoked, or
cooked in foods, with considerably more potent psychoactive
effects than marijuana.
hemp A tough, coarse fiber made from the cannabis plant;
used to make textiles, canvas, paper, rope, and other items.
hydroponics The process of growing plants in water
solutions, without access to soil. Marijuana plants grown in
hydroponic settings are said to have uniquely desirable qualities
over those grown in soil.
incidence The number of new cases of a disease or other
events occurring within some given period of time, such as the
number of first-time users of marijuana in the last year. (Also
see prevalence.)
Investigational New Drug (IND) Program A program
sponsored by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that
allows researchers to test new drugs prior to approval.
marijuana A greenish, brown, or gray mixture of the shredded
leaves, flowers, and stems of the cannabis plant, smoked as a
cigarette or in a special kind of pipe.
medical necessity A legal doctrine that one may be permitted
to carry out an act that is otherwise illegal if, in so doing, a
greater harm is prevented.
340 Glossary
narcotic A drug that in moderate doses relieves pain and

dulls the senses, but in greater doses may cause stupor, coma,
convulsions, and/or death.
nostrum A type of medication whose composition is secret
and for which scientific evidence of its efficacy does not exist.
peer-reviewed study A research study whose methodology
and results have been examined by other experts in the same
field to decide if the study is worthy of being published.
potency The strength of a drug; in the case of marijuana,
an indirect measure of the amount of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol
(THC) in a sample of the drug.
prevalence The number of cases of a disease or other condi-
tions currently in existence. (Also see incidence.)
psychoactive Capable of producing mind-altering affects,
such as changes in mood or perception.
psychotropic See psychoactive.
purity The amount of a desired component, such as pure
cannabis, present in a mixture that also contains impurities.
sinsemilla From the Spanish sin (“without”) semilla (“seed”);
a form of marijuana that has a very high percentage of THC
and is, hence, much more potent than marijuana. It usually
consists primarily of buds of the plant.
slippery slope The argument that once an individual or soci-
ety has taken the first step in some undesirable action (such as
permitting the use of marijuana), it then becomes much more
likely that worse eventualities will follow (such as permitting
the use of other, more dangerous drugs).
Spice The common name used for synthetic cannabis (q.v.);
also known as Fire ‘n’ Ice, Genie, K2, PEP Spice, Solar Flare,
Spice Diamond, Spice Gold, and Yucatan Fire.
strain A type of organism that differs in relatively trivial ways
from other organisms related to it (as to other members of the
same species).
Glossary 341
street slang Some of the terms in the everyday vernacular

used to describe marijuana, including Afghan, bhang, Buddha
grass, dope, draw, gage, ganja, gangster, grass, herb, Jane, jive,
joint, kiff, loco weed, Mary, Mary Jane, MJ, Mexican green,
Panama red, pot, puff, reefer, roach, smoke, spliff, tea, Texas tea.
synthetic cannabis A combination of natural herbs and syn-
thetic chemicals that, when ingested, produce psychoactive ef-
fects similar to those of natural cannabis.
tetrahydrocannabinol See THC.
THC An abbreviation for tetrahydrocannabinol, the chemical
compound responsible for the psychoactive effects produced by
the ingestion of cannabis. The compound is commonly known
as delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol).
trichome A fine hairy-like projection from the epidermal
cells of a plant which, in the cannabis plant, contain the chemi-
cal substance, THC, responsible for the psychoactive effects of
the drug.
Index
AbbVie, Inc., 9 Alcohol, Drug Abuse,

ABC News, 204 and Mental Health
achene, 5 Administration
acquired immune deficiency (ADAMHA), 216
syndrome (AIDS), 9, Allegheny Undergraduate
79, 106, 108, 149, 152, Council, 226
167 ALL-ONE-GOD-FAITH,
Act for the Advancement of Inc., 200
Manufactures, 32 Ally, 190
ADAMHA. See Alcohol, Altoona Business College, 63,
Drug Abuse, and 180
Mental Health Alzheimer’s disease, 108,
Administration 154
(ADAMHA) AM-678, 9
Addiction Research Center, AMA. See American Medical
216 Association (AMA)
Affordable Care Act, 220 American Agriculture
Africa, 21–23 Movement, 230
African Americans, 64 American Alliance for
AIDS. See acquired immune Medical Cannabis, 196
deficiency syndrome American Coptics, 23
(AIDS) American Indians, 23
Alaska, 113, 142 American Medical
Alaskan Natives, 221 Association (AMA), 66,
alcohol, 103 140–141
343
344 Index
Americans for Safe Access Beit Shemesh, 20

(ASA), 106, 177–180, Benet, Sula, 24
185, 196 Benetowa, Sara, 24
ancient cultures, 55–56 Bering Strait, 29
Anderson, Patrick, 228 Berlin, 24
anesthetics, 15 betting game, 113
annual prevalence, 84 Bible, 20, 22
Anslinger, Harry J., 63–66, Bishop Brent, 57
69, 92, 159, 161, Blanford, Dr., 245
180–183 Boggs Amendment to the
Anslinger, Robert J., 180 Harrison Narcotic Act,
Anslinger, Rosa Christiana 67–69
Fladt, 180 Boleyn, Anne, 26
Anti-Drug Abuse Act of Booth, Martin, 18, 37
1986, 80 Botswana, 21
Anti-Drug Abuse Act of Bourne, Dr. Peter, 78,
1988, 219 229
Anyang, 13 British Advisory Committee
Arabian “Gunja” of on Drug Dependency,
Enchantment, 37 92
Artharvaveda, 17 British East India Company,
ASA. See Americans for Safe 35
Access (ASA) British Isles, 25
Assyrian tablets of cannabis, Bronner, Dr., 200
19–20 Bryn Mawr College, 212
Atlas Corporation, 200 Bucharest, 23
attitudes about use of Bulgaria, 208–209
marijuana, 86–87 Bullein, William, 26
Bureau of Drug Abuse
Baca, Moses, 67 Control, 233
Bar Hill, 25 Bureau of Internal Revenue,
Bartels, John R., Jr., 233 232–233
bast, 10 Bureau of Narcotics and
bast fiber, 10 Dangerous Drugs,
Baudelaire, Charles, 29 233
Bayonne High School, 195 Bureau of Prisons, 98
Index 345
CAGW. See Citizens against cannabis in India and Central

