NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
Legalizing Marijuana for Medical Use Should we have the right to control what substances we put into our bodies? We have been denied the right to use certain substances, despite their possible medical values. The media has bombarded us with images that portray the use of marijuana as strictly a means for teenagers to get high. The truth is, behind these preconceived views, there are substantial medical values.
Marijuana is a very versatile drug, and is capable of relieving a wide range of symptoms. Marijuana does less damage to the lungs than cigarettes do over time, it is less intoxicating than alcohol, and it is less addictive than both, yet it is the one that is illegal. Some people may believe that legalizing marijuana could lead to excessive use by people that do not need it, but legalizing marijuana for medical purposes only would allow patients to have another alternative when currently legal drugs are not working. Marijuana is unlike most other illegal drugs as it has the ability to heal. Marijuana cannot cure any diseases, but it can bring relief from symptoms that could not be stopped by other drugs. Marijuana is most commonly used to reduce nausea and vomiting caused by cancer chemotherapy.
During chemotherapy highly toxic substances are put in the body to kill the cancer cells. Unfortunately, this also causes many unwanted side effects, one being extreme nausea. Some patients spend hours vomiting and coughing, resulting in weight loss and sometimes broken or fractured bones caused by the constant coughing. Some doctors believe that as many as one in three patients will discontinue their chemotherapy treatment because of the unbearable nausea.
For many patients, when a few puffs of marijuana are smoked before chemotherapy treatment, the extreme nausea can be eliminated, allowing them to continue their chemotherapy use, and possibly beat their cancer. Although marijuana is capable of relieving nausea in many patients, there are legal drugs that are designed to perform the same function. These drugs are considered safer than marijuana because professionals manufacture them in controlled conditions, and they can be given in controlled doses, unlike marijuana. These drugs however, can be very expensive, and they do not work on all patients. Also, these other drugs are given in pills, unlike marijuana, which is usually smoked, so a patient that has uncontrollable vomiting may not be able to keep the pills down, making the drug ineffective. Marijuana, however, when smoked cannot be vomited back up, and smoking marijuana relieves the nausea much faster than any pill.
Although the legal drugs are considered safer by law, there is a better understanding of the safety of marijuana than most other legal drugs. Marijuana clearly has the ability to relieve nausea and vomiting, and when it is used under control with the consent of a doctor, it can be an effective alternative to currently legal nausea-relieving drugs that do not work for a patient. Like Chemotherapy, the standard treatments for HIV infections are very toxic. To treat HIV, an antiviral drug called AZT is given. This drug slows the progression of the disease by attacking the HIV. Unfortunately, this drug damages the digestive system, and causes severe nausea.
The patients also loose their appetites and therefore they loose weight. This leads to a condition called AIDS wasting syndrome, which is one of the major causes of death from AIDS. Wasting syndrome leaves the body weak, and therefore vulnerable to cancers and infections. To stop the wasting syndrome, patients can smoke marijuana, which stops the nausea and stimulate the patient s appetite, both of which can add weight to the patient. In the most recent report by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), it said: Marijuana s active components are potentially effective in treating pain, nausea and the anorexia of AIDS wasting, and other symptoms 1. Although smoking marijuana can relieve the nausea of HIV patients, and help in weight gain, smoking marijuana regularly can damage the cells of the bronchial passages, which protect the lungs against microorganisms.
This could be dangerous for patients infected with HIV who already have weakened immune systems, as respiratory diseases like pneumonia can be caught, which is often fatal in AIDS patients. Although marijuana can damage the lungs, patients who are dying from AIDS wasting syndrome should have the right to use marijuana as an alternative to currently legal drugs, when they are not relieving the nausea. Marijuana smoke contains many of the same toxins as cigarette smoke, including the one that has been identified as the major cause of lung cancer. This toxin is found in the tar of both marijuana and cigarettes, but the effects of one marijuana joint on the lungs are equivalent to four [tobacco] cigarettes, placing the user at increased risk of bronchitis, emphysema, and bronchial asthma. 2 Although marijuana has four times more tar than a cigarette, marijuana users typically smoke much less than tobacco smokers, and, over time they inhale much less smoke.
