Marijuana is a natural substance, which has been grown for thousands of years for a variety of purposes. Only in the past hundred years or so has it become illegal to grow in the United States. People have smoked it for many different reasons, most however smoke it for the state of euphoria that the drug puts the user in. Many people argue that marijuana should stay illegal, but most of their arguments are based on faulty research and facts. Marijuana needs to be legal. .
When marijuana was first outlawed it was not because of the harmful effects. The effects of marijuana were not known until recently. Marijuana originally became illegal because of the paper industry. Nearly 90% of the world's paper before 1883 was made entirely from hemp based fiber. In the early 1930's the U.S. department of agriculture wanted to make all of its paper from hemp based fiber. However the project was put on hold until someone could find a cheaper and more effective way of separating the hemp fiber from the pulp. During this time Dupont Chemicals and Hearst Paper and Timber and a number of other large companies developed a way to make paper out of trees. In 1936 shortly after tree paper manufacturing had started a machine was developed that could separate the hemp from the pulp. To make sure that their companies didn't go under with the new competition, the companies put up huge sums of money to make marijuana and hemp illegal. The companies put up advertisements that portrayed marijuana in a very bad light. For example one ad read "Killer weed with roots in hell" as well as other similar ads. .
The fiber when combined with the pulp and stalk of the marijuana plant can be used to make paper. If one acre of marijuana is grown to make paper it can create the same amount of paper as four acres of tress. It seems ludicrous that we continue to cut down trees when there is a more productive way to save our environment.