Medical Marijuana free essay sample

Over many years and especially in recent times people have been debating whether or not marijuana should be legalized for medical use. Those who support legalization claim that marijuana has legitimate medical benefits. Many argue that marijuana is a better alternative than pills because it is less addictive and no known marijuana overdoses have been reported, as opposed to the numerous that are reported with prescription drugs every day. Many advocates have also come up with plans to tax and regulate the purchase of cannabis. This tax is supposed to help boost the economy of the state. Those who are opposed to the legalization of medicinal marijuana argue that marijuana is a gateway drug. This means that once people try using marijuana, they will want to experiment with other drugs which are usually much more dangerous. Also, marijuana is considered a schedule one drug. This means that it does not have any medicinal value. We will write a custom essay sample on Medical Marijuana or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page While many people know that marijuana does indeed have medicinal value, it remains a schedule one drug. Marijuana should be legalized for medical use in The United States because it has numerous medical benefits, it’s a much safer alternative to many prescription drugs, and it will generate tax revenue. For thousands of years humans have been using the cannabis plant. The cannabis plant has numerous benefits. It has been recorded to have been used in food by the Ancient Chinese. It can be used to make clothing, rope, necklaces, and bracelets. And of course, it has been consumed in a variety of different ways. Marijuana was first smoked mainly during religious ceremonies. Over time, civilizations like the Chinese began to experiment with using cannabis as an herbal medicine. Armies would smoke marijuana before going into battle in order to calm themselves down so they didn’t panic while fighting. Later, starting in 1915, in the United States prohibitions started for nonmedical use of marijuana. In 1937 the Marijuana Tax Act made possession of marijuana illegal in the United States, whether it was for recreational or medical use. In 1970 the Controlled Substance Act created schedules to classify drugs. Marijuana was determined a schedule one drug meaning that it has no medicinal value. It remains a schedule one drug to this day. Five years later in 1975, the FDA established the compassionate use program for medical marijuana which decriminalized the cultivation and use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Only those who were severely ill and had a doctor’s recommendation were able to possess and smoke marijuana. Today 21 states including Washington DC have legalized medical marijuana, California being the first, and Connecticut and Massachusetts being the most recent. These 21 states did not legalize medical marijuana just so that their citizens could legally get high. They legalized it because marijuana has legitimate medical benefits. In the past marijuana has been used medically for pain relief, malaria, constipation, insomnia, depression, anxiety, migraine headaches, epilepsy and more. Modern suggested uses for marijuana include the treatment of nausea and vomiting, glaucoma, AIDS, and multiple sclerosis (MS). In fact, researchers in the United Kingdom did a study to see how marijuana would affect patients with MS. 40% of the patients reported at least a 30% reduction in spasticity, while only 22% of those taking a placebo reported at least a 30% reduction (Durand and Holland 57). Marijuana is one of the most restricted drugs in the United States. It has been seen through studies like the one done in the UK that marijuana has medical benefits, but these studies cannot be conducted in the United States because marijuana is a schedule I substance. As long as marijuana remains in this category of drugs, American scientists and researchers will not be able to conduct research on its possible benefits. Jessica Berg stated in her article â€Å"Smokescreen† that, â€Å"On April 20, 2006, the Food and Drug Administration stated, in an ‘Inter-Agency Advisory regarding Claims That Smoked Marijuana Is a Medicine,’ that it does ‘not support the use of smoked marijuana for medical purposes’† (Berg 1). The FDA must know that cannabis does have medical benefits, yet they refuse to fund research toward it. This is research that could help save tons of lives. Like the life of five year old Charlotte Figi. Charlotte had a severe form of epilepsy called Dravet Syndrome. Dr. Sanjay Gupta visited the Figi’s home in Colorado in his documentary WEED to see how Charlotte’s parents used marijuana to treat her seizures. Before trying cannabis, Charlotte’s parents experimented with many treatments for their daughter. None of them worked. She continued to have hundreds of seizures every week. If her life continued to go on like this she would surely not live for much longer. Just when her parents thought there were no more options, they decided to try medicinal cannabis. At first hesitant, her parents decided to go through with the idea. They didn’t want to get their five year old high, so Charlotte’s parents tried to find a strain of cannabis that was high in cannabidiol (the ingredient in marijuana with medicinal benefits (CBD)) and low in tetrahydrocannabinol (the ingredient that creates euphoria (THC)). Charlotte’s mother extracted the cannabidiol from the cannabis and injected it under Charlotte’s tongue. Charlotte’s number of seizures dropped from hundreds