---------------HISTORY OF MARIJUANA-------------------
	
	* Although some believe that marijuana was known 
to Native Americans before Colombus, cannabis was
 probably introduced to the Americas by the Spaniards, 
who brought cannabis seeds to Chile around 1545. 

	* In North America, the plant was first grown in 
virginia in 1611 and Massachusettes in the 1630's. 

 	* It was even considered legal tender (money) 
from 1631 thru the beginning of the 19th century because it 
was so important to the economy and had so many uses! 

	* A large-scale U.S. hemp industry had begun by 1776
 in Kentucky 

	* By 1860, it was almost as important as the South's 
cotton industry. 

 	* By 1890, domestic hemp production went into decline 
since labor saving machines gave the cotton industry a boost, while 
hemp harvesting still required a great deal of manual labor. 

	* The use of weed to get high was 1st noted during 
the late 19th and early 20th centuries (1875-1925). 

 	* Mexican and Caribbean immigrant laborers introduced 
the practice of smoking marijuana to the southern and southwestern 
parts of the country; meanwhile hashish smoking became popular 
among select groups in eastern cities (New York, Chicago) after 
Turkish merchants introduced it at international expositions.

	* By the 1880's, the Police Gazette estimated that there were 
more than 500 hashish parlors operating in New York City alone! 

 	* In the beginning of the 20th century (1900's), public concern
 grew around the issue of marijuana smoking, due to FALSE tales 
of its supposed dangers. 

	* Magazines/newspapers printed headlines about the
 "marijuana menace" with stories that attributed bloody, gory murders
 to the use of "killer weed." 

	* The stories were greatly exaggerated; inspired mainly by 
RACIST SENTIMENT toward blacks and mexicans, who commonly
 used the drug. 

	* As economic pressures from the depression grew, so 
did the American publics' resentment toward immigrant groups
(who were blamed for the nations money/depression problem) 

	* By prohibiting marijuana use (a major part of immigrant
 culture), the government had an easy way to justify harassment 
of newcomers. 

 	* Between 1914 and 1931, 29 states (mostly those 
with high immigrant populations) passed laws that made it a 
criminal offense to possess or use marijuana. 

	 * From 1916 thru 1929, the army conducted an investigation 
into the effects of marijuana since a large number of U.S. soldiers 
stationed in the area formerly known as the Panama Canal Zone 
were reported to be smoking marijuana regularly. The results of the 
investigation: Moderate use of marijuana was neither habit forming 
nor dangerous! 

 	* The marijuana "problem" remained a state and local issue through
 most of the 1930's (since alcohol prohibition/narcotics abuse 
took up national attention). 

	* By 1937, ALL STATES (except for 2) enacted their own
 anti-marijuana laws. 

	* Law enforcement agencies, politicians, and Harry J. Aslinger 
(director of the newly formed Federal Bureau of Narcotics) were
 pushing for marijuana legislation. 

	* So, in 1937, the Treasury Dept. drew up the Marijuana Tax 
act, which required all manufacturers, importers, wholesale dealers, 
pharmacists, and medical practitioners handling weed to pay a 
variety of occupational and transactional taxes ($1) for dealing with 
marijuana. 

 	* The tax act effectively outlawed marijuana for recreational 
(fun) use by requiring written forms for all transactions and by establishing 
a large tax ($100) on the transfer of marijuana to unregistered persons. 

	* The American Medical Association (A.M.A.) and various 
representatives of the hemp/pharmaceutical industries petitioned 
unsuccessfully AGAINST the bill's passage. They could see that 
cannabis was being outlawed less for its harmful effects 
(which had still not been proven), than for an excuse,to harass the
 immigrant and minority groups who commonly smoked it. 

	* In September of 1937, the act was quietly passed by 
Congress with little substantive debate. 

	* The Tax Act hastened marijuana's disappearance as 
an ingredient in patent medicines, and it was dropped from the 
United States Pharmacopeia (book providing an extensive list 
of medicines) in 1941                                   

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IN OTHER WORDS......
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 After the ban of alcohol was reversed, the government needed
 a scapegoat so they wouldn't appear incompetent. See, in actuality, 
they couldn't stop the flow of alcohol coming into the country 
(too many rich businessmen liked alcohol!), so they decided to
 re-legalize it. Marijuana was mainly used by Mexicans and
 Blacks, so the government set out to ban weed. They said 
that weed was the cause of the unruly and uncivilized nature of 
minorities. So in 1937, the Marijuana Tax Act was the 
culmination of a campaign organized by the Federal Bureau 
of Narcotics (under Harry Anslinger). The public was led to 
believe that marijuana was addictive and that its use led 
to violent crimes, psychosis, and mental deterioration. Under 
the Marijuana Tax Act, weed was still legal, but anyone using the 
hemp plant for certain defined industrial or medical purposes 
was required to register and pay a tax of a dollar per ounce. 
Anyone caught using weed for any other purpose had to pay a 
tax of $100 per ounce! If you didn't go along with it, you were 
subject to large fines or prison for TAX EVASION. This tax was 
to stop the use of marijuana for fun instead of medicine. By 
having a law that required registry to purchase marijuana, medical 
users could buy it fairly cheap, and recreational users had to pay
the $100 (pretty expensive in those days). As if that wasn't 
enough, the registry forms were very long so as to discourage 
doctors from filling them out.