Millions of people are diagnosed with AIDS or cancer every year. Although there is no cure, doctors have discovered that marijuana is one step in the right direction. Marijuana is also used for many other purposes. To the AIDS or cancer patient, it is the plant that fights nausea and appetite loss. To the paper or cloth manufacturer, it is the plant that provided much of our paper and clothing for hundreds of years and produces four times more fiber per acre than trees. To the environmentalist, it is the plant that could slow deforestation, restore robbed nutrients by other crops, and help prevent erosion. Marijuana should be legalized in the United States. In technical terms, hemp, cannabis, or marijuana. Marijuana is a plant that could save the world. I hope to inform people of the potential uses of this remarkable plant. .
As of today the nation stands behind three basic ideas of what to do with marijuana; legalize marijuana, make it legal only as a prescription drug, or keep it as it is, illegal. Marijuana has never directly caused anyone's death. Before deciding whether marijuana should be legal or illegal, one needs to know some basic facts. Most botanists agree that there are three species of marijuana; Cannabis sativa, the most widespread of the three, is tall, gangly, and loosely branched, growing as high as twenty feet; Cannabis indica is shorter, about three or four feet in height, pyramidal in shape and dense; .
Cannabis ruderalis is about two feet high with few or no branches. Marijuana is illegal today because of the Marijuana Stamp Tax Act passed in 1937. This act prohibited the use, sale, and growing of marijuana. It was made illegal because no one understood why smoking marijuana made people feel the way they did, and because it was associated with Indians. Marijuana is illegal because research has shown some intoxicating effects. Such as hallucination, anxiety, depression, extreme change of mood and paranoia lasting up to six hours.