Paper On Marijuana

herbose said:

Pretty good paper, I hope it's not for high school.
Two points:
1. Cannabis can self fertilize. Heard of hermaprodites? Yeah I had a sentence in there in my final but somehow it didnt get transferred over.
2. THC also protects from insects and microbes.
Oh yeah, do a spell check.
Good luck.

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BirdTooth said:

I've edited the first two paragraphs, to give you an idea of the editing that you should be doing to any paper you write. I also put in some red-text nag points in the third paragraph. Read it out loud, you will catch things that just don't sound right. Make sure you are using the right word for the right situation. If you aren't 100% sure how a word is used, don't use it. Using large, uncommon words is great, but there is a reason they are uncommon. You will reach your reader better by keeping your words simple and direct.
Be careful, if your teacher thinks you plagiarized they might do a google search on your text and come up with this rollitup site. I hope that is alright with you.


Good topic. Go over this a few more times, and you will do fine.


Cannabis, or Marijuana, has been a controlled substance in Canada since long before my parents were born, but it is clearly a plant that can be used beneficially by many, as well as one with environmental benefits, and should be uncontrolled for personal use.

To understand the war on drugs, you must first understand Cannabis. The herb smoked as marijuana comes from the flower of a plant, known as Cannabis Sativa. This plant has been grown for hundreds, if not thousands of years and has been praised for its usefulness as a medicine and fiber, as well as for its psychoactive effects. Its origins trace back to eastern Asia.
Cannabis is the only plant on earth known to produce cannabinoids. Our bodies contain receptors that allow these cannabinoids, primarily Delta9-Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, to bind to cells in the brain and body by traveling through the blood to give the high associated with Cannabis. As little as 10 micrograms of THC per kilogram of body weight is needed to feel the effects of the THC. It is considered a hallucinogen, but because of its vast range of effects, it can be used as a sedative, stimulant, or psychedelic.
There are three subspecies of cannabis: Sativa, Indica and Ruderalis. All produce the flower known as marijuana, however only the Sativas and Indicas produce the psychoactive THC in large enough quantities to be valuable as a product. The Ruderalis strain is known as industrial hemp. The evolved purpose of THC for the Cannabis plant is simple. It is found in the resin that coats and protects the flowers and seeds from the harmful rays of the sun, more specifically UV-B rays. It is the plant's sunblock. If fertilization of a flower does not occur, the plant will redirect its energy to the production of its resin, a desireable effect for cannabis being grown for its psychoactive qualities. THC is produced mainly in resinous mushroom shaped glands located on the flowers. There are over 40 cannabinoids besides THC. While not all are psychoactive, all are thought to have a role in the overall effect found in the high.

Marijuana as a medicine is as old as the plant itself. The 2 primary medical constituents of the resin glands are cannabinoids. There are two I want to talk about, the first, THC, is a chemical that produces a high when ingested or smoked. Read that last sentence out loud. If you pause, shove in a comma. It has been indicated as a medication in over 250 conditions, including;<-- nausea, vomiting, unintentional weight loss, lack of appetite, migraine, spasms, PMS, arthritis, asthma, hypertension, insomnia, neurogenic pain, movement disorder, glaucoma, epilepsy, depression, PTSD, ASS, ADHA, OCD, bi-polar disorder; <-- I know it is tempting to use a semicolon, but it is very rarely actually necessary. As a general rule, if you think you need a semicolon, you probably don't. Like here, you seem to have decided you were tired of using the comma, but then switched back. cancer, AIDS and hepatitis treatment symptoms, ect. <-- don't put abbreviations in a paper. Either write something like, "and many more", or list everything. The next CBD, The next CBD? Where was the first CBD? Unless you mean: The next, CBD,...but you see how that comma changes the entire meaning. a compound similar to THC in structure but as far as can be told holds no psychoactive effects. The amounts of CBD as well as other cannabinoids found in the resin are hypothesized to play off each other and change the overall effect dramatically. It seems to help convulsions, inflammation, anxiety, nausea;<-- the dreaded semicolon, taking the commas job yet again. and has been suggested an an anti-psychotic in schizophrenia patients. However most surprisingly they both have been found to have anti-cancerous and anti-tumorous, and exhibit neuro-protective antioxidant properties. Without a comma after antioxidant, neither anti-cancerous nor anti-tumorous are sharing that "properties", so the sentence reads: they both have been found to have anti-cancerous and anti-tumerous. And exhibit neuro-protective antioxidant properties. Either add a comma, or change "have" to "be", if that is what you are trying to say. Not only can it be used as a medicine but as a fiber.

