With all this new research showing all the benefits of medical marijuana, it might make you wonder why people condemned this powerful plant into the same category as highly addictive, dangerous drugs in the first place. Well, here’s a short history lesson.

It started back in the 1600’s when hemp production was encouraged in a few states and used to make things such as rope and clothing. Up until the 1800’s, farmers were required to grow hemp plants. Eventually, after the civil war, other products were imported and began to take the hemp plants place, but it was still openly sold and used for mostly medical purposes.

In the early 1900’s, the Mexican Revolution took place which gave way to large amounts of Mexican immigrants entering the U.S. The Mexicans used marijuana recreationally, which scared some American citizens. Some began to blame the Mexican crime rate on the use of marijuana. The Mexicans were soon labeled disruptive and dangerous and marijuana was labeled as the cause of this behavior. It is likely that most Americans didn’t even know that “marijuana” was the same as “cannabis”, because marijuana was a term adopted from the Mexicans. Cannabis was an ingredient in almost every product Americans purchased at the time.

The 1937 Marijuana Tax Act sealed the illegalization of cannabis. It is believed that the Act was put in place to control the amount of immigrants coming into the country from Mexico. Making pot illegal gave authorities a reason to search and deport large numbers of Mexican immigrants. Some hold this view because the use of opiums became illegal when Chinese immigrants came into the U.S. It was believed that making opiums illegal was a government strategy to deport Chinese immigrants, similar to the case with Mexican immigrants.

There are also some historical accounts where claims were made that marijuana made “black men try to seduce white women”, which only strengthened the fear and support for illegalization.

In 1944 the New York Academy of Medicine issued their research on the effects of marijuana. Their findings were that the drug had no correlation to violence. These findings were not enough to change the views of many.

Over the past century, there has been a lot of conflict on the topic of marijuana, probably most notably in the 1960’s with high levels of use among supporters of counterculture. Now, a few states allow medical use of marijuana and even fewer allow recreational use. With all the new uses and research coming out regularly about this powerful plant, there is a chance it could eventually be set free from its century old chains.