The Various Purposes of Marijuana Throughout history marijuana has been used for various purposes in many different cultures. The purposes have changed over time to adapt to current lifestyles. This pattern is also true in American history. The use of marijuana adapted to the social climate of the time. Marijuana, whose scientific name is cannibis sativa, was mentioned in historical manuscripts as early as 2700 BC in China. (Grolier electronic encyclopedia, 1995). The cultivation of the marijuana plant began as early as the colonists of Jamestown, around 1611, who used the hemp produced from the fibers of the marijuana plant to make ropes and canvas. It was also used to make clothes due to its durability. These uses suited the social climate of the time, because the main focus was on survival rather than psychoactive purposes. During Prohibition, marijuana was widely used due to the shortage of alcohol. Prohibition was repealed after only thirteen years, while prohibition against marijuana lasted more than seventy-five years. This double standard may be the result of the desires of those in power. Alcohol prohibition has directly affected tens of millions of Americans of all ages, including many of the most powerful members of society. Marijuana prohibition threatened far fewer Americans, and they had relatively little influence in the districts of power. Only the prohibition of marijuana, which some sixty million Americans have violated since 1965, has come much closer to the Prohibition experience, but marijuana smokers are mostly young and relatively powerless Americans (American Heritage, p. 47). The prohibition of alcohol was repealed and that of marijuana was maintained, not because scientists had demonstrated that alcohol was the least dangerous of the various psychoactive drugs, but because of the prejudices and preferences of most Americans (American Heritage, page 47). In 1937 the government enacted the Marijuana Tax Act, which imposed a tax of one dollar an ounce on marijuana, along with fines of $2,000 for drug possession and prison terms for tax evasion. For this reason, marijuana use in the United States appears to have gone into decline in the late 1930s (Grolier Wellness Encyclopedia, p. 54). Then marijuana was outlawed in 1937 as a crackdown on Mexican workers crossing the border looking for work during the Depression. The specific reason given for banning the hemp plant was its supposedly violent "effect on degenerate races" (Schaffer, pg.