Government Waste Asia
(CAGW) Bible, mention of, 20–21
Calcutta Medical College, domestication of, 18–19
223 preparation of, 18
Caldwell, Samuel, 67 cannabis in North America
California, 62–63, 153, in food production, 31
167 important role of, 32
California Campaign for Safe industrial growth of, 30,
Access, 178 32–33
California Medical Board, in the marketplace, 37
214 Cannabis indica, 5, 213
California Regulate, Control Cannabis ruderal, 5–6
and Tax Cannabis Act of Cannabis sativa
2010, 102 C. indica vs., 5
Canada, 35 C. ruderal vs., 5–6
Canadian Government’s defined, 4–10
Commission of Inquiry, endocannabinoids and,
92 7–8
Canasol, 110 flowering of, 5
Cannabaceae, 4 history, role in, 12–37
cannabidiol (CBD), 154, origins of, 4–5
169 prohibition on, 54–82
Cannabinoids, 205 scientific name for, 4
cannabis, 4, 19–20. See also tetrahydrocannabinols
cannabis in India and (THC) in, 6–9, 148
Central Asia; cannabis trichomes of, 6–7
in North America; See also cannabis; hemp;
cannabis in China; marijuana
Cannabis sativa; hemp; carbon dating hemp, 3
marijuana CARERS. See Compassionate
Cannabis: A History, 18, 37 Access, Research
cannabis in China Expansion, and Respect
hallucinatory effects of, 16 States Act (CARERS)
medicinal, 14–16 Act
psychoactive, 14–17 Carter, Jimmy, 78–79, 229
346 Index
Carter administration, Chinese civilization, 12

78–79, 229 Chinese pharmacopoeias, 16
Cartier, Jacques, 31 Chinese shamans, 15
Caspian Sea, 25 Christ, 22
Cathedral of St. Denis, 25 Christendom, 56
Catholic University of Christmas, 24
America, 196 cigarettes, 164
CBD. See cannabidiol (CBD) Citizens against Government
CDC. See Centers for Disease Waste (CAGW), 90–91
Control and Prevention Civil War, 34
(CDC) Clemson University, 9, 203
Center for National Defense, Coalition for Rescheduling
102 Cannabis, 196
Centers for Disease Control Coats v. Dish Network,
and Prevention (CDC), 275–276
139, 172, 173 Colburn, Jason, 90
Central Asia Cole, General James M.,
Bible, mention of, 20 112
domestication of, 18–19 Cole Memorandum, 112
preparation of, 18 College of Southern
Champlain, Samuel, 31, 35 Maryland, 197
charas, 18 Colorado, 101, 113–116,
Cheech and Chong Show, 142, 149, 158, 164–165
214 Colorado Department of
chemicals in marijuana, 134 Public Health and
Children’s Hospital Environment, 149
Colorado, 149 Colorado State Police, 114
Chile, 42 Colorado State University,
China, 12–17, 42 203
cannabis in, 14–17 Commission on Crime
hemp in, 12–14 Prevention and
hemp seed, diet in, 14 Criminal Justice, 232
prohibition on Cannabis Commission on Narcotic
sativa, 54 Drugs, 232
Taiwanese discovery, common sense policies,
12–13 170–174
Index 347
Community Support Project, Coopers & Lybrand, 227

179 Coptic Church, 23
Compassionate Access, CPSC. See Consumer
Research Expansion, Product Safety
and Respect States Act Commission (CPSC)
(CARERS) Act, 179 Creighton, Dr. C., 21
Compassionate IND Crime Prevention and
program, 152 Criminal Justice
Comprehensive Drug Abuse Division of the United
Prevention and Control Nations, 230
Act, 73, 263 CSA. See Controlled
Confederate Congress, 34 Substances Act (CSA)
Conference on Suppression Czar Alexander, 33
of Smuggling, 181
Congress, 41, 89 Daniel, Price, 70
Consumer Product Safety Danville, Kentucky, 33
Commission (CPSC), data on marijuana use,
229 237–243
Controlled Dangerous Dayton, Troy, 183
Substances Act, 73–74 DCE/SP. See DEA Domestic
Controlled Substances Act Cannabis Eradication/
(CSA), 53, 71–76, Suppression Program
79–80, 168, 221, (DCE/SP)
251–257 de Nerval, Gérard, 29
adoption of, 73–74 DEA. See U.S. Drug
Nixon administration, Enforcement
development of, Administration (DEA)
160–161 DEA Domestic Cannabis
Part F of, 74–75 Eradication/Suppression
provisions of, 73–74, Program (DCE/SP),
82–83, 196 235
schedules for, 75–76, “Dealing with Effects of
200–201 Trauma” self-help guide,
controversies, 87–105 221
Cook County Jail in DeAngelo, Steve, 167,
Chicago, 136 183–185
348 Index
DEA’s Final Rules, 261 ditchweed hemp, 12

decriminalization of Division of Basic
marijuana, 88–105 Neuroscience and
defined, 88 Behavioral Research, 217
drug-related violent crimes Division of Clinical
and, 102–103 Neuroscience and
gateway drug and, 102 Behavioral Research,
health concerns and, 217
91–95, 100–102 Division of Criminal Justice,
individual liberties and, 114
95–96 Division of Epidemiology,
ineffectiveness and, 91 Services, and Prevention
prison population and, Research, 217
96–98, 104 Division of
tobacco and alcohol use Pharmacotherapies and
compared to, 103 Medical Consequences
war on drugs, 89–91, of Drug Abuse, 217
103–104 Division of Psychiatry at
See also legalization of Mount Sinai Medical
marijuana Center, 23
Delacroix, Eugene, 29 documents
Democratic Party, 80 Coats v. Dish Network,
Dewey, Lyster Hoxie, 275–276
185–186, 200–201 Controlled Substances Act,
DFAF. See Drug Free 251–257
America Foundation, FDA statement on health
Inc. (DFAF) effects of marijuana,
dioecious, 4 268–270
direct-to-consumer Gonzales, Attorney General,
advertising (DTCA), et al. v. Raich et al.,
139–140 263–266
Dirkson, Everett, 229 Hemp Industries
Discovery Channel, 167 Association, et al. v.
Dispensatory of the United Drug Enforcement
States, 212 Administration, 261–262
District of Columbia, 113, Indian Hemp Drugs
142, 153, 206 Commission, 243–245
Index 349
industrial hemp research, Drug Abuse Information

