Legalization of Marijuana Legalization of marijuana has been an issue for a long time. Marijuana was first brought up as an issue in 1915. It had since then became a much bigger issue in the 1960's and is now being considered for medical purposes in the 1990's. Some of the issue's faced can be described as: Legalization for medical purposes and legalization for insufficient reasons (i.e.: smoking it just for own joys ). ( Brownell, 71 ). As a classroom exercise in an upward division university course in abnormal psychology, an instructor began assessing students attitudes toward marijuana in 1965. Periodic surveys were continued since that time because of their value