Legalization Of Marijuana

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California Proposition 215

In November 1996 the residents of California approved Proposition 215, which is an initiative that makes marijuana legally available as a medicine in the United States for the first time since the 1930’s. Under the new law, patients or their primary caregivers that possess or cultivate marijuana for medicinal use are exempted from criminal prosecution. The treatment may be for “cancer, anorexia, AIDS, chronic pain, spasticity, glaucoma, arthritis, migraine, or any other illness for which marijuana provides relief. Physicians may not be penalized in any form by recommending marijuana as medicine, which may be written or oral (California Health and Safety Code Section 11362.5).
“According to the Attorney General Dan Lungren, in order to be covered by the law, patients: (1) Must by California residents. (2) Must be seriously ill. Minor injuries and illnesses are not covered. Illnesses covered include cancer, anorexia, AIDS, chronic pain, spasticity, glaucoma, and migraines. (3) Must have had an examination by a physician, and the physician must have requested the treatment. (4) Must not be engaged in behavior that endangers others or have any relation with non-medical purposes. (5) Cannot posses or cultivate amounts greater than their personal need.”
It is likely that similar laws will be more widely adopted, because the California vote signals a growing public impatience with legal obstacles to medical cannabis. According to a 1999 poll conducted by the American Civil Liberties Union, 85% of American believe that marijuana should be available as a medicine. The history of cannabis as a medicine goes back at least 5,000 years to ancient China and extends well into the twentieth century here in America. Nineteenth-century European and American physicians were familiar with marijuana and it use medically. Between 1840 and 1900, more than one hundred papers on the therapeutic use of the drug ...