Legalization of Marijuana

One question that has haunted Americans for a long time is: "Should the use of marijuana be legalized?" Some say, "Yes", while other say, "No". According to Funk and Wagnall's New Encyclopedia, marijuana is defined as "a mixture of leaves, stems, and flowering tops of the Indian hemp plant Cannabis sativa, smoked or eaten for its hallucinogenic and pleasure-giving effects." (Bram, Phillips, Dickey, 445) Owning marijuana was made a crime in 1937 when Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act. Despite this law the drug was still somewhat commonly used. Here we are years later, still without a satisfactory answer to the question. I think that legalizing the use of marijuana would have many medical benefits, economical benefits, and would decrease the incidence of crime.

There are others who disagree. These people feel that legalization would lead to the formation of other habits and to health problems, such as, the use of a harsher drug and to psychological and personality problems that can come from using marijuana. These individuals feel that the negatives of marijuana use far outweigh the positives, and feel that the use of marijuana should remain illegal. To some people marijuana is considered a "gateway" drug. Legalizing marijuana would lead to the use of other, much more harsh drugs. From the book Drugs, Teens, and Recovery, Lauren, a teenager that got mixed up in drugs describes how she got involved with marijuana, then with cocaine. She says, "I was ten, in the fifth grade, the first time I smoked pot. I liked pot a lot better than drinking because it was easier. I loved it. Pot and alcohol, that's all I needed. I didn't want to get into anything else". She continues, "About this time, I started getting obsessed with cocaine and thinking about what the high would be like". Just like Lauren people can start off with just smoking marijuana but they would get the urge to try something a little bit stronger. (Chesney, 46)

Marijuana usage has many medical benefits. It became popular as a medicine in the United States during the mid-nineteenth century. Then, marijuana was used to treat general headaches, migraine headaches, depression, muscular tension, insomnia, and menstrual cramps. Today, marijuana has proven to be beneficial in the treatment of many more medical conditions including glaucoma, cancer, and asthma. In 1976, Robert C. Randall became the very first American to ever gain legal access to marijuana for medical purposes. In Marijuana, The Patients' Fight for Medicinal Pot, he describes how marijuana helped him through his battle with glaucoma, "Marijuana has helped control it. Marijuana is helping me to save my eyesight". (Randall, 154) Marijuana has helped Mr. Randall in his fight with glaucoma, and has the potential to aid in the treatment of many other medical situations. Another person that has gotten relief from marijuana is Dan Shapiro. "He was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease in 1987 when he called a friend who had also battled cancer. His friend's advice, Shapiro says, came in a six-word package: "Cancer is grim, man, get weed." Shapiro has been in remission for nine years and has stated that marijuana helped him stay functional despite the notoriously-debilitating chemotherapy." (Sealy, Geraldine "Thanks Mom" abcnews.com) These two cases shows that marijuana is a help to people who need it. Marijuana is legal in one state for medical purposes only. In 1996, voters in California approved a law that relaxes regulation on medical marijuana. The federal government cannot take action against California doctors who recommend marijuana to their patients. Marijuana has eased the pain of chemotherapy, sever muscle spasms caused b multiple sclerosis, weight-loss due to the AIDS virus and other problems.

Experts from the National Institute of Health or NIH have confirmed that marijuana is an effective, safe and inexpensive alternative for treating nausea caused by AIDS medications and cancer treatments and other like ailments as glaucoma, muscle spasms, intractable pain, epilepsy, anorexia, asthma, insomnia, depression and other disorders. Other such ailments in which marijuana has been said to help are Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, repetitive migraines and Alzheimer's, but the NIH has not reported those results. The National Institute of Medicine shows us that the benefits from cannabis short term use doesn't hinder the possible hazards of its long-term use. Marijuana has beneficial outlook for some illnesses, but experimentation is limited due to it unlawfulness. The positive effects of this drug are helping a limited number so doctors have tried to work with the government to create a reliable way to distribute the drug without smoking it. The work being done to find a chemical fabricate should clarify that marijuana has some medicinal value. In 1986 a THC based synthetic called Marinol was approved by the Food and Drug Administration, unfortunately it did not treat as well as cannabis. Government experts have indicated that marijuana does relieve pain, and other disorders, but it does not cure them, therefore can not be legalized as a prescription drug. In many cases marijuana has been the building block for recovery, and it has given sick people a chance to move on without the tension and pain. Government experts have concealed some information about similar prescription drugs such as, percocet and codeine. Both are very addictive and they only relieve the pain. Medicinal marijuana has similar side effects as the often prescribed stimulants, but it is not quite as addictive. Marijuana is not so different from other frequently prescribed stimulants, but its stereotypical summary has the government questioning its output.

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. "Using the drug can alleviate pain and nausea, and help patients hold down food, allowing them to stay stronger" (Sealey, Geraldine, "Medicinal Dope on the Docket, abcnews.com) Based on extrapolations from animal experiments, the ratio of marijuana's lethal dose to its effective dose is 40,000 to 1, compared to between 10 and 20 to 1 for aspirin and between 4 and 10 to 1 for alcohol. Possibly an agreement could be established concerning procedures for