Pros And Cons Of Banning Medical Marijuana

Recreational marijuana legalization in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska have, technically, broken federal law. As long as the federal government does not do anything about the state’s blatant disregard for higher law they can do what they want. I think that because state and federal law contradict at the moment there should be clarification. States should only be able to pass a law such as this if it is also legal on a federal level, but if there are no repercussions for violating federal law where does it end? Recreational marijuana is a state issue, in my opinion. If it is to be legalized in America at a federal level then each state should be allowed to choose their side. At this point, federal government is showing its cracks. 4 of our states are currently not obeying the Constitution; federal law trumps state law. Our government needs to pull itself together and start paying attention to what the states are doing.

Firstly, there are no documented deaths due to medical marijuana overdose. Actually, quite the opposite. Now that 23 states have legalized medical marijuana, there has been about a 25% reduction in opioid-related deaths (this includes medications such as: hydrocodone, fentanyl, morphine, methadone, etc.). However, prescription opioids on the other hand, are responsible for approximately 45 deaths per day. Prescription overdoses cause more deaths in the United States than heroin and cocaine put together. This has become a prescription drug “epidemic” says the CDC (Duke, 2015). Therefore, opting for medical marijuana in place of opioids could greatly reduce your chances of accidental death attributed to overdose. Another extremely

Many medically ill patients experience agonizing pain everyday that they can not easily control with regular pain medicine, so what’s the next best thing? There have been many recent cases where medical patients have used medical marijuana for therapeutic uses and found that it had slowed the progression of their disease or helped cure it. Medical marijuana has started to become more popular with medical communities and researchers. Medical marijuana can affect many things in a positive way such as financial situations and social aspects, while having benefits on medical illnesses. Medical marijuana that does not contain the THC drug should be legalized in the United States because it would provide therapeutic benefits without making the user feel high.

The people that I do know that abuse pain medication also smoke marijuana. I do think it can improve other medical conditions. My mother suffers from Parkinson's disease. We have researched the use of medical marijuana for treatment of the tremors and shakes that come along with the disease, and it has been proven to help. There was a significant improvement in muscle rigidity, pain, and tremors associated with Parkinson's disease when subjects were tested in an experiment in Israel (McCall, 2014). She now knows that this can be an alternative to her treatment if her other medications do not

Medical cannabis has emerged on the scene in the last ten years or so as a true alternative to opioid medications. While research conducted in the early 20th century and the 1990s and early 2000s indicated cannabis could be an effective treatment for pain, few medical professionals really advocated it as an alternative to the opioids they’d always prescribed.

"Various forms of medicinal cannabis have provided mostly positive responses for patients with different types of pain: Neuropathic, chronic, postoperative, and that related to fibromyalgia, rhematoid arthritis, mutiple sclerosis and cancer" (Borgelt, Franson, & Nussbaum, 2013). In a study outlined in the article The Pharmacologic and Clinical Effects of Medical Cannabis, which evaluated smoked cannabis compared to placebo, significant improvements in pain were observed. The study included 56 patients and used cigarettes wtih varying THC contents. In general, a higher THC content (up to 9.4%) appears to be more effective for pain relief (Borgelt, Franson, & Nussbaum, 2013).

Medical marijuana has been proven to be a very curable substance. According to Donald Abrams (N.D), as referenced in Kim Ann Zimmermann (2015), “the idea that marijuana may have therapeutic effects is rooted in solid science. Marijuana contains 60 active ingredients known as cannabinoids. The body naturally makes its own form of cannabinoids to modulate pain” .This supports the idea that marijuana can help individuals medically. It can also be helpful for many who need its medical help .Many people will be having the chance to buy and use it if it gets legalized. Marijuana is not in reach of everyone because when individuals want to buy weed they need to get a doctor’s prescription or have an excuse and not everyone can fake an excuse or get a doctors prescription; as a result, many people cannot purchase it except illegally. As long as marijuana is not legalized many individuals won’t be able to use it. Zimmermann (2015) explains that the primary psychoactive cannabinoid in marijuana is THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol. THC is responsible for the psychological effects of marijuana. Moreover, the THC targets cb1 which is located in the brain, nervous system, liver, kidney and lungs the cb1 becomes active most of the time to relive pain (Kim Zimmerman, 2015). Many people call that process of reliving pain as getting “high”. In fact, most of the people who use marijuana use it to feel “high”. Because, when someone

