Anti-Marijuana Propaganda

XtortioN

XtortioN

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Study: Marijuana increases psychosis risk = BS

Okay, so I read this article that was published in my city's newspaper just a few days ago. When I first saw the title I thought it was just plain stupid, but I wanted to see what studies lead them to believe that marijuana use increased the chance of someone becoming psychotic, so I read it. Doesn't seem like they have much to back this up, I can't even believe they think this is proof. So I had to show you all

Here is the article, Published: Friday, July 27, 2007

London - Using marijuana seems to increase the chance of becoming psychotic, researchers report in an analysis of past research that reignites the issue of whether pot is dangerous.

The new review suggests that even infrequent use could raise the small but real risk of this serious mental illness by 40 percent.

Doctors have long suspected a connection and say the latest findings underline the need to highlight marijuana's long term risks. The research, paid for by the British Health Department, is being published Friday in medical journal The Lancet.

"The available evidence now suggests that cannabis is not as harmless as many people think," said Dr. Stanley Zammit, one of the study's authors and lecturer in the department of psychological medicine at Cardiff University.

The researchers said they could not prove that marijuana use itself increases the risk of psychosis, a category or several disorders with schizophrenia being the most commonly known.

There could be something else about marijuana users, "like their tendency to use other drugs or certain personality traits, that could be causing the psychosis," Zammit Said.

Zammit and colleagues from the University of Bristol, Imperial College and Cambridge University examined 35 studies that tracked tens of thousands of people for periods ranging from one year to 27 years to examine the effect of marijuana on mental health.

They looked for psychotic illnesses as well as cognitive disorders including delusions and hallucinations, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, neuroses, and suicidal tendencies.

They found that people who used marijuana had roughly a 40 percent higher chance of developing a psychotic disorder later in life. The overall risk remains very low.

The scientists found one more disturbing outlook for "heavy users" of pot, those who used it daily or weekly: Their risk for psychosis jumped to a range of 50 percent to 200 percent.

One doctor noted that people with a history of mental illness in their families could be at higher risk. For them marijuana use "could unmask the undrlying schizophrenia," said Dr. Deepak Cyril D'Souza, an associate professor of psychiatry at Yale University, Who was not involved in the study.

By: Marcia Cheng
Associated Press
 
Re: Study: Marijuana increases psychosis risk = BS

I read this entire article, I rarely put very much attention into topics like these simply because, majority of it is scare tactics and until I see it in solid facts I'll never really turn my head to it..
 
Re: Study: Marijuana increases psychosis risk = BS

I heard of this article on the radio. The commenator (an MD) noted that the study that the article is based did not claim that MJ caused psychosis.

He also noted that a correlation between MJ use and psychosis would be expected, since most psychotics self-medicate and MJ is one of the drugs they use. That's why there is a much higher correlation between alchohol use and psychosis than MJ and psychosis.
 
The American Peoples Encyclopedia: 1959 - Exclusively Distributor Sears, Roebuck:

MARIJUANA, or MARIHUANA, the Mexican name for a narcotic drug obtained from the leaves of the hemp plant CANNABIS and generally used in cigarettes. Introduced from Mexico about 1910, probably at New Orleans or in the southwestern states, its use has spread at an alarming rate in the United States Known by a variety of local terms, "reefers," "fu," "moocah," "mezz" "muggles," "Mary Warner," "The Weed," it is considered by many authorities to be the most potent drug in common use.

Although the effect of marihuana is often unpredictable, and may range from extreme elation to profound melancholy, the result is almost invariably accompanied by a loss of restraint and self-control, with subsequent erratic behavior. Hallucinations of sight and hearing are not uncommon, and delusions of strength may lead to feats of endurance without sense of fatigue. Although the long-run effects of the continued use of the drug are disputed by medical authorities, it is thought by some that chronic addiction leads to a loss of mental ability, stupor, and indolence, and that in such cases irreparable damage is done to brain tissue and nerve centers, and insanity may be the result.

Marijuana smoking did not become a problem in the United States until about 25 years ago and has caused serious concern only in the past 12 to 15 years. Its use has spread to all sections of the country, being especially prevalent in large cities. In 1937 it was estimated that there were over 100,000 marijuana addicts in the United States, the majority being of high school and college age. An index of the great increase in the use of marijuana since that year is the number of arrests for violation of narcotic drug laws, which more than doubled between 1937 and 1950.

The rapid spread of marijuana addiction, together with its implication in cases of juvenile delinquency and in the commission of major crimes, has lead to increase efforts toward eradication. Measures employed include a Federal tax of $100 per ounce on unregistered marijuana, and state laws making its traffic a felony subject to severe fines and imprisonment. The ease with which marijuana can be grown, however, has made it extremely difficult to control. See Cannabis; Hemp; Narcotics; Traffic and control.

Bibliog.-R. P. Walton, Marihuana: America's New Drug Problem (1939) ; E.A. and R. Rowell, On The Trail of Marihuana (1939); F.T. Merrill, Marijuana, the New Dangerous drug (1941); New York committee on Marihuana, Marihuana Problem in the city of New York (1944); C. Simon, Plants That Incite to Crime (1947).
 
Re: Marijuana Myths

The American Scholar Vol.8. No.1 - Winter 1938-1939 - Pub. By the PHI BETA KAPPA society

Marihuana

By MAUD A. MARSHALL

MARIHUANA which because of its increasingly popular use in this country has received so much attention of late in our newspapers and magazine articles, is not a new drug. It has been known and extensively used for 3000 years in the Far East. For marihuana is no other than hashish, a narcotic derived from the leaves, flowers and resin of the hemp plant which is grown for its fiber and its seed. Originally indigenous to Central Asia, hemp has been distributed far over the world, in temperate as well as in warm regions. It has long been found growing as an introduced weed in waste places in the United States and has recently been cultivated here illegally for the drug, marihuana. The word hashish we associate either with life in the Far East or with a relatively restricted class of drug addicts in our own country. It inspires feelings of horror and repugnance which the new word marihuana, used in connection with more familiar surroundings, fails as yet to arouse. By whatever name it may be called, however, the hemp drug well deserves to be feared and dreaded. In an effort to acquaint people with the dangers involved in smoking marihuana an energetic drive, led by our Federal Bureau of Narcotics and the Opium Advisory Committee of the League of Nations, is on.

In Far Eastern countries the active drug principles of the hemp plant are used in various ways. Most commonly the dried flowers of the plant (ganja) or the resin (charas) are mixed with tobacco and smoked, and the dried leaves (bhang) are soaked in water and the infusion taken as a beverage. Sometimes one of these preparations is mixed with sugar to form a confection, the Gaiety Pills of the Sanskrit writings. In the United States the leaves, flowers and resin of the hemp are usually dried mixed with tobacco and made into cigarettes.

Why marihuana-smoking should have become so suddenly fashionable in the United States is a riddle not easy to answer. Only since 1930 have our officers of law and order considered marihuana-smoking a serious problem, and satisfactory statistics as to its use here have been and are difficult to secure. All workers in the field of narcotics, whether concerned with the psychological, spiritual, physical, legal or sociological side of addiction, emphasize the difficulty of estimating the extent of a practice necessarily secretive in nature. The estimates vary enormously, giving rise to widely contradictory reports. Some claim that as much as 25 per cent of the population in some of our southern cities are habitual users. Large seizures of the drug in one form or another have been made in all sections of the United States. In spite of inadequate laws for the control of marihuana a single state destroyed 100 tons of it in 1936. Hemp has been discovered concealed between rows of corn in the prison yards of San Quentin and Colorado State, in window-boxes of New York penthouses and in city lots in the Bronx. Undoubtedly marihuana-smoking is widespread. Some say the habit was brought to New York and other large cities by "popular" musicians, who had found in Mexico the cigarette capable of so distorting the sense of time that the rapid and difficult technique of "hot" music could be managed without consciousness of speed or super-agility. Perhaps the recent business depression played some part in determining the moment for the spread of marihuana. It may be that traffic in other narcotic drugs had become so restricted by 1930 as to create an increasing demand for the cheaper and less-feared marihuana. Whatever the cause of the apparent sudden increase in this drug habit, the use of marihuana is growing with such rapidity that within a mere decade it has become a real menace, serious particularly because of its attraction for young people, who turn to it as an aid to the breakdown of conventional restraint and for artificial thrills and "kicks." People of greater maturity feel less need of continual excitement and confirmed addicts of other drugs are seldom satisfied by marihuana, but young people are susceptible victims.

The obvious and immediate effects produced by the hemp narcotic are release of inhibitions, weakening of will, increased amenableness to suggestion and exaggerated sense of well-being and gaiety. Depending on the dosage and on the mental and emotional nature of the individual concerned, subsequent effects may be apparently harmless or markedly deleterious. All the senses are affected; colors become more vivid, sounds are intensified, time seems long and space limitless. Because the drug dulls the nerves it gives general relief from pain. In many instances the preliminary stimulation soon gives way to apprehension and to a terror and feeling of persecution which not infrequently lead to violence and crime, sexual aberrations or even suicide. When sleep comes it may be peaceful or it may be disturbed by dreams varying from those of great subjective pleasure to others of extreme horror. Awakening is not generally accompanied by unpleasant after-effects. Individuals vary greatly in their reaction to this drug; seemingly there is no way of predicting how any particular person will be affected. Repeated use of it has led to mental weakness, dullness and an insanity either of a violent sort in which the victim is pursued by terrible sense-illusions, with insomnia and acute mania, or of an imbecile-lethargic kind, resulting in incurable dementia. Physically, addiction to marihuana-smoking is likely to cause bronchitis, dysentery, increased susceptibility to lung diseases, an insecure gait and emaciation. Destructive changes in the brain are sometimes evident. Children of addicts are said to be inferior; in some parts of India, where hashish has long been used to excess, whole communities are imbecilic and morally degraded. A secondary and more serious evil is directly traceable to marihuana: this drug seldom continues to satisfy and often leads to the use of other and more dangerous narcotics. The manner in which hashish acts on the body is as much of a mystery as the action of other drugs. Many theories have been suggested but none fully explains the phenomenon of narcosis.

