[Saint-Sage]

Hello everyone, glad to be back. I was going through my old info on the campus server and came across my research paper from an english class. I got an "A" and my teacher was lovin it.

Liberty Lost

Cannabis or hemp, has been used for millennia by civilizations to ease pain, treat eating disorders, and for spiritual purposes. The amount of biomass per acre is astounding, and the oils and chemicals are unique and useful. Cannabis is one of the most versatile resources on the planet, yet these facts are often ignored by the government of the United States in an attempt to demonize the plant.
On an annual basis, one acre of hemp will produce as much fiber as three acres of cotton. Whereas cotton grows in restricted climates and demands a great deal of water, hemp will grow in any state in the union. The cotton plant has very little natural defense against predators, and forces the world to dump fifty percent of all its pesticides and herbicides directly into the soil. Cannabis has adapted admirably to most forms of fungus and insects, and requires no chemical toxification("Hemp Facts").
Cotton is notorious for depleting the soil in any area it is grown. Cotton drains the soil to the point that many other plants will not thrive on the land in which it was cultivated. Cannabis, in contrast, will use some Nitrogen and Phosphorous. However, these can be supplemented by harmless organic fertilizers such as guano. Cannabis does not destroy the land it is grown upon. In fact, cannabis will leave many positive soil amendments such as aeration, making it an idea choice for crop rotation farms.
One acre of cannabis will yield as much pulp for paper production as four acres of trees("Hemp Facts"). All paper products and qualities of paper can be created from hemp fiber. With global demand for wood pulp on the rise, and deforestation already plaguing many of our natural reserves, forests are not an ideal source. Forests also house and sustain our ecosystems, flora and fauna.
Why destroy our food chain when there are more economical alternatives? Hemp is the world's most promising source of tree-free paper. Hemp paper is cheaper to make, and more durable than wood pulp. Hemp paper will last hundreds of years without degrading. Hemp paper can be recycled more times than wood paper, and requires less toxic chemicals in the manufacturing process("Hemp Facts").
Cannabis can be used to produce fiberboard that is stronger than wood, lighter than wood, and fire retardant. Hemp lumber could replace current tree lumber and become a better, cheaper, more renewable building source. Tree farms take years to mature, and cause erosion due to logging principals. An acre of hemp is ready for harvesting in less than 100 days, and can be replanted immediately for a total of two outdoor crops per year in most states of the union.
Hemp seeds yield large amounts of oil as their biomass which can be used to produce strong, durable and bio-degradable forms of plastics. Thousands of non-renewable plastic house wares could be replaced with renewable hemp-based composites. Mercedes-Benz has recently begun manufacturing bodies and dashboards made from hemp("Hemp Facts").
Hemp seeds also contain a protein that is easily digestible by humans, much more so than soy. Its oil is the ideal ratio of three omega-6 fatty acids to every one omega-3 acid. Hemp seed/oil can be used to produce any product made from soybean. It has the greatest biomass of any plant that can be grown as a food source in a large variety of climates.
Until 1937, the United States used hemp as a natural resource. Even the esteemed President George Washington grew hemp and is often quoted from his diary collection, "Make the most you can of the Indian hemp seed and sow it everywhere."
During the early 1930's alcohol prohibition came to a head and finally dissolved in 1933. The Federal Bureau of Narcotics (now the DEA) had their funding drastically reduced. At that time the FBN's new director Harry J.
Anslinger became the leading advocate for Marijuana Prohibition. In 1930
Anslinger's new agency could do very little about marijuana. Narcotics were regulated under the Harrison Act of 1914, and marijuana wasn't included in the list of drugs to be regulated. Out of thirty reports Anslinger received regarding marijuana, he seized on the one negative report in the bunch. This wouldn't be the last time that Anslinger ignored information that contradicted his personal beliefs. It became standard operating procedure in his quest to stop cannabis.
The stories he wanted to find were not concerned with medical facts. A majority of the reports were concerned with minorities, particularly African-americans and Latin-americans and their effect on the job market. He seemed to focus on sensationalist tabloid headlines, such as "Marijuana: The devil's weed with roots in hell". This ill-stirred hysteria often brought quizzical responses from professionals on the subject. As a result, a sudden surge of people requesting medical care because of the propaganda emerged.
Many of Anslinger's reports have ridiculous facts that no contemporary person studying marijuana could believe. Dr. Walter Bromberg, senior psychiatrist of hospitals for the city of New York issued a report about the nature of cannabis on behavior. The story listed accounts of patients Dr. Bromberg had seen during his tenure at many of the local mental institutions.
