The Loud Era

Karlyn Moore

Mrs. Scott

English 2 Honors - 2B

5 February 2018

The Loud Era

Loud, grass, Mary Jane, herb, cannabis, pot, or weed. Call it what you want to call it, this is medical marijuana. Whether you support it, ignore it, or use it, we all know about it. Although, how much do we really know? This is what I asked myself when a close friend of mine made the big move from a “No-Dope-Zone” South Carolina to the “Toking-Town” of San Diego, California. Excited to show off his new prescription, lightly I asked: “So what are you smoking?” “Flashing the flavors”, that is the only answer he could give me; what it tasted like. What I really wanted to find out now was what contents are in these cannabis strains and what potencies they have which were fulfilling his medicinal needs. He was one of the 52% of adult Americans who have tried marijuana in their lifetime, and within that percentage he became the 32% of the ones who use cannabis on a regular basis. He is also a considered patient, meaning he and 92% of people using this medicine found that their symptoms were being managed and even treated as stated by Bruce Barcott in Marijuana Goes Main Street (54).

Certain states of America have made medical marijuana legal, some even for recreational use. This conflicts with federal law, which prohibits the use of marijuana. One main concern of the legalization of marijuana is how it will affect the youth. Surprisingly, the difference between percentages of minors illegally smoking marijuana in states where it is legalized is not higher than states where it is not legal. In fact, the teenage cannabis users are below average in states where it is legal. Whether the legalization or the attitudes of cannabis users within the states affects these numbers is a huge tributing factor. Over the years, many negative and positive outlooks on Marijuana have been pointed out, sometimes they are even changed. A popular slogan said by Nancy Reagan in May of 1987 at her “Just Say No” rally, has been recently renewed by critics to “Just Say Know,” to support having reason behind this demand. Although, with difficult boundaries and the gray area between state and federal laws, it is hard for researchers to legally conduct experiments and testings on medical marijuana to give reasoning behind this medicine. Between the D.E.A. (Drug Enforcement Administration) and the F.D.A. (Food and Drug Association) regulations. many analysts are finding gathering information on legal medical Marijuana virtually impossible. According to a Time magazine in the article “The Great Health Experiment,” researcher R. Douglas Fields is quoted “The government’s research restrictions are so severe that it is difficult to find and show the medical benefit. So, many analysts are finding gathering information on legal medical marijuana virtually impossible.” (37) as he speaks for the National Institute of Health.

Fortunately, certain studies have been allowed to find ways to treat managing for conditions like epilepsy, PTSD, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, sickle cell disease, multiple sclerosis, various pain symptoms, anxiety, obesity, and many more conditions. This has enabled over two and a half million patients to alleviate their symptoms from their medical condition from using cannabis. People with struggling to cope with the side effects have found a way to ease problems like pain and nausea that may be caused by the condition itself or other treatments being used. Along with managing symptoms, cannabis has been found to actually treat conditions like cancer. Cannabis can help regulate a number of biological functions within the body by releasing THC within the body that reacts with cells within the nervous systems. In Marijuana Goes Main Street Michael Scherer states at Mercer University School of Medicine, two studies were conducted, one by Yasmin Hurd leading to the results of early on cannabis use in rats can affect and decrease the rate of brain development. The other, by professor Robert McKallip discovered that the cannabinoids target certain pathways in Leukemia, which have higher cannabinoid receptors than our regular cells, and causes the cancer