Cannabis sativa L., the cannabis plant, grows wild throughout most of the tropic and temperate regions of the world. Prior to the advent of synthetic fibers, the cannabis plant was cultivated for the tough fiber of its stem. In the United States, cannabis is legitimately grown only for scientific research.

Cannabis contains chemicals called cannabinoids that are unique to the cannabis plant. Among the cannabinoids synthesized by the plant are cannabinol, cannabidiol, cannabinolidic acids, cannabigerol, cannabichromene, and several isomers of tetrahydrocannabinol. One of these, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is believed to be responsible for most of the characteristic psychoactive effects of cannabis. Research has resulted in development and marketing of the dronabinol (synthetic THC) product, Marinol®, for the control of nausea and vomiting caused by chemotheraputic agents used in the treatment of cancer and to stimulate appetite in AIDS patients. Marinol® was rescheduled in 1999 and placed in Schedule III of the CSA. 

Cannabis products are usually smoked. Their effects are felt within minutes, reach their peak in 10 to 30 minutes, and may linger for two or three hours. The effects experienced often depend upon the experience and expectations of the individual user, as well as the activity of the drug itself. Low doses tend to induce a sense of well-being and a dreamy state of relaxation, which may be accompanied by a more vivid sense of sight, smell, taste, and hearing, as well as by subtle alterations in thought formation and expression. This state of intoxication may not be noticeable to an observer. However, driving, occupational, or household accidents may result from a distortion of time and space relationships and impaired motor coordination. Stronger doses intensify reactions. The individual may experience shifting sensory imagery, rapidly fluctuating emotions, fragmentary thoughts with disturbing associations, an altered sense of self-identity, impaired memory, and a dulling of attention despite an illusion of heightened insight. High doses may result in image distortion, a loss of personal identity, fantasies, and hallucinations.

Three drugs that come from cannabis--marijuana, hashish, and hashish oil--are distributed on the U.S. illicit market. Having no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, they remain under Schedule I of the CSA. Today, cannabis is illicitly cultivated, both indoors and out, to maximize its THC content, thereby producing the greatest possible psychoactive effect.

Description
An annual herb with erect, bushy form, with a growth height between 2 and 7 m. Male and female flowers are on separate plants. The male plants produce abundant pollen which is shed prior to the plant yellowing and dying. Female plants are dark green and continue to actively grow until all the seed has ripened, unless damaged by frost. Reproduction is by seed only.

Stems - slightly woody, simple or sparsely branched, 1 to 2.5 cm diameter, rough, hairy, resinous in the upper part of the plant.

Leaves - dark green and sparsely hairy on the upper surface, paler and more densely hairy below; hand-shaped, with 5 to 9 finger-like leaflets growing from the tip of a narrow 4 to 5 cm long leaf stalk, the leaflets with sharply toothed margins and prominent veins.

Flowers - green; male flowers on small, branched flower stalks, in the leaf axis with a tiny leaf opposite; female flowers in leafy spikes and clothed in sticky hairs.

Seeds - usually an olive-brown to yellow colour, sometimes with a dark mottled pattern when ripe; almost round in shape or oval, slightly flattened, with blunt edges.

Roots - a 30 to 100 cm long, multiple-branched taproot, with a dense layer of laterally spreading roots immediately below the soil surface to a depth of 20 cm.