(Breene, Sophia). Cannabidiol contains pain relieving, anti-inflammatory and antipsychotic properties which makes many doctors believe that medical marijuana, or drugs made from cannabidiol at the very least, can help with “cancer related pains, pain from HIV or AIDS, [and] pain related to multiple sclerosis.” (Nampiaparampil, Devi) Medical marijuana works similar to opioids by binding to receptors in the brain however with medical marijuana THC mimics the natural neurotransmitter anandamide, (Breene, Sophia) a chemical that boost memory and learning, dulls pain, and stimulates appetite, by replacing it and binding itself with another neurotransmitter called dopamine, the chemical that mediated pleasure in the body. (Mandala, Anany). Do to THC’s interruption of the brain's natural processes, and the affects of smoke being inhaled when marijuana is consumed, medical marijuana may not be the alternative people are looking

Chronic pain is intense suffering/agony that can persist between weeks to years. Currently, there are an estimated more than 3 million cases of chronic pain in the United States each year. That is where the Marijuana comes into play. An article on the JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association states the following for Marijuana being used for chronic pain as well as other medical problems,”Aside from nausea and appetite stimulation, indications for which there are 2 FDA-approved cannabinoids (dronabinol and nabilone), chronic pain, neuropathic pain, and spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis are the indications for medical marijuana supported by high-quality evidence”(Hill). As usual, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t state the drawbacks to using Marijuana to treat chronic pain. The same article states,”Medical marijuana and cannabinoids have significant potential health risks, such as addiction and worsening of psychiatric illnesses such as some anxiety disorders, mood disorders, psychotic disorders, and substance use disorders”(Hill). Currently, there are no ways to combatant these side

While marijuana isn’t strong enough for severe pain (for example, post-surgical pain or a broken bone), it is quite effective for the chronic pain that plagues millions of Americans, especially as they age.” Explanation: People over the age of 18 or 21 (depending on their state laws) can apply for a medical marijuana license. There are over 700 known medical uses of marijuana and these people can “self-medicate” and treat their symptoms with marijuana versus the

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

Medical marijuana has been a very controversial issue nationwide. Many speculate that marijuana is a harmful drug. When in reality marijuana is a medicine, which has been proven be doctors and researchers, especially in small countries. Marijuana help those who use it with chronic pains and illnesses. Medical marijuana is helpful to individuals with severe chronic pain and comes from a natural growing plant. Marijuana should be a medical option because the benefits of marijuana greatly overwhelm those that oppose to the drug.

At times, Medical Marijuana can be compared to Cigarettes, that reason being is that both are extremely addictive to the user. But at least smoking a cigarette does not peel off your IQ points. Medical Marijuana is a herb that can help a hurting patient with nerve pain within the body. It is frequently distributed to patients with neurological pain that can become extensive for the patient and could become unbearable for the person experiencing the pain. Medical Marijuana can be distributed in multiple ways, such as patches, sprays, topicals, vaping, edibles, smoking, and ingesting. The concept of Medical Marijuana is not an ethical method to get rid of diseases based on the mental and physical effects that it has and the effects of Jekyll’s

Cannabis is becoming increasingly widespread and increasingly common in modern-day society for both recreational use and for medication. The article by Craig Reinarman, ‘Criminalisation, legalisation and the mixed blessing of medicalisation in the USA’ generates many controversial issues of cannabis.

There are countless debates whether marijuana should be legalized for creational use or if it should remain illegal. Marijuana has been legalized in some states for medical use such as pain caused by cancer, glaucoma and nerve pain. In a survey I conducted in a class of 27 students, 15 opposed