legitimacy of, 272–274 and Treatment Referral
Leary v. United States, Hotline, 217
248–251 Drug Abuse Office and
Marihuana problem Treatment Act of 1972,
in New York City, 216
247–248 Drug Free America
Marihuana Tax Act, Foundation, Inc.
246–247 (DFAF), 100, 186–189
Marijuana Medical Drug Policy Alliance (DPA),
Rescheduling Petition, 189–191, 215
257 Drug Policy Forum of Texas,
memorandum to all U.S. 196
attorneys, 270–272 Drug Policy Foundation
Rohrabacher-Farr (DPF), 189, 215
Amendment, 266–268 Drug Prevention Network of
tetrahydrocannabinols, the Americas (DPNA),
259–261 188
United States of America, Drug Watch International,
Plaintiff, v. Marin 100
Alliance for Medical drug-related violent crimes,
Marijuana, and Lynette 102–103
Shaw, 275–277 DTCA. See direct-to-
Dodd, Thomas, 73–74 consumer advertising
DOJ. See U.S. Department (DTCA)
of Justice (DOJ) Dumas, Alexandre, 29
domestication of cannabis, DuPont Corporation, 158
18–19
DPA. See Drug Policy earliest uses of hemp, 12–13
Alliance (DPA) East India Company, 223,
DPF. See Drug Policy 225
Foundation (DPF) Economic Botany, 16
DPNA. See Drug Prevention EDDRA. See Exchange
Network of the on Drug Demand
Americas (DPNA) Reduction Action
Drinan, Father Robert, 195 (EDDRA)
dronabinol, 9, 109–110 edible marijuana, 164
350 Index
Edinburgh, 25 Europe, 23–29

“Efficacy & Impact: The British Isles, 25
Criminal Justice Bucharest, 23–24
Response to Marijuana as hashish, 28–29
Policy in the US,” 90 hemp in, 26–28
Egypt, 56 prehistoric discovery of, 24
Ehrlichman, John, 160 Scythians, 24
EIB. See Evaluation shipbuilding industry,
Instruments Bank (EIB) 27–28
Eighteenth Amendment, 59, Western, 24–25, 27–28
64 European Monitoring Centre
Eisenhower, Dwight D., 71 for Drugs and Drug
El Guindy, Dr. Mohamed Addiction (EMCDDA),
Abdel Salam, 58 191–194
EMCDDA. See European European Union (EU), 192
Monitoring Centre Evaluation Instruments Bank
for Drugs and Drug (EIB), 193
Addiction (EMCDDA) Examine.com, 101
Emperor Wears No Clothes, Exchange on Drug Demand
The, 184, 285 Reduction Action
Ending Federal Marijuana (EDDRA), 193
Prohibition Act of 2011, EZCC. See Ethiopian Zion
184 Coptic Church (EZCC)
Endocannabinoid System
Network (ESN), 7–8, FAO. See UN Food
147–149, 209–210 and Agriculture
England, 33 Organization of the
epilepsy, 154 United Nations (FAO)
ESN. See Endocannabinoid Farm Bill of 2013, 41
System Network (ESN) FBI. See Federal Bureau of
Ethiopia, 22 Investigation (FBI)
Ethiopian Zion Coptic FBN. See Federal Bureau of
Church (EZCC), 21–23 Narcotics (FBN)
EU. See European Union FDA. See U.S. Food and
(EU) Drug Administration
Eurasia, 24 (FDA)
Index 351
FDA statement on health Florida, 22

effects of marijuana, flowering of Cannabis sativa,
268–270 4–5
FD&C. See Federal Food, For Medical Use Only, 185
Drug, and Cosmetic Ford, President Gerald, 135,
(FD&C) Act 226
Federal Advocacy Project, France, 42
178 Frank, Barnett, 194
Federal Bureau of Frank, Barney, 194–195
Investigation (FBI), 171 Frank, Samuel and Elsie, 194
Federal Bureau of Narcotics Franklin, Benjamin, 32
(FBN), 63, 64, 180, “freedom of religion” clause,
182 23
Federal Food, Drug, and Frisco, Colorado, 116
Cosmetic (FD&C) Act, fu, 4
269–270
federal legislation, 63–80 Gallup Poll, 87
Boggs Amendment to the ganja, 18
Harrison Narcotic Act, Gansu Province, 13
67–69 Gaoni, Yechiel, 153
Carter, Jimmy, 78–79 Gargantua and Pantagruel,
Controlled Substances Act 26–27
of 1970, 71–76, 79–80 gateway drugs, 102
Marihuana Tax Act of gateway theory, 155
1937, 65–67 Gautier, Theophile, 29
Narcotics Control Act of Geffen School of Medicine,
1956, 69–71 93
Shafer Report, 76–78 General Court of
Federal Narcotics Control Connecticut, 30
Board, 233 Geneva, Switzerland, 57–58
Federal Register, 76 Geneva Convention, 58, 60
feral hemp, 12 George H. W. Bush
Fifth Amendment, 72 administration, 152
First Annual Hemp History George Mason University,
Week, 201 196
First Christian Church, 226 George School, 212
352 Index
Georgetown University Law Harrington, Michael J., 195

Center, 229 Harrison Narcotics Act of
Georgia Institute of 1914, 59, 233
Technology, 203 Harvard College, 195, 215
Germany, 25 Harvard University, 71, 203,
Gettman, John, 196–198 215
Glasgow, 25 hasheesh candy, 37
global industrial hemp, hashish, 28–29
41–42 Haverford College, 212
Gobi Desert, 18 health concerns, 91–95,
God, 22 100–102
Gonzales, Attorney General, Healthy Kids Colorado
et al. v. Raich et al., Survey, 115
263–266 Hearst, William Randolph,
Gordion, 20 158
Government Executive, 79 Hébert, Louis, 31
grand experiment, 113 Hebrew University of
Grant, Igor, 93 Jerusalem, Israel,
Grinspoon, Dr. Lester, 152 208–209
Guilford College, 212 Heckler, Margaret, 195
Gunjah Wallah Company of hemp
New York City, 37 carbon dating, 3
Gutenberg’s first Bible, 26 ditchweed, 12
feral, 12
Hague, The, 57, 181 Indian, 32, 58
Hague Convention, 60 marijuana vs., 10–12
Hague Treaty, 57 purposes of growing,
Haile Selassie I, 22 10–11
Haldeman, H. R. (“Bob”), tetrahydrocannabinols
77 (THC) in, 11–12
hallucinatory effects of in United States, forms of,
cannabis, 16 12
Han dynasty, 13, 55 See also Cannabis sativa;
Harborside Health Center, industrial hemp;
167, 183, 185 marijuana
Harper’s Magazine, 160 hemp farming, 33–34
Index 353
Hemp for Victory, 39 and the Politics of