every week to about one every month (Gupta, Dr. Sanjay WEED). Cannabis literally saved Charlotte’s life. It was the only thing that worked for her when all other treatments failed. Dr. Gupta also visited another patient named Chad Moore who uses medicinal marijuana to treat his painful and sometimes hour-long diaphragm spasms. Moore explained to Gupta that he had tried many different pills and medications to treat his disorder and none of them worked. Moore had been hospitalized many times because of near overdoses. Moore experienced spasms on camera, and then consumed cannabis, and the spasms stopped one minute later all in the same take. Gupta was shocked at how fast the cannabis took affect (Gupta, Dr. Sanjay WEED). The experience of working with Charlotte and Chad really changed Gupta’s opinion about medicinal marijuana. In an interview with Piers Morgan on CNN, Dr. Gupta admits publicly that his 2009 Time Magazine article entitled, â€Å"Why I Would Vote No on Pot† does not correctly represent his current views about medicinal marijuana. After creating this documentary, he went from being against the legalization of medical marijuana, to being an advocate for it. Gupta explained to Piers Morgan, â€Å"I did not look far enough. I did not look deep enough. I didn’t listen to patients who said, ‘Not only does marijuana work for me, it’s the only thing that works for me’† (Gupta and Morgan). If more people who are against the legalization of medical marijuana took the time to go out and see the way that it helps people and even saves lives, maybe then they would change their minds. As mentioned before, Colorado is one of 21 states that have legalized medicinal marijuana. It also legalized marijuana for recreational use for those over the age of 21 in 2012. As of the year 2000 approved an amendment to the state constitution which allows a defense to the charge of marijuana possession for approved medicinal marijuana patients and their physicians. The amendment requires that the patient seeking a medical marijuana card to have a diagnosed, debilitating condition and to receive a doctor’s recommendation (Kamin 1). Two members of my own personal family live in Colorado and both have medicinal marijuana cards. My cousin Eric and Uncle Steve both use medicinal marijuana for different ailments. Eric works in the restaurant business and is on his feet several hours a day. This causes him to get very bad knee pains and muscle fatigue in his legs. Not to mention the stress of running a good restaurant. In an interview conducted with Eric he stated, â€Å"Marijuana is better at relieving my muscle pains after work than any kind of pill I have ever taken. I am always nervous taking pain killers because I don’t want to take too many or get any bad side effects. With cannabis I know I won’t overdose and I’m being safe† (Wall-Hauser). Even though Eric uses marijuana every day he says he doesn’t feel like he is addicted to it. He said, â€Å"I don’t come home from working craving to smoke a joint like people crave a cigarette when they don’t have one. I just do it because it makes me feel a lot better† (Wall-Hauser). Eric isn’t the only one in my family who uses medical marijuana. His father, and my uncle, Steve also has a medicinal marijuana card and lives in Colorado. Steve is a doctor, an anesthesiologist specifically, so he has been around different kinds of medicine for about 40 years. Working in a hospital, Steve is up and on his feet walking around for almost the entire day. This can take a toll on a person’s body, especially someone who is 60 years old. Steve said, â€Å"The marijuana really helps a lot with my muscle and joint aches and it doesn’t take very much to have an effect† (Sniadach). He also said that the cannabis helps with his high stress level job and helps him relax in the evenings when he gets home from the hospital. â€Å"Working at a hospital is very stressful. Sick people everywhere. If I mess up my job the patient is going to have a painful procedure. The marijuana helps me cope with a lot of this stress† he said (Sniadach). All 21 states that have legalized marijuana for medical use have some sort of tax system that helps to generate revenue for the state. In the state of Colorado citizens just voted to raise the tax on marijuana to 25%. According to the Colorado State Department of Revenue the state of Colorado generated over five million dollars in the fiscal year of 2012 from the taxation of medical marijuana from dispensaries (Department of Revenue). This money really has helped boost Colorado’s economy and can be put toward state projects like road maintenance, schools, public works projects, and many more. This was just the amount Colorado generated in one year and the number is growing. If all 50 states legalized medicinal marijuana and generated an average of five million dollars in tax revenue, that is an average of 250 million dollars in tax revenue for the entire nation. The struggling economy of the United States would surely benefit from the legalization of medicinal marijuana. Even though there is so much scientific evidence that marijuana does have legitimate medicinal value, many people still do not support its legalization. Many argue that marijuana is a gateway drug, meaning that people who try marijuana will soon want to try other, usually more dangerous drugs, such as cocaine and heroin. Many also argue that if medical marijuana is legalized more teens and young adults will want to use it. Both of these arguments are based around young adults because anti-drug corporations figure if they