The present educational campaign against the popular smoking of marihuana might be less difficult to wage if the case against hashish were as strong as that against morphine, heroin, laudanum, cocaine and other drugs that have been legally restricted in this country much longer than marihuana. Dangerous as is the hemp drug it is not so insidious as the opium POPPY. There is, for example, disagreement as to whether marihuana is habit-forming in the physiological sense. A person accustomed to using it regularly may be suddenly deprived of it without experiencing depression, exhaustion, physical pain or death, which sometimes follow withdrawal of morphine or heroin. Physically the marihuana habit may be broken by simple abstinence, although psychologically the craving for the drug may become so overpowering that the victim will resort to criminal action to secure the stuff. But this habit does not grow with the rapidity of the opium habit; tolerance, requiring constantly increasing doses, is not so quickly acquired. As has already been noted, sleep produced by marihuana leaves no hangover with the return of consciousness. Again, the onset of physical degeneration caused by continued smoking of hemp appears to be long delayed. Several years may pass before deterioration becomes obvious. One hashish addict, admittedly an unusual case, lived for 20 years in spite of excessive use of the drug. Eventually, however, he died insane. Finally, though symptoms may be alarming, no case of death from an overdose of hashish appears to have been recorded.

Although scientific study of the pharmacology of the hemp drug dates only from the middle. of the 19th century it is not infrequently mentioned in ancient writings as affording solace in distress, arousing religious hallucinations inciting to violence or leading to excessive gaiety. The hemp plant existed in Syria at least 700 years before the beginning of the Christian era and much earlier than that in Persia and India. The Vedas and the Mahabharata frequently mention hemp and bhanga,[1] the drink made from it. The Greeks had a word for it, [KaivaflLrw], to smoke with hemp. Some have suggested that Homer' s nepenthe was hashish.

[1] It is interesting to note that the Sanskrii word llbhangall primarily meant frustration, humiliation, downfall, ruin, paralysis.

Then Helen, daughter of Zeus, took other counsel. Straightway she cast into the wine of which they were drinking a drug [nepenthe] to quiet all pain and strife, and bring forgetfulness of every ill. Whoso should drink this down when it is mingled in the bowl would not in the course of that day let a tear fall down over his cheeks, no, not though his mother and father should lie there dead, or though before his face men should slay with the sword his brother or dear, son, and his eyes beheld it.' [2]

Heroclotus wrote of vapor-baths formed by throwing hemp-seed on hot stones: "the Scythians, transported by the vapor, shout aloud." Mohammedans have long employed hashish as an intoxicant, since wine is forbidden them, and the drug is reported to have been in regular use in the religious ritual of some Mohammedan sects. Our word assassin is believed to be derive from the Arabian word, hashshash, "one who has drunk of hashish."

In modern times accounts of hemp intoxication by Baude-laire, Balzac, Gautier and Ludlow, the "minor De Quincy," were supplemented by the more scientific reports of Dr. J. Moreau of Tours who deliberately took hashish for the purpose of studying its effects. The Hemp Drugs Commission of India investigating consequences of this drug in a country where it use is closely interwoven with religious and social customs, reported (I893) that moral depravity was produced and intensified and physical and mental injury was brought on by the immoderate use of hashish.

With the recently increasing use of marihuana in the United States opportunities for study have become frequent, at least among the criminal class of users, but reports are still contradictory. Many authorities believe that drug addicts constitute the major class of our criminals, that they are the most violent and most frequent offenders and that the smoking of marihuana actually produces crime especially sex attacks and murders. In I934, out of a group Of 450 prisoners in New Orleans, 12 were marihuana addicts. Nearly one-half of the murders committed in that city were ascribed to them. Other investigators

[2] The Odyssey, Book 4. Translated by Murray, A. T.

are convinced, however, that marihuana exerts no such direct action but that its effect is due to the release of inhibitions, and that where crime results the tendency to it was present beforehand.

The legal control of marihuana is more difficult than that of most drugs. In the first place- the hemp plant may occur as a weed almost anywhere in our country and may easily be secretly cultivated in almost any soil. Its eradication is retarded by the general failure to recognize the plant.[3] In the second place the hemp plant has so many legitimate commercial uses (as sources of fiber, birdseed, oil, etc.) and it grows so readily as a weed that it cannot be absolutely prohibited by law. All permissible uses must of course be protected by legislation directed against the marihuana drug. The Harrison Narcotic Act of the United States Congress, passed in 1914, prohibited the importation of opium poppy and coca leaf, except for medical purposes, but it did not outlaw hemp in any form. Arrests for the misuse of marihuana could therefore he made only when provisions of the Pure Food and Drugs Act had been violated---that is, when adulterated or misbranded goods were offered for shipment between states. Although many states had enacted legislation directed against marihuana their laws were not uniform and were on the whole totally inadequate. The need for federal legislation concerning the newly---popular drug became increasingly apparent and at length the Marihuana Tax Act was passed in the summer of 1937.

Under the terms of this act the word marihuana is defined to cover every part of the hemp plant, whether growing or not,

[3]-The hemp plant, cannabis sativa, is a rough branching annual which at flowering time may be from 3 to 16 feet in height. The thick stems and nearly erect branches are not easily broken, for their inner bark, from which the hemp fiber of commerce is obtained, is tough and stringy. The plant is most readily recognized by its leaves, each has a distinct stem or petiole which bears at its tip, arranged digitally, 5 or 7 narrow, thin and flexible leaf segments, each with a conspicuous midrib; they are sharply pointed at both ends and their margins are saw-toothed or serrate. Hemp is dioecious: staminate (male) and pistillate (female) flowers are not borne together on the same plant. Both flowers are small, green, insignificant in appearance and have a characteristic odor. The staminate flowers are loosely arranged in panicles between 3 and 5 inches long whereas the pistillate flowers grow in erect spikes less than an inch long when mature. The seeds are ovoid, with hard and brittle coats.

capable of yielding the poisonous drug. It does not cover the harmless stalk used for fiber, the oil from the seed, and the seedcake. It requires that seed to be used for birds must be subjected to heat treatment to render them incapable of growth. Since it is only through taxation that our federal government has power to act, the law stipulates that "with the exception of federal, state and municipal officials, every person who imports, manufactures, produces, compounds, sells, deals in, dispenses, prescribes, administers or gives away cannabis or any preparation or derivative thereof covered by the act must register annually in the office of the collector of internal revenue and pay the prescribed tax." These records must be at all times open to state and federal officials and, on written request, to any person. The control of illicit traffic will be greatly facilitated by thus making public all dealings in marihuana. Already many arrests have been made under this law; but too often the penalties, in cases of conviction, have fallen far short of the stated maximum of five years imprisonment or a fine of $5000 or both.

Our government stands in a peculiar position in regard to the marihuana question. The elimination of addiction to other drugs depends largely on rigid law---enforcement and the detection of smuggling at our national boundaries. In hemp the United States has for the first time a drug plant growing at random throughout the countryside---a drug plant that is also cultivated (some 10,000 acres of it) for a commercial purpose, its fiber. Experiments are now in progress to breed out the poisonous narcotic principle from the hemp plant; but even if these are successful the process of achieving any reduction in the supply of marihuana must necessarily be slow. Only the full and intelligent cooperation of the people of the country can cope with the marihuana problem now confronting us.
 
American Journal of Nursing: (July 1936) Mariahuana - By Victor Lewitus

There is a plant which at present offers promise of adding its weight to our already overburdened narcotic problem. It is technically known as Cannabis indica, but is more commonly recognized as Indian hemp, hashish or mariahuana. It is also variously known, according to its manner of preparation, as bhang (the infusion), charas (the extracted resin), ganjah (as a tobacco), and majum (as a confection). The term mariahuana originates from the Mexican or South American Language in which the term connotes any substance which produces an intoxication, and the term hashish or hasheesh is partly represented in our own word "assassin." The terms thus point to some of its deleterious properties.

Although originally indigenous to India, Asia Minor, and Northern Africa, the drug has reached our shores where it grows in the wild state as Cannabis sativa. Recently it gained a place for itself in the newspaper columns because the New York police department discovered a lot in Brooklyn covered with the stuff. It was found on investigation that this "crop" was supplying the "needs" of a large number of soldiers on Governor's Island who came easily into the habit of purchasing the stuff in order that they might make "reefers" for themselves. The officers noticed that their troops went "loco" and could not report for duty, and this lead the police to investigate, with the results referred to.

The plant consists of an herb which reaches several feet above a man's shoulders, bearing compound finger-like leaves which are conspicuously toothed, and flowers at the upper terminal ends in clusters. It contains an active resin which is optimum during the flowering stage--abundant in the female plant.

At one time it was cultivated in many parts of the world and in our own country for its fiber from which rope, twine, and cloth was made and for this purpose it is still utilized in some localities. It has also been employed for its oil (from the seeds) which is quick drying as in linseed oil. The seeds themselves are widely used in bird foods of various types. Furthermore, the resinous principle has marked analgesic properties and for this reason it is used as a part of the formula of corn collodions since it readily allays pain.

