Legalization Of Marijuana For Medicinal Use
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Legalization of Marijuana for Medicinal Use
Marijuana is an illegal drug whose use is prevalent in our country. Growing up as a child, it has always been advertised as a dangerous harmful drug that takes lives. To this day I see commercials on the television of kids smoking marijuana and then randomly deciding to shoot themselves, or running someone over in a car accident. I believe this gives a misperception of the effects of marijuana on the general populace. Marijuana is by no means healthy for you. In fact, its use is overall ill-advised for the common person because after all smoking anything can cause cancer. Additionally marijuana is a psychoactive drug which can affect your concentration, motor coordination, memory, and reproductive and immune systems. What the federal government does not emphasize however the positive, medicinal uses of marijuana are. While marijuana is proven to have adverse effects on an individual’s psychological and physical health, it does have medicinal uses that can save many lives.
In order to decide whether marijuana should be used for medicinal purposes, we must first examine what marijuana is, and the effects it has on the human body. Marijuana is a natural plant that has over 400 chemicals in it. The most important of them is THC, or tetra hydra cannibanol, which is the active ingredient that supposedly gets you “high”. “The effect marijuana has on an individual depends to a large extent on
his personality structure, his expectations and attitude toward marijuana, and his mood at the time of use” (Smith 69). As aforementioned marijuana has a different effect on different people depending on certain factors including the dosage taken, the potency of the drug, and the person taking the drug. “Although cannabis causes initial restlessness,
excitement, and sometimes boisterous, impulsive behavior, pacing and dancing, the main picture of reduced physical activity apart from speech” (Burstein et al. 316). In addition to the effects on your general motor activity marijuana also throws off your depth perception. “The sense of spatial dimension is disturbed and confused” (Burstein et al. 292). Another “characteristic affect of cannabis in many subjects is laughter, hilarity, and mirthвЂ¦Ð²Ð‚Ñœ (Burstein et al. 315). This explains the silly behavior exhibited by patients who have been exposed to the drug.
While it might seem that many of the effects of marijuana are either silly or negative, marijuana does have many positive and medicinal effects on the body. Unfortunately the Federal Government has been encouraging research on the negative effects of marijuana while forbidding research on its potential benefits since the 1960’s and 1970’s when serious research on marijuana began. Marijuana has therapeutic effects that are strongly supported by “Young psychologists — who seem to constitute one of the largest groups of adult smokers — are […] vocal endorsers of marijuana as a therapy additiveвЂ¦Ð²Ð‚Ñœ (Lewis 135). Fortunately, certain states have begun to recognize the benefits of using marijuana as medicine.
According to California law, anyone who obtains and uses marijuana on the recommendation of a physician “in the treatment of cancer, anorexia, AIDS, chronic fatigue, plasticity, glaucoma, arthritis, migraine, or any other illness for
which marijuana provides relief” shall not be subject to criminal prosecution or sanction. (Preston 257)
From this we can see that it as accepted that marijuana evidently serves patients of many illnesses and diseases and can help ameliorate their symptoms and ease their pain. This is
only further supported by Brian Preston when he states that “Cannabis had shown itself to be a useful appetite enhancer for AIDS sufferers; it’s fair to say that for some people cannabis was the only thing keeping them alive” (254). Marijuana’s effect on appetite is also very useful in treating an anorexia patient. This is supported by Burstein et al when it is stated that “Taste and smell are affected in large ways as well. вЂ?… her subjects were not hungry but ate with relish, commenting that even hospital food was deliciousвЂ™Ð²Ð‚Ñœ (294). Additionally with cancer as the leading cause of death in America, and many of these cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy (which can sometimes be even more painful than the cancer), it is only just that these patients have their pains eased even if it takes what is considered a psychoactive drug to do the job.
Since research has began, and the medical value of marijuana has been discovered, many states have stepped forward and enacted legislation recognizing the medicinal benefits of marijuana. The first state being New Mexico in February 1978 and three states including Florida, Louisiana, and Illinois quickly followed suit the same year (Randall and O’Leary). Now that number of states has grown to 34. To recognize the importance of this I think it is important to note that 34 states is a majority of states in our country. This should say something to the general populace, and the federal government in terms of how its citizens feel on the recognition of medicinal marijuana.
One of the main reasons I believe the government is turning a blind eye to the positive values of marijuana is because of its increasing popularity. Already “drug use among our nation’s teens is at record levels, with 49 percent of high school seniors
having smoked marijuana.” (“Another round…,” H4). Even if there are medicinal purposes for marijuana the problem is that the substance is misused heavily.
Even in the earlier background, despite initial claims for effectiveness as an anesthetic or for treating tetanus, chorea, neuralgia, rheumatism, epilepsy, melancholy, or as a uterine stimulant, cannabis did not establish itself but remained a drug of interest primarily for its psychic action. (Burstein et al. 361)
And so the federal government probably feels that if marijuana is legalized for medicinal purposes people might feign certain symptoms, or try to obtain it illegally through someone who has a prescription who is willing to sell it and this will only increase