Hemp has been highly utilized as a fiber to make clothing, rope, paper, fuel, and biodegradable plastics. Many famous paintings and historical documents have been hemp paper or canvas because hemp is stronger and decomposes slower than tree fiber. It is capable of producing ten tons of bio-mass per acre in four months. One acre of hemp can produce as much usable fiber as trees can with 4 acres, trees take 50-500 years to grow before they can be cut down for production, where hemp can be ready in as little as 100 days, producing 4X more paper in a 20 year period. As well as a fibrous material, parts of the plant can be used in a fermenting process to make methanol, about ten times more than corn can. It also has a tremendous rate of photosynthesis, which means more air for everyone. Now for something a little more recent.

The use of this plant as a drug, both medical and recreational, has been highly debated for well over the last 50 years. Some of the ideas that have fueled this prohibition are complete overstatements and misconceptions. One of the major tales, myths, lies whatever you wish to call it, is the gateway drug theory. This is the idea that if you begin by smoking weed you will eventually use stronger more destructive substances like heroin. It is true that abusers of illicit addictive opiates, stimulants, ect. are likely to have started with marijuana. However the abusers of those drugs may have been lead to believe that marijuana, heroin, ecstasy, any one of these are just as destructive as the next, they are likely to have tried pot and made an misinformed decision about there future use of heroin, due to the lack of information the government provides. The drug marijuana is the dried flowers and leaves of the Cannabis plant, generally smoked in a cigarette paper called a joint, or in a pipe or glass bong. Compared to other drugs including alcohol, tobacco and some prescription narcotics, it can be considered one of the most benign substances. Alcohol can cause liver damage, black-outs, and the inability to make decisions, it has also been indicated as a neurotoxin. Alcohol is responsible for about 100,000 deaths per year. Prescription narcotics, like benzodiazapine, opiates, barbiturates, stimulants, ect., can have physical dependence issues and severe withdrawal effects as many are chemically similar, in some cases stronger, to their illicit counter parts, heroin, crystal meth, ect. Conventional medication claims about 750,000 lives per year. Saving one of the most famous comparisons used when talking about drug legality for last, marijuana versus tobacco. These two examples have been used on both sides of the debate from many different angles due to its amazing social similarities. Comparing the smoke toxicity as follows, Health Canada reports, Cannabis smoke has twenty-times more ammonia, five-times more hydrogen cyanides and nitrogen oxides, but is found to have less poly-cyclic aromatic hydro-carbons, which are known carcinogens, mutagens, and teratogens. Long term smoking effects of Cannabis are not known, but we are told from birth that you will develop cancer from tobacco. The tobacco industry claims about 5,400,000 human lives per year. There is not one recorded death from marijuana in all of world literature. It is obvious that something is not working correctly in this finely tuned machine.

When you look at the controlled drug and substances act it becomes visible that the list has been put together without extreme medical research. There are drugs that have been found to have extreme ill effects and are placed lower in scheduling than drugs that have been found to be completely harmless. The list was put together with blinders on. When you actively and objectivity look at the idea of this prohibition you can see that it is about control. If a person is telling me I can have alcohol, caffeine and tobacco, but not marijuana, magic mushrooms and LSD based on absent harm data, is a person controlling my mind. These are all mind altering substances, and you are controlling what goes in and out of my body and subsequently my mind. if we are truly a free Country should we not get to decide what chemicals enter our bodies. It is the governments job to tell us about these substances and let us make the choice.

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