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According to Ernest Abel, a historian who composed Marijuana – The First Twelve Thousand Years, which is a historic article of the ancient known use of marijuana, stated that archaeologists recorded the earliest known use of cannabis in 10,000 B.C.(Drug Library). Archaeologists have inspected that the people of the prehistoric used the cannabis plant as a fiber for clothes; hemp.
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The first recorded medical use of marijuana was in China by Emperor Shen Neng. According to a Times article in 2009 about the brief history of medical marijuana, “Emperor Shen Neng prescribed marijuana tea for the treatment of gout, chronic back disorders, malaria, and to amend impoverished memory” (Times).
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1830 was a significant year in the finding of medical marijuana in the western civilization because of William Brooke O'Shaughnessy. According to a research article about the studies of O'Shaughnessy on Hemp News, O'Shaughnessy was a medical doctor who he first observed usage in India and applied his observations to using the plant on patients who suffered from rheumatism, which is an inevitably chronic back pain (Hemp News).
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In 1850, cannabis was beginning to lose its image as a medicine and was starting to be viewed as an intoxicant and was looked down upon. Ronald Fraser, the writer of Americans Want Medical Marijuana, states that the decline interest in marijuana was “mainly because other pharmaceutical drugs came into the market such as aspirin, morphine, and opium” (Fraser).
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During this time period, Queen Victoria was said to have used marijuana as a treatment for
premenstrual stress. According Dr. Phil Leveque's article on premenstrual syndrome, “the Queen's personal physician, Sir Russell Reynolds, prescribed cannabis for the queen's menstrual cramps” (Salem News). -
In 1937, marijuana was made federally illegal and laws prohibited possession, cultivation, and transportation of any type of cannabis without a stamp which was payed by taxes (Colarado Medical).
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In 1973, a psychiatrist who was all for the legalization of the use of marijuana for medical purposes was Tod H. Mikuriya. He conducted and approved marijuana for medical purposes for at least 9,000 patients and wanted to alleviate physical and emotional pain that they have been inhibited with (Mikuriya). He revived the studies of medical marijuana and people began to look deeper into the subject.
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In 1996, Proposition 215 in California states that medical marijuana is decriminalized. Under this proposition, it protects seriously and terminally ill patients from criminal penalties from using medical marijuana (Drug Policy). To be protected under Proposition 215, one must have written documentation of their medical need of marijuana if one gets in trouble with the authorities.
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In 2003, a compromise which created guidelines for patients and the law enforcement which regards to how much marijuana patients may possess and cultivate without being arrested under the penalty of law in California. A patient is allowed 6 mature or 12 immature plants and restricted to only ½ a pound of marijuana (Conrad).
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The latest event which is significant to the legalization of the use of medical marijuana in states that look down upon it is the approval of medical marijuana in the state of New Jersey. They approved medical marijuana only for medical purposes for patients with chronic illnesses (New York Times). It allows patients with AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, muscle spasms, chronic pain, and multiple sclerosis to have access to medical marijuana to treat their pain.