In the narcotic world, however, it is known as the "murderous" narcotic--a well-deserved caption for it is known that in the Orient bands of men under its influence have run amuck and perpetrated the most heinous crimes. The drug is used similarly to opium--often smoked, or chewed in the form of a sweetmeat. It produces hallucinations in which the mind is freed from all restraint. The imaginary experiences and sensations are intensely realistic and the victim of this narcosis finds delight in this, as if they were actual experiences. The reaction later reverses itself, and there is an imaginary suffering which finds expression in violent acts which often lead to a strong impulse to do great harm. It is during this stage that the desire to kill is greatest, and large groups of men have been known to engage in mortal combat under its influence. In large dosage, Cannabis may cause paralysis of the extremities, difficult breathing, and a feeling of impending death accompanied by that of uncontrollable terror.

Fortunately, unlike most other narcotics, the drug is not known to cause a permanent addiction, for by abstinence the victim can be cured. Continual use, however, is known to produce a violent type of insanity which has brought to it the name "loco weed." The subject will suddenly turn with murderous violence upon whomever is nearest to him. He will run amuck with knife, axe, gun, or anything else that is close at hand, and will kill or maim without any reason. After the sudden outburst wears away, the memory is left blank and the victims of these narcotic effects returns to normal.

The federal laws do not include hashish in their regulations but many of the progressive states have embodied in their statutes, measures to prevent its cultivation, sales, and distribution promiscuously. Even thought it is not truly a "habit former" the danger of its widespread use, because of ease of cultivation, must not be overlooked. There have been some rumors as to its use by school children, which cannot be denied since it is easy to believe that these adolescents will "try anything once." Strict control such as that provided in the Harrison Narcotic Act is the remedy in this instance.
 
American Journal of Nursing (Aug 1938)

Dangerous Marihuana

by Frederick T. Merrill

Only about ten years ago the use of marihuana for narcotic purposes was virtually unknown in this country except to the itinerant Mexican laborers of the Southwest. In the last six months a flood of publicity in the newspapers, magazines, and even movies has awaked the public to the fact that a dangerous narcotic is being used--and has been for several years--not only in certain circles of the underworld, but also in the high schools and colleges.

The smoking of marihuana by adolescents is more widespread than most people realize. It has become a new fad, appealing to the curiosity and recklessness of youth. The greed of unscrupulous peddlers, the immense profits, the cheap price for which a marihuana cigarette retails, and the availability of supply from a plant that grows wild almost everywhere are all contributory reasons for its prevalent use. If the abuse of this narcotic drug is not stamped out at once, the cost in crime waves, wasted human lives, and insanity will be enormous.

The word, "marihuana," is both the Mexican-Indian slang word and the legal term for the portions of the plant Cannabis sativa L. which are thought to contain the narcotic element. In general, this applies to very nearly the entire male and female plant, although it is usually the flowering tops and leaves of the latter that contain the richest amounts of the narcotic principle. Because the plant is often known as Indian hemp and its stalk produces a fiber useful in making twines, ropes, and certain grades of paper, it is sometimes confused with other species of hemp. It has also been mistakenly identified with "loco weed."

The cannabis plant grows to a height of over twelve feet, but five to eight feet is more common. The stalk varies from one-half to two inches in thickness. The configuration of each leaf with its five or six leaflets resembles the human hand. Each leaflet, pointed at both ends, is from two to six inches in length and one inch in width. The male and female plants can be distinguished only when mature, the inconspicuous female flowers being found among the small leaves at the end of the branches. The male plant at maturity has very visible flowers which shed pollen profusely. The seeds may be dark in color or distinctly mottled; they are the size of a wheat kernel but nearly round. Under a microscope these seeds are particularly characteristic.

To prepare marihuana for smoking, it is merely necessary to dry the flowering tops and leaves, crush into a coarse powder, and roll it into cigarettes. Under such names as "reefers," "muggles," "Indian hay," "tea," and "goof butts," they are sold in poolrooms, dance halls, and other places where young people congregate, for prices ranging from ten to fifty cents. Some cigarettes are strong in narcotic content; others mild. The strongest sometimes contain enough narcotic poison to deal a knockout blow to the smoker, inducing a condition which may lead to all types of violent crimes and debauchery, about which the smoker probably will have no recollection later. Although it produces none of the addiction symptoms (the withdrawal phenomenon) which occur in morphine or heroin users, it does give rise to a craving and may very easily lead to morphine or heroin addiction.

Individuals react differently toward equal doses of this narcotic, depending on their racial, physiological, and emotional constitution. The complete unpredictability of the effect of marihuana on any given individual makes its use in medicine worthless. It is this uncertain effect that makes it one of the most dangerous drugs known, for one dose may bring about acute intoxication, raving fits, and criminal assaults.

The physical effects of smoking marihuana appear about an hour after consumption in the form of muscular trembling, acceleration of the pulse, dizziness, and sensation of cold in the hands and feet. Constrictions in the chest, dilation of the pupil of the eye, and muscular contraction follows. These physical reactions increase in intensity until either vomiting or complete stupefaction occurs. Restless sleep, accompanied by bizarre phantasmagoria, then overcomes the victim.

The mental effects are more variable since the emotional and imaginative attitudes of the smoker are the major determining factors. The drug affects the entire nervous system, especially the higher nerve centers. Illusions, inordinate and senseless laughter, and a loss of spatial and temporal relations are the first effects observable. The auditory sense is particularly distorted, which accounts for the not infrequent use of marihuana by members of "hot" orchestras. Even in the earliest states of intoxication the will power is destroyed and inhibitions and restraints are released. The most harmful anti-social effects of the drug occur during the later stages. The intense over-excitement of the nerves and emotions leads to uncontrollable irritability and violent rages, which in most advance forms cause assault and murder. Amnesia often occurs, and the mania is frequently so acute that the heavy smoker becomes temporarily insane. Most authorities agree that permanent insanity can result from continued over-indulgence.

The files of the United States Bureau of Narcotics contain many records of crimes committed by persons under the influence of marihuana. The drug is often used by petty criminals to bolster up their courage for contemplated crimes, for it gives the illusion of increased physical strength. As a result, these crimes are often violent ones. In other cases, an overdose of marihuana may be either the direct cause of a fatal automobile accident or a meaningless murder. It is important to note that juries and judges are not allowing pleas of marihuana intoxication as an extenuating circumstance for criminal acts committed under its influence. Both the peddler of the drug and the individual who commits a crime after smoking marihuana should receive maximum penalties if society is to be protected from crimes of this nature.

Marihuana has been known for many centuries by the peoples of India and the Mediterranean littoral, mostly by such names as hashish, charas, bhang, or kif. It is at present subject to international restrictions in respect to its trade, while certain governments have legislated against its abuse. The United States congress passed a Marihuana Tax Act last summer, as the various state laws lacked uniformity and were providing loopholes for traffickers. The Act is an internal revenue measure, but indirectly it limits the use of the drug to proper medical channels. The taxation and registration provisions of the law publicizes the cultivation of the plant and makes its transfer extremely difficult. Illegal transfers are subject to heavy penalties, up to two years in jail.

A new crop of marihuana will be harvested illicitly this fall in spite of the successful efforts state and federal authorities have been making in uprooting and destroying tons of the wild plant in all sections of the country. Those interested in the welfare of young people should be on their guard against its appearance in the form cigarettes in their neighborhood. Boys and girls of high school age and older should be told just how dangerous it is to try even one cigarette. Marihuana dives must be discovered and peddlers apprehended. An aroused public can do much to eradicate this evil.
 
The Reader's Digest - February 1938

Marijuana --- Assassin of Youth (Condensed from The American magazine) H.F.Anslinger U.S. commissioner of Narcotics with Courtney Ryley cooper

Not long ago the body of a young girl lay crushed on the sidewalk after a plunge from a Chicago apartment window. Everyone called it suicide, but actually it was murder. The killer was a narcotic known to America as marijuana, and to history as hashish. Used in the form of cigarettes, it is comparatively new to the United States and as a coiled rattlesnake.

How many murders, suicides, robberies and maniacal deeds it causes each year, especially among the young, can only be conjectured. In numerous communities it thrives almost unmolested, largely because of official ignorance of its effects.

Marijuana is the unknown quantity among narcotics. No one knows, when he smokes it, whether he will become a philosopher, a joyous reveler, a mad insensate, or a murderer.

The young girl's story is typical. She had heard the whisper which has gone the rounds of American youth about a new thrill, a cigarette with a "real kick" which gave wonderful reactions and no harmful aftereffects. With some friends she experimented at an evening smoking party.

The results were weird. Some of the party went into paroxysms of laughter; others of mediocre musical ability became almost expert; the piano dinned constantly. Still others found themselves discussing weighty problems with remarkable clarity. The girl danced without fatigue throughout a night of inexplicable exhilaration.

Other parties followed. Finally there came a gathering at a time when the girl was behind in her studies and greatly worried. Suddenly, as she was smoking, she thought of a solution to her school problems. Without hesitancy she walked to a window and leaped to her death. Thus madly can marijuana "solve" one's difficulties. It gives few warnings of what it intends to do to the human brain.

Last year a young marijuana addict was hanged in Baltimore for criminal assault on a ten-year old girl. In Chicago, two marijuana-smoking boys murdered a policeman. In Florida, police found a youth - staggering about in a human slaughterhouse. With an ax he had killed his father, mother, two brothers, and a sister. He had no recollection of having committed this multiple crime. Ordinarily a sane, rather quiet young man, he had become crazed from smoking marijuana. In at least two dozen comparatively recent cases of murder or degenerate sex attacks, marijuana proved to be a contributing cause.

In Ohio a gang of seven addicts, all less than 20, were caught after a series of 38 holdups. The boys' story was typical of conditions in many cities. One of them said they had first learned about "reefers" in high school, buying the cigarettes at hamburger stands, and from peddlers who hung around the school. He told of "booth joints" where you could get a cigarette and a sandwich for a quarter, and of the shabby apartments of women who provided the cigarettes and rooms where boys and girls might smoke them.