can stop drug use among teens, then these teens won’t want to use drugs later in life. A study was done in the 1990’s to see if marijuana legalization affected drug-related attitudes and drug use among teens and young adults. This study found that, â€Å"Although some marijuana-related attitudes changed between 1995 and 1999, use did not increase. These findings suggest that recent policy changes have had little impact on marijuana related behavior† (Khatapoush and Hallfors abstract). This study proves that the argument that teens will begin to use marijuana more or will want to experiment with harder drugs is invalid. Those who are against the legalization of medicinal marijuana also bring up the idea that if it was legalized, teens and those under the age of 21 will have an easier time obtaining it. The idea is that teens will know someone that is over 21 and ask the person to get them marijuana with their medicinal card. Medicinal marijuana can only be obtained through dispensaries that are approved by the government, so the act of a young adult getting marijuana from a patient is highly illegal. A study was done to determine if there is a relationship between marijuana use among teens and young adults and ease of access with the number of medicinal marijuana cards at the county level. The study found that living in a county with a higher number of medical marijuana cards did not result in an increased use of marijuana over a 30 day period or over the test subject’s lifetime (Friese and Grube abstract). This study shows that just because a teen may live in an area where many people hold medicinal marijuana cards, they are not more likely to gain access to marijuana or use it illegally. People against the legalization of medical marijuana also argue the idea that people who want to obtain a medical marijuana card will tell their doctor whatever they want to hear just so they can get a card and go get high. The law in Colorado states that it, â€Å"(†¦) requires those seeking to register as marijuana patients to demonstrate a diagnosed, debilitating condition and to receive a doctor’s advice that they might benefit from the medicinal use of marijuana† (Kamin 1). It is true that some people do go to their physicians and claim they get headaches and need to get medical marijuana. These people do not have the intent of using the marijuana for medicinal purposes, but they have a card so it is still legal. This form of â€Å"cheating the system† can be a problem. No one has yet come up with a plan in order to weed (no pun intended) out those patients who really need marijuana for its medical purpose from those who just want to get high. In order to solve this problem, physicians need to have a stricter process for issuing medicinal marijuana cards. If a patient is interested in using cannabis for their illness they need to be tested to make sure that they really have that illness and will benefit from medicinal marijuana. The law states that patients must be diagnosed with the condition, not just say they have it. When the state law says diagnosed they mean by a licensed physician, not a self-diagnosis. If a person does turn out to not have the condition, or it is determined that they will not benefit from medical marijuana, then their request should be rejected. Another way to stop people from obtaining medical marijuana cards just to get high would be to use marijuana as a last-resort medicine. By last-resort medicine, I mean that the patient has tried all other alternatives for their condition and none of them have worked. If a patient just wants to get high, they won’t want to try the alternative medicines because these prescriptions won’t produce the high that marijuana does. If the patient does try all the other alternatives and none of them work, then the physician should consider issuing them a medicinal marijuana card. We saw this with Charlotte Figi’s parents in Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s WEED documentary. Charlotte’s parents tried tons of different medications to treat Charlotte’s epilepsy and after they saw no results, then they turned to trying medical marijuana. Cannabis is a plant that has so many beneficial uses to humankind. Yet its use is restricted. Marijuana has been seen to save lives of those with epilepsy. It has been seen to make those who are extremely weak from chemotherapy able to eat. It has been seen to help those who have terrible muscle pains and migraine headaches. It has relieved the stress of many people and helped those who have extreme anxiety. No deaths have ever been reported from an overdose of marijuana, but accidental overdoses on prescription pills occur every day. Marijuana is also much less addictive than painkillers like Percocet’s and Oxycodone. For some people marijuana is the only thing that makes them feel better. If they live outside of one of the 21 states that have legalized medical marijuana then they are at risk for being arrested even if they use marijuana for medical purposes. If marijuana wasn’t a schedule one substance then maybe scientists could find even more benefits from this amazing plant. Legalizing medical marijuana will help stimulate our nation’s economy. This tax revenue can be used to create better drug education programs, improve public transportation, create public works programs, and many other things. Cannabis is a plant that has endless possibilities. Science has proven its medicinal value and it is time that we recognize the work that these researchers have done and legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes.