History of Marijuana By San Diego Medical Marijuana Copyright 2009 Promotions Unlimited http://www.websitetrafficbuilders.com. All rights reserved. Marijuana dates back to the early history of mankind and has been used to serve various purposes in many different cultures. Cannabis was first described for its therapeutic use in the first known Chinese pharmacopoeia, the Pen Ts'ao. More recently, marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug in the United States and tends to be the first illegal drug teens use. The marijuana plant is actually a very common and easy plant to harvest. Marijuana is the dried, shredded flowers and buds of the hemp plant, cannabis saliva. Hemp, a crop grown for durable fiber and nutritious seed, and marijuana, the most abundant illegal drug of abuse in the United States, both belong to the species Cannabis sativa. By the 1850s, hemp had become the third largest agricultural crop grown in North America. For the first 162 years of America's existence, marijuana was totally legal and hemp was a common crop. Marijuana has been cultivated for thousands of years. Marijuana has been used since ancient times to deliver a euphoric feeling to the user. Marijuana has been undisputedly documented over the centuries as not only a recreational drug, but also as a powerful medicine. The physical and psychological effects of marijuana use include relaxation, euphoria, increased appetite, altered perception, impaired coordination, paranoia and an increase in heart rate. Because of the more negative side effects of marijuana, The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 made possession or transfer of cannabis illegal throughout the United States under federal law, excluding medical and industrial uses, for which an expensive excise tax was required. Almost 40 years later, studied have shown that marijuana is often considered "safe," and is also considered a "gateway drug" because of the perception by many of its users that it is mostly harmless compared to cigarettes and alcohol. Currently, marijuana is now legal for medical use in the state of California and seven other states in the USA. Always check with your local physician to see if use of cannabis would be a practical treatment for your condition. Our San Diego medical marijuana dispensaries site provides full, unrestricted access to search for medical marijuana information in San Diego, Los Angeles and Orange County.
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