Marijuana has always been classified as a drug that people should avoid. Its affects impair human judgement and action, and the long term affects prove to have negative impact on the human brain. However, America’s view of smoking marijuana has significantly changed over the past 60 years, creating a significant paradigm shift that is overlooked by most people.
The war on weed primarily began following the Great Depression, when congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act, which criminalized the use and possession of marijuana in the United States. Prior to the Depression, the issue of marijuana had remained quiet and irrelevant. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, congress took severe actions to decrease the use and possession of marijuana, by imposing stricter laws and handing out lengthy prisons sentences. The 1960s became the most well known era of drug use, including marijuana. Its use had blossomed among the white upper middle class, and became accepted by pop culture. The marijuana laws of the 50s were seen as ineffective in restricting the use of marijuana and began to repeal throughout the 70s. Weed was separated into another class from other narcotics and was becoming even more accepted by society. The parents movement against marijuana in the late 70s, Reagan’s Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, and Bush’s war on drugs in the 90s did little to stop the widespread acceptance and increasing practice of marijuana. The drug was finally legalized by California in 1996.
Since the late 90s, more and more states have begun to legalize marijuana, while more and more people are accepting its practice. The views of America have shifted from fear of the drug, to hatred of the drug, and finally to love of the drug. There are reasons for this change in viewpoint. As marijuana has become more commonly used, research is continually being conducted to dissect its effects, both negative and positive. Media has massive effects on the young culture of modern society, which has caused much of America’s youth to take part in the marijuana movement. In the world of today, people believe what they see on TV and read in the paper, and as the popculture accepts marijuana, and as scientific research condemns its negative affects, people will continue to smoke weed.
I think that this will make for an interesting topic for your paper and you shouldn’t have too much trouble developing it as a paradigm shift. You mention how society now accepts the palliative effects of marijuana which has led to a rise in its medical use. You could even narrow the scope of your paper to representations/portrayals of marijuana use in television and film. For example, in many contemporary television series marijuana use is just viewed as a normal thing people do. This is very different from portrayals in the past.