hemp in China Marijuana, 228
earliest uses of, 12–13 High Intensity Drug
written records on use of, Trafficking Area
13–14 (HIDTA) Program, 91,
hemp in Europe 222
historical fame of, 26–27 High Times, 196
tetrahydrocannabinols Hindu Lord of Kings, 17
(THC) in, 28 historical fame of hemp,
zenith of, 26 26–27
Hemp Industries Association Histories, 19
(HIA), 186, 198–201 history of Cannabis sativa,
Hemp Industries Association, role in, 12–37
et al. v. Drug Enforcement Africa, 21–23
Administration, China, 12–17
261–262 Europe, 23–29
Hemp Oil Canada, Inc., India and Central Asia,
200 17–21
hemp plantations, 30–32 North America, 29–37
hemp seed, diet in China, 14 history of prohibition on
Hempzels, Inc., 200 Cannabis sativa, 54–58
Henan Province, 13 HIV/AIDS, 9, 79, 106, 108,
hepatitis C, 108 167
Herer, Jack, 184 Hoffman, Abbie, 184
Herodotus, 19 Holiday Inn hotel, 116
HHS. See U.S. Department Hollis, Frederick C., 37
of Health and Human honey comb, 20–21
Services (HHS) HOPE Probation, 144
HIA. See Hemp Industries Hotel de Lauzun, 29
Association (HIA) House Bill 1866, 201
HIDTA. See High Intensity House Judiciary Committee,
Drug Trafficking Area 96
(HIDTA) Program House of Representatives, 41
Hieron II, 25 Huffman, John W., 9,
High in America: The True 201–204
Story behind NORML Hui-Lin Li, 16
354 Index
I Samuel, 20 in United States, 38–41

IACM. See International See also industrial hemp in
Association for United States
Cannabinoid Medicines Industrial Hemp Farming
(IACM) Act, 41, 201
IACM Bulletin, 206 industrial hemp in United
Iberian Peninsula, 25 States, 38–41
Icarus, 54 federal role in, 41
Illinois, 33 Marihuana Tax Act, 38–39
IND. See Investigational states, growth of, 40–41
New Drug (IND) statistics on, 38–40
program tetrahydrocannabinols in,
India 39, 41
Bible, mention of, 20–21 USDA campaign for
domestication of, 18–19 increasing, 39–40
preparation of, 18 World War II, challenges
India and Central Asia, of, 39
17–21 Industrial Hemp Research
cannabis in, 17–21 Act, 41
Lord of Bhang, 17–18 ineffectiveness, 91
Middle East, 19–20 Institute for Behavior and
Scythians, 19 Health, 103
Vedas, 17–21 Institute for Social Research,
Indian Hemp Drugs 84
Commission, 36, Institute on Global Drug
243–245 Policy, 187–188
Report of, 58, 92 Internal Revenue Service, 249
Indian hemp, 32, 58 International Anti-Corruption
Indiana, 34 Day, 232
individual liberties, 95–96 International Association
Indra, 17 for Cannabinoid
industrial hemp Medicines (IACM),
global, 41–42 204–206
research on, legitimacy of, international concerns over
272–274 prohibition, 56–58
Index 355
International Conference for Jefferson, Thomas, 32–33

Suppression of Illicit Jerusalem, 20
Traffic in Narcotic Johnson, Lyndon, 73
Drugs, 182 Joint United Nations
International Congress Programme on HIV/
against Alcoholism, 181 AIDS, 231
International Convention on Jonathan, 20–21
Narcotics Control, 57–58 Journal of Cannabis
International Day against Therapeutics, 205–206
Drug Abuse and Illicit Journal of Global Drug Policy
Trafficking, 232 and Practice, 187, 188
International Narcotics Journal of Psychopharmacology,
Control Board, 232 172
International Opium Journal of the American
Commission, 56–57 Medical Association
International Scientific and (JAMA), 107
Medical Forum on Drug “Just Say No” campaign, 152
Abuse, 187–188 JWH-007, 201
International Task Force on JWH-018, 9–10
Strategic Drug Policy, JWH-081, 201
188 JWH-398, 201
Investigational New Drug
(IND) program, 152 K2, 9
IOM. See U.S. Institute of Kalahari Desert, 21
Medicine (IOM) Kampia, Rob, 206
Irtysh River, 18 Kansas, 116
Islam, 55–56 Keep Our Kids Off Drugs,
Islamists, 55–56 100
Kefauver, Estes, 69
Jaffe, Dr. Jerome, 78 Kefauver Committee, 69
JAMA. See Journal of the Kenex, Ltd., 53, 200
American Medical Kennedy, John, 184
Association ( JAMA) Kentucky, 33–34
Jamaica, 22–23 Kerlikowske, Richard Gil, 91
Jamestown, 32 King Clothar I, 25
356 Index
King Henry VIII, 26, 28 Les Paradis artificiels

King Philip, 28 (Artificial Paradises), 29
Kirshner, Mike, 206 Lesher, Donna Shalala and
Alan, 214
La Oficina de Envigado, 235 lifetime prevalence, 84–85
LaGuardia Committee Lindesmith Center (TLC),
Report on Marihuana, 189, 215
92, 248 Linnaeus, 4
Land of Mulberry and Lithuania, 24
Hemp, 12 Lord Dalhousie, 224
Laprise, Jean, 53 Lord Ellenborough, 224
Le Club des Hachichins, 29 Lord of Bhang, 17–18
Le Dain Report, 92 Lord Shiva, 17
League of Nations, 57, 182 Los Angeles, 136
Leary, Dr. Timothy, 71 Los Angeles Cannabis
Leary v. United States, 71, 73, Resource Center, 196
248–251 Louisiana, 68
legalization of marijuana, 136
decriminalization and, Magic Soaps, 200
88–105 Magna Carta, 26
government research Magnoliophyta, 4
support and, 148–150 Magnoliopsida, 4
resistance to, 115–116 Maine, 61
See also decriminalization “Marihuana: A Signal of
of marijuana Misunderstanding,”
legalization of medical 74–75
marijuana, 105–110, Marihuana problem in New
138–140 York City, 247–248
arguments in favor of, Marihuana Reconsidered,
105–109 152
arguments in opposition Marihuana Tax Act, 36,
of, 109–110 65–67, 158–159, 171,
legislature on medical 212, 246–247
marijuana, 136 marijuana
legitimacy of medical attitudes about use of,
marijuana, 166–170 86–87
Index 357
chemicals in, 134 Marriage Guide; Or, Natural