His recollection of the crimes he had committed was hazy. "When you get to 'floating,' it's hard to keep track of things. If I had killed somebody on one of those jobs, I'd never have known it. Sometimes it was over before I realized that I'd even been out of my room."

It is the useless destruction of youth which is so heartbreaking to all of us who labor in the field of narcotic suppression. The drug acts as an almost overpowering stimulant upon the immature brain. There are numerous cases on record like that of an Atlanta boy who robbed his father's safe of thousands of dollars in jewelry and cash. Of high school age, this boy apparently had been headed for an honest career. Gradually, however, his father noticed in him spells of shakiness, succeeded by periods when the boy would assume a grandiose manner and engage in excessive laughter and extravagant conversation. When these actions finally were climaxed by robbery the father went at his son's problem in earnest - and found the cause of it in a marijuana peddler who catered to school children.

In Los Angeles a boy of 17 killed a policeman who had been his great friend. A girl of 15 ran away from home and was picked up with five young men in a marijuana den in Detroit. A Chicago mother, watching her daughter die as an indirect result of marijuana addiction, told officers that at least 50 of the girl's friends were slaves of the narcotic. The same sort of report comes in from cities all over the country. In New Orleans, of 437 persons of varying ages arrested for a wide range of crimes, 125 were addicts. Of 37 murderers, 17 used marijuana.

The weed was known to the ancient Greeks. Homer wrote that it made men forget their homes and turned them into swine. In Persia in 1090 was founded the military and religious order of the Assassins, whose history is one of cruelty and murder. Its members are confirmed users of hashish, taking their name from the Arabic "basbsbasbin." It is hashish which causes Moros and Malays to "run amok" and engage in violent and bloody deeds.

Although an ancient drug, the menace of marijuana is comparatively new to the United States. It came in from Mexico, and swept across the country with incredible speed. In 1931, the marijuana file of the United states narcotic Bureau was less than two inches thick. The traffic's most rapid growth came in 1935 and 1936, and today our reports crowd many large cabinets. They indicate that high school students particularly are the prey of the reefer peddlers.

Among those who first spread its use were musicians. They brought the habit northward with the surge of "hot" music demanding players of exceptional ability, especially in improvisation. Along the Mexican border and in southern seaport cities it had long been known that the drug has a strangely exhilarating effect upon the musical sensibilities. The musician who uses it finds that the musical beat seemingly comes to him quite slowly, thus allowing him to interpolate improvised notes with comparative ease. He does not realize that he is tapping the keys with a furious speed impossible for one in a normal state.

Soon a song was written about the drug. Perhaps you remember:

Have you seen That funny reefer man? He says he swam to China; Any time he takes a notion. He can walk across the ocean.

It sounded funny. Dancing girls and boys pondered about "reefers" and learned that these cigarettes could make one accomplish the impossible. Sadly enough, they can - in the imagination. The girl who decided suddenly to elope with a boy she did not even know a few hours before, does so with the confident belief that this is a thoroughly logical action without the slightest possibility of disastrous consequences. Command a person "high" on "mu" or "muggles" to crawl on the floor and bark like a dog, and he will do it without a thought of the idiocy of the action. Everything, no matter how insane, becomes plausible.

Reports from various sections indicate that the sale of marijuana has not yet passed into the hands of gangster syndicates. The supply is so vast that gangsters have found it difficult to dominate the source. It is to be hoped that the menace can be wiped out before they are able to do so.

A big hardy weed, of the Indian hemp family, with serrated sword like leaves topped by bunchy small blooms, it grows wild in the West, and is cultivated in practically every state, in fields, gardens, vacant lots. In New York State alone, 200 tons of the growing weed were destroyed in 1936. A raid near La Fitte, Louisiana, resulted in the destruction of 500,000 plants. Similar raids have been conducted in Texas, New Jersey, Mississippi, Michigan and elsewhere.

Every state except one has laws to cope with the traffic, but unfortunately there is no federal law dealing with it. Hence there is need for unceasing watchfulness by every local police department and by every civic organization. There should be campaigns of education in every school, so that children will not be deceived by the wiles of peddlers, but will know of the insanity, the disgrace, the horror which marijuana can bring to its victim. There must be constant enforcement and constant education against this enemy, which has a record of murder and terror running through the centuries.

Copywrite 1937, The Crowell Pub. Co., 250 Park Ave., N.Y.C. (The American Magazine, July, 37)
 
Prey on Children with New "Killer Weed" - Boston Herald: - Feb 28 1937

Conscienceless Racketeers Ply Trade Near Schools Selling to Youth a Narcotic Called Marihuana By Virginia Vaughan

Police Commissioner Joseph F. Timilty, in addressing a group of women's clubs recently, said that a man had been arrested for selling marihuana cigarettes near a local high school.

And this made marihuana a local news story.

There has been gossip round town for some time that marihuana cigarettes, familiarly known as "reefers," are what makes the orchestra boys make hot swing. There have been rumors that the cigarettes were for sale at dance halls in some parts of town. There have been some reports that a dope peddler was offering the loosely rolled brown paper cigarettes for sale as low as 10 cents apiece on the Common.

Things are beginning to get into print, too, about the effects of smoking dope cigarettes. A recent Literary Digest says they "give the user delusions of grandeur - a feeling of joy and well-being," but goes on to say, "the reaction depends on the disposition of the consumer."

In his new book, "Here's to Crime." Courtney Riley cooper goes further in his charge against this most recently publicized form of dope. He emplifies the story of Commissioner Timilty by stating: "It might be interesting to know that one of the main selling places of marihuana in this country is in the vicinity of high schools. This is no attempt to become sensational. My facts come from the federal bureau of narcotics. It is the most dangerous, the most insidious and quick acting harmful drug that has come to the attention of the enforcement men for years."

Mrs. William dick Sporborg of Port Chester, N.Y. , legislative chairman of the Genera Federation o Women's Clubs, who has made a study of the disastrous way the marihuana or "Killer Weed" is being used thoughout the country, told the 1200 clubwomen of Massachusetts at their mid-winter legislative meeting at the Hotel Bradford last Friday that one of the most viscious methods of getting children to become addicts to mix marihuana weed with honey and sugar and sell it as a confection.

INSANITY LOOMS

Mr. Cooper goes on to relate that he himself was actually present at a marihuana "orgy." For the smoking of two or three of the cigarettes are supposed to be enough to break down inhibitions and send the smoker completely berserk. He concludes his warning with, "There is only one end for the confirmed marihuana smoker, and that is insanity!"

The local investigation of the marihuana story obviously began at the police commissioner's office. It didn't take a minute to learn that every dope peddler in town has found out to his cost in the last few months --- Commissioner Timilty is death on drugs. He believes that dope and crime are practically synonyms.

One of his first steps after being appointed was to establish a Boston police department narcotic squad. And their first instructions were to co-operate fully with the federal force. The commissioner says the drive against drugs has been so vigorous in Boston in the last weeks that there has been only one case of marihuana cigarettes sold near a high school. The peddler was arrested and sentenced to a year and that proved sufficient warning - the others have been scared off.

Commissioner Timilty suggested that a visit to the federal narcotic headquarter might throw some light on how the stuff was smuggled into this country. But the federal agents pointed out at once that they have no jurisdiction over marihuana. It is not covered by the federal drug act; laws against the sale of the cigarettes come from the state.

And the reason for this is that marihuana is only the Mexican name for a weed that grows in all parts of the country.

Tobacco used to be called "that filthy weed," but marihuana deserves the title. That marihuana was much like hasish - the ancient Oriental drug - was another suggestion made at federal headquarters.

PREY ON CHILDREN

For while the federal squad had fascinating stories about raids uncovering thousands of dollars worth of dope in the opium traffic, they didn't know very much about marihuana and said when they came across a case of cigarette smuggling they turned it over to the city narcotic department. Peddlers are small time guys and that is one reason they prey on high school kids.

Sergt. Frank Sliney, Inspectors Daniel Curran and Francis Sweeney are the Boston officers who are working as Boston narcotic squad with the federal agents to rid the city of dope. And Sergt. Sliney says that "with the boys all awaking together and getting excellent cooperation in the bouris that the panic is on." Which means to the outsider, the dope peddlers have been run into court or out of town to such an extent that there is a panic not only among the drug sellers but also with the addicts.

The city squad have some marihuana cigarettes and some of the dried weed in its safe. The cigarettes are small and loosely rolled in heavy brown paper, turned in at each end. They are "cut" with driod orange peel to improve the flavor and also merease the profit on the drug.

The weed itself looks and smells not unlike cat-nip. Have you ever seen the family cat under the influence of cat-nip? Well that is somewhat the effect the cigarettes are supposed to have on people.

The city force reported that they had only come across peddling of the dope cigarettes in Boston in the last six months. But the weed has been known in the Negro districts for years. Colored people (call it respectfully "Mary Warners." Since the clean up in town, the use of the cigarette has been limited again to its colored addicts.

The city squad also know more about the nature of the weed. It is more stimulating than alcohol - one cigarette might give a jag to a young person not used to stimulants or drugs. But it is not habit forming like opium: no more habit forming than any stimulant becomes. However even the police had never seen any one under the influence of marihuana and could not confirm some of the more sensational stories about it.

USED BY PRISONERS

Sergt. Sliney said it was a form of hemp and said that hemp workers in prison and the like had been known for years to chew it for its effect. He also told how a prisoner would often ask if he might keep a canary. And when the warden was touched by his loneliness and let the man have a bird and some bird seed to feed it the prisoner would throw a handful of seed into the yard at exercise time. When the seeds grew, there he had his own private stock of hem from the hemp seeds in the ordinary commercial bird food.

But the Boston officers said that most of the ground up weed used in cigarettes here was brought in from outside-- man on a boat was the source of the specimens they confiscated. They, too had such interesting stories on the dope traffic and on how heroin was the drug of the hour, that the marihuana investigation almost got sidetracked.

