Summary: Medicinal Marijuana In Australia

Australia lags behind other countries when it comes to legalising marijuana for recreational and medicinal use, despite the drug creating positive and negative aspects on the government and moral of society. Should we legalise marijuana in Australia? The legalisation of marijuana in Australia will significantly benefit the country’s economy. With government supervision and monitoring, the marijuana industry would thrive with minimal expenses and instead generate a new source of revenue. This presentation will look at the legalisation of marijuana and whether or not it could positively benefit Australia, with the application of cost benefit analysis the negatives and positives of the marijuana industry have been displayed in a table. Then the

Medical Marijuana Marijuana is medicine. It has been used for thousands of years to treat a wide variety of ailments. Marijuana (Cannabis sativa L.) was legal in the United States for all purposes - industrial and recreational, as well as medicinal until 1937. Today, only eight Americans are legally allowed to use marijuana as medicine. NORML is working to restore marijuana's availability as medicine.

Marijuana has been used for medicinal purposes for a long time now, its origins date back 5,000 years. Medical marijuana refers to the use of marijuana to treat a variety of health conditions. Marijuana, for medical purposes is seeing increasing coverage in the media. Chief Research Officer, Kymron DeCesare from Steep Hill Labs

The use of marijuana for medicinal purposes is a long-standing controversy. For centuries marijuana was prescribed to alleviate symptoms associated with a variety of illnesses. Anti-medical marijuana sentiments began with the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. In 1970, the Controlled Substances Act banned the use of marijuana completely, categorizing it as a drug with no medicinal value, high abuse rates, and detrimental health effects (http://www.farmacy.org/prop215/apha.html). Since 1996, numerous states including California, Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Washington have passed medical marijuana initiatives supporting the right to prescribe marijuana for seriously or terminally ill patients (http://www.marihemp.com/marimed.html). The American Public Health Association and the Institute of Medicine represent two organizations that have recently researched and endorsed advancements in the study of medical marijuana. Both groups support the use of marijuana for specific treatments, such as reducing nausea in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, stimulating the appetites of AIDS victims, and limiting spasticity in MS patients.

Joycelyn Elders, former Surgeon General, once spoke about the legalization of marijuana for medical use in a press conference. "It's criminal to keep this medicine from patients," she said (Silverman, 1995, pg. 2). She received criticism not only from many citizens of the United States, but also strong criticism from the President who appointed her. The legalization of marijuana for medical use has always been a sharply debated subject, and many of the debaters are uneducated about the effects of using this illegal drug for therapeutic use. Many studies have been done and the results are clear. As a medical drug, marijuana should be available to patients who do not adequately respond to currently available

During discussions of legalizing cannabis for the public, many judges in Canada have allowed using marijuana in personal medical situations. For example, Nichols (2000) expresses that:

Medical cannabis became legal in Canada in 2001, but medical professionals here and in the United States have been wary of advocating it as a treatment. Many continue to prescribe opioids in spite of patient preferences.

Cannabis. Green. Kush. Ganja. Pot. Marijuana. It doesn't matter what people call it or what they think of it. It is considered illegal to cultivate, buy, sell, posses and use in Australia but people still manage to get their hands on it. However, laws can vary from state to state. From fines as low as fifty dollars [South Australia] to a diversion program/Cannabis intervention, aimed at informing and aiding offenders. Assuming that they're a non-violent offender. Cannabis is decriminalised in Australia, which means that punishments are less harsh, but it is still considered illegal, and like I said before, laws can vary from state to state.

The legalisation is still a heavily debated topic, and the subsequent actions for or against the legalisation of cannabis will greatly affect Australia’s society and its opinions of cannabis. Australia’s drug laws have been heavily influenced by America for almost a century. Cannabis was readily available and often sold in a cigarette form until its prohibition in 1938, but cannabis was still used in medicine until the 1960s. In 1968 Americas ‘War on Drugs’, led by Richard Nixon, impacted how Australians perceived the drug and allowed the Australian government to increase the penalties for drug offences. The stigma surrounding cannabis influenced the public opinion for many years, in recent years marijuana legislation has been a heavily debated

The American Society of Addiction Medicine’s (ASAM) public policy statement on “Medical Marijuana,” clearly rejects smoking as a means of drug delivery. ASAM further recommends that “all cannabis, cannabis-based products and cannabis delivery devices should be subject to the same standards applicable to all other prescription medication and medical devices, and should not be distributed or otherwise provided to patients …” without FDA approval. ASAM also “discourages state interference in the federal medication approval process.” (“Who’s With

The medical use of marijuana has been a discussion that has been in the news and all around us recently. This is currently a hot topic of interest. There is an enormous amount of evidence that marijuana could be effect against many things. For example evidence shows it could be used to help relieve pain during chemotherapy, but along with this there is also evidence that at times marijuana can cause harm to someone as well. As nurses we must see each side of the debate to make our care for our patients sounder. One quote that directly applies to this topic, which is very important, was written in the Journal of Clinical Nursing:

The use of cannabis toward medicine should not be shocking to anyone, since it has been around for centuries. As a matter of fact, it has been under medicinal aid for an estimated 5,000 years. Western medicine truly grasped marijuana’s medicinal abilities in the 1850’s. Infact, doctors documented over one hundred papers about how marijuana helped numerous disorders, such as nausea, glaucoma, movement disorders, pain relief, depression, and anxiety. It also helps cancer patients and those with HIV or Aids. Currently, many American patients have access to marijuana use so that they can have effective treatments for their illnesses. Medical marijuana use is achievable because

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.

According to article, “Recent Research on Medical Marijuana,” written by Paul Armentano, and published on NORML.org in 2015, he mentions in the United States, federal prohibitions outlawing cannabis ' recreational, industrial, and therapeutic use were first imposed by Congress under the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. In the article, “23 Health Benefits Of Marijuana,” by Jennifer Welsh and Kevin Loria, published on Business Insider.com in 2014 they emphasizes: “There are two active chemicals in marijuana that researchers think have medicinal applications. Those are cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) which has pain relieving and other properties” (Welsh and Loria 1). In “Medical marijuana could reduce painkiller abuse, study suggests,” article published in an online newspaper the Los Angeles Time, in 2015, Melissa Healy wrote: “Could medical marijuana be an antidote for the nation 's scourge of fatal overdoses caused by prescription pain medication? A new study suggests the answer is, “yes.”

Marijuana is illegal in fifty states because of its classification as an illicit drug, but controversial issues have been established that this “illicit drug” has improved the course of treatment for suffering patients. Marijuana has beneficial effects when used in medicinal scenarios for the treatment of pain; thus it should be an administered drug for patients who can benefit from the use of this drug. Marijuana has undergone analysis for its use as a medicine and the results have shown improvements in the patients who were treated with this drug. Doctors have expressed opposite opinions, making this issue very controversial.