Debate Essay, Research Paper

The Debate Over Legalization of Marijuana

Pro marijuana legalization groups such as the Physician’s Association for AIDS Care, National Lymphoma Foundation argue that

marijuana should be legalized in order to treat terminally ill patients. Among them are AIDS victims who find that marijuana

stimulates their appetites so they can fight off dangerous emaciation; glaucoma sufferers who have used marijuana said it has

prevented them from going blind, and cancer patients for whom it alleviates the severe nausea that is often accompanies

chemotherapy and sometimes makes lifesaving treatment impossible.

Due to all these lobbying groups which show substantial evidence that marijuana can be used as a prescribed drug. Also many

advocates who are pro marijuana complain that morphine and cocaine are legal and are very dangerous drugs, that brings up the

question why not legalize marijuana as medical drug which is proven to be less dangerous than cocaine and morphine. Lobbying

groups in a San Diego, California , council committee unanimously voted to urge president Bill Clinton and congress to end federal

restrictions against the use of marijuana for ” legitiment medical use.” City council women Christine kehoe said she wanted the

city of San Diego “to go on the record we support the medical use marijuana.; marijuana can be a drug of necessity in the

treatment of AIDS, glaucoma, cancer and multiple sclerosis. ”

Many agencies which are anti marijuana such as Drug Enforcement Agency and police departments argue that marijuana

shouldn’t be legalized. These agencies believe that marijuana shouldn’t be legalized because if marijuana is to become legal then

thousands more patients using marijuana. Then people will raise the question why marijuana illegal at all if its a medicine.

The main reason why the Drug Enforcement Agency doesn’t want marijuana to be legal is because their is no hard core evidence

that proves that marijuana is a effective drug as a medicine. In twenty years of research have produced no reliable scientific proof

that marijuana has medical value. The American Cancer Society , American Glaucoma Society,the National Multiple Sclerosis, the

American Academy of Ophthalmology , or the American Medical Association , say that their is no evidence that marijuana is a

medicine. The agencies also argues that no other drug prescribed is smoked and that knew findings show that marijuana is acutely

harmful to AIDS, Cancer patients because the active ingredient in marijuana acutely reduces the the bodies white blood cells

which fight off infection. The Drug Enforcement Agency along with police departments all over the United States believe, with

the legalization of drugs crime will increase due to a higher increase of pot users which will eventually become addicts and will still

or kill in order to get their drugs. These are the main points and reasons why the Drug named marijuana shouldn’t be legalized in

the United States of America.

Seeing booth sides of the issue I come to a conclusion that marijuana should be legalized in order to help people suffering from

terminal diseases such as AIDS, Cancer and Glaucoma. Prohibition of marijuana over the past decades hasn’t deminshed the

demand of the drug in the United States. The use of marijuana has acutely went up due to the mass attention given to marijuana

by rappers such as Cypress Hill who promote the use of marijuana as a social drug. But I believe that marijuana is here to stay in

our society and is only going through the stages that alcohol had during the prohibition era.

Marijuana will become legal due to the knew administration which is liberal and who’s leader , president Bill Clinton who had

acutely used marijuana during the nineteen sixties. Due to all these factors marijuana will become more widely accepted by the

American people who will pressure congress to rewrite the laws on the drug marijuana. Now its only a matter of time before

lobbying groups pressure the legislature to legalize it. Due to legalization many states will be able to grow marijuana as a cash

crop, and the United States government will be able to tax marijuana and make revenue off it. The revenue made from marijuana

will be in the millions which can be used for drug rehabs and anti drug programs targeted at elementary children. Still by seeing

both sides of the issue I’m still one hundred percent pro marijuana because I use it socially and I believe its less harmful than beer

or liquor because with marijuana you can’t overdose.

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