The Usefulness of Medical Marijuana and the U.S. Government

The Usefulness Of Medical Marijuana and the U.S. Government

Marijuana is often looked at as an awful gateway drug that should

remain illegal. Though it is illegal, marijuana is already a very big part of

American culture. People are going to smoke it anyway, illegal or not.

With its extensive medical capabilities and limited side effects,

marijuana is becoming more accepted around the world. Many people are

misinformed with untrue rumors of marijuana causing brain damage.

Misleading remarks such as these have been proven wrong. It's only a matter of time

before marijuana is legalized on it's medical capabilities alone.

Only nine people in the U.S receive government issued marijuana

(Gorman 1). " The Compassionate Investigational New Drug (IND)

program that supplies the nine people is jointly administrated by the

department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the National Institute of

Drug Abuse (NIDA), and the Public Health Service (PHS): Which shut

down expansion of the program, claiming that it sent a 'bad signal' to the

American public (Gorman1). People are going blind from glaucoma and

suffering needlessly from the 'wasting syndrome' associated with AIDS,

muscular disorders and side effects from cancer chemotherapy" (Gorman 1)

Crawley 2

Robert Randall, one of the nine people in the IND program, was

diagnosed with glaucoma in September 1972 ( Gorman 1). " Glaucoma is a

degenerative eye disease and the leading cause of blindness in the U.S.

(Gorman 1). Unfortunately, he developed tolerances to drug therapy and his

sight continues to only get worse (Gorman 1). Randall, a former marijuana

smoker who hasn't smoked since his diagnosis, smoked two joints given to

him before going to bed one night (Gorman 1). "When I got done,"

he says, "I looked at a streetlight outside my window and noticed

that there were no tricolor halos like I usually saw when the pressure in my

eyes built up (Gorman 1)." After six months of experimentation, the disease

began to come under control through the frequent use of marijuana.

"Randall began growing his own marijuana to insure a supply, and was

arrested in August 1975 ( Gorman 2). Shortly after his arrest, he discovered

that both the NIDA and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) not only

had information on the use of marijuana in the treatment of glaucoma, but

that the NIDA grew marijuana for research on a farm at the University of

Mississippi at Hattiesburg. ( Gorman 2)".

In December 1975, to test the efficiency of marijuana in glaucoma

treatment, Randall underwent a 13-day controlled experiment under the

direction of Dr. Robert Hepler ( Gorman 2). The study