Encarta Encyclopedia Tells Us About Marijuana
Cannabis, genus containing a coarse, tall, hairy annual herb that provides fiber from its stems, oil from its seeds, and drugs from its leaves and flowers.
The only species of Cannabis, also called hemp or India hemp, is a native of Central Asia but is widely cultivated and found as a weed throughout North America.
The plant grows up to 1.8 m (6 ft) tall, with coarsely-toothed, palmately divided leaves and inconspicuous clusters of flowers.
Depending on the product desired, the methods and areas of production vary. Hemp is grown mainly in temperate regions.
Seeds yield a drying oil used in the manufacture of varnish, paints, and soap.
The seeds are also used as bird feed.
The fibers have a variety of uses in textiles and in rope. The drugs bhang, hashish, and marijuana contain as their principal component narcotic resins found mostly in the glandular hairs of the plants. These resins are most abundant under hot, tropical conditions.
In the United States, cannabis may be grown only under government permit.
Scientific classification:
The genus Cannabis belongs to the family Moraceae.
Hemp is classified as Cannabis sativa.
Marijuana is a mixture of leaves, stems, and flowering tops of the Indian hemp plant Cannabis sativa.
It is smoked or eaten for its hallucinogenic and pleasure-giving effects.
The psycho active ingredient of marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is concentrated in the flowering tops.
Hashish, a drug prepared from the plant resin, has about eight times more THC than marijuana.
Marijuana grows throughout temperate regions, with the more potent varieties produced in dry, hot, upland climates.
Except for limited medical purposes, cultivating marijuana is illegal in all but a few countries.
In the United States, possession and use of marijuana was legal only in the state of Alaska from 1975 until 1990, when voters approved a ballot measure that again made it illegal.
Known in Central Asia and China as early as 3000 BC, marijuana was used as a folk medicine.
From about 1900 it was used as a pleasure-inducing drug and by the 1960s and 1970s its use was widespread.
It became, after alcohol, the second most popular drug.
Although marijuana has not been proven physically addicting and no physical withdrawal symptoms occur when use is discontinued, psychological dependence can develop with long-term use.
Many users describe two phases of marijuana intoxication:
initial stimulation, which includes giddiness and euphoria, followed by sedation and pleasant tranquility.
Mood changes are often accompanied by altered perceptions of time, space, and one’s bodily dimensions.
Thinking processes become disrupted by fragmentary ideas and memories. Many users report increased appetite, heightened sensory awareness, and feelings of pleasure. Negative effects can include confusion, acute panic reactions, anxiety attacks, fear, a sense of helplessness, and loss of self-control.
Chronic marijuana users may develop an amotivational syndrome characterized by passivity, decreased motivation, and preoccupation with taking drugs.
The relationship of this syndrome to marijuana use, however, has not been established. Like alcohol intoxication, marijuana intoxication impairs judgment, comprehension, memory, speech, problem-solving ability, and reaction time.
The effects of long-term use on the intellect are unknown. Evidence that marijuana induces or causes brain damage does not exist.
Medical research has indicated that the drug is effective in relieving some symptoms of glaucoma and treating the nausea induced by cancer chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
In 1996 voters in both California and Arizona approved ballot measures exempting physicians and patients from criminal prosecution when marijuana is prescribed for medical purposes in the relief of pain or other symptoms caused by cancer, acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), glaucoma, arthritis, and other illnesses and chronic conditions.
The Massachusetts and Ohio legislatures enacted similar medical necessity laws in 1996.
However, the U.S. government, which opposes such exemptions to antimarijuana laws, warned physicians in these states that they may lose federally sanctioned privileges for writing prescriptions for controlled substances, be barred from participation in federal Medicare and Medicaid programs, and face federal criminal prosecution for prescribing marijuana.
Hemp, common name for an Asian annual herb, and also for its strong, pliable fibers.
This species is often called true hemp or Indian hemp.
It is cultivated in Eurasia, the United States, and Chile.
A hemp plant may be as small as 91 cm (36 in) or as high as 5 m (15 ft), depending upon the climate and soil type.
The male plants bear flowers in axially racemes and die soon after pollination.
Female plants bear flowers in short, crowded spikes and die soon after the seed matures.
Plants of both sexes are used for fiber.
Hemp stems are hollow and have a fibrous inner bark.
The fibers from this bark are used to make a great variety of textile products, including coarse fabrics, ropes, sailcloth, and packing cloth.
Soft fibers, used for making clothing fabrics in Asia, are obtained from hemp harvested at the time of pollination; strong, coarse fibers are obtained from mature plants.
The fibers are removed and processed by methods similar to those used in processing flax.
Partially decomposed, the stalks are dried, broken, and shaken to separate the woody stalks from the fibers.
The seed of hemp is commonly used as birdseed.
Hempseed also yields an oil, called oil of hemp, used in the manufacture of soap and oil paints.
A resin, called charas, produced by female flower heads and seeds of hemp, is used in narcotic smoking mixtures in India.
Flowers and leaves of hemp are used to produce the narcotics bhang, hashish, and marijuana.
Unrelated plants that are commonly called hemp include henequen, sisal, bowstring hemp, and Manila hemp.
Sunn hemp is obtained from a leguminous herb native to India.
Scientific classification: Hemp belongs to the family Moraceae.
It is classified as Cannabis sativa.
Henequen, sisal, and bowstring hemp belong to the family Agavaceae.
Manila hemp belongs to the family Musaceae.
Sunn hemp is obtained from the species classified as Crotalaria juncea of the family Leguminosae.
Lysergic Acid Diethyl amide
LSD
Lysergic Acid Diethyl amide was first synthesized from lysergic acid in Switzerland in 1938.
Lysergic Acid is a component of the mold of ergot, a fungus that forms on rye grain.
In the early '60s, the United States Government started conducting psychological experiments with psychotropic drugs at the Veterans Hospital in Menlo Park, California.
These experiments were part of Operation MK-ULTRA.
It was a super secret CIA program whose purpose was to test the use of psychedelic drugs as a spy tool to modify a persons behavior by covert means.
Then on October 6, 1966, California made LSD illegal.
What the fuck's up with that?
