One of the most popular and excessively used drugs in our day and age is the drug marijuana. Up until 1937, marijuana, also known as Cannabis sativa, was legal in the United States for all purposes. Now since then, marijuana hasn't been so accepting in our country. Cannabis sativa was banned with the passing of the Marijuana Tax Act. This law was created intentionally to stop the casual smoking among citizens and the youth (Young 1). In 1970, the federal government created the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. This act defined marijuana as having a high potential for abuse. This also prevented doctors from prescribing it (CNN Issues 1). "In 1972, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) petitioned the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, now known as the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), transfer marijuana to Schedule II (CNN Issues 2)." Making it a Schedule II drug will allow marijuana to be legally prescribed. In 1986, the DEA finally agreed to have public hearings into marijuana's medicinal value. These hearings went on for two years hearing from both sides of the argument. Between 1976 and 1988 as the demand increased, the Federal Food and Drug Administration composed the Compassionate Investigative New Drug(IND) program. This allowed doctors to apply to the federal government's permission to treat patients with marijuana. The government awarded six IND's for the use Cannabis. Bush then suspended this program in June 1991 because of the administration's opposition of drugs that resulted in the refusal of receiving grants of the Compassionate IND's. Meanwhile the possession of marijuana remains a federal crime while the struggle for legalization continues (CNN Issues 2). Though there are both negative and positive effects of marijuana, it should be legalized for medical purposes only.
             Legalizing marijuana may send the wrong information to childr...