Marijuana has a long history in human civilization. The plants, from which the fiber hemp and the drug marijuana come, have been grown all over the world for thousands of years. Humans have found many uses for this plant, but it is its use as a drug that makes it controversial and illegal in most countries.

Marijuana Is a Drug

Drug is a medical term that describes any substance that affects the functioning of living creatures. By this broad definition many common substances contain drugs, including coffee (caffeine), beer (ethyl alcohol), cigarettes (nicotine), cough medicine (codeine and other drugs), chocolate (theobromine and caffeine), and turkey (tryptophan).

The thousands of substances created and sold by pharmacological companies with the intent of treating the medical diseases and conditions of humans and animals are drugs. Hundreds of medicinal herbs used for millennia by the world's...