In order to understand the controversy of marijuana in the United States today,
the history of marijuana and society surrounding it must first be understood.
Marijuana is a collection of dried leaves and flowers from the female hemp
plant. When consumed, either eaten or more popularly smoked, marijuana has
a euphoric effect. This high typically lasts for a couple of hours and is
said to alleviate pain and calm a person down. Most people who use marijuana
use it for these reasons. However, the hemp plant has not only been 
used
for marijuana production both in the past and currently. Durable hemp fibers
have been used for making rope, durable cloth, and paper in the past. Today,
in a procedure much like making ethanol from corn, it has been shown that
fuels capable of running gasoline engines can be produced from hemp. These
uses, along with hundreds
of others, make hemp an extremely versatile and potentially valuable
plant.
In America, the cultivation of hemp can be traced to as early as Jamestown, where hemp was grown for the purpose of producing rope. In this colony, the first North American drug laws were written in 1619, ordering all farmers to grow hemp. By the 1700s, hemp had grown to be such a necessity of life that during the American Revolution, the Continental Army was clothed in uniforms made from spun hemp thread. Thomas Paine also listed cordage (made from hemp) as one of America's four essential natural resources.
The pain-relieving qualities of marijuana begain to be realized and widely-known around the 1840s, when famous doctors such as J.J. Moreau de Tours studied and published their findings about the effects of marijuana. In the United States, marijuana had been prescribed by doctors since early colonization, but grew rapidly as a prescription medication between the 1840s and 1890s. During this time, marijuana was used to treat a wide range of problems, from chronic body pain to depression.
During
the 1800s, when marijuana became a popular prescription drug, the psychological
calming and physiological pain relieving qualities led to widespread use of
marijuana as a recreational drug. Since there was no legislation in place
to control the use of marijuana, it was not difficult to aqcuire or use. Through
a series of racial controversies, marijuana carried an increasingly negative
connotation in the last half of the 19th century. 
In 1898, the Spanish-American War began. One infamous renegade, Pancho Villa, and his army captured just under one million acres of timerland in Mexico during this war. This land belonged to William Randolph Hearst, the power-broker of American newspapers and journals at the time. Pancho Villa's army was notorious for marijuana use, and as a result of the capture of the Mexican timberland, Hearst launched a propaganda campaign against Villa's army, blaming marijuana for the laziness and lawlessness of these men. This publicity continued into the early 1900s, when articles were written connecting stigmas attached to racial prejudices with marijuana use. Prescription marijuana had dropped significantly, and many states had banned marijuana use by the time the federal government outlawed marijuana use in 1937.
Harry Anslinger was appointed Comissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in 1930. He was a fierce opponent of Marijuana and was a key player in passing the legislation that criminalized the use of marijuana. After the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act, Anslinger continued to increase punishments for marijuana offenses. In the 1950s, possesion of marijuana carried mandatory jail time. However, in 1962 Anslinger was forced to retire by John F. Kennedy when he attempted to censor the work of Professor Alfred Lindsmith.
During the 1960s, marijuana use grew rapidly, especially among young adults and adolescents. In 1970, president Richard Nixon the Comprehensive Drug Abuse and Prevention and Control Act. This act placed marijuana on a schedule I controlled substance list, meaning that it was officially recognized as having no medical value. Since this time, politicians have had conflicting views of marijuana's place on drug lists. Jimmy Carter advocated the reduction of federal punishment for marijuana possesion while Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy Reagan in 1986 led a vigorous, "Just Say No," campaign urging against the use of marijuana, especially in young people across America. Since 1937, when marijuana was first criminalized, there has been voice for the legalization of the use of marijuana. In 1996, California passed Proposition 215, becoming the first state to decriminalize the use of marijuana for medical use. Since this legislation, 8 other states have voted on decriminalizing marijuana, however the supreme court has several times rejected the medical use of marijuana, viewing this as a violation of for 1970 Controlled Substances Act.
To Put it simply, there are people on one side of the fence that are in support of the decriminilaztion of marijuana, and there are people on the other side that are for regulation of marijuana through criminal law. While there is a wide range on each side for the motives behind these stances, there is a distinct division between people who believe that marjiuana should be legal and those who think it should be illegal.
On one side a crowd declares, backed up with valid research, that marijuana inhibits the functions of the brain, heart, and lungs, and can lead to death by several different types of cancer. This crowd is typically made up of conservative people who believe that because of the negative effects associated with marijuana, this drug does not belong in western society. Among this group is a wide spectrum of politicians, doctors, concerned parents, law enforcement officials, and many other citizens of America. Marijuana is seen by most of these people as a gateway drug, one that can lead to the use of heroin and cocaine. This chain of drug addiction has been correlated with poor performance in school by the youth of America, which is a major cause for concern.
However, many people of these same groups instead support the legalization of marijuana. Many liberal idealists and interest groups believe that the choice to use mind-altering drugs is a personal choice to be made by the individuals, not by the federal government. A wide range of associations for terminal or chronic illnesses and doctors with patients who could have their pain alleviated through the use of marijuana also have a tendency to support the decriminalization of marijuana for medical needs. Many anti-prohibition groups such as NORML and the Marijuana Policy Project aim to bring about a change in the current controlled substance laws.
>>Continue to What's Next?
First, a Little Bit of Background...
So Where's the Controversy??
Who Stands Where?