When was cannabis made illegal

In the late 19th Century, marijuana became a popular ingredient in many medicinal products and was sold openly in pharmacies. After the Mexican Revolution of , Mexican immigrants flooded into the United States, bringing with them the recreational use of marijuana.

The drug became associated with the immigrants and the fear and , in turn, prejudice about the newcomers became associated with marijuana. Anti-drug campaigners warned against the encroaching "Marijuana Menace". During the Great Depression, massive unemployment and increased public resentment and fear of Mexican immigrants escalated public and governmental concern about the potential problem of marijuana.

By , 29 states had outlawed marijuana. In , Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act, effectively criminalizing marijuana. There was also no debate in Parliament then about adding the better-known heroin and codeine to the schedule of proscribed drugs either. Heroin is the brand name for a semi-synthetic compound derived from morphine, so authorities had probably considered it as a proscribed drug since the first schedule was passed in , which included "morphine, its salts and compounds.

Proscribing codeine was more controversial, although after it was added doctors, druggists and the pharmaceutical industry successfully lobbied to have codeine decriminalized. It was removed from the schedule in , though the U. A book, The Black Candle , by Emily Murphy, is frequently given as the explanation for the King government's move against marijuana. However, no evidence beyond coincidence has been put forward that the book, or Murphy, influenced the government's decision.

The book is based on a series of articles Murphy, then a judge, wrote for Maclean's magazine in The series did not mention marijuana but her book has a seven-page chapter called, her spelling, "Marahuana -- a new menace. Murphy starts out by noting "the drug is not really new" and "comparatively unknown in the United States and Canada. But, today, that is arguably the best-known chapter in the book, even though historians have not uncovered evidence that this chapter attracted much public attention in its early years.

With no parliamentary debate, no evidence of public debate or discussion, and no paper trail about why marijuana was criminalized in , it's understandable why people would later link the decision to The Black Candle. But Carstairs says it's probably just happenstance. She also told CBC News, "There were insinuations in the records that the bureaucrats at the division of narcotic control did not think very highly of Emily Murphy and did not pay attention to what she was writing about, and they didn't consider her a particularly accurate or valuable source.

However, this was an era of prohibition and control, and before he became prime minister, Mackenzie King had been a strong advocate for prohibiting opium, which happened in Carstairs says that there's no record King was then keeping a close eye on the drug file and she has found no reference to marijuana in his diaries. Here are the dates of when other drugs were made illegal in the UK: Heroin — These days it's easy to forget that Heroin was the trademarked brand name for the drug diacetylmorphine.

Amusingly it was originally, and erroneously, sold as a non-addictive alternative to morphine. Cocaine — Derived from the Coca leaf, the drug cocaine was widely available and marketed as a painkilling and stimulating ingredient in drinks and pills at the end of the nineteenth century.

It was made illegal except for licensed medical use in Cannabis — Banned in , its medical use was outlawed in Speed — Amphetamines were outlawed for non-medical purposes under the Drugs Prevention of Misuse Act They are still widely used to treat a range of conditions such as obesity, ADHD and narcolepsy. LSD — Llysergic acid diethylamide was first created by a Swiss chemist in , although it took another five years for its hallucinogenic effects to be realised.

Medical use was outlawed in Ecstasy — MDMA was another drug accidentally discovered in a European lab — this time Germany in , the by-product of a search for a drug to control bleeding. Khat — A flowering shrub which was widely chewed as a stimulant by Somali immigrants it remains legal in Somalia the plant was banned in June in response to health concerns.

Legal Highs - The Psychoactive Substances Act was introduced in May in a bid to stop high street retail outlets, sometimes known as head shops, selling legal highs. Getting to grips with. From engine-maker to electricity provider: Rolls-Royce as mini-nuke pioneer.

This imagery became the backdrop for the Marijuana Tax Act of which effectively banned its use and sales. Cannabis was placed in the most restrictive category, Schedule I, supposedly as a place holder while then President Nixon commissioned a report to give a final recommendation. The Schafer Commission, as it was called, declared that marijuana should not be in Schedule I and even doubted its designation as an illicit substance.

However, Nixon discounted the recommendations of the commission, and marijuana remains a Schedule I substance. In , California became the first state to approve the use of marijuana for medical purposes, ending its 59 year reign as an illicit substance with no medical value. Prior to , cannabis had enjoyed a year history as a therapeutic agent across many cultures. In this context, its blip as an illicit and dangerous drug was dwarfed by its role as a medicine.

Opponents of medical marijuana regulations claim that there is not enough research to warrant medicinal use, but supporters of medical marijuana point to the years of history where cannabis was widely used as evidence for its medical efficacy. Now that 23 states, plus Washington, DC, have passed medical marijuana laws, the public is questioning the utility of keeping marijuana under lock and key, especially in light of the racist and propagandized basis for making it illegal in the first place.