Wide context
Complete PICLE corpus of essays by Polish advanced EFL students (330,000)
/^t/Nobody knows the exact origins of drugs. The first accounts of drugs being introduced to Europe is through trade with China. Opium was the wonder drug that high European society hungered for. Sea merchants risked their lives while conquering the unknown oceans just so they could safely return to Europe and sell their goods. The merchants became explorers because while looking for quicker and easier routs to India and China they discovered new lands. These being later colonized. America being the new colonized continent, no longer needed to trade with China and India. Explorers had acquired the knowledge to produce their own drugs. The Southern States of America, one of them being Virginia, had perfect conditions for the cultivation of marijuana. Thomas Jefferson and George Washington not only were holders of great marijuana plantations, but they also enjoyed smoking marijuana hemp plants. The smoking of marijuana was not only fashionable and a sign of wealth but also a political tool to free one's country from tyranny. Thomas Jefferson and George Washington had realized the power of the cultivation of the hemp plants and passed a law that all people had to grow the marijuana plant. In doing so they will become self dependable and will be able to release their country from the British tyranny.