For the questions as to just what the weed looked like and just what its real effects were, the officers suggested a trip to the botanic department at Harvard for a scientific wind up of the story. The Harvard department has been doing investigations on marihuana in the last months and been in touch with the city narcotic squad.

So the story ends in the botanic museum Marihuana is nothing but a foreign ghas for hemp-or cannabis sativa to the botanist. Or cannabis indica, first recorded as a stimulant about 486 BC. Smoked in water pipes in Arabia in 1378. And hasish is just another name - hasish coming from the word hashishins, or herb eaters, from which we get our word assassins. To show you what the weed can do.

There is a specimen in the Harvard museum that was grown in Forest Hills. It is the curled up leaves of the female plant that cause the stimulating effects. A lot more could be written along analogous lines right here.

FROM FEMALE STALKS

Suffice it to say that it is the female inflorescence that is ground up to make marihuana cigarettes and that the male plant is entirely inconspicuous. Not many plants are so definitely male and female or have such a bad reputation either.

But there is more to be said for hemp than that its flowers give a jag. The reason the wiping out of marihuana cigarettes presents real problem is because the same hemp is used in the manufacture of cloth, rope and oil. It is not the weed's fault that man is not satisfied in only making the useful things.

As to the scientific estimate of the effects of "weeds," a Victor Robinson M.D. has a book in the Harvard Botanical Library that is to the smoking of hasish what DeQuincys book is to the opium smoker. And a German professor Louis Lewin in his book on narcotic and stimulating drugs, calls it a "hallucinating substance." But even over at Harvard, no one had ever seen any one under the influence of marihuana.
 
Chicago Daily Tribune: June 3, 1927 - Pg. 20

BAN ON HASHISH BLOCKED DESPITE RAVAGES OF DRUG -

Bill Passed by House Is Held in Committee.

The peddling of a dangerous, habit forming drug not now specifically forbidden either by state of federal authorities will continue to be legal in Illinois unless the state senate adopts a bill, passed by the house, forbidding its use.

The sale of the drug flourishes in and around Chicago in the form of cigarets known as "muggles" or "loco weed." It is also known by its Mexican name, "marijuana," and as "moota" and grifa." The number of addicts is growing alarmingly, according to the authorities, because of the ease with which it can be obtained. The habit was introduced a dozen years ago or so by Mexican laborers, it is stated, but it has become widespread among American youths and girls, and even among school children.

In an effort to curb the sale of the drug under a state statute making it a misdemeanor to sell cigarets containing material deleterious to health, two alleget sellers of marijuana cigarets will be arraigned this morning before Municipal Judge McCarthy in Town Hall court. The defendants are Harry Johnson, owner of a cigar store at 940 Lawrence avenue, and Richard Drake. 932 Lawrence avenue, who were arrested last night in a raid on the cigar store after a complaint had been received that such cigarets were being sold there.

Drug Grows Freely Here.

"Muggles" is hashish, a drug which has been one of the curses of India and other oriental countries for generations. It is a derivative of Indian hemp, known botanically as Cannabis indica. One of the dangerous factors in efforts to forbid the use of the drug is the fact that Indian hemp is easily grown in this climate.

The seeds, brought by Mexicans and planted in tiny patches near the box car homes of the laborers, brought heavy harvests, and now investigations disclose that fields of it are being grown to satisfy the ever increasing demand.

There being no legal ban such as makers other drugs scarce, "loco weed" is cheap. The rush of its popularity in Chicgo and all over the country since the oncoming of prohibition is partly explained by the price of the cigarets, three for fifty cents, or 25, or at most 30 cents apiece.

Sold in Ordinary Stores.

It is common knowledge that thousands of workingmen smoke the weed in South Chicago, in Blue Island, in Kensington, and other outlying districts, and it can be purchased in restaurants, drug stores, and poolrooms. The rooming house section of south Canal street is another center. The fifth and sixth hundred blocks of South State street have their hangouts and their addicts, or "muggleheads" as they are called. West Madison street and portions of North Clark street have their addicts. Even the loop itself is invaded, with shop girls and waitresses its chief victims, it is said.

The dangers of the drug are said to have little recognition in Chicago even by the police who daily watch its peculiar effect on its victims. The effects of a "muggles" smoke is similar to cocaine. The addict becomes garrulous, with his flight of ideas enormously increased. He has a distinct sense of well being and of merriment, and the earliest manifestations of his "jag" come out usually in expressions of wild extravagance and in silly giggling.

Official Tells Dangers

L.F. Fouche, head of the New Orleans division of federal narcotics at the time that city rounded up thousands of marijuana peddlers and addicts in a campaign that eventually put through a state law against its sale and use, told of the dangers of the drug.

"Young people have taken to smoking these cigarets with avidity," he said, "The effect is astonishingly like that of cocaine."

William d. Allen, United State narcotic agent in charge of the Chicago area, declared last night that the task of convincing Chicagoans of the seriousness of the hold of marijuana on this community seemed hopeless, adding that without federal, state, or city provisions the officers of the law are helpless.

The bill was introduced at Springfield against the sale of marijuana by Attorney Roy Juul of Chicago. It is known as house bill No. 157 and it passed the house. But the bill has been waylaid in the senate committee by, Senator John J. Boehm, a Chicago druggist who declared that the seed of the plant is used as bird seed.

kaempfer Gives View.

Fred W. Kaempfer, of the bird supply concerns bearing his name, said last night that although hemp seed is used as bid seed, that it is not a necessary food, that no variety of birds would suffer if deprived of the diet. "The hemp seed used for bird food does not belong to the hashish variety, as far as I know," he concluded.

Mr. Juul stated last night that he will take no chances of the bill against marijuana being caught in the last minute jam at Springfield this week. In case Mr. Boehm continues his opposition in the senate committee Mr. Juul intimated that he would be to amend this bill so the seed would not be affected. He believes that with the legislature fully awakened to the Chicago situation over this drug even the amendment can be made in ample time for return to the house for concurrence so that the bill will be on Gov. Emmerson's desk before adjournment Friday.

Picture on last page: Caption reads - "GATER HABIT FORMIN DRUG WHILE THE LEGISLATURE DELAYS ACTION. Mexicans gathering "marijuana," which is hasheesh, in the southern part of city. Meantime a bill banning the drug is held p in a state senate committee.
 
Narcotics Commissioner Urges Drastic Action Against Hashish - Christian Science Monitor - Oct 3, 1931

{Only Two States Report Laws to Prevent Spread of Plant - Report of Wickersham Commission Told of Drug's Perils}Special from the Christian Science Monitor Bureau

WASHINGTON, Oct 2-Drastic action must be taken to prevent the spread in the United States of the use of marijuana or hashish, a ten acre patch of which was reported growing within the municipal limits of Philadelphia, according to Mr. Harry J. Anslinger, United States Commissioner of Narcotics.

After a careful study of the situation, Mr. Anslinger finds only two states have taken measures to restrict the use of this drug. Attention was directed to this menace in the report of the Wickersham Commission, in which it warns against this dangerous narcotic which is such a problem in some of the Near Easter countries.

At the recent convention of commissioners on "uniform state laws" Mr. Anslinger advocated a countrywide ban on the drug. "The seriousness of this situation escaped interest at the time the Wickersham report was published," said Mr. Anslinger, "but its importance cannot be overemphasized when it is realized that not only is it possible to purchase marijuana cigarettes at the corner drug store, but there is no legislative restriction against their sale. Instances of criminals using the drug to give them courage before making brutal forays are occurences commonly known to the narcotic bureau."

Given to Guests at Party

A mother of a family recently wrote Mr. Anslinger, declaring that at a party which her daughters had attended, marijuana or hashish cigarettes had been passed out to give the guests a "thrill." Probably in that state and community there was no prohibition on the distribution of this dangerous drug.

"It is reminiscent of the situation in Egypt," Mr. Anslinger continued. "Though hashish has been smoked for generations there, within the past two years the indulgence has gone suddenly to new limits, led on by groups who considered it the 'smart thing to do.'"

Mr. Anslinger deplores the lack of legislation in most of the states, "California and Texas are practically the only states having restrictive legislation against the drug," he says, "and elsewhere the situation is shocking, to say the least. I have several stacks of correspondence from various parts of the country urging that some steps be taken by the Federal Government. Bales of these harmful cigarettes have been sent to me by an agent whom I sent out to purchase them. He was able to buy all he wanted without difficulty at New York drug stores."

Three distinct species of the plant are mentioned by the Narcotic Bureau, all of which may be grown in any state in the Union, but botanist maintain all three to be merely varieties of the same plant Cannabis sativa, or common hemp. When properly used, it has a definite commercial value as is seen in the manufacture of rope. The plant is found wild in the south of the Caspian Sea and in central and southern Russia and is probably indigenous to the lower mountain section of these lands. Since it was first described it has spread to all parts

[ missing part of the article]

Moraceae, with a straight, erect, undivided stalk from 3 to 18 feet in height. If not crowed, ascending leafy branches develop from the nodes.

Laws Urged on Loco Growth

Loco weeds, concerning which there has been much agitation to make their growth a crime, are leguminous plants [unknown word] the genera Astragulus and Lupinus, which seriously affect cattle and sheep. Cattlemen would be glad of any plan to rid the South and West of these pests. Loco weed is quite often ascribed to many things to which it does not belong, merely because persons who under Spanish interpret loco as meaning mad, hence any plant which is harmful in this sense is incorrectly spoken of as a "loco weed."

Recent seizures of marijuana at the seaboard indicate that it is being smuggled into California on fruit boats from South America. It is also grown to some extent in California. A favorite method is to plant it between rows of corn so it is concealed from view. A can of hashish now sells at approximately $1.50 in wholesale lots, each can containing enough marijuana to make about 41 cigarettes, retailing at 25 cents each and showing a large profit in the business.

