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Medical Marijuana
Marijuana is one of the most popular and most common drugs on streets today.
This well-known green plant, used by people all over the world is not just an illegal
harmful drug as people think. Some people smoke it for pleasure, some because they
want to try it, and some because it is the only way for them to survive. The healing
effects of marijuana have become for many people an every day medicine and help them
against their illnesses. They encounter the good of marijuana and use it not as a drug but
as a medicine.
Marijuana is a very old drug. It was nearly 5000 thousands years ago, when the
therapeutic qualities of cannabis, the plant of marijuana, were first discovered. It was the
Chinese Emperor, and the father of Chinese medicine Shen-Nung (c. 2700 B.C.), who
introduced this drug to Chinese peoples. At this time marijuana was a great medicine and
as Kathy Koch writes in her article “the ancient Chinese used cannabis in liquid extracts,
salves and in food preparations for such complaints as menstrual fatigue, malaria,
rheumatism, gout, boils, constipation and “absent-mindedness.”” Marijuana was since
this time treated as a helpful medicine. During the Renaissance, European explorers
described the medical uses of cannabis in Africa, Middle East, and India, and at the same
time they recommended cannabis use as an effective way to treat depression. In 19th
century a study reported by William O'Shaughnessy, an Irish surgeon, included that
marijuana smokers experience less rheumatism pain, increased appetite, mental
cheerfulness and a feeling of sexual excitement. In the beginning of the 20th century the
use of cannabis as medicine has declined according to invention of more chemically
stable drugs such as aspirin, chloral hydrate, and opiates. In the 1930s the public opinion
has turned against marijuana dramatically and in 1931 the non-medical use of marijuana
was prohibited in more than 29 countries in the US. By 1941 cannabis was no longer
found in the US list of medicines. For more than 5000 years cannabis was used as helpful
medicine. The healing effects of marijuana were appreciating by people all over the
world and marijuana was a very often prescribed medicine. The long period of good
experiences with marijuana were canceled with the prohibition of it and a lot of people
lost their only medicine and hope against their illnesses.
Marijuana is today considered as a drug with no medicinal value and a high
potential for abuse. It is also classified as schedule I drug, which means that it cannot be
prescribed because it is considered to have “no currently accepted medical use.” The
Federal Government policy discussing the use of marijuana is according to an article
written by William Stempsey is based on bad reasoning. The argument for that policy
goes this way: “Marijuana is an illegal drug; no one should use any illegal drug for any
reason; therefore no one should use marijuana for any reason.” This logically bad
argument leads Federal Government to keep classifying marijuana in the same category
as drugs as LSD or heroin and retiring marijuana from the world of medicine close the
door for many ill people for whom marijuana is the key for their problems.
Schedule I drug, besides having no medical value, must have a high potential for
abuse and it must be unsafe to use even under medical supervision. This argument is
absolutely wrong when it is compared to a study provided by the Institute of Medicine, an
independent research organization, showed that “marijuana is an effective alternative for
treating nausea caused by AIDS medications and cancer treatments, intractable pain,
muscle spasms, glaucoma, epilepsy, anorexia, asthma, insomnia, depression and other
disorders.” These illnesses are usually treated by prescription drugs, which are expensive,
they don't always work and they're not always harmless. Marijuana is on the other hand
very inexpensive, undemanding, and fast recovering medicine that sometimes offers
benefits that a person can't get from approved prescription drugs. Cannabis has many
claims of respectability, “People have used it for centuries to stimulate appetite, and an
unknown number now use it to combat the wasting associated with AIDS.” (can
marijuana be medicine) At the same time marijuana is one of the few drugs that can help
people with the glaucoma illness by reducing pressure within the eye. In fact, compared
with the chemotherapeutic agents responsible for the nausea and vomiting that lead
people to marijuana, marijuana itself is quite safe.
Medical marijuana can be effective in many ways and help people with many
different illnesses. A survey made by Harvard University oncologists showed that “many
doctors recommends breaking law for their patients in order to get marijuana and almost
a half of them would prescribe marijuana if it were legal.” (should marijuana be legalized
for medical uses) A Drug Enforcement Agency tried to explain the situation between
Federal government and legalization of medical marijuana “If they allow marijuana as
medicine, there will be thousands more patients using it.” People would see that it is
functioning fine and people would start asking a question why is marijuana illegal at all
which might lead to its fully legalization. That’s the case that government is afraid of.
