ed the hemp plant, but its use for intoxication wasn’t noticed in the U.S. until the 1900’s. When the Jazz Era was in full swing in the 1920’s, marijuana was very common. New Orleans was a large port for marijuana traffic, and the city’s population had a high percentage of marijuana users. After the Marijuana Tax Act was passed in 1937, marijuana was legal only to those who paid a tax for its medical use or industrial use. Finally in 1956, The Boggs Act was passed, setting mandatory sentences for possession or distribution of marijuana. This made marijuana an illegal narcotic in the United States (BUSTED America’s War On Marijuana). Even though marijuana was illegal, its use continued in the United States. Ernest L. Abel, author of the book Marihuana states, “In 1972, the National Commission on Marihuana estimated that about twenty-four million Americans over the age of eleven had tried marijuana, at least eight million were still using it, and about half a million were using it every day” (Abel, 259). Thought to have just been a fad, the use of marijuana still is strong. On November 27, 2001 a National Household Survey stated, “34 percent of all Americans 12 and older have tried Marijuana today” (Marijuana Remains European Illicit Drug of Choice). Since marijuana was made an illegal narcotic, there have been many arguments over its illegal status. Why is such a commonly used drug such a problem to most people? Well, the answer may be that not everyone fully understands what happens to a person when he or she is intoxicated from marijuana. Ignorance about marijuana is a problem for most people today, and it was a bigger problem for those who were against marijuana in the early 1930’s. In 1930, the lack of scientific knowledge concerning marijuana led the National Bureau of Narcotics to produce claims stating, “The weed itself looks and smells not unlike ca...