Marijuana Ban Proposed

At the conference on uniform state laws, the following ban was proposed on marijuana:

"No person shall plant, cultivate, produce, manufacture, possess, have under his control sell, prescribe, administer, dispense or compound cannabis Indica, etc., or any preparation or derivative thereof, or offer the same for sale, administering, dispensing or compounding."

Exceptions proposed to the act which would make it lawful for the drug to be handled from medicinal purposes necessitated postponing action for another year. Mr. Anslinger declared that this exception would provide an unnecessary loophole in the restriction, for practically none of the domestically grown plant is used for pharmaceutical purposes, he asserted.
 
COMPTON'S PICTURED ENCYCLOPEDIA AND FACT-INDEX:

1935

HEMP:

Since very early times the fiber of the hemp plant a native of temperate Asia, has been employed in making coarse cloth and rope, and today its cultivation is an important industry in China, India, and various parts of Europe.

In India and China hemp is cultivated not only for its fiber, but for its flowers and leaves from which is prepared an intoxicating drug, called "Hashish." Russia, Italy, and France are the chief producers of hemp in Europe.

In the United States hemp is a minor crop, and production is usually confined to Wisconsin, Illinois, and Kentucky. In the latter state it was once one of the chief crops (see Kentucky), but it is now little grown. The United States normally imports about half its supply.

Until a few years ago the exceedingly crude and primitive methods of harvesting the crop and preparing the fiber required an enormous amount of labor. Everything was done by hand, as is still the practice in Europe. The crop was cut with hand sickles, spread out on the ground to be "retted" by the weather for several weeks, gathered and bound in shocks by hand, and finally crushed in a heavy wooden hand-brake to separate the fiber from the wood of the stem. "Braking" by hand is an especially tedious and laborious task; 100 pounds of cleaned fiber is a good average day's work for a man.

It is hoped that production in the United States will increase, now that machinery has been invented to make the drudgery of hand labor unnecessary. Hemp crops are now harvested by an ingenious machine which spreads the stalks in even swaths. Another machine gathers and binds them when they have been retted. The crushing is done in power-brakes with fluted rollers, and the fiber is removed in a scutching machine.

Hemp fiber, which comes from the inner bark of the stem, is valuable because of its length, toughness, pliability, and resistance to water. American dewretted fiber, which is retted by soaking in soft water, is soft, lustrous, and almost white.

Hemp is chiefly used for making rope, twine, shoe and harness thread, and the coarse cloth known as gunny-sacking. At one time it was used extensively in the manufacture of sail cloth and sheeting, and some of the finer quality is still made into cloth in China and Japan. Hemp seeds produce an oil which is used in the manufacture of soap and varnishes. They are also used for bird-seed.

The term hemp is also used to designate many kinds of fibers in no way related to the hemp plant--among them manila hemp, sisal hemp, and the Sunn hemp of India. Manila hemp (abaca) comes from a plant of the Philippines which belongs to the banana family. Its fiber is long (6 to 12 feet), strong, and durable. Abaca is used in making ships' cables and other kinds of rope where great strength and flexibility are required, as well as the best grades of binder twine. Sisal and the closely related henequen are used in the twines, and ropes of small diameter. (See Sisal.)

All cultivated true hemp is produced from Cannabis sativa, an annual herb of the mulberry family varying under cultivation from 3 to 16 feet in height and having angular rough stems and alternate deeply lobed leaves. The male and female flowers grow on separate plants, the female plant being taller and more luxuriant and having darker foliage than the male. Manila hemp comes from the musa textilis. (See Rope and Twine.)

COMPTON'S PICTURED ENCYCLOPEDIA AND FACT-INDEX: 1939 HEMP. This plant serves the wise and destroys the foolish. Its fibers make valuable textiles, but its sap yields a dangerous narcotic drug, called "hashish" or "marihuana."

Hemp has been cultivated for thousands of years in its native Asia and was long ago carried to many other regions of the world. For centuries it was one of the most important textile fibers. Rope, coarse cloth, and the sails of ships were made of it. The very name canvas probably comes from the Latin word cannabis for "hemp," though canvas now is usually made of cotton.

The Cavaliers at Jamestown and the Pilgrims at Plymouth early planted hemp and from it wove their homespun clothes. From hemp were woven also the tops of covered wagons that carried pioneers into the West.

Today hemp is little used for rope, because of competition from abaca (manila hemp), which is lighter and more resistant to water. Jute has replaced hemp for making coarse cloth (see Jute). But hemp is still used widely for making strong and durable twines, high-grade belting and webbing, and oakum and other kinds of packing. Oil from the seeds is used in making soaps, paints, and varnishes. The seeds are also fed to birds.

The fibers of hemp come from the inner bark of the woody stalk. Before they can be recovered, the plant must "ret" or rot on the ground after it has been cut. The stalks are then shocked, and finally they are crushed to separate the fiber from the wood of the stem. Crushing in hand brakes is a tedious and laborious task; 100 pounds of cleaned fiber is a good average day's work for a man. All the operations from harvesting to the removal of the fiber can now be performed by machinery, as shown on the opposite page.

The Production of hemp for its fiber is an important industry in China, India, Russia, Italy, Hungary, and Poland. In the United States hemp is a minor crop, and production is confined mainly to Kentucky, Wisconsin, and Illinois. In Kentucky it was once one of the chief crops, but it is now of little economic importance there (see Kentucky). The United States imports the greater part of its supply.

A resinous substance in the leaves, stems, and flowers of certain types of hemp is the source of hashish, which is called "marihuana" in Mexico. This has been used as a drug since ancient times. It has a sinister effect upon habitual users, and many commit crimes while under its influence (see Assassins; Narcotics). The Federal government classifies marihuana as a narcotic drug and cooperates with other nations to regulate its distribution and to prevent its abuse.

The term hemp is also used to designate many kinds of fibers in no way related to the hemp plant--among them manila hemp, sisal hemp, and the Sunn hemp of India. Manila hemp (abaca) comes from a plant of the Philippines which belongs to the banana family. Its fiber is long (6 to 12 feet), strong, and durable. Abaca is used in making ships' cables and other kinds of rope where great strength and flexibility are required, as well as the best grades of binder twine. Sisal and the closely related henequen are used in the twines, and ropes of small diameter. (See Sisal.)

All cultivated true hemp is produced from Cannabis sativa. This is an annual herb of the mulberry family varying under cultivation from 3 to 16 feet in height and having angular rough stems and alternate deeply lobed leaves. Male and female flowers grow on separate plants, the female plant being taller and more luxuriant and having darker foliage than the male. Manila hemp comes from the musa textilis. (See Rope and Twine.)

COMPTON'S PICTURED ENCYCLOPEDIA AND FACT-INDEX: 1947 Narcotics. Few drugs are more valuable to man than the narcotics -- but they are also the cause of much suffering, degradation, and crime. Properly used by physicians, they help to relieve pain or to induce sleep. Large doses are fatal; continued small doses poison the nervous system. The periodic stimulation they give is followed by a deep depression that can be relieved only by every larger amounts. The control of narcotics is a world problem.

Morphine and Heroin: The most widely used of all narcotics are opium and the drugs derived from it. Opium is obtained from the seeds of the sleep poppy, which is grown chiefly in Asia (see Opium). Medicines which contain opium (such as laudanum and paregoric) are still sometimes proscribed by doctors. But opium in its natural sate has now been largely supplanted by the drugs derived from it -- particularly morphine, which is considered indispensable to the practice of medicine. No drug yet discovered equals morphine in relieving pain, and it produces a deep dreamless sleep from which the patient usually awakes refreshed. But it is used sparingly by physicians, since it is quickly habit forming. Codein, which is derived from morphine, is milder and not so effective in relieving pain. It is widely used as a sedative for coughs. Heroin, which is also derived from morphine, is considered the most dangerous of the narcotic poisons. Since it is inferior to morphine for medical use, its manufacture in the United States as well as its importation from abroad are prohibited. Addiction to heroin is the worst form of the drug habit and the most common among criminal classes.

Cocaine, Stimulant and Anesthetic For ages the natives of Peru and Bolivia have chewed the leaves of the coca shrub for their stimulating effect. Coca is produced also in Java and Ceylon, but is not native to hose islands. The drug cocaine, which is obtained from the leaves, was one of the first local anesthetics used by surgeons and dentists, but synthetic drugs have now largely replaced it. Cocaine also is a commonly misused drug. Like morphine and heroin, it causes a deterioration of the nervous system. Its prolonged use brings about tremors, sleeplessness, and emaciation.

Hashish, or Marihuana - The same plant which gives us the useful hemp fiber also furnishes a dangerous narcotic drug (see Hemp). The upper leaves and flower of the plant secrete a gum that has an intoxicating effect. This drug has been used for ages by the natives of Asia and Africa. It is called "hashish" by the Arabs; and our English word "assassin" is derived from the name of a murderous Mohammedan sect which used this drug (see Assassins). In India it is known as "bhang," and in Mexico as "marihuana." Because of its variable effect, it has little or no use in medicine. The hemp plant may be found growing as a roadside weed in nearly every state of the Union, and the illegal marihuana traffic is therefore difficult to control. The criminals who engage in it usually mix the drug-bearing leaves with tobacco and make cigarettes which are sold to addicts at a high price.

