Results: The Dope on Dope: Facts About Marijuana

There are some 480 chemicals found in the drug but the one that gets all the attention is THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the active ingredient, which causes a mild euphoria in its users.

Acute intoxication may occasionally induce visual hallucinations, anxiety, depression, extreme variability of mood, paranoid reactions & psychoses lasting 4 to 6 hours.

There are more than 200 slang names for marijuana. The most commonly used are pot, weed, reefer, grass, herb, Mary Jane, dope, bud & ganja.

There are countless ways of using the drug. Marijuana can be smoked in cigars (blunts) & cigarettes (joints or doobies). Marijuana smoke can also be inhaled through water pipes (bongs) & basically anything that can be fashioned like a pipe - including aluminum cans & even apples. Pot can also be baked into foods, most typically brownies. A more recent method of using the drug is by way of e-cigarettes (vaping).

Marijuana has long been associated with the number 420 (said "four twenty"). It's unofficial holiday is April 20 (4/20). Why isn't clear. Many people think it's because 420 is the police code in New York or Los Angeles for pot possession. But that's just an urban legend. The most commonly accepted explanation is that in 1971 a group of high schoolers in San Rafael, California, would regularly meet at 4:20 to search for an abandoned marijuana crop. The group became known as the 420 & the code was popularized by many of the group's friends who became fans of the Grateful Dead.

There's a long history between marijuana & the USA presidents. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson & James Madison all farmed hemp, which is a plant of the Cannabis genus that has a lower level of THC. Some have even admitted to smoking it but only one, Bill Clinton, famously claimed it was okay because he didn't inhale.

The movement to criminalize marijuana in the USA was strongly rooted in racism. At the turn of the 20th century, marijuana was a little used drug. As it became increasingly associated with minorities many states in the 1910s began passing laws to ban it. Around 2 decades later the head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, utilized racism & the fear of crime in a high profile campaign to institute a federal ban on the drug. The most exaggerated claims about marijuana included that it "is the most violence causing drug in the history of mankind" & "if you smoke a joint you're likely to kill your brother". Aided by an ever eager news media, the passage of the Marihuana Tax Act in 1937 effectively made the drug illegal across the USA. Although that act was declared unconstitutional in 1969, it was replaced by the Controlled Substances Act the following year.

Pot has had a lengthy history with music. Among the most notable marijuana melodies are Rick James's "Mary Jane" (1978) & Peter Tosh's "Legalize It" (1976). One of the most famous supporters was country singer Willie Nelson who released the song "Roll Me Up & Smoke Me When I Die".

Pot has also figured prominently in a number of films, including Up in Smoke (1978), Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) & The Big Lebowski (1998) to name a few. Perhaps the best known "cautionary tale" was Reefer Madness, a 1936 drama that showed teenagers becoming addicted to marijuana, with madness & manslaughter the end result. It is now considered a cult classic.

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