Laws on weed
The legality of cannabis has been the subject of debate and controversy
for decades. Cannabis is illegal to consume, use, possess, cultivate,
transfer or trade in most countries. Since the beginning of widespread
cannabis prohibition around the mid 20th century, most countries have
not re-legalized it for personal use, although more than 10 countries
tolerate (or have decriminalized) its use and/or its cultivation in
limited quantities. Medicinal use of cannabis is also legal in a number
of countries, including Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Czech
Republic, Israel and 16 states of the United States.
It is generally accepted that small amounts of possession are dealt with
in various ways throughout the world, and since police enforcement is
always changing according to a country's political leaders, it is very
hard to find an accurate reference to the unspoken police attitude of
casual decriminalization of cannabis in certain places where there is
just not enough police, judges or prisons to enforce the law to the
letter. Some countries have laws that are not as vigorously prosecuted
as others, but other than the countries that offer access to medical
marijuana, the majority of countries have various penalties ranging from
lenient to barbaric, and everything in between, some infractions are
definitely taken more seriously in some countries than others when it
comes to regarding the cultivation, use, possession, or transfer of
cannabis for recreational use. A few jurisdictions have lessened the
penalties for possession of small quantities of cannabis, so that it is
punished by confiscation and a fine, rather than imprisonment.
Punishment focuses more on those who traffic and sell the drug on the
black market. Some jurisdictions/drug courts use mandatory treatment
programs for young or frequent users, with freedom from "narcotic" drugs
as the goal. A few jurisdictions permit cannabis use for medicinal
purposes. There are also changes in a more restrictive direction as in
Canada or the United Kingdom. Drug tests to detect cannabis are
increasingly common in many countries, and have resulted in jail
sentences and people being fired from their jobs. However, simple
possession can carry long jail sentences in some countries, particularly
in East Asia, where the sale of cannabis may lead to a sentence of life
in prison or even execution.
Under the name cannabis, 19th century medical practitioners sold the
drug (usually as a tincture), popularizing the word amongst
English-speakers. It was rumored that Queen Victoria's menstrual pains
were treated with cannabis; her personal physician, Sir John Russell
Reynolds, wrote an article in the first edition of the medical journal
The Lancet about the benefits of cannabis. In 1894, the Report of the
Indian Hemp Drugs Commission commissioned by the UK Secretary of State
and the government of India, was instrumental in the decision not to
criminalize the drug in those countries. From 1860 different states in
the United States started to implement regulations for sales of Cannabis
Sativa.In 1925 a change of the International Opium Convention banned
exportation of Indian hemp to countries that have prohibited its use.
Importing countries were required to issue certificates approving the
importation and stating that the shipment was to be used "exclusively
for medical or scientific purposes".
In 1937 the F.D. Roosevelt administration crafted the 1937 Marihuana Tax
Act, the first US national law making cannabis possession illegal via
an unpayable tax on the drug.
The name marijuana (Mexican Spanish marihuana, mariguana) is associated
almost exclusively with the plant's psychoactive use. The term is now
well known in English largely due to the efforts of American drug
prohibitionists during the 1920s and 1930s. Mexico itself had passed
prohibition in 1925, following the International Opium Convention. The
prohibitionists deliberately used a Mexican name for cannabis in order
to turn the US populace against the idea that it should be legal by
playing to negative attitudes towards that nationality. (See 1937
Marihuana Tax Act). Those who demonized the drug by calling it marihuana
omitted the fact that the "deadly marihuana" was identical to Cannabis
sativa, which had at the time a reputation for pharmaceutical safety.
However, due to variations in the potency of the preparations, Cannabis
indica in the 1930s had lost most of its former popularity as a medical
drug.
Some advocate legalization of cannabis, believing that it will reduce
illegal trade & associated crime and yield a valuable tax-source.
Cannabis is now available as a palliative agent, in Canada, with a
medical prescription. In 1969, only 16% percent of voters in the USA
supported legalization, according to a poll by Gallup. According to the
same source, that number had risen to 36% by 2005.[10] More recent
polling indicates that the number has risen even further since the
financial crisis of 2007-2009: in 2009, between 46% and 56% of US voters
would support legalization. In Europe has the development turned in the
opposite direction in Netherlands where the last few years certain
strains of cannabis with higher concentrations of THC and drug tourism
have challenged the former policy with legal sales of cannabis and led
to more restrictive approach; for eg. ban of all sales of cannabis to
tourists in coffee shops from end of 2011.
Detection and the law
As cannabis and its cultivation are illegal in most parts of the world,
considerable resources and effort are committed to both interdiction and
counter-interdiction of cultivation. Thermal imaging helicopters (to
detect hot lighting), inspection of trash (to find evidence of
cultivation including waste plant matter), examination of credit card
purchases (to find purchases from hydroponic equipment vendors), and
analysis of energy bills (to detect energy usage patterns of marijuana
growers), have been used in prosecutions. In the US, thermal imaging
cameras are considered to violate civil liberties embedded in the United
States Constitution. This has resulted in significant changes to
growing trends and availability.
laws on weed