controversies about use of, History of Generation:
87–105 A Private Instructor for
data on use of, 237–243 Married Persons and
edible, 164 Those about to Marry,
hemp vs., 10–12 The, 37
prison population caused Maryland, 32
by, 136 Massachusetts, 32, 61
as recreational drug, 6 Massachusetts Bay, 32
tetrahydrocannabinols McCaffrey, Barry, 214
(THC) in, discovery of, Mechoulam, Raphael, 153,
153, 163, 166 210–211
in United States, patterns Medical and Physical Society
of use, 82–86 of Calcutta, 223
youth statistics on, Medical Cannabis Advocate’s
136–137 Training Center, 178
See also Cannabis sativa; Medical Cannabis Policy
hemp; legalization of Shop, 178
marijuana; medical Medical College of
marijuana Richmond, 210
Marijuana, America’s New medical marijuana, 151–155
Drug Problem, 19–20 in California, 135, 153,
Marijuana and Medicine: 167
Assessing the Science Base, components of medicinal
92, 106–107 value in, 169–170
Marijuana and the Bible, 22 legalization of, 105–110,
Marijuana Medical Papers, 138–140
211 legislature on, 136
Marijuana Medical legitimacy of, 166–170
Rescheduling Petition, prohibition on, 112–115
257 rescheduling of, 168–169
Marijuana Policy Project safety of, 134–137
(MPP), 82, 206–208 state regulations on,
Marinol, 9, 147, 148, 169 167–168
marketing, threats of, tetrahydrocannabinols in,
162–164 107
358 Index
in United States, status of, Mongolia, 18

110–115 Monitoring the Future
See also medical marijuana (MTF) program, 84–85
in China Montana, 61
medical marijuana in China, Moors, 25
14–16 Moreau, Jacques-Joseph, 29
as anesthetic, 15 Mormon church, 62
for treatment of illnesses, Morris Arboretum, 16
15 Mother England, 33
medicinal value in medical Mouncey & Company,
marijuana, components 197
of, 169–170 MPP. See Marijuana Policy
Merlin, M. D., 24 Project (MPP)
methicillin-resistant MRSA. See methicillin-
Staphylococcus aureus resistant Staphylococcus
(MRSA), 108 aureus (MRSA)
Mexicans, 60–61 MTF. See Monitoring the
Mexico, 62 Future (MTF) program
Miami, 23 multiple sclerosis, 108
Michigan, 61 Muslim civilization, 25
Michigan Agricultural Muslim sea traders, 21
College, 186
Michigan State University, nabilone, 9, 110
186 NACDL. See National
Middle East, 19–20 Association of Criminal
Mikuriya, Anna Schwenk, Defense Lawyers
212 (NACDL)
Mikuriya, Tadafumi, 212 Nadelmann, Ethan, 214–215
Mikuriya, Tod Hiro, Napoleon, 29, 33
211–214 Narcotic Drugs Import and
Mississippi, 31 Export Act, 59–60, 67
Missouri, 33–34 Narcotics Control Act of
Mitterrand, François, 191 1956, 69–71
mom-and-pop operations, National Academy of
167–168 Sciences, 92–93
Index 359
National Association of National Institute of

Criminal Defense Mental Health Clinical
Lawyers (NACDL), 230 Research Center, 216
National Center on National Institute on Alcohol
Institutions and Abuse and Alcoholism,
Alternatives (NCIA), 216
230 National Institute on
National Commission on Drug Abuse, 84, 203,
Marihuana and Drug 216–218
Abuse (NCMDA), 83, National Institutes of Health
225 (NIH), 203
National Commission on National Organization for the
Marihuana and Drug Reform of Marijuana
Abuse (the Shafer Laws (NORML), 81,
Report), 76–77, 92 106, 164, 196–197, 206,
National Drug Control 218–219
Strategy, 220 National Survey on Drug Use
National Drug-Free and Health (NSDU), 83
Workplace Alliance National System of Interstate
(NDWA), 188 and Defense Highways,
National High School Senior 227
Survey, 84–85 Native Americans, 221
National Household Nature’s Path Foods USA,
Survey on Drug Abuse Inc., 200
(NHSDU), 83 NCIA. See National Center
National Institute for Drug on Institutions and
Abuse (NIDA), 83, 100, Alternatives (NCIA)
143, 149, 152, 154, NCMDA. See National
216, 269 Commission on
National Institute of Mental Marihuana and Drug
Health (NIMH), 216 Abuse (NCMDA)
National Institute of Mental NDWA. See National Drug-
Health Center for Free Workplace Alliance
Narcotics and Drug (NDWA)
Abuse Studies, 211 Nebraska, 34, 116
360 Index
Nebraska and Oklahoma v. hemp farming, success of,

Colorado, 116 33–34
Neolithic Taiwan, 4 hemp plantations, 30–32
Netherlands, 42, 57 medical marijuana, 36–37
New France, 31 Midwest, growth in,
New World, 28–29, 31 33–34
New York, 61 William Brooke
New York City, 172 O’Shaughnessy, 35–36
New York Times, 61, 78, 102 See also United States
NHSDU. See National North Korea, 42
Household Survey on Northwestern University, 203
Drug Abuse (NHSDU) Nova Southeastern
Nichols, James, 230 University, 95
NIDA. See National Institute NSDU. See National Survey
for Drug Abuse (NIDA) on Drug Use and
NIH. See National Institutes Health (NSDU)
of Health (NIH) NSDUH, 171
NIMH. See National Nutiva company, 53
Institute of Mental Nutt, David, 172
Health (NIMH)
Ninth Circuit Court of Oakland Cannabis Buyers
Appeals, 200 Cooperative, 196
Nixon, Richard, 77–79, 89, Obama, President Barack,
160–161, 225, 233 79, 91, 190, 220–222
Nixon administration, Obama administration,
78–79, 159–160, 170 111–112
Nixon White House, 160 OCDETF. See Organized
NORML. See National Crime Drug
Organization for the Enforcement Task
Reform of Marijuana Forces (OCDETF)
Laws (NORML) Office for Drug Control and
North America, 29–37 Crime Prevention, 230
Canada vs., 35 Office of National Drug
cannabis, 32–33, 37 Control Policy
England, relationship with, (ONDCP), 90–91, 100,
33 109, 219–222
Index 361
Office of the High origins of Cannabis sativa,

