Legalization Of Marijuana For Medical Purposes Essay, Research Paper

For years, there has been a contoversy over the legalization of marijuana. Marijuana is a drug made from the top of hemp plants. In the United States, it is classified as a narcotic drug that has been illegal since 1937. Unlike most narcotics though, it does not cause a physical dependency or addiction. Intoxication May cause and of the following: giddiness, sedation, pleasant tranquility, mood changes, and altered sense of timem space, and body dimensions. Such effects are desired my many and condemned by others.

Prohibition of the drug has increased risk for dealers. This makes the sale of marijuana more dangerous, therefore making it more expensive. So in the long run, dealers have become richer. Taxpayers money is being spent on police, court proceedings, and jail maintenance due to increased drug activity in the United States. The question here is whether this money is worth spending.

Many people argue that marijuana shuould be legalized for several reasons: for environmental and industrial benefits, for farmers who grow the plant for a living, for tax revenues, and most importantly, for medical use.

Numerous medical reports have been done to support legalization. Each being very conclusive. Marijuana has been used to treat patients with glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, cancer, epilepsy, AIDS, and arthritis. Marijuana helps relieve pain, controls vomiting, eases nausea, and can stimulate appetite. For some, the psychological effects may even be beneficial. Marijuana is less costly, less toxic, and in some cases more beneficial than regular treatments.

As early as 3000 BC, Central Asia and China were using marijuana as a folk medicine. Only in the 1900’s did people begin using it as a pleasure-inducing drug. Today, in patients with AIDS, marijuana helps with vomiting, nausea, and appetite loss when other medications have failed to do so. marijuana has been seen to reduce IOP (intraocular pressure) in patients with glaucoma, which causes blindness. Many patients are non-responsive to other drugs to treat this illness and marijuana is their last option. Multiple sclerosis, paraplegia, epilepsy, and quadrapalegia all cause involuntary convulsions. The use of marijuana by patients has been shown to suppress these. Many older people use marijuana to treat chronic pain related to such things as arthritis.

It is quite obvious that the medical benefits of marijuana are overwhelming. It is a very powerful drug that helps many patients with problems that may otherwise be untreatable. People who oppose legalizing marijuana fear that it will be placed in the wrong hands such as children. Children, however, will be exposed to this drug regardless. Doctors are the ones who need to decide who will receive and benefit from marijuana, not citizens. Recently, doctors’ requests for the drug, have been denied.

It is sad that the country has come down to this, depriving the sick of much needed medication at their worst time in life. Abraham Lincoln once said: “A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.”