FREE ESSAY ON GANJA

GANJA

Sean P. Silverman
8 December 1999
Ganja 
Long recognized as one of God's greatest gifts to mankind, Ganja truly can heal the
earth. Unknown to many today,
cannabis hemp was used worldwide in paper, fiber, lamp oil and nautical applications
throughout the 19th century, constituting
possibly the largest agricultural and industrial businesses in America (Herer 83). In the
early part of the 1800s cannabis was
the number one medicine in the US (83). It held that spot tightly, until it was nudged to
second place by morphine in 1863,
unseated again in 1901 by aspirin (83).
Throughout its usage history, doctors did not consider the effects of cannabis to be
habit forming, anti-social, or violent.
As Herer explains, Mary Jane contains sixty compounds that are currently known to have
therapeutic value. Unlike tobacco
smoke, cannabis smoke does not alter the small airways in any way. Small airway damage is
where cigarette smoking causes its
most long-term and permanent damage (110). 
In total, cigarettes are responsible for the deaths of 430,000 Americans each year (110).
Despite the fact that tens of
millions of Americans smoke pot regularly, there was still not one death attributed to
the drug as of 1997 (110). A 1976 report
by Dr. Tashkin, M.D. of UCLA found that cannabis was more of an irritant than cigarette
tobacco in just 
one of the twenty-nine areas of the human lung under study (110). In the large air
passageway marijuana smoke is fifteen times
more irritating than cigarette smoke. Often glossed over is the fact that tobacco causes
only minimal disruption to this area;
hence the improper statistic that one joint causes lung damage equivalent to several
cigarettes. On a hugely ironic note, the US
government followed up this finding by limiting cannabis pulmonary studies to only the
large air passageway, the very next year
(111). 
Another popular falsehood is that marijuana causes permanent brain damage. After multiple
Freedom of Information Act
lawsuits, mainly by cutting edge periodicals, the government was forced to release the
methods it used in its brain damage
studies. Herer's book details how Dr. Heath of Tulane University forced a group of Rhesus
monkeys to inhale the equivalent of
thirty joints per day.
He concluded that the monkeys began to atrophy and die after ninety days. Heath then
killed off the dying monkeys, then
opened their brains counting the dead brain cells, to compare his findings with the
control group (107). Even the heaviest pot
smoker on the planet doesn't come close to smoking thirty joints in one day! It's
important to note Dr. Tashkin considers that
smoking sixteen or more large spliffs in a day could lead to hypoxia, or a condition
where the lungs are over saturated with
smoke, and become deprived of the oxygen necessary to remain healthy (110). Meanwhile, a
1981 UCLA study of the Coptic
religion in Florida, whose worshipers are some of the heaviest pot smokers in the US,
metered absolutely no brain differences
between smokers and non-smokers (112).
Water pipe technology, often referred to as paraphernalia, has been proven to remove many
of the carcinogens that do
occur in marijuana smoke. Ingesting cannabis orally can wholly avert any possible lung
damage. Marijuana can be enjoyed in
various eatable forms ranging from brownies and space cakes to the festive ganja goo-ball
and refreshing hash orange juice.
Often, anti-drug groups tout that marijuana causes an increase in crime. Such claims are
simply incorrect. In the most
complete study of reefer consumption in its natural setting, Vera Rubin and Lambros
Comita confirmed that, aside from
marijuana busts, there is no real link between cannabis and crime. They also found that
the heavy 
use of ganja is unlikely to curtail one's motivation to work (112). 
Legalizing marijuana guarantees many positive effects. Currently, prohibition forces drug
profits into the hands of crime.
Ideally a drug dealer is a local, selling a small amount of marijuana to turn a mild
profit, either financially or in bud.
Unfortunately, many drugs are trafficked through criminal organizations. Without any
oversight these organizations are free to
turn innocent cannabis profit into other, harmful ventures. On the other hand, [s]ince
adopting a policy of tolerance and
non-prosecution of cannabis/hashish smokers... Holland has seen a substantial reduction
in cannabis consumption among
teenagers and a 33% drop in the number of heroin addicts (113).
Anyone with firsthand experience using marijuana knows that it typically induces a
mellowing effect. It does not produce
the type of roudy, aggressive behavior typically associated with alcohol abuse. During
the late 1800s, cannabis was successfully
used in treating opiate, chloral hydrate, and alcohol addiction, with some patients
recovering after only twelve doses of cannabis
extract. Marijuana continues to be an effective tool in the modern treatment of alcohol
addiction (113).
