Marijuana

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inol), the principal psychoactive substances in marijuana, and nabilone (Cesamet), a synthetic cannabinoid, have been approved for that purpose.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the psychoactive effects of marijuana were well known, but its use as a psychotropic agent was fairly limited in the United States until the 1920s. Interest in marijuana as a mood-altering substance suddenly grew when the Eighteenth Amendment put an end to legal drinking. By the time Prohibition was repealed in 1933 and liquor once again became readily available, it was too late to stop the spread of the drug.
Public reaction led to efforts to restrict marijuana’s accessibility. And it had become illegal in forty-six states by 1937. Penalties for its use were similar to those for morphine, heroin, and cocaine. The attitude toward marijuana was so negative that it was incorrectly classified as a drug. Much of the public’s thinking changed, however, as marijuana began to seem—especially by the young—as a fairly harmless substance whose bad effects had been greatly exaggerated. But that thinking never permeated law enforcement agencies, which continued to consider marijuana as dangerous as other illicit substances. In the most recent turnabout, the appearance of much more potent marijuana has caused many who had been unconcerned about its use to reconsider.
The facts on marijuana are that marijuana is a green, brown, or gray mixture of dried, shredded leaves, stems, seeds, and flowers of the hemp plant. Marijuana is usually smoked as a cigarette (called a joint) or in a pipe or a bong. Recently, it has appeared in cigars called blunts. Marijuana contains more than 400 chemicals, including most found in tobacco smoke. Smoking one marijuana cigarette deposits four times more tar into the lungs than a filtered tobacco cigarette. There are many different slang terms for marijuana such as Mary Jane, reefer, pot, weed, or grass. Marijuana is usually...