Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Effects Of Massachusetts’ Decriminalization Of Marijuana Law On Use Patterns, Keriann Speranza

Undergraduate Review

The practice of smoking marijuana was imported to the United States from Mexico in the early 1900s. Fear around the use of marijuana provoked sixteen states to pass laws prohibiting the use of marijuana by 1930 (Becker, 1963). It was not until 1937 that the United States Congress passed the Marihuana Tax Act to stamp out use of the drug after the Bureau of Narcotics presented to the public in a series of propaganda films and news articles the perceived dangers of marijuana use – including violence (Becker, 1963). Since that law, the United States government has attempted to create …