According to the American Medical Association claims that smoking cannabis would be
beneficial for 80% of America's
15 million asthma sufferers (112). Records dating back over thousands of years indicate
the use of marijuana for the treatment
of asthma, and today California residents who suffer from the disease can legally use
cannabis under state law, with a doctor's
permission. Additionally, marijuana can be used to treat epilepsy, back pain, and muscle
spasms.
As a topical preparation, cannabis can provide pain relief from rheumatism as well as
arthritis. Pot can also bring
headache and stress relief, along with a reduction in blood pressure, and the relief of
numerous other ailments. Thousands of
Americans suffering with cancer and AIDS stand to benefit greatly from the increase in
appetite that marijuana can often
provide. 
Grass or weed, is linked by many to enhanced creativity. Authors such as Lewis Carroll,
and jazz greats like Louis
Armstrong and Duke Ellington are all said to have used cannabis for creative
stimulation.
Discussed so far have been primarily the social and medical aspects of cannabis usage.
The healing power of hemp,
however, extends much farther than just an improvement for humans on a personal basis. As
a crop, hemp can produce four
times a much paper per square foot than a tree can, according to government estimates.
Hemp is an easy crop to grow, with a
brief growing season, and it can be raised in all fifty states of the union.
Substituting hemp paper for standard tree paper would be a very wise move. Every grade of
paper can be made from
hemp, and with the enormous growth possibilities for hemp, valuable, oxygen-producing
trees could remain standing in
service. 
From 1631 until the early 1800s, cannabis hemp was valid legal tender in most of America,
good enough to pay your
taxes! The government's motivation was to encourage farmers to grow more hemp. As Herer
reports, there were several
reported shortages of cannabis in Virginia between 1763 and 1767 that led to legislation,
which jailed farmers who refused to
grow cannabis. Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew cannabis on their
plantations (1). 
Because of the extreme strength of hemp pulp, nautical sails, rigging, cargo and fishing
nets, flags, and oakum (sealant)
were made from the stalk of the marijuana plant (8). Until 1937, 70-90% of all rope,
twine, and cordage were made from
hemp (8). Hempseed oil can also be used for lighting, and was at one time, the most
popular fuel of choice for this purpose.
Futuristic US citizens, such as Henry Ford, envisioned a nation powered by organic,
renewal Bio Mass Energy derived from
hemp. Its demise was realized as the large monopolies were negotiating their rise to
power (8).
So how did this gift from God, this plant that served as legal currency become illegal?
Why? Many factors came together,
which eventually ended up yanking hemp out of its vital role as an American staple.
As more and more corporate mergers saw industries folded into a handful of giants, the
U.S. federal government gave
control of most domestic textile production to DuPont, their chief munitions
manufacturer. DuPont bought out small TNT and
dynamite producers until they controlled two-thirds of industry output. Around the time
when the Harrison Narcotics Act
became federal law, Harvard chemist Wallace Carothers synthesized the natural cellulose
fibers found in hemp, while working
from German patents, under a DuPont grant (Clark 27).
DuPont, which had largely taken control of hemp output to harvest its cellulose for
weapons production, now had what it
needed to make weapons without cannabis hemp. It patented the first synthetic fiber, and
developed synthetic plastics under
the guise of conserving natural resources!
Coal tar and petroleum-based chemicals were employed, and different devices, spinnerets
and
processes were patented. This new type of textile, nylon, was to be controlled from the
raw material stage, as
coal, to the completed product; a patented chemical product. The chemical company
centralized the production
and profits of the new miracle fiber. The introduction of nylon, the introduction of
high-volume machinery to
separate hemp's long fiber from the cellulose hurd, and the outlawing of hemp as
marijuana all occurred
simultaneously. (Clark 27)
Ironically Wallace Carothers, the Harvard chemist who worked to synthesize cellulose,
committed suicide one week after
the House Ways and Means Committee held hearings on cannabis and created the bill that
would outlaw hemp (Clark 27).
...In 1997 Dupont was still the largest producer of man-made fibers, while no American
citizen
has legally harvested a single acre of textile grade hemp in over 60 years (except during
the period of WWII).
