Each year since the birth of the United States in 1776, the American lawmaking body puts its best foot forward to draft and enact laws for the advancement and safety of our nation's citizens. The laws that are passed impact American lives in many ways by protecting our citizens, through the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Occupational Safety and Health Act, and modifying the way we conduct business, through the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 and the National Labor Relations Act. Unfortunately, the imperfection of humanity exists in all of us and sometimes our government enacts laws that are controversial or unreasonable in the minds of American citizens. Laws that fall into this category include the Espionage Act of 1917, which enabled Woodrow Wilson's government agents to search through mail, and the Volstead Act of 1919 that brought prohibition upon America. One such law that exists today is the federal law prohibiting the possession, distribution, or cultivation of the marijuana plant. Although some other countries like the Netherlands and Portugal have already legalized marijuana, the fight for legalization has continuously raged on in America. The 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health concluded that marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug, with 17.4 million past-month users, and use is widespread among adolescents and young adults. In order to better understand the law that criminalizes marijuana, it's crucial to understand the drug itself. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, marijuana "is a greenish-gray mixture of the dried, shredded leaves, stems, seeds, and flowers of Cannabis sativa ”the hemp plant." Marijuana can be smoked in hand-rolled cigarettes or cigars, called joints and blunts respectively. Other users opt to smoke marijuana out of pipes or water pipes called bongs. It can also be brewed to make tea or baked into foods. How exactly does marijuana produce its effects? The main active ingredient in marijuana that produces most of the known effects is Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, commonly referred to as THC. When the user begins to smoke, effects take place almost immediately; THC moves from the lungs to the bloodstream, carrying the THC to the rest of the body. The human brain contains sites called cannabinoid receptors, or CBRs, that are located in higher-density regions of the brain and are responsible for concentration, movement, memory, overall perception, and pleasure. The THC in marijuana artificially stimulates these CBRs, effectively disturbing the function of the human body's naturally created cannabinoids. Overstimulation of the CBRs in the brain's reward system causes the user to feel "high  by triggering the release of dopamine, the naturally occurring pleasure chemical. Like with any other drug, consistent use of marijuana has the ability to create addiction and withdrawal symptoms in the user. Signs of marijuana use include rapid heart rate, increased blood pressure, increased rate of breathing, red eyes, dry mouth, increased appetite, called "the munchies , and slowed reaction time, but users often report feelings of relaxation and euphoria (Goldberg, 2012). Effects typically last from one to three hours, but can last up to four. For hundreds of years prior to 1900, marijuana was used widely for it's medicinal benefits, but it wasn't until 1906 that it began to be regulated. On June 30, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Food and Drugs Act, an act that required the labeling of medicine and foods in order to promote safety in American society. After this was passed, any medicine containing marijuana was to have this posted on any given product's label. A few years later saw the prohibitionist sentiment take hold in America and in 1911, Massachusetts became the first state to ban cannabis. In 1915, Utah followed Massachusetts' lead and the state passed its first anti-marijuana law with Wyoming, Texas, Iowa, and a slew of other states following suit. This set the stage for Harry J. Anslinger to be appointed the commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in 1930. "Harry Anslinger emerges as the pivot around whom marihuana legislation swings. He represents the most extreme reaction against marihuana use" (Schaller, 1970) It wasn't until the 1930s that marijuana became a major target of government control. Sensationalist stories and yellow journalism began linking violent crimes to cannabis consumption and Anslinger maintained that all drug use was a plot of "civic corruption." One of the larger turning points for marijuana in the 1930s was the 1936 release of Reefer Madness, a morality tale of how reefer addiction ruins the life of its young protagonist and gets a lot of other people killed, sexually compromised, and committed to lunatic asylums. A small church group financed the film and it was intended to scare any parent who viewed it. At this time, ma