Marijuana Is a Common Name

Marijuana is a common name for the cannabis sativa plant. The plant has been cultivated and used throughout human history and in numerous regions of the globe. Marijuana and its inert counterpart hemp were both legally cultivated in the United States until fairly recently. Doctors in the United States prescribed marijuana and hemp seeds until the late 19th century (Stack 2002). Hemp was used widely for its strong fibers, especially useful in the manufacturing of rope. Its use as a recreational drug was not common in the United States until the early 20th century.

The prohibition against marijuana began on a state-by-state basis. Utah outlawed marijuana first, in 1915. By 1937, the number of states that outlawed marijuana cultivation and use jumped to 37. Also in 1937, the United States passed a federal law banning the non-medicinal use of marijuana. The Boggs Act and the Narcotics Control Act, passed in the 1950s, intensified the criminal penalties associated with the cultivation, distribution, and possession of marijuana. Its status as a criminal substance did not make marijuana disappear. In fact, marijuana use became increasingly popular and is now estimated to be the number one cash crop in the United States ("Marijuana is America's Number One Cash Crop, Study Finds").

The history behind marijuana prohibition is closely linked with the drug's status as a counterculture symbol. Mexican immigrants introduced recreational marijuana use into the United States after the Mexican Revolution. The drug also became popular among artists and musicians, especially African-American ones. Marijuana became associated with counterculture, bohemian lifestyles, and non-white ethnic groups. Anti-marijuana activism during the early twentieth century is at least in part due to the way the drug represented social deviance, or distance from the mainstream values of the dominant culture. Anti-drug government officials claimed that marijuana use led to violence even though no evidence substantiated that point (Abel 1980).

Marijuana played a major role in the counterculture of the 1960s. The hippie movement remains inseparable from marijuana use. Numerous bands sang about the drug and the experience of being high. Hippies championed peaceful protest against the war in Vietnam, which solidified the view that marijuana represented anti-American values. Marijuana became accused of being a "gateway" drug that led to the use of harder and more dangerous substances. The Rastafarian movement in Jamaica also re-introduced the role of marijuana as an aid to spiritual growth. Marijuana has been and still is considered to be a spiritual drug in India, which also fueled hippie interest in the drug. The Beatles and other famous rock bands championed its use, and marijuana became mainstream even if still illegal.

The war on drugs that began in the early 20th century escalated. Presidents Nixon and especially Reagan demonized marijuana and during the 1980s penalties for pot possession, cultivation, and distribution became severe. American prisons have been long filled with non-violent drug offenders, and marijuana is the most widely used illict substance in the United States.