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The use of medical marijuana dates to ancient civilizations, though historians are undecided about whether the first medical use of cannabis was in China, where the plant is indigenous. [1]Archaeologists unearthed traces of cannabis with high levels of THC (the main psychoactive component of cannabis) in wooden bowls dating to 500 BCE in the Jirzankal Cemetery in China, marking the earliest instance of marijuana use found to date. This particular use of marijuana was more likely for a religious rite than medicinal purposes, though religion and medicine were not necessarily kept separate. Such use was described by Greek historian Herodotus: “The Scythians then take the seed of this hemp and, crawling in under the mats, throw it on the red-hot stones, where it smolders and sends forth such fumes that no Greek vapor-bath could surpass it. The Scythians howl in their joy at the vapor-bath.”
The mythological Chinese Emperor Shennong’s pharmacopeia, Treatise on Medicine (which itself has disputed dates–2737 BCE or 1CE and unknown authorship), included marijuana as a treatment for “malaria, constipation, rheumatic pains, ‘absentmindedness’ and ‘female disorders.’”
US states began legalizing medical marijuana in the 1990s. California was the first to legalize cannabis for medical use in 1996, quickly followed by Alaska, Oregon, and Washington state in 1998, and Maine in 1999. By Dec. 2022, 37 states and DC had legalized medical marijuana, leaving only 13 states where medical marijuana is illegal: Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
While states were legalizing medical marijuana, some of the earliest adopting states also began legalizing recreational, or adult-use, marijuana. Colorado and Washington legalized this in 2012–19 other states and DC had done so by December 2022. Only states with legal medical marijuana have thus far legalized adult-use marijuana.
PRO
- Marijuana is beneficial as a medicine with fewer risks than opioids and other prescribed drugs.
- Marijuana is safer than some legal drugs and preferred by patients.
- Americans have agreed for decades that medical marijuana should be legal.
CON
- Medical legalization of marijuana makes a drug that is dangerous to children, teenagers, and young adults more readily available.
- Marijuana has dangerous side effects.
- Recreational marijuana only should be decriminalized while researchers properly study the medicinal effects of the drug.
This article was published on December 8, 2022, at Britannica’s ProCon.org, a nonpartisan issue-information source.