The accounts were often of a hallucinatory nature, more akin to psychedelic drugs such as LSD or mescaline. Many of the visions were of a bizarre nature. Some people quoted seeing bleeding crosses, or of running off into the desert for three days. The truth is, the most potent cannabis today only has an effect lasting two to three hours. It is a general feeling of euphoria coupled with a relaxed warm feeling. You have a level of intoxicating impairment, approximately two to three glasses of wine. These experiences are a far cry from the effects you will get from any cannabis user or researcher today. The episodes from that time were more likely to be a result of public mania, akin to the tabloid-junkies of today.
Anslinger propelled on this wave of fabricated pomp until it leads him before congress. He stood before the assembly and actually proposed that, "Marijuana is the most violence causing drug in the history of mankind. Most marijuana smokers are Negros, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana can even cause white women to seek sexual relations with Negros." This ridiculous statement shows the roots of racism and ignorance in the illegalization of marijuana. The word marijuana was actually coined by Anslinger, he used a Mexican word little used around border towns. Anslinger knew that few people would believe the outrageous claims about productive hemp, and were unaware that the evil marijuana and hemp was the same thing.
During this time, the alcohol industry promoted an educational movie titled "Reefer Madness". This movie which has circulated the internet depicts a man going insane from smoking marijuana, and then killing his entire family with an axe. Though this was a complete lie, in the 1930's it was taken to heart by many Americans, and the panic began to ensue. Before long the Marijuana Tax Act was passed, with virtually no deliberation after Anslinger made his initial proposal.
The criminalization of cannabis has had many of the same results as alcohol prohibition. First and foremost, it has created an exploding prison population. Many non-violent drug offenders are now serving longer prison sentences than murderers, rapists, and other violent criminals. The drug war spends billions of dollars a year to enforce cannabis prohibition that was launched under false pretenses. All the while, students of the United States school systems continue to fall behind in standardized test scores because we can't afford to pay our teachers. We can't afford health care for our elderly or needy, yet we manage to spend millions of dollars so that helicopters can fly around spotting marijuana plants.
Reducing drug abuse by those with addictive personality traits is an admirable goal. The fact that the treatment applied comes at the cost of civil liberties is heinous. That it also damages the victim socially, and financially is lunacy. And what does it gain? Prohibition costs billions to enforce, yet it creates a black market that generates violence and corruption. This year the government will spend 15 billion dollars toward prohibition. This large subsidy funds a war to keep violent drug cartels, mobsters, and street dealers in business. These violent criminal enterprises prosper and flourish because the government refuses to accept new research and evidence. The concept of the drug war enforces any such positive cannabis research as taboo.
To uphold the drug war against cannabis the DEA has fed myths to the public for years and ignored evidence to the contrary. Many of the quotes they use are misleading, only listing part of the facts behind research. They also use false logic in an attempt to make cannabis seem more harmful than it really is.
The most detrimental myth they perpetuate is the one about cannabis use destroying brain cells in humans. The truth has been around since 1983, yet the DEA ignores the research. Any American can go to a library and research an experiment where twelve subjects, who had smoked an average of 1 gram of cannabis per day (heavy usage), for over 10 years (long term) were evaluated medically. The results were conclusive, "No subject had a history of major head trauma or cerebral infection, and just one abused alcohol. Only the subject with a history of alcoholism showed any abnormal cerebral function on clinical tests or any abnormality in the CT scan, compared with normal controls"(Hannerz 210). There has actually been research done which proves cannabis increases thought processes in the frontal cerebral cortex and other regions of the brain which control creativity and adaptability. The conclusion is worded as this "Behavioral manifestations of marijuana intoxication may be associated with increased functional activity of the brain especially the frontal cortex, insula and cingulate gyrus"(Mathew 2,089). Another experiment came to the conclusion that blood flow in the middle cerebral artery increases, all without increasing blood pressure(Wilson 169). This bundle of research proves that, contrary to current mythology, marijuana users are not killing brain cells. It also proves that consuming cannabis will stimulate more frequent and creative thoughts. This pleasant muse is often quoted by artists and entertainers.
The most repugnant fallacy occurs when the government uses a simple fact, which has virtually no bearing on health issues, as a scare tactic to keep people from seeing the truth. The most easily disputed is the government’s claim that cannabis contains over 400 active chemicals. This ruse is designed to make you think that something with allot of chemicals is dangerous. Caffeine which is a legal drug has over 1000 active chemicals, and arsenic has less than 60. By this logic caffeine would be more dangerous than arsenic. Though caffeine is an addictive drug("The Truth about Caffeine"), and is probably more dangerous than cannabis, it is certainly not deadly like arsenic.