(Clark 27)
The next question one might naturally ask is, what type of public relations extravaganza
was needed to wean America
from this sturdy, cash crop? The answer lies in blatant discrimination, and the
repetition of severely twisted facts that continues
in public service announcements to date.
The marijuana portion of the hemp prohibitionist movement found it all too easy to
integrate its agenda with racial and
ethnic discrimination that was a prevalent part of US culture at the time. The first
cannabis prohibition law in the U.S. was
passed in 1903 in Brownsville, Texas. The law applied only to Mexicans, and targeted them
based upon a heavy cannabis
smoking tradition that remained a part of their culture, while immigrating to the US
(Herer 87).
The next group to be targeted by anti-marijuana legislation were Blacks in the Storyville
section of New Orleans,
otherwise known as the birthplace of jazz. Sailors from the islands took their shore
leave and their marijuana there (Herer 87).
Town officials tried to use marijuana as a vehicle to pass blame on a city that had grown
increasingly full of cabarets, brothels,
and partying in general.
In fact, marijuana was being blamed for the first refusals of black entertainers to wear
blackface
[a requirement for any black entertainer who wanted to sneak onto a Louisiana stage, in
violation of Jim
Crow laws] and for hysterical laughter by negros under marijuana's influence when told to
cross a street or
go to the back of the trolley, etc... (87)
American newspapers, politicians, and police, had virtually no idea, for all these years
(until the
1920s, and then only rarely), that the marijuana the darkies and Chicanos were smoking in
cigarettes or
pipes was just a weaker version of the many familiar concentrated cannabis medicines
they'd been taking since
childhood, or that the same drug was smoked legally at the local white man's plush
hashish parlors. (Herer
87-90)
When Harry Anslinger, Federal Bureau of Narcotics chief, testified before Congress in
1937, he boasted many of the
bogus, racist claims of the movement, even calling jazz music satanic (88). California,
Utah, and Colorado had already passed
Jim Crow legislation targeted at Blacks and Mexicans in their communities, and the
Harrison Narcotic Act, which swept many
useful drugs into restriction, was already in effect on the federal level.
What started out disgraceful remains so today, as the United States continues to imprison
innocent people because of
victimless crimes. African Americans comprise 12% of the nation's population, and 13% of
its drug users, yet they account for
one third of all drug-related arrests and nearly two thirds of all convictions
(http://www.drcnet.org/gateway/poc.html). In his
September 1989 drug policy speech, President Bush promised to double the federal prison
population. He did, and so did 
President Clinton in 1996 (Herer 91). Now, On any given day in the U.S., more than one
out of every three Black males
between 18-29 are either incarcerated, on probation, on parole or under warrant for
arrest. The figure for Latinos is one in six.
For Whites, it is one in twenty (http://www.drcnet.org/gateway/poc.html).
As US leaders continue to lock up America's youth, discretionary funds seep away from
areas of hope and improvement,
like education. Billions have been spent creating, upholding, and expanding the
multibillion-dollar Drug War. The government
has quietly resurrected old seizure laws that date back to the 1800s, and has made
disturbing use of them to take property and
money from citizens who are caught with cannabis.
The War on Drugs, especially cannabis, is un-American in every way. Born out of ignorance
and greed, laws against
marijuana have served to help business make more money, and to suppress minority groups.
How can crime really be a crime if
there is no defined victim? 
Benjamin Franklin started one of America's first paper mills with cannabis. This allowed
America to have a free colonial
press without having to beg or justify the need for paper from England (Herer 1). In a
time when farmers are being paid
millions to plow under their harvests, we ignore the cash crop that once defined our
nation.
It is time that we take back our crop. It is time that the economy should flourish with
new production, while we effortlessly
watch the black market for pot fade away. It's time that we free our prisoners of war.
It's time that we enjoy God's truly
beautiful gift without shame. It's what Ben would have wanted.
Bibliography
Works Cited
Clark, Shan. Man-Made Fiber... The Toxic Alternative to Natural Fibers. The Emperor Wears
No Clothes. (1998): 27.
Communities of Color and the drug war. Drug Reform Coordination Network. Dec. 1999. .
Herer, Jack. The Emperor Wears No Clothes. Phoenix: Paper Master Trade Printing, 1998.
Rubin, Vera, and Lambros Comitas. Ganja in Jamaica-A Medical Anthropological Study of
Chronic Marijuana Use. New
York: Anchor Books, 1975.