Commissioner for 4–5
Human Rights, 231 origins of policies on
Ogden memo, 112 marijuana, 158–161
Ohio, 61, 138–140 O’Shaughnessy, Daniel,
Ohio State Medical 222–223
Committee on Cannabis O’Shaughnessy, William B.,
Indica, 212 213, 222–225
Ohio State Medical Society, 36 Otto and Connie Moulton
oil, 11 Library for Drug
Oklahoma, 116 Prevention, 189
Old Testament, 20
Old World, 28 Panama Canal Zone Military
ONDCP. See Office of Investigations into
National Drug Control Marijuana, 92
Policy (ONDCP) Paris, 25
ONDCP Drug-Free Parkinson’s disease, 154
Communities Support Part F of Controlled
Program, 221–222 Substances Act, 74–75
ONDCP National Youth Patients campaign, 207
Anti-Drug Media Patients Out of Time, 196
Campaign, 221–222 Patient’s Rights Project, 179
1-pentyl-3-(1-naphthoyl) Paul, Ron, 41, 201
indole, 9 Paul II, Pope John, 195
Operation Fire and Ice, 235 Peace Corps, 184, 229
Operation Pill Nation, 235 Peace for Patients Campaign,
Opium Advisory 179
Commission, 182 Pen Ching, 16
Oregon, 113, 142, 163 Pennsylvania Business
Oregon Decriminalization College, 63
Bill of 1973, 112–13 Pennsylvania Railroad, 63,
Organic Consumers 180
Association, 200 Pennsylvania State College,
Organized Crime Drug 180
Enforcement Task Pennsylvania State University,
Forces (OCDETF), 234 180, 183
362 Index
Pentagon, 186 Pompidou, Georges, 191

Pe’n-ts’ao Ching, 15 Port Royal, Arcadia, 31
Personal Use of Marijuana by post-traumatic stress disorder
Responsible Adults Act (PTSD), 154
of 2008, 194 prehistoric discovery of
perspectives on marijuana Europe, 24
legalization of, government preparation of cannabis, 18
research support, prescription Marinol, 148
148–149 prison population, 96–98,
legalization of, government 104, 136
research support and ProCon.org, 108
endocannabinoid profiles on marijuana
system, 147–149 Americans for Safe Access,
marketing of, threats of, 177–180
162–164 Barney Frank, 194–195
as medicine, 151–155 Drug Free America
policies on, 158–161, Foundation, Inc.,
170–173 186–189
reducing use of, public Drug Policy Alliance,
health approach to, 189–191
141–144 Ethan Nadelmann,
pharmacopeia, 14–15 214–215
phenols, 7 European Monitoring
Phoenix Veterans Affairs Centre for Drugs
hospital, 154 and Drug Addiction,
phytocannabinoids, 7–8 191–194
pipe cups, 23–24 Harry J. Anslinger, 180–183
Playboy Foundation, 218, Hemp Industries
229 Association, 198–201
Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, International Association
228 for Cannabinoid
Poland, 24 Medicines, 204–206
policies on marijuana John Gettman, 196–198
common sense, 170–173 John W. Huffman,
origins of, 158–161 201–204
Index 363
Keith Stroup, 227–230 in United States, 58–82

Lyster Hoxie Dewey, See also prohibition on
185–186 Cannabis sativa in
Marijuana Policy Project, United States
206–208 prohibition on Cannabis
National Institute on Drug sativa in United States
Abuse, 216–218 attitudes about use of,
National Organization for 86–87
the Reform of Marijuana controversies over use of,
Laws, 218–219 87–105
Office of National Drug Eighteenth Amendment,
Control Policy, 219–222 59
Raphael Mechoulam, federal legislation on,
208–211 63–80
Raymond P. Shafer, forms of, and
225–227 circumstances for, 54–55
Steve DeAngelo, 183–185 laws passed in, 60–61,
Tod Hiro Mikuriya, 80–82
211–214 medical marijuana,
UN Office on Drugs and 110–112
Crime, 230–232 Mexicans, 60–61
U.S. Drug Enforcement patterns of use in, 82–86
Administration, recreational marijuana,
232–235 legalization of, 112–115
William B. O’Shaughnessy, resistance to legalization
222–225 of, 115–116
Prohibition Amendment, state legislation on, 62–63
181 Uniform Narcotics Drug
prohibition on Cannabis Act, 59–60
sativa provisions of Controlled
in ancient cultures, 55–56 Substances Act, 73–74,
Chicken Littles of, 158 82–83, 196
history of, 54–58 psychoactive cannabis, 14–17
international concerns PTSD. See post-traumatic
over, 56–58 stress disorder (PTSD)
364 Index
public interest, 23 retting, 10

Pueblo County, 115–116 Rhode Island, 32, 61
purposes of growing hemp, Rhone Valley, 25
10–11 RICO (Racketeer Influenced
and Corrupt
Qi Min Yao Shu, 13 Organizations Act), 116
Queen Arnegunde, 25 rimonabant, 8
Queen Elizabeth, 28 Rockefeller, Nelson, 227
Queen Victoria, 224 Rocky Mountain and
Qu’ran, 55 Northwest High
Qutb ad-Din Haydar, 28 Intensity Drug
Trafficking Areas
Rabelais, François, 26–27 (HIDTAs), 142
Rafastari, 22–23 Rodino, Peter, 96
Raid Center, 178–179 Rohrabacher-Farr
Randall, Robert, 152 Amendment, 266–268,
Rasta, 22 275–277
Reagan, Ronald, 79 Rolling Stone, 215
recreational drugs, 6 Romania, 42
recreational marijuana, Royal Society, 224
legalization of, 112–115 Rubin, Jerry, 184
reducing use of marijuana, Rudenko, S. I., 19
public health approach Russia, 19, 24, 33
to, 141–144 Ruth’s Hemp Foods, Inc.,
Reed College, 212 200
Reefer Madness, 159
reefer madness propaganda, “Safety First: A Reality-Based
155 Approach to Teens and
Reorganization Plan No. 2 of Drugs,” 191
1973, 233 safety of medical marijuana,
Republican Party, 80 133–137
rescheduling of medical SAMHSA. See Substance
marijuana, 168–169 Abuse and Mental
research on industrial Health Services
hemp, legitimacy of, Administration
272–274 (SAMHSA)
Index 365
San Diego State University/ Shan dynasty, 13