Therefore, the serious lung damage done by marijuana should be much lower than that of cigarettes. Glaucoma is a disease that occurs when an eyeball s drainage system becomes blocked, therefore stopping the nourishing fluid that is produced in the eye from flowing out. Since this fluid cannot leave the eyeball, it builds up inside and the pressure increases. When the pressure inside the eyeball stays at a high level for a long time, the eye can become permanently damaged, resulting in blindness. In fact, Glaucoma is the leading cause of blindness. There is treatment for glaucoma, but they don t always work, and they can cause side effects like asthma and heart trouble.
Marijuana can be an alternative to these drugs, as it is able to reduce the pressure in the eyes by 30 %. Using marijuana to relieve the symptoms of chemotherapy and AIDS, and to reduce glaucoma are the most common uses of marijuana, but they may not be the only ones. If marijuana is legalized for medical purposes, it would be taken much more seriously as a beneficial drug, and therefore more research would be done to discover new purposes for marijuana. Many patients who could use marijuana to reduce their symptoms are afraid that they will become addicted.
Marijuana, like many drugs, is addictive. Although the body does not develop a physical dependence on the drug, people who smoke it heavily for a long time can develop an addiction. However, a large majority of people that have tried marijuana for recreational purposes no longer use it. In America, 31 % of people over 12 have used marijuana in their life, but only. 8 % of Americans are currently marijuana users. 3 Though marijuana is addictive, the large majority of people that have used marijuana in their life no longer use it or have cravings for it. Marijuana has also been labelled as a gateway drug, meaning that, even though marijuana itself does not cause that much harm to the body, it leads to more dangerous drugs like heroin, LSD, and cocaine. It s true that marijuana may act as a gateway drug for recreational users who are just trying to get high for fun, but if marijuana is legalized for strictly medical purposes only, it is unlikely that the users will move on to harder drugs.
Since the users of marijuana are just using it to relieve their discomforting symptoms, and not as a means to get high, they would have no desire to find new ways to get high. It is often assumed that marijuana, like many other drugs, kills brain cells, but that has now been proven to be a myth. Researchers have found no evidence that marijuana damages the brain, even when a person uses large amounts or marijuana over a long period of time. In the early 1970 s, there was a study that concluded that monkeys, when exposed to large amounts of marijuana, would lose some of their brain cells. Because of this study, people believed that marijuana killed human brain cells. Later, when a similar study was conducted, but this time more carefully, they found that the monkeys exposed to marijuana received no damage to the brain.
Though marijuana does not kill any brain cells, it does produce immediate, but temporary changes in the way the user thinks and acts. In other words, it makes you high. After smoking marijuana, the user has a temporary decline in their ability to remember new information. The short-term memory is only affected for the period of time that the user is intoxicated. Marijuana definitely affects the short-term memory, but there is no convincing evidence proving that marijuana negatively affects a user s long-term memory. After smoking marijuana, the user receives a high, where they are unable to think and act normally and are therefore considered intoxicated.
Marijuana is not the only drug that gives you a high. In fact, there are many legal drugs that create similar or even more intoxicating highs. In the media, marijuana has mainly been portrayed as a drug that does nothing but get teenagers and hippies high. Therefore, the public is very unaware that marijuana has very significant medical benefits. The government also supports and runs anti-drug campaigns which portray marijuana as a dangerous drug. Yet these same people, some of them who are the most powerful people in the world, for example Bill Clinton and Al Gore, joke about their past uses of marijuana.
This display of hypocrisy is very unfair, as they are the ones arresting and fining people that actually need marijuana for medicine. Together, the government and the media have a huge influence on the public and the way that they think. Because the government and media show little support for the use of marijuana under any circumstances, the medical values of marijuana have been left unnoticed. The public has been made to believe that marijuana is dangerous, and up until now not much attention has been given to the positive effects that marijuana possesses. If marijuana were to be legalized, for anybody to use, people could abuse this right and start smoking marijuana recreation ally in order to get high. This would not be fair to the people around them who could be endangered by the intoxicated smoker.
However, this does not mean that people suffering from an illness should be denied their right to do whatever it takes to help them conquer their sickness, even if it means smoking marijuana under the consent of a doctor. Currently marijuana is considered a Schedule I drug, meaning that people caught with it can be fined or imprisoