Medical Marijuana
Medical Marijuana
I would like to discuss both the pros and cons of legalizing Medical Marijuana, although I am most towards not legalizing it. Marijuana comes from the cannabis sativa plant. This psychoactive drug has the reputation for causing hallucinations, disorientations, and also feelings of exhilaration and anxiety. This same drug has been found to relieve symptoms of diseases of serious degree. Asthma, glaucoma, and muscle spasms are just a few. It has also been found to relieve a loss of appetite and nausea due to AIDS wasting syndrome and chemotherapy treatment. Although this drug has a bad reputation, it has become a major source of relief for many terminally ill patients, as well as people with mental disorders such as depression and Bipolar disorder. For these reasons, I believe that Marijuana, for medical purposes only, should be legalized in the United States.
Several negative arguments have arisen since this has become a major debate topic. In 1999, the United States Institute of Medicine conducted a study to assess any potential benefits of Marijuana in the medicinal region. This study concluded that smoking marijuana has negative effects as compared to the more effective medications currently available, and should not be used as a treatment. A number of studies have reported that the effects of smoking marijuana for people with psychological problems causes a negative effect. Especially in young women, where rates of mental health problems have become many times higher in daily marijuana users. Marijuana poses a potential risk to ones mental health, and causes increased rates of depression and anxiety problems. It also triggers schizophrenia, as a relapse or the onset thereof, in predisposed people and also aggravates these symptoms generally.
People against the legalization also state that the use of marijuana for the terminally ill can no longer be considered as a therapeutic intercession. Many other ways of easing their pain have arisen that show positive effects as compared to Marijuana. To relieve the pain of terminal patients, a doctor should prescribe anti-emetic or analgesic therapies of proven effectiveness. These prove to be much better without the side effects of marijuana smoking. Misuse and abuse would be two of many negative results to the legalization of Marijuana. Drug addicts, especially, would be driven to find loopholes in the laws of the world. In countries where the legalization of medical purposes has occurred, this has been the case. To legalize this would be foolery as it would pose a bad example and trigger the pressures for other drugs to become legal. When a person uses a drug repeatedly, it leads to a psychological craving for it, as well as an addiction, by definition; Marijuana meets the criteria for a drug