Essay Medicinal Marijuana Should Be Legal

Should marijuana be available for patients to use as medical treatment for their long-term illnesses? This question is not only an ethical issue concerning the use of drugs, but it could also be a serious legal issue considering that marijuana is illegal according to the federal government. Many doctors have praised the merits of using cannabis for treatments for conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, chemotherapy and cancer treatments, epilepsy, glaucoma, HIV and AIDS, arthritis, anxiety, and depression. While most professionals in the medical field seem to agree on the benefits of using medicinal marijuana, there has been much division about the legal ramifications involved in prescribing and distributing this illegal product to the patients

Although medical marijuana programs face several complications, the benefits offered by medical marijuana and the positive impact this drug could have on the lives of thousands of patients and their families make a strong case for its consideration ( Russo 2008). The potential disadvantages can be minimised or even overcome through a number of measures, including the close medical supervision, education and monitoring of patients, and the creation of suitable infrastructure (e.g., medical marijuana dispensaries) and the creation of laws and policies that are not only sympathetic of medical marijuana patients but will also, minimise the risk the drug poses to the public ( Russo 2008). Individuals who live with chronic pain, whether it be physical or emotional, it’s important to contemplate the treatment options carefully. Doctors frequently over prescribe pain pills, which could result in physical dependence and chronic, life-threatening side effects ( ABC 2017). While many doctors may be quick to dismiss a request for a medical marijuana prescription, you can often get one on site at a medical marijuana dispensary or be assessed at a medical marijuana evaluation centre ( ABC 2017). If marijuana is an possibility for individuals, it deserves some consideration. It is less dangerous than opiates and could be equally

How would most Americans react if the law allowed the use of heroin, LSD, or amphetamines for medical purposes? Many of us would react in disbelief mainly because of the effects of these powerful and addictive drugs. However, in Arizona the law permits the use of heroin, LSD, and amphetamines for medicinal purposes, yet the medicinal use of marijuana remains illegal in the United States ("Facts"). Because marijuana is categorized as a Schedule 1 drug under the federal Controlled Substance Act ("Issues"), physicians cannot legally prescribe it. The national debate on the effectiveness of marijuana as medicine is divided between those who advocate marijuana's medicinal value and

By this point in time, the opioid crisis is well-known and concerning. One potential solution suggested by researchers, medical professionals, and individual patients alike is the use of medical cannabis for treatment of conditions such as chronic pain. In fact, many patients now prefer medical cannabis to opioid treatments. It’s not difficult to see why.

Marijuana is a drug that divides people. Some people claim it as the wonder drug of the '90s, capable of relieving the symptoms of many serious illnesses. Others curse the day the cannabis plant was ever discovered. From pain relief to stimulating the appetites of patients on chemotherapy, marijuana seems to have plenty going for it as a medicine. The legalization of marijuana is a large controversy in many parts of the world today, but the obvious negative effects that the drug induces has kept it from being legalized. Many researchers have a strong positive attitude towards marijuana. It has been said that the drug is “worth investigating and even providing as a medicine for pain relief, severe

Medical marijuana has been proven to an effective drug in the treatment of a number of encumbering medical conditions. A large number of legitimate medical organizations recognize the benefits of marijuana. It is far less harmful and poses fewer negative side effects than many prescription drugs, including painkillers - and patients often find it to be a more effective treatment for a variety of illnesses. However, it is perhaps the most commonly misunderstood substance in America. The usage of the drug has been widely researched and proven to be a “most viable and safe source of medicine to many Americans suffering from Aids, Glaucoma, Cancer, Multiple Sclerosis, Epilepsy, and Chronic Pains” (Medical Marijuana). According to the Institute of Medicines, (1999) “marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known” (Legalization of Marijuana). More and more resources and case studies will be further discussed and practices to back up the claim, and determine marijuana’s medical value.

In 2014, approximately 47,000 Americans died from the overdose of drugs. The fact that Americas drug problem has gotten this out of hand is alarming, but when taking a closer look at these numbers, it becomes clear that many of these Americans are not dying from illegal drugs like cocaine, meth, heroin, or marijuana. Instead, legal opioid painkillers were the biggest cause of overdose, resulting in approximately 14,000 deaths in 2014. In the 1990s, doctors began treating chronic pain as a serious issue, prescribing large amounts of opioid painkillers, and by 2012 doctors wrote 259 million prescriptions for painkillers. Opioid painkillers are highly addictive drugs that bind to receptors in the brain, reducing pain messaging to the nervous system. When scientists began to realize the harmful and addicting effects of painkillers, prescriptions were pulled back, causing users to turn to another opioid: heroin. The painkiller addiction problem became so serious that the Obama Administration has put 1.1 billion dollars into funding addiction education, prevention, and treatment; however, when doctors eliminated painkillers, they need an alternative to treating chronic pain. In order to suffice, doctors have looked at another controversial issue: medical marijuana. Studies have shown that cannabis can help treat chronic pain in most cases, and unlike opioids, marijuana isn’t linked to deadly overdoses. However, opposers are worried about marijuana’s harmful effects on the brain

