I recently watched a very controversial documentary shown on Wealth TV (re-run had previously aired) titled Marijuana Miracle Cure 2 Wired for Weed. This came out a few months ago in 2013, and seems to be a follow up to their Marijuana Miracle Cure program from 2012. If you have not seen it, you may be able to catch another re-run on Wealth TV or you may be able to find the entire 1 hour program (including commercials) on YouTube. The documentary raises some interesting points about marijuana (aka cannabis) and it’s potentially medical properties.
Now the first question, I have, is why does Wealth TV have a documentary on marijuana? It seems from the documentary that they are genuinely interested in the potential medical issues of marijuana. This is because of the focus and nature of the documentary, but there could be some other motive but this is hard to tell. The documentary does interview a medical doctor, several PhDs, and several patients who claim to have benefited from cannabis for medicinal purposes.
Some of the history of marijuana is described including what led to it’s ban and what may prevent it from being labeled as having medicinal properties in the U.S. I wanted to see if the points raised collaborated at all with what it discussed on the web so I also checked out a few websites. An interesting discussion is provided by Bud Fairy over at http://www.ozarkia.net/bill/pot/blunderof37.html titled “How Marijuana Become Illegal.”
Based on the article and documentary it appears that in the 1930s there was a deliberate attempt due to wealthy business interests to make marijuana illegal. This is because hemp is the plant that marijuana grows on and has numerous potential industrial uses such as for rope, clothes, paper, and paint. Hence there was a deliberate smear campaign launched by those who didn’t want hemp to take away their profits.
This smear campaign focused on renaming cannabis (which was what people knew marijuana as) as marihuana. The smear campaign also focused on publishing many stories (some false) about how certain ethnic minorities went on murderous rampages while using marihuana. This stories were published in industry controlled newspapers. Eventually those with industry interests used their political ties to ban marijuana from being used in the U.S. and prevent the growth of hemp in the U.S.
The documentary also cites how the alcohol and tobacco industries won with cannabis being banned. The documentary also mentions how growing marijuana in your backyard can pose problems for the pharmaceutical industry. Some of the history and reasons for marijuana being banned in the U.S. are controversial but it is interesting to explore. The documentary also goes into other issues on marijuana not covered here such as problems with getting the U.S. to fund studies to explore the medical properties and getting medical schools to teach their students about it.