The Control of Narcotics: Traffic in opium became a large and lucrative business in the 19th century. In 1909 the United States brought about an international conference on the subject at Shanghai; and this was followed by an Opium Convention at the Hague in 1925, and the Narcotics Limitation Convention in 1931. These limited the manufacture of narcotic drugs to the amounts required for medical purposes and provided that shipments of raw opium, coca leaves, or manufactured derivatives can move from one country to another only with the permission of both the exporting and the importing governments. To control this lawful traffic the League of Nations set up the Permanent Central Opium Board and the Drug Supervisory Body. In the United States the suppression of smuggling in one of the important functions of the Bureau of Customs of the Treasury Department, aided by the Coast Guard. The task of preventing unlawful trade in narcotics within the country is assigned to the Bureau of Narcotics, also of the Treasury Department. It administers the Harrison Narcotic Act (1914), which imposes taxes on narcotics and requires the registration of all dealers; and also the Marihuana Tax Act (1937), which provides punishment for anyone handling marihuana without a license. Each state also has laws to control the traffic.

Other Narcotics Used in Medicine Narcotics which have special uses in medicine but seldom attract addicts include belladonna from the deadly nighshade plant; stramonium, from the thorn apple; and hyoscyamine from the henbane (see Poisonous Plants; Poisons). Narcotics used for the relief of pain are called anodynes; and those which induce sleep are known as hypnotics, or soporifics. The same substance, however, is sometimes used for both purposes. Synthetic drugs used as sedatives are usually called hypnotics rather than narcotics. Some of these are habit-forming; and in large doses they may cause complete unconsciousness (narcosis) and death. Of synthetic hypnotics the most important are the barbiturates, derived from barbituric acid. They include barbital (veronal), phenobarbital (luminal), and other drugs sold under proprietary names. Trom chloral is derived chloral hydrate ("knockout drops"). (See also Anesthetics.)
 
Chicago Tribune July 1, 1928 New Giggle Drug Puts Discord in city Orchestras - (Emit Sour Notes After Smoking Weed.) By Thomas Wren

"Add a jolt of 'muggies'; to the artistic temperament of your journeyman musician and you've got a discord," says James c. Petrillo, president of the Chicago Federation o Musicians. "Muggles" is causing me a lot of trouble; In fact, it's the greatest problem I have just now.

"What is it?" Why mariajuana* (Mary Jane)--the Mexican drug. It's related to Indian hemp or hasheesh the dope so common in India and Persia. Botanically it is called cannabis indica. Chicago addicts to the Mexican form of the drug smoke the dried leaves in the form of cigarette. "You see, I know something about it--had to, to deal with it."

Hundreds of Chicago Addicts.

Petrillo said that there are probably several hundred musicians in Chicago addicted to "Muggles" As he was talking the telephone rang. "Hello!" he shouted into the receiver. And then: "Well, fire them; Fire them on the spot!" "That was the orchestra leader at the ______" he said, naming a large loop theater. "Two of 'em under it. Well, I'll not protect them."

He explained that many of the musicians were obtaining the drug at places in the 500 and 600 block on South State street. They pay 25 and 30 cents for each 'muggles' cigaret**," he said, and one cigaret will produce a tremendous jag, almost a spree.

Investigation disclosed that the use of mariajuana had spread rapidly and become prevalent both in Chicago and over the country in the last few years. Maj. Joseph Manning, in charge of the local federal narcotic division, says there is nothing in the federal or Illinois law against the use of it.

Grown on city Outskirts.

"There are two large fields in which it is grown right on the outskirts of Chicago," he said. "The Mexicans who cultivate it gather it in September and dry it for use. The leaves are about one inch long and one-quarter as wide."

"It is an old drug, but it was generally introduced into the country only a few years ago by the Mexicans. It is like cocaine. In the long run it bends and cripples its victims. A sort of creeping paralysis results from long use. A few states have laws against it. California a stringent one. There should be provision against it in the Harrison anti-narcotic law."

Dr. W. A. Evans, health director of this newspaper, says there is evidence the use of the drug is spreading rapidly. The name "Muggles" comes from Louisiana. There are thousands of the addicts in Louisiana, Dr. Evans said.

Addicts See Visions.

"A person under the influence of the drug," he continued, "acts as one intoxicated. But they are more dangerous. In an old book, Dr. H. C. Wood of the University of Pennsylvania, who experimented with it tells of its effects.

"He says that visions float before the eyes. There is a curious detachment as though the mind were divorced from the body."

Dr. Evans added often there is giggling and laughter present in addicts. This was told to Peterillo.

"That's what the orchestra leaders tell me," he replied. They'll see a fellow sitting in the orchestra giggling and giggling to himself. Then out will come the wild, sour notes. And when he asks the musician about it he simply keeps on giggling."

* spelling is Mariajuana: **spelling is cigaret:
 
DOWN BEAT - March 15, 1944 page 1

"Musicians Used for Weed Medical Test" By FRANK STACY

New York-The scientific world is finally paying some heed to the marijuana problem and attacking it from a musician's viewpoint. According to reliable sources, research doctors attached to government prison-hospitals where drug addicts are confined for cure are currently working on a series of experiments with marijuana, using musicians as guinea pigs. The experiments are designed to find out the effect, if any, the weed has on the quality of a musician's work and the medics and music-makers are locking themselves up in rooms then blowing their top---but scientifically.

Volunteers for the tests are being taken from among inmates, with a musical background. A musical aptitude test is given each subject, both while he is in a normal condition and again while under the influence of marijuana. In this manner the doctors hope to determine some musicians are attracted to the drug; whether it improves the quality of their playing and whether the whole idea is a bad kick.

Exaggerated Influence

It's no secret that many musicians have been offenders against the Marijuana Tax Act. The records show this even though the facts have been over-stated to the point where the public believes all musicians and their friends live in a perpetual narcotic whirl.

Marijuana derives its name from a Mexican slang-word, meaning "Mary Jane." In the United States, the drug is known variously as tea, muggles, weed, dry gauge, reefers and hemp. The dried, crushed leaves of the plant .are smoked heavily in Oriental countries, including India, Africa, Egypt, Syria, Greece and Arabia. (Modulate to Page 3)

In many sections of the United States, the plant is grown commercially for its hemp, used in manufacturing rope, hats and paper. It can be cultivated easily. Due to its rapid spread as a stimulant, the Marijuana Tax Act was passed in 1937 and a curb put on the growing influence of the weed.

Problem Studied

Medical men and sociologists regard the drug as a stimulant having the same physical and mental effects as alcohol. Unlike the pernicious drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, marijuana does not addict its user with an insatiable craving. Case histories of confirmed drug addicts disclose that many found their start with marijuana, which because of its availability and low price is with .in reach of everyone.

Stories and movies about marijuana users have misinterpreted the drug habit. Rather than the drug creating mental cases for the psychotic ward, the people who use marijuana are already emotionally unstable and turn to the drug as a refuge from life's problems. The basic problem with inveterate users involves a mental rehabilitation of the shattered mind drawn to drugs.
 
HUGS' DOPE DEN FOUND, - NEW ORGY FEARED DRUG-CRAZED GUNMEN, CAR TRACED TO S.F. UNDERWORLD

Mexican Narcotic, Marihuana Inciting With Lust to Slay, Blamed for Death Cruise

Stolen McGinnis Car Found in City Not Auto Seen at San Rafael, Assert the Police

SF Examiner, 1926

Police cars, filled with picked men, patrolled the streets of San Francisco last night, waiting for a sudden outburst of firing which Would herald the return of the drug crazed bandits who have shot their way through the thoroughfares on alternate nights since midnight of Saturday. Police officials, patrolmen and detectives alike were convinced that the drug-crazed bandits---after a day of rest---would return to their murderous work last night or else disappear.

SOURCE IS TRACED.

Marihuana - a crazing Mexican narcotic - was definitely established yesterday as the inhibiting cause of the blood lust under the spell of which the two young bandits worked. Their source of supply---if not their headquarters---has been traced by the police to a resort in Marrison street, long under suspicion.

TWO DISAPPEAR.

Men answering the description of he killers have been seen frequenting this place within the past few days. The taxicab of Walter Swanson, slain driver, in which the bandits started their series of murders on Monday night, was seen in front of this place a few minutes before he was killed and robbed of his cab and uniform. Two men answering the description of the bandits have recently occupied a furnished room in this neighborhood, but have now disappeared. Veteran highwayman, desperate criminals and strangers in San (Continued on Page 11, Column 5)

Francisco, according to the police theory, the two bandits are believed to have been introduced to the Mexican drug by underworld associates and to have gone berserk under Its influence. Although quite commonly used by a certain class of Mexicans, marihuana is said to have the effect of exciting a blood craving in the case of new addicts. It was in front of this sinister resort that the taxicab of Walter Swanson was recognized by a friend at 5:40 o'clock on Monday evening. There was a man in the rear seat of the cab,, according to this witness, and the blinds were pulled down so as to conceal his features.

TRACE BEGINNING.

This hidden figure is the cab was joined after a moment by another man who emerged from the resort and entered the cab, with a brief word of instruction to Swanson, who drove away. Within twenty minutes after that, Swanson had been murdered on the Sixteenth street viaduct and the murder cruised had begun. This much of the beginning of the tragic night has been reconstructed by Lieutenant George McLaughlin of-the robbery detail. The Yellow-Checker Taxicab Company has been able to throw little light upon Swanson's movements just before he was killed. His last recorded trip was to 7 Twenty-seventh street, where he received $1.70 for taking two persons. There was a later call on which he was sent to 2665 Franklin street, the address of an elderly couple, who deny that they called a cab or that Swanson ever arrived there. The police have a theory that one of the bandits gave this address over the telephone and flagged the cab outside the house to drive to the marihunana rendezvous. The meter shows a trip calling for a fare of $3.85, which is unaccounted for.

"CLUES" FAIL.