Another logical fallacy that is circulated is that the marijuana from this era is much more potent than in the 1960's. Research that is often quoted lists THC percentage rates. THC is the primary psychoactive chemical in marijuana, and during the 60's, most low grade marijuana ranged from 3% - 10% THC. While the fact that high grade marijuana from this era can approach 20% THC is true, the logic behind this statement is false. In actuality what this means, is that in order to reach 100% saturation of THC into the blood-stream, less marijuana must be smoked. This means that in order to achieve the desired result you must consume less leaf material, less carcinogens. It is more beneficial from a health standpoint to have more potent marijuana, because once 100% saturation is met, the person cannot get any "higher". This differs greatly from alcohol, where a person can continue to drink, and become even more intoxicated.
Almost every argument in the Drug War arsenal falls into these two categories. The few pieces of research they have that are valid, are the type that point to the effects of intoxication. Every one of those facts would be present, and amplified if the person were under the influence of alcohol. The millions of marijuana users in the United States are not advocating for total abandon. People should not drive while under the influence of cannabis. Children should not smoke cannabis. Consenting adults who choose a less intoxicating alternative to alcohol should not be thrown in jail. All they want is the right to choose when they may responsibly consume cannabis in a safe manner.
While the DEA ignores the pleas of millions of recreational smokers, the ones who truly suffer from the war on cannabis are terminally ill patients.
Marijuana has been given time, and time again to medical patients to ease the pains of cancer. People who are months away from certain death have nothing to loose. We should make them as comfortable as possible until their transition into the afterlife. Cannabis has shown that it has that power. The herb has a way of taking one's mind off of suffering, an aspect that works in conjunction with other pain medicines, without being antagonistic or dangerous. It is not physically addictive like many pain killers, and a patient's tolerance does not build as fast. In fact, if a person develops a tolerance to a particular cannabis, all they must do is to switch strains to enjoy full benefits once again. There are over one thousand commercial strains sold through out the world, enough that a person would never have to increase dosage or loose the benefits of treatment.
Cannabis can make even plain food seem to taste better. This fact, often coined "the munchies", is used to cure the nausea associated with chemotherapy and wasting away in HIV. It is also effective in treating eating disorders such as anorexia, and bulimia. These reasons and many more are why nine states in the union have allowed medical marijuana legislation to pass. Doctors may prescribe cannabis to patients with severe conditions in those states. The DEA however, continues to raid these cannabis compassion clubs, and imprison the caregivers who run them. The state, county, and city authorities often side with the defendant. The DEA however, has tried to pass legislation to ban state's rights, all to dismantle a hippocratic institution serving the terminally ill.
The United States government will not acknowledge valid evidence, they simply continue to dig for ways to prove cannabis is harmful. Their goal is to keep it illegal at any cost to society, for no apparent reason except the outdated and ill-conceived prohibition started by Anslinger. It is understandable that they would not want to admit to seventy years of bogus persecution. The past however, shows that intolerable acts which violate the freedom of citizens often come to tragic endings. Marijuana smokers have been criminalized, victimized, and placed in a groundless social taboo that is not accepted or understood. Any congressman may however, walk into a legal brothel in Las Vegas and cheat on his wife. Any American has the right to imbibe an occasional spirit, and often the results are tragic. Any woman may enter an abortion clinic and terminate the life inside her, an execution of civil rights that defies the center of morality.
Cannabis users are sick of being treated as second rate citizens. They hold jobs, and go to their children's ball games. Many are Christians; most of those who are not are still well-mannered, peaceable folk. Many moderately successful couples want to enjoy cannabis in the privacy of their own home. If they imbibe, they become complete outcasts from normal society. They might never become more inebriated than if they had consumed three beers, yet if they are discovered, they will have all the life they have built stripped from them. Their home can be sold, they might loose their children, and they will be placed in prison and re-emerge bitter and wounded. How is this justice? Where is civil liberty?

[TheBagman]

nice...I did a paper on med mj, got an A too...

[Tasha]

I did a paper on MJ...and got an F, a detention and a call home.

WTF..

[Saint-Sage]

High school vs liberal college english.

[Luke]

Originally Posted by Tomohiro

I did a paper on MJ...and got an F, a detention and a call home.

WTF..

nice

i blazed before school every morning

[MexicanGreen]

^^ same well u had like a 4.0 or sum shit i graduated w/ a 3.2

[Lucian]

extremely well written paper, excellent job...lots of facts I didn't know

[Saint-Sage]

Originally Posted by Lucian

extremely well written paper, excellent job...lots of facts I didn't know

Thanks for the props, Congratz on your grow btw, I saw your posts over in Grow Op before the crash.

[TheBagman]

yeah high school teachers can be a bitch with that type of paper, but I had a cool college instructor grading my shit...