Weed

Title	Weed
# of Words	779
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	3.12

Weed

Weed

Wether you call it Hemp, Mary Jane, Pot, Weed; it doesn't matter. It is still
Cannabis Sativa, or cannabis for short. And it is still illegal. The use of
marijuana as an intoxicant in the United States became a problem of public
concern in the 1930s. Regulatory laws were passed in 1937, and criminal
penalties were instituted for possession and sale of the drug. "Marijuana"
refers to the dried leaves and flowers of the cannabis plant, which contains the
non-narcotic chemical THC at various potencies. It is smoked or eaten to produce
the feeling of being "high." The different strains of this herb produce
different sensual effects, ranging from a sedative to a stimulant.

The term "marijuana" is a word with indistinct origins. Some believe it is
derived from the Mexican words for "Mary Jane"; others hold that the name comes
from the Portuguese word marigu-ano, which means "intoxicant". The use of
marijuana in the 1960's might lead one to surmise that marihuana use spread
explosively. The chronicle of its 3,000 year history, however, shows that this
"explosion" has been characteristic only of the contemporary scene. The plant
has been grown for fiber and as a source of medicine for several thousand years,
but until 500~ AD its use as a mind-altering drug was almost solely confined in
India. The drug and its uses reached the Middle and Near East during the next
several centuries, and then moved across North Africa, appeared in Latin America
and the Caribbean, and finally entered the United States in the early decades of
this century. Marijuana can even be used as "Biomass" fuel, where the pulp
(hurd) of the hemp plant can be burned as is or processed into charcoal,
methanol, methane, or gasoline. This process is called destructive distillation,
or 'pyrolysis.' Fuels made out of plants like this are called 'biomass' fuels.
This charcoal may be burned in today's coal-powered electric generators.
Methanol makes a good automobile fuel, in fact it is used in professional
automobile races. It may someday replace gasoline.

Marijuana has many medical purposes also. The cannabis extract was available as
a medicine legally in this country until 1937, and was sold as a nerve tonic—but
mankind has been using cannabis medicines much longer than that. Marijuana
appears in almost every known book of medicine written by ancient scholars and
wise men. It is usually ranked among the top medicines, called 'panaceas', a
word which means 'cure-all'. The list of diseases which c...

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