University of California- Shanghai Opium
San Diego Joint Commission, 56–57
Doctoral Program in Shepherd University, 197
Clinical Psychology, 94 Sherer, Steph, 177
Sativex, 110, 166, 208 SHERLOC, 232
Saul, 20 Sherratt, Andrew, 24
Save Our Society, 100 Shi Ching (Book of Songs), 13
schedules for Controlled Shi Jing (Book of Odes), 13
Substances Act, 75–76, shipbuilding industry,
199–200 27–28
schizophrenia, 154 short-day plants, 5
School of Public Policy Si Min Yue Ling, 13
of George Mason Siberia, 18, 29
University, 197 Sisley, Dr. Sue, 154
Schwarzer, William, 96 Soros, George, 215
scientific name for Cannabis South Dakota, 144
sativa, 4 Spanish conquest of South
Scotland Yard, 134 America, 30
Scranton, William M., 226 Speaking Out against Drug
Scythians, 19, 24 Legalization, 104
Sebastopol, California, 53 Special Action Office for
Sembler, Mr. and Mrs. Mel, Drug Abuse Prevention,
186–187 78
Sembler Company, 186–187 Spice, 9
semieniatka, 24 St. Louis University, 86
Senate, 41 STAND. See Students Taking
Senate Resolution 60, 70 Action Not Drugs
Sepoy Mutiny, 225 (STAND)
Shafer, Raymond P., 74–75, State Campaigns, 179
225–227 State Department, 63, 181
Shafer, Reverend David P. state legislation on
and Mina Belle, 226 prohibition on Cannabis
Shafer Commission, sativa, 62–63
159–160 state regulations on medical
Shafer Report, 76–78 marijuana, 167–168
366 Index
States’ Medical Marijuana Task Force to Propose a Rural

Patient Protection Act Economic Development
of 2011, 194 Plan, 197
States’ Rights to Medical Tecumseh (Michigan) High
Marijuana Act of 2001, School, 186
194 TelePrompter corporation, 227
Steep Hill Laboratory, 167 Temple University, 212
Stewart, Potter, 226 Tennessee, 34
Stimson, Charles, 102–103 Tenth Amendment, 268
Stone Age Trading Company, terpenes, 7
197 Test Pledge, 201
Stroup, Goldstein, Jacobs, tetrahydrocannabinols
Jenkins, Pritzker, and (THC), 259–261
Ware, 230 in Canada, 53
Stroup, Keith, 218, 227–230 Cannabis sativa, 6–9, 147
Stroup, Russell, 228 dronabinol and, 110
Stroup, Vera, 228 hemp, 11–12, 28
Students Taking Action Not in hemp seed, 53
Drugs (STAND), 188 marijuana, discovery of,
Substance Abuse and 153, 163, 166
Mental Health Services Marinol, 148, 169
Administration medical marijuana, 107
(SAMHSA), 269 Texas, 34
Sufi religion, 28 THC. See
Sufism, 28 tetrahydrocannabinols
Symes, Judge Foster, 67 (THC)
Syracuse, 25 Therapeutic Handbook,
151–152
Taipei, Taiwan, 3 30-day prevalence, 84–85
Taiwan, 12–13 38th Street Gang Roundup,
Taiwanese discovery, 12–13 235
Takla Makan Desert, 18 Thomas, Chuck, 206
Tapenkeng culture, 3 Tibet, 18
TARP. See Troubled Asset Tierra Madre, LLC, 200
Relief Program (TARP) TLC. See Lindesmith Center
Tashkin, Donald P., 93 (TLC)
Index 367
tobacco, 103 UN International Drug

tobacco companies, 163 Control Programme,
treatment of illnesses, 15 230
Treaty of Tilset, 33 UN Narcotic Convention,
trichomes, 6–7 183
Troubled Asset Relief UN Office on Drugs and
Program (TARP), 194 Crime, 230–232
Turner, Carlton, 79–80 UN Population Fund, 231
24/7 Sobriety for repeat DUI United States
offenders, 144 hemp in, forms of, 12
industrial hemp in, 38–41
UCLA. See University of marijuana in, patterns of
California-Los Angeles use, 82–86
(UCLA) medical marijuana in,
Ukraine, 42 status of, 110–115
UNDG. See UN prohibition on Cannabis
Development Group sativa in, 58–82
(UNDG) See also industrial hemp
Uniform Narcotics Drug Act, in United States; North
59 America
UK’s Advisory Council on United States attorneys,
the Misuse of Drugs, memorandum to all,
172 270–272
UN Children’s Fund, 231 United States of America,
UN Commission on Drugs, Plaintiff, v. Marin
135 Alliance for Medical
UN Convention against Marijuana, and Lynette
Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Shaw, 275–277
Drugs and Psychotropic University of Arizona, 154
Substances, 192 University of California-Los
UN Development Group Angeles (UCLA), 93
(UNDG), 231 University of Colorado
UN Food and Agriculture School of Medicine,
Organization of the 149
United Nations (FAO), University of Edinburgh,
41–42 223
368 Index
University of Maryland, 183 U.S. Department of Veterans

University of Maryland Affairs, 221
University College, 197 U.S. Drug Enforcement
University of Massachusetts, Administration (DEA),
195 12, 101, 104, 109, 135,
University of Michigan, 84, 152–153, 177, 190,
86, 149, 217 199–200, 232–235,
University of Pennsylvania, 259
16 U.S. Food and Drug
University of Texas, 86 Administration (FDA),
Urticales, 4 99, 108–110, 135, 152,
U.S. attorney general, 111 168, 170, 269
U.S. Bureau of Prisons, 216 U.S. House of
U.S. Bureau of Prohibition, Representatives, 64
64, 182 U.S. Institute of Medicine
U.S. Constitution, 23, 59, (IOM), 106–107
72, 181, 268 U.S. Narcotics Farm, 216
U.S. Department of U.S. Public Health Service
Agriculture (USDA), (USPHS), 216
39, 186, 200 U.S. Senate Special
U.S. Department of Health, Committee to
Education and Welfare, Investigate Crime in
152 Interstate Commerce,
U.S. Department of Health 69
and Human Services U.S. Supreme Court, 71, 73,
(HHS), 152, 269 96
U.S. Department of Justice USDA. See U.S.
(DOJ), 111–112, 152, Department of
270 Agriculture (USDA)
U.S. Department of Psychiatry USPHS. See U.S. Public
at the University of Health Service (USPHS)
California-San Diego, 93 Utah, 62–63
U.S. Department of Public
Safety, 114 Valencia, 25
U.S. Department of the vaporizing, 163–164
Treasury, 65, 194, 233 Vedas, 17
Index 369
Vermont, 41, 61 Western Hemisphere, 22, 29

