<P> Multiple efforts to reschedule cannabis under the Act have failed, and the United States Supreme Court has ruled in United States v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative and Gonzales v. Raich that the federal government has a right to regulate and criminalize cannabis, even for medical purposes . </P> <P> In 1619, King James I decreed that the American colonists of Jamestown would need to step up efforts to do their fair share towards supporting England . The Virginia Company enacted the decree, asking Jamestown's land owners to grow and export 100 hemp plants to help support England's cause . Later the colonists would grow it to support its expansion in the Americas . George Washington grew hemp at Mount Vernon as one of his three primary crops . The use of hemp for rope and fabric later became ubiquitous throughout the 18th and 19th centuries in the United States . Medicinal preparations of cannabis became available in American pharmacies in the 1850s following an introduction to its use in Western medicine by William O'Shaughnessy a decade earlier in 1839 . </P> <P> Around the same time, efforts to regulate the sale of pharmaceuticals began, and laws were introduced on a state - to - state basis that created penalties for mislabeling drugs, adulterating them with undisclosed narcotics, and improper sale of those considered "poisons". Poison laws generally either required labels on the packaging indicating the harmful effects of the drugs or prohibited sale outside of licensed pharmacies and without a doctor's prescription . Those that required labeling often required the word "poison" if the drug was not issued by a pharmacy . Other regulations were prohibitions on the sale to minors, as well as restrictions on refills . Some pharmaceutical laws specifically enumerated the drugs that came under the effect of the regulations, while others did not--leaving the matter to medical experts . Those that did generally included references to cannabis, either under the category of "cannabis and its preparations" or "hemp and its preparations ." </P> <P> A 1905 Bulletin from the United States Department of Agriculture lists twenty - nine states with laws mentioning cannabis . Eight are listed with "sale of poisons" laws that specifically mention cannabis: North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Vermont, Maine, Montana, and the District of Columbia . Among those that required a prescription for sale were Wisconsin and Louisiana . Several "sale of poison" laws did not specify restricted drugs, including in Indiana, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Nebraska, Kentucky, Mississippi, and New York . Many states did not consider cannabis a "poison" but required it be labeled . </P>

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