9781422282502

CHAPTER ONE

WHAT IS MARIJUANA?

Marijuana is one of the most widely consumed drugs in the world. Only alcohol and tobacco are more popular. Although many countries and a few U.S. states have made it legal to sell and smoke marijuana, there is still a lot of disagreement about the drug’s effects. Some say it should be legal everywhere, while others say it is too addictive. Some argue it is not harmful, while some insist it is. Regardless of these disagreements, the plant has a long and storied history as one of the earliest cultivated crops in human history. Marijuana comes from the flowering tops and leaves of two species of plants called Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica . Both species produce hemp, the fiber used in rope and other products. Most experts say the cannabis plant first evolved some 12,000 years ago in Central Asia in what is now Mongolia and southern Siberia. It was the Chinese, however, who first cultivated the crop around 5,000 years ago. They used cannabis as a treatment for rheumatism, gout, and malaria,

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