Right now cocaine and morphine are prescribed legally as medicines. The presence of
these medically legal drugs doesn’t addict in any significant way to the country’s drug
problems. Marijuana wouldn't either.
According to the article The Battle for Medical Marijuana in the War of Drugs
there are three basic arguments raised against the medical marijuana. First, that marijuana
is a drug based of unproven safety and effectiveness. The effectiveness of this drug has
been attested by thousands of patients who have used this drug illegally, and were highly
satisfied with its results. A second argument against legalizing medical marijuana is
based on the theory that prescribing marijuana would lead to substantial diversion of
marijuana for the public. The availability of the drugs on streets doesn’t depend on the
prescription drugs. Morphine and other very risky drugs are available to get on
prescription and there is no widespread of these drugs. A third argument says that
marijuana is a gateway to other, harder drugs as heroin or cocaine. A 1994 survey made
by New York Times reported that “17 percent of current marijuana users said they had
tried cocaine, and only 0.2 percent of those who had not used marijuana had tried
cocaine.” This can be interpreted in two ways. One way says that those who smoke
marijuana are 85 times as likely as others to try cocaine, or this might conclude that 83
percent of those who smoked marijuana, that means 5 out of 6, never try cocaine. These
arguments, that are not very convincing, are based more on political and societal ideology
than on a science.
As other drugs marijuana has also its own harmful effects. But are these effects so
deadly and dangerous that the use of cannabis cannot be legalized? The article Where
there’s Smoke, there’s the Medicine describes accidental effects of smoking marijuana
“What ill effects there might be, such as dizziness, are not necessarily the same as the
harmful physical effects of drug abuse, and the dangers of such abuse were small.” The
withdrawal symptoms are mild and the main long term smoking effect cause the same
lung damage as smoking tobacco. Also a report from the study made by Institute of
Medicine said that marijuana is less addictive than nicotine or alcohol.
The unhealthiest part of marijuana is mainly its toxic smoke, which means that
smoking marijuana is inappropriate for chronic conditions. The lung damage caused by
the smoke makes it harder for marijuana to be legalized. Specific cannabinoids, the toxic
substances in marijuana smoke, can be isolated in traditional pharmaceuticals like
inhalers or pills. The inhalation process may be an effective solution for this problem and
this unexplored way of using marijuana may cause an easier step in its further
legalization.
Marijuana is nowadays illegal almost all over the world. There are only a few
countries that recognized the good site of cannabis and legalized medical marijuana.
Among these countries are also five US states, Alaska, Arizona, California, Oregon and
Washington. These states have passed a referendum about legalizing medical marijuana
and patients in these countries may now legally smoke marijuana. According to William
Greider’s article “more than one-fifth of the American electorate has now voted in the
majority to give patients with a certain medical conditions the right to use marijuana.”
This survey shows that public supports medical marijuana legalization and is trying to
help people that need cannabis help. Patients allowed to use marijuana are also required
to carry a special state-issued ID, but it is also a federal offense to possess, buy or sell it,
so patients in those five states who use marijuana medicinally risk being arrested by
federal agents. Indeed, people have been willing to risk the imprisonment in order to
obtain the relief that marijuana offers them. A natural product lure people more than
something synthesized. Anything that might improve the quality of their life seems
reasonable, especially if the risks are small and the benefits are large. A 44-year-old
Canadian Terry Parker smokes marijuana for medical reasons: “marijuana is far more
effective, he says, than conventional medicine in controlling the epileptic seizures that
have plagued him since the age of 4. I smoke two or three joints a day and get 100
percent seizure relief" (roll your own medicine ebsco). People more often look at
marijuana as an effective medicine and indict the federal government for withholding
valuable medicine and its indifferent approach to the suffering of its citizens.
During the last year decades many researches and studies were made about the
effectiveness of medical marijuana and the need of this drug in the medicine. Many
people nowadays use marijuana as their every day medicine and are very satisfied with its
results. It is only the question of time when marijuana will find its constant place in the
medicine and will be accepted by the society and will be useful by treating illness and
saving people’s lives.