Psy/210 Research

Research Paper

Research Paper

Thomas D. Coombs

University of Phoenix

COM/220

Tink Harris

9/30/2012

(Week 9)

Marijuana has been around for as long as anyone can remember. It has been used to settle disputes between rivaling tribesman, it has been used as a communal bonding experience, and it has been used as a medicinal herb to ease the ill and suffering. The United States of America was declared independent in 1776, and marijuana was legal until the middle of the 1930s. The United States Government helped make marijuana illegal so it could profit on other natural resources, and every year spend a gross amount of money keeping it out of the hands of United States citizens as well as trying to make sure it stays illegal. Citizens obtain marijuana even if it is illegal; it is a hundred billion dollar industry. Every year more people are trying this illicit substance, at a younger age, and somehow finding a way around the prohibition the United States government has put on the substance. In the following you will be provided an objective view on the legalization of marijuana, and prove that the legalization of marijuana in The United States will significantly improve the state of our countries economy, and the everyday life of its citizens.

The earliest known marijuana in ‘the new world’ was Jamestown in 1611, and was planted and harvested for the fiber properties of hemp (marijuana stock) it was one of the biggest ‘cash crops’ in the early days of ‘the new world it ranked right up there with the tobacco crop, and the cotton crop for an elongated period of time in the short life of The United States of America. The state of Virginia even awarded bounties for farmers who grew the crop, as well as penalized those who did not. It was even reported that one of our ‘fore-fathers’ grew marijuana for its fiber purposes as well as its intoxicating tendencies, his name was George Washington (Brecher, 1972).

The...