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Positive Aspects of Medical Marijuana Essay

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Marijuana is the common name for a drug comprised of the leaves and flowering tops of the Indian hemp plant, cannabis sativa, which can be smoked or eaten for unique feelings. The active ingredient of marijuana, known as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is concentrated in the flowering tops of the Indian hemp plant. In the USA, the legality of marijuana, found to be medically useful by some, has been a controversial topic for decades (Nahas 1). Today, the 5,000-year medical history of cannabis has been almost forgotten.
Cannabis sativa has been used therapeutically from the earliest records to the present day. Although the Chinese and East Indian cultures knew about the properties of this drug from very early times, the drug …show more content…

As the AIDS epidemic became prevalent, patients began to use marijuana to decrease the pain caused by AIDS and AIDS-related diseases (Randall and O'Leary 200). These new medical uses of cannabis led to wider folk experimentation. The use of marijuana in the symptomatic treatment of convulsive disorders, migraine, insomnia, and dysmenorrhea was rediscovered. During Richard Nixon's campaign on the drug war in the 1970's, beginning with the establishment of the Office of Drug Abuse Law
Enforcement (ODALE), marijuana was then confined to Schedule I under the Controlled
Substances Act. This classified marijuana as a drug that has a high potential for abuse, lacks an accepted medical use, and is unsafe for use under medical supervision (Miller
103).
In November 1996, California endorsed a change in the state's drug laws that contradicted the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Office of National Drug
Control Policy (ONDCP). California voters approved Proposition 215, an initiative that made marijuana legally available as a medicine in the United States for the first time in two generations. Under the new law, patients or their caregivers who possess or cultivate marijuana for medical treatment recommended by a doctor would not be subject to criminal prosecution. The recommendation may be either written or oral and doctors cannot be penalized by the state for making it. A similar but more

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