Veterans Employment Website White, Byron, 226
of the Office of Personnel Whitebread, Charles, 65
Management, 221 Wilhelm II, 181
Veterans Suicide Prevention Williams, Louv, 22
Hotline of SAMHSA, Wisconsin, 40
221 Wisher, Gabriel, 30
Vietnam War, 184 Wisotsky, Steven, 95
Vikings, 25, 29 Women’s Temperance
Virginia, 32, 68 Movement, 37
Virginia Company, 30 wood nettle, 32
Vote Hemp, 201 Woodward, Dr. William C.,
66
Walton, Robert P., 19–20 Woodward, Robert B., 203
war against drugs, 78 Wooton Report, 92
War Department, 63, 181 World Food Programme,
War of 1812, 33 231
War of Independence, 33 World Health Organization,
war on drugs, 76–77, 89–91, 135, 231
103–104 World War I, 57, 63, 181
Washington, 113, 142, 158, World War II, 67
163 written records on use
Washington, George, 32 of hemp in China,
Washington College of Law, 13–14
183
Washington Post, 229 Xatvia, 25
Washington State, 164 xi, 4
Ways and Means Committee, Xia Xiao Zheng (Summer
64, 65 Almanac), 13
Webb, Judge, 275
Weiss, Brian L., 23 yagarah hadebash, 21
Weissenborn, Ruth, 172 Yale Law School, 226
Weizmann Institute, 209 Yangmingshan, 3
West, David P., 200 yellow journalism, 158
Western Europe, 24–25, Yellowstone National Park,
27–28 228
370 Index
Young, Francis, 153 zenith of hemp in Europe,

Youth International Party, 26
184 Zhou dynasty, 13
youth statistics on marijuana, Zhushu Jinian (Bamboo
136–137 Annals), 13
About the Author
David E. Newton holds an associate’s degree in science from
Grand Rapids (Michigan) Junior College, a BA in chemistry
(with high distinction), an MA in education from the University
of Michigan, and an EdD in science education from Harvard
University. He is the author of more than 400 textbooks, ency-
clopedias, resource books, research manuals, laboratory manu-
als, trade books, and other educational materials. He taught
mathematics, chemistry, and physical science in Grand Rap-
ids, Michigan, for 13 years; was professor of chemistry and
physics at Salem State College in Massachusetts for 15 years;
and was adjunct professor in the College of Professional Studies
at the University of San Francisco for 10 years.
The author’s previous books for ABC-CLIO include Global
Warming (1993), Gay and Lesbian Rights—A Resource Hand-
book (1994, 2009), The Ozone Dilemma (1995), Violence and
the Mass Media (1996), Environmental Justice (1996, 2009),
Encyclopedia of Cryptology (1997), Social Issues in Science and
Technology: An Encyclopedia (1999), DNA Technology (2009),
Sexual Health (2010), The Animal Experimentation Debate
(2013), Marijuana (2013), World Energy Crisis (2013), Ste-
roids and Doping in Sports (2014), GMO Food (2014), Science
and Political Controversy (2014), Wind Energy (2015), Fracking
(2015), Solar Energy (2015), Youth Substance Abuse (2016),
and Global Water Crisis (2016). His other recent books in-
clude Physics: Oryx Frontiers of Science Series (2000), Sick!
(4 volumes; 2000), Science, Technology, and Society: The Impact
of Science in the 19th Century (2 volumes; 2001), Encyclopedia
372 About the Author
of Fire (2002), Molecular Nanotechnology: Oryx Frontiers of Sci-

ence Series (2002), Encyclopedia of Water (2003), Encyclopedia
of Air (2004), The New Chemistry (6 volumes; 2007), Nuclear
Power (2005), Stem Cell Research (2006), Latinos in the Sciences,
Math, and Professions (2007), and DNA Evidence and Forensic
Science (2008). He has also been an updating and consulting
editor on a number of books and reference works, including
Chemical Compounds (2005), Chemical Elements (2006), En-
cyclopedia of Endangered Species (2006), World of Mathematics
(2006), World of Chemistry (2006), World of Health (2006),
UXL Encyclopedia of Science (2007), Alternative Medicine
(2008), Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia (2009), Community
Health (2009), Genetic Medicine (2009), The Gale Encyclopedia
of Medicine (2010–2011), The Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative
Medicine (2013), Discoveries in Modern Science: Exploration,
Invention, and Technology (2013–2014), and Science in Context
(2013–2014).

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Preface to the First Edition, xv

1 BACKGROUND AND HISTORY, 3

2 PROBLEMS, ISSUES, AND SOLUTIONS, 53

History of Cannabis Prohibition, 54

European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and

5 DATA AND DOCUMENTS, 237

Table 5.2. Marijuana Use by Persons Aged

Memorandum for All United States

6 ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY, 279

Cannabis sativa is one of the oldest crop plants known to

For most of human history, cannabis has been held in high

to develop strategies for limiting or banning the production,

who have been involved in the debates over cannabis both in

At the end of 2016, marijuana was still listed as a Schedule

even more strikingly, as a medicine that could be used to treat

A worker processes hemp in Kentucky. Hemp was first introduced to Ken-

What Is Cannabis Sativa?

growers because it has a very low concentration of THC, tend-

purpose of trichomes is, as part of the plants’ defensive system,

Table 1.1 Cannabinoids Present in the Cannabis Plant

Class of Cannaboid Abbreviation

compounds are called endocannabinoids. They appear to op-

One reason for the preparation of synthetic cannabinoids is

cannabinoid, they banned it. JWH-018 has since been classi-

Hemp versus Marijuana

application, produces large yields per acre compared to other

was permitted. In the first year, crops of hemp were planted in

The Cannabis Plant in History

of the time, including a design on pottery similar to that found

If we pull out the male hemp before it scatters pollen, the

A considerable body of evidence indicates that hemp seed

Pe’n-ts’ao Ching, attributed to the legendary emperor Shen Nung.

cures. It has seemed clear to such practitioners perhaps since

culture, being based on social order, family values and the

Cannabis in India and Central Asia

preparations that have been popular throughout history are

comes from the writings of the Greek historian Herodotus,

and the Editors of Consumer Reports 1972, 397). Since this

The question is whether there is more than meets the eye to

Cannabis in Africa (and Beyond)

Modern leaders of the church say that it has been in existence

Herb (marijuana) is a Godly creation from the beginning

In 1975, a branch of the EZCC consisting primarily of white

the Rafastari argued that their right to use marijuana in their

been recovered in other parts of Eurasia, prompting the noted