Some even have dangerous side effects such as heart attack or stroke. Marijuana can treat a lot of the same symptoms of ailments, but without all the harsh side effects of other prescription medications. Medicines and therapies like ones used to treat cancer can have adverse effects such as lack of appetite, nausea, pain, weakened immune systems, and many others that can cause the patient a great deal of harm, which, in some cases, results in the patient being prescribed even more harmful drugs to help them deal with the symptoms of their original medication. Marijuana can help treat the effects of the medicines and therapies, as well as replace some of them, because it can treat what the medicine treats just as well, and in some cases, better. (Gieringer & Rosenthal 2008) A lot of these prescription drugs can be addictive, too. For example, a patient has chronic back pain, goes to the doctor and gets prescribed Vicodin, Percocet, or maybe even Oxycontin. All three of those widely-prescribed pain relievers have very high addiction potential. Marijuana, although it has somewhat of an addiction potential as well, can treat pain just as well, if not better than these drugs. The correct strain of marijuana just needs to be prescribed. Marijuana’s addiction potential mainly comes from people who have a psychological dependence to the high that abusing marijuana can give. This can cause the user to feel dependent on the high, and feel addicted to marijuana, or even move on to bigger, more dangerous drugs to chase the high. As long as the patient uses the marijuana correctly, this can be avoided. Most marijuana users have no addiction potential at all, and have no withdrawal if they all of a sudden quit taking

Marijuana has been around since B.C times. It is something a lot of people want to possess, either illegally or legally. When a person uses marijuana (medicinal or smoking) there are certain “side effects” that occur. Research shows that being on marijuana (cannabis) feels like she care free and really joyous, it increases her senses, and results in easy free relaxed body movements. Many smoke marijuana just to get high. But if doctors were allowed to take this ingredient and put it into medicines, it could be used to help in a good way versus feeling good in a bad way. So if we were able to produce marijuana in medicines imagine the

If it is reasonable to legalize marijuana on the basis that it is an effective pain killer, it would follow that the legalization of cocaine and other dangerous drugs. According to a study, very few people use other illegal drugs without first trying marijuana. Therefore, it’s a dangerous, gateway drug that lead to experiment with other illegal drugs.

Do you really want to end up on the streets with a sign saying “help i’m homeless because I spent my money on drugs, i’m addicted.” Even in more pain then you should be? No honestly I don’t think so. Medical marijuana has been proven by gale group to increase pain to a very high level. It has been proven by the Opposing Viewpoints introduction to “Medical Marijuana,” to take away memory, your pain you’re trying to decrease can be increased, gale group states that it can increase tooth aches. Medical marijuana was tested on a mouse which proved all this. Medical marijuana is addictive and increase pain when you’re trying to decrease pain making your symptoms worse. Medical marijuana should be illegal once again.

Let me start out by saying that while I do not partake in the consumption of narcotics nor marijuana I have been almost addicted to its research for years. Growing up with a family completely against marijuana in a time when it needed to be so widely made aware of was difficult to say the least. When I was a child I was sick and stuck on prescription pills to aid in my ailments. Now as an adult I have chosen to not take what I do not believe my body to need. I will usually not even take Tylenol for headaches. I have toughed illnesses and injuries out in such natural ways and felt a million times better after rather than after drugging myself up. Pain is a whole other story, I absolutely despise narcotics and the doctors who live by them. Masking pain by putting poison in your body is no solution and should not be seen as one. While I can understand the use in hospitals for emergency and trauma, personal pain management at home with pills and narcotics only sets you up for awful side effects that they combat with even more pills that give you even more side effects. One being a loss of appetite which has been known to correct itself with the appropriate use of medical marijuana. Before you know it, you are taking over 6 different medications one to two times a day finding yourself addicted somewhere in the middle. America is an embarrassing country for so many reasons, narcotic addiction being one of the biggest.

In the article “Medical Marijuana Should Be Legalized”, Noel Merino talks about the benefits of marijuana and how it can treat several medical conditions. Merino feels that marijuana should be legalized for medical use because it is actually one of the safest drugs currently existing that can be used therapeutically to alleviate a wide range of ailments (Merino 4). As a matter of fact, some of the most common minor and easily treatable illnesses medical marijuana can treat include a decline of nausea and appetite loss, a reduced amount of intraocular pressure, a decreased amount of muscle spasms, and a declined amount of chronic pain (5-8). It is true that marijuana can still

These addictions can often be traced to pills being prescribed to patients suffering head trauma, a serious injury, or a disease. Marijuana has been proven to enhance mood and relieve pain in trauma patients in a clinical based out of Canada (Scientific research shows the effectiveness of medical cannabis on pain, 2015, 1). Dr. Mark Ware launched a large experiment involving two hundred and fifteen patients said to have chronic pain, and were monitored. During the course of the study, it was shown by data that users of medical Marijuana didn’t have any greater risk of adverse effects than patients that were not using medical marijuana (Barcott, 2015, 3). It isn’t clear whether medical marijuana will strictly be prescribed as an edible or made available to smoke because the policies are different across the nation, but it appears in most cases that users smoke. Regardless of these minor details, marijuana is beneficial in the medical field due to the fact that it will reduce the amount of overdoses due to addiction to opiates and prescriptions that are used in place of marijuana for pain (Thompson, 2016, 2-3).

Is it possible for an illegal drug to be deemed legal for medical purposes? Well for an illegal drug like marijuana, that is the question. There are currently many people who use marijuana legally to suppress their illness. Marijuana should be allowed for medicinal purposes.