Twenty-seven countries currently allow the cultivation of industrial hemp, which has no psychoactive ingredients. The countries include the United States, which granted a permit in 1999 to grow a quarter-acre experimental plot in Hawaii.
Hemp provides the world's largest, strongest and most durable fiber known. Hemp does not require the use of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides, and it has been used to make clothing.
Hemp seeds can be used to create flour and cooking oil.
Hemp produces four times more paper per acre than trees, and it reduces the need for processing with chemicals such as dioxin by 80 percent.
The first evidence of medical use of cannabis can be traced back to 2737 BC, when Chinese Emperor Shen-Nung prescribed the drug for beri-beri, constipation, gout, malaria, rheumatism, "female weakness" and absentmindedness.
Cannabis was used in Egypt in 2000 BC to treat sore eyes.
The U.S. Dispensary of 1854 lists cannabis compounds as suggested remedies for, among other medical problems, neuralgia, depression, hemmorrhage, pain relief and muscle spasms.
Marijuana is officially removed from the U.S. Pharmacopia in 1941.
A 1972 study in the American Journal of Ophthalmology finds that marijuana use eases the symptoms of glaucoma.
"The accumulated data indicate a potential therapeutic value of cannabinoid drugs, particularly for symptoms such as pain relief, control of nausea and vomiting, and appetite stimulation," according to 1999 study conducted by the U.S. Institute of Medicine.
The Insitute of Medicine study was commissioned by the White House Office of National Drug Policy, which disagreed with the study's conclusion that clinical trials of the drug's effectiveness should be allowed.
The same study concluded that marijuana is not a gateway drug "to the extent that it is the cause or even the most significant predictor of serious drug abuse."
More than 7.2 million Americans have been arrested on marijuana charges since 1990, and 90 percent of those were for possession, not cultivation or sale.
In Washington state, the maximum penalty for possessing less than 40 grams of grass (about an ounce and a half) is 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
The maximum penalty for possession of more than 40 grams of marijuana is five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
The maximum penalty for sale or cultivation of the drug is 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.
The maximum penalty for possession, manufacture or delivery of drug paraphernalia such as pipes or bongs is 90 days in jail and a fine of $1,000.
Ten states, Washington included, currently have laws on the books legalizing the medical use of marijuana.
A U.S. Supreme Court decision in June this year gave the federal government the authority to prosecute medical-marijuana patients.
- Russ Zabel[[In-content Ad]]
