Throughout this nation’s history, movements of all facets and origins have begun on the needs and wants of American citizens.

In 2015, as Americans, we are witnessing a huge wave of state and federal laws being proposed or changed about the uses of marijuana and industrial hemp.

To understand why this is happening in the U.S., you have to study the history of the plant in this country. In August 1619, the colony of Virginia, passed legislation making hemp a mandatory crop in the new world.

One hundred and seventy years later, newly elected President George Washington and future president Thomas Jefferson are two successful hemp growers in Virginia. Jefferson quoted, “Some of my finest hours have been spent on my back veranda, smoking hemp and observing as far as my eyes can see.”

In April 1911, Massachusetts became the first state to ban marijuana. By 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Marijuana Tax Act, which banned the use, production and sale of marijuana, including industrial hemp products.

On Dec. 7, 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor dragged the United States into World War II. In 1942, restrictions on hemp were loosened to encourage American farmers to grow the plant for a boost in wartime production.

By 1945, Roosevelt’s administration banned industrial hemp after having success with wartime production. Also, hemp farmers were forced to plow under their hemp crops and pharmacists were forced to remove all marijuana-related products from the pharmacies.

During the perilous times of the 1960s, Lowell Eggemeier of San Francisco led a march to San Francisco’s City Hall of Justice and lights a joint in the presence of the police. Although arrested, his actions were considered the beginning of modern marijuana legalization activism.

President Richard Nixon in 1972 recommended decriminalization of marijuana, but congress failed to act on Nixon’s request. In 1988, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Judge Francis Young issued a ruling in “The Matter of Marijuana Rescheduling,” in which he states, “Marijuana in its natural form is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.”

The government ignores his suggestion and maintains marijuana as a Schedule 1 narcotic. By the 1990s, states such as California, Alaska, Oregon, Washington and Arizona pass medical marijuana laws for their individual states. But by the end of the 2000s, states such as Nevada, Colorado, Montana and Vermont also have passed medical marijuana laws in their states.

In 2012, Washington and Colorado became the first states to legalize recreational use of marijuana in America. Three years later, Alaska and Washington DC also passed recreational use laws in perspective areas.

As of 2015, according to a Gallup.com poll, 51 percent of Americans support legalization of marijuana, while 47 percent of Americans don’t support legalization. Time will be the determining factor for this movement. Until then, people need to educate themselves on more information made available on marijuana.

 

Jeremy Houston is a Natchez resident and volunteer for the Mississippi Ballot Initiative 48.