Police yesterday found in taxicab a pawn ticket and a bank book, which were at first believed to have been left there by the bandits and perhaps have hive been the reason for the return of the bandits to the spot where they bad murdered Swanson. The paawn ticket was found later to be for Swanson's watch, which he had pawned for $5 with the Remedial Loan Association on March 29. The bankbook was found to be the record of a closed account in the name of Joseph Noiel, a negro seventy years of age, formerly living at 489 Buena Vista avenue, who is said to have spent much money riding about in taxicabs. Neither of these documents is believed by the police to have any bearing upon the bandits or upon their night of murder and robbery.

ANOTHER MISTAKE.

Another clue to the movements of the bandits is believed to have been exploded yesterday, when Corporal Charles Mangeto and Patrolman J. Kenny discovered the stolen sedan car of F.S. McGinnis, passenger traffic manager of the southern Pacific Railway at Fifteenth and Utah streets. This car, in which the bandits were thought to have fled after they had wrecked Swanson's cab, was reported on Tuesday as passing through Petaluma at a high rate of speed. Captain, of Detective's Duncan Matheson stated yesterday that it. would have been impossible for this car to re-enter the city from Sonoma county without observation by police officers it the ferries. He was of the opinion that a mistake had been made in its identification at Petaluma. The speedometer on the McGinnis car shows that it had been drien about 200 miles after it was reported stolen, Oakland Levy, negro chauffeur for the railway official, has been ordered to report at police headquarters for questioning.

SUSPECTS FREED.

The general round-up of suspicious characters ordered by Chief of Police Daniel J. O'Brien on Tuesday has bailed to produce the bandits or any one resembling them. Police Judge Sylvain Lazarus yesterday ordered the discharge of 165 men brought in by the police as suspects. Among these were Thomas Carlisie and Clytas Smith, two Livermore youths arrested there and sent to San Francisco for investigation. Police officials admitted yesterday that they were without clues to follow in tracing the bandits and would be compelled to wail for a new outbreak in the hope of apprehending them red-handed. To this end, armed officers in swift cars were held though the night at headquarters and all police stations and also stationed at strategic points throughout the city. These were ready to dash at any moment to any quarters where suspicious men were seen or holdups committed. Every indication, according to the police, points to the bandits being new arrivals in the city. Habitues of the underworld, ordinarily familiar with such characters, so describe, them, and no one has been found who is able to give any hint as to their identity. San Francisco Examiner Oct 14, 1926 Page 1
 
On the subject of Sex fiends -

It should be determined, for instance, to what extent the recently widespread use of marijuana, or American hashish, has been responsible for the sex crime. The history of every offender should be delved into deeply and reports made upon this angle.

It is only in late years that marijuana has swept across the country and, indeed, much less would be known about it today had not the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, working under its Commissioner, H. H.J Anslinger, been quick to recognize its dangers, to obtain scientific opinions regarding its effects upon the human system, and work for Federal legislation looking toward its control. A bill giving the Federal Narcotics Bureau real power in marijuana suppression has recently passed Congress. Thus a tremendous force, may now be exerted toward the eradication of a drug which violently affects the sex impulses.

By J. Edgar Hoover (Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations) "The Indianapolis Sunday Star-This Week Magazine Section" - "War On The Sex Criminal," Sep. 26, 1937
 
Re: Study: Marijuana increases psychosis risk = BS

XtortioN said:
Wait, what?
Click to expand...


10 Facts About Marijuana
January 16, 2014 By The General Leave a Comment
Medical_Cannabis_in_Jar1

Marijuana is a plant containing a psychoactive chemical, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), in its leaves, buds and flowers. Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug, with forty-two percent of American adults reporting that they have used it. Despite the fact that marijuana's effects are less harmful than those of most other drugs, including alcohol and tobacco, it is the most common drug that people are arrested for possessing. U.S. marijuana policy is unique among American criminal laws in being enforced so widely and harshly, yet deemed unnecessary by such a substantial portion of the population.

Fact #1: Most marijuana users never use any other illicit drug.
Marijuana does not cause people to use hard drugs. Marijuana is the most popular illegal drug in the United States today. Therefore, people who have used less popular drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and LSD, are likely to have also used marijuana. Most marijuana users never use any other illegal drug and the vast majority of those who do try another drug never become addicted or go on to have associated problems. Indeed, for the large majority of people, marijuana is a terminus rather than a so-called gateway drug.

Fact #2: Most people who use marijuana do so occasionally. Increasing admissions for treatment do not reflect increasing rates of clinical dependence.
According to a federal Institute of Medicine study in 1999, fewer than 10 percent of those who try marijuana ever meet the clinical criteria for dependence, while 32 percent of tobacco users and 15 percent of alcohol users do. According to federal data, marijuana treatment admissions referred by the criminal justice system rose from 48 percent in 1992 to 58 percent in 2006. Just 45 percent of marijuana admissions met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders criteria for marijuana dependence. More than a third hadn't used marijuana in the 30 days prior to admission for treatment.

Fact #3: Claims about increases in marijuana potency are vastly overstated. In addition, potency is not related to risk of dependence or health impacts.
Although marijuana potency may have increased somewhat in recent decades, claims about enormous increases in potency are vastly overstated and not supported by evidence. Nonetheless, potency is not related to risks of dependence or health impacts. According to the federal government's own data, the average THC in domestically grown marijuana — which comprises the bulk of the US market — is less than 5 percent, a figure that has remained unchanged for nearly a decade. In the 1980s, by comparison, the THC content averaged around 3 percent. Regardless of potency, THC is virtually non-toxic to healthy cells or organs, and is incapable of causing a fatal overdose. Currently, doctors may legally prescribe Marinol, an FDA-approved pill that contains 100 percent THC. The Food and Drug Administration found THC to be safe and effective for the treatment of nausea, vomiting, and wasting diseases. When consumers encounter unusually strong varieties of marijuana, they adjust their use accordingly and smoke less.

Fact #4: Marijuana has not been shown to cause mental illness.
Some effects of marijuana ingestion may include feelings of panic, anxiety, and paranoia. Such experiences can be frightening, but the effects are temporary. That said, none of this is to suggest that there may not be some correlation (but not causation) between marijuana use and certain psychiatric ailments. Marijuana use can correlate with mental illness for many reasons. People often turn to the alleviating effects of marijuana to treat symptoms of distress. One study demonstrated that psychotic symptoms predict later use of marijuana, suggesting that people might turn to the plant for help rather than become ill after use.

Fact #5: Marijuana use has not been shown to increase risk of cancer.
Several longitudinal studies have established that even long-term use of marijuana (via smoking) in humans is not associated with elevated cancer risk, including tobacco-related cancers or with cancer of the following sites: colorectal, lung, melanoma, prostate, breast, cervix. A more recent (2009) population-based case-control study found that moderate marijuana smoking over a 20 year period was associated with reduced risk of head and neck cancer (See Liang et al). And a 5-year-long population-based case control study found even long-term heavy marijuana smoking was not associated with lung cancer or UAT (upper aerodigestive tract) cancers.

Fact #6: Marijuana has been proven helpful for treating the symptoms of a variety of medical conditions.
Marijuana has been shown to be effective in reducing the nausea induced by cancer chemotherapy, stimulating appetite in AIDS patients, and reducing intraocular pressure in people with glaucoma. There is also appreciable evidence that marijuana reduces muscle spasticity in patients with neurological disorders. A synthetic capsule is available by prescription, but it is not as effective as smoked marijuana for many patients. Learn more about medical marijuana.

Fact #7: Marijuana use rates in the Netherlands are similar to those in the U.S. despite very different policies.
The Netherlands' drug policy is one of the most non punitive in Europe. For more than twenty years, Dutch citizens over age eighteen have been permitted to buy and use cannabis (marijuana and hashish) in government-regulated coffee shops. This policy has not resulted in dramatically escalating marijuana use. For most age groups, rates of marijuana use in the Netherlands are similar to those in the United States. However, for young adolescents, rates of marijuana use are lower in the Netherlands than in the United States. The Dutch government occasionally revises existing marijuana policy, but it remains committed to decriminalization.

Fact #8: Marijuana has not been shown to cause long-term cognitive impairment.
The short-term effects of marijuana include immediate, temporary changes in thoughts, perceptions, and information processing. The cognitive process most clearly affected by marijuana is short-term memory. In laboratory studies, subjects under the influence of marijuana have no trouble remembering things they learned previously. However, they display diminished capacity to learn and recall new information. This diminishment only lasts for the duration of the intoxication. There is no convincing evidence that heavy long-term marijuana use permanently impairs memory or other cognitive functions.

Fact #9: There is no compelling evidence that marijuana contributes substantially to traffic accidents and fatalities.
At some doses, marijuana affects perception and psychomotor performance — changes which could impair driving ability. However, in driving studies, marijuana produces little or no car-handling impairment — consistently less than produced by low to moderate doses of alcohol and many legal medications. In contrast to alcohol, which tends to increase risky driving practices, marijuana tends to make subjects more cautious. Surveys of fatally injured drivers show that when THC is detected in the blood, alcohol is almost always detected as well. For some individuals, marijuana may play a role in bad driving. The overall rate of highway accidents appears not to be significantly affected by marijuana's widespread use in society.

Fact #10: Roughly three quarters of a million people are arrested for marijuana each year, the vast majority of them for simple possession.
Police carried out 749,825 arrests of people for marijuana violations in 2012, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual Uniform Crime Report. Marijuana arrests comprise nearly one-half (approximately 48 percent) of all drug arrests reported in the United States. Approximately 42 percent of all drug arrests nationwide are for marijuana possession. Of all the arrests made for marijuana violations in 2012, approximately 88 percent (658,231) were for possession only. The remaining 91,593 arrests were for charges of "sale/manufacture," a category that includes virtually all cultivation offenses.
 
Bad propaganda on MJ has been going around for years....its BS and everyone (most everyone) knows its BS, the G knows its BS also and we know why they keep it a schedule 1. They are running out of excuses...so 'confusion' to the masses still works.
 

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