by Philip Spooner

Created on: November 05, 2009

It is incomprehensible to me how Marijuana is still illegal. Marijuana has been around practically forever, and has only been illegal for 1% of its existence. Many Presidents of America personally cultivated marijuana, along with George Washington, who stated "Make the most you can of the Indian hemp seed. Sow it everywhere." It was even his primary crop at Mount Vernon. Benjamin Franklin started the first U.S paper mill, which made paper exclusively from Hemp. In fact, the declaration of independence was written on Hemp paper. By the 1930's Marijuana was becoming increasingly popular, and actually starting to bring together the American public with the outcast Mexicans and African Americans. Then, despite evidence to the contrary from the country's top scientists, Roosevelt passed the 1937 Marijuana tax act, effectively criminalising possession of Marijuana. So why was it so easy to pass the act with the publics favour?

In the years beforehand, Harry Anslinger of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics had begun releasing "Reefer madness" propaganda which directly contradicted known scientific evidence. The idea was that one joint could turn a normal, law abiding citizen into a raging, psychopathic rapist / killer, using criminals from previously mentioned races as examples. The sad fact is that many of those Marijuana myths are not only still believed today, but even still taught to new generations, despite countless scientific studies and reports showing otherwise, if not the complete opposite, particularly in medical regards. Commonly believed drug myths include that smoking cannabis; causes cancer, kills brain cells and affects long term memory. Although cannabis contains carcinogens when burned (as does any organic compound under combustion), the fact is it causes cancer no more than any normal smoke would, and is no where near as bad as tobacco. Cells have bio-chemical program known as "apoptosis", where if a cell is damaged beyond repair, it "commits suicide". Cannabis conforms to this system, meaning that any cells damaged by its carcinogens will shut down. Nicotine however, creates a new path for the cells where they don't die, meaning they become cancerous. Technically, due to new data, the argument outlawing cannabis because it causes cancer is no longer scientifically valid.

Secondly, yes, cannabis does kill brain cells. They're called "Glioma", cells that make up brain tumours. All other brain cells are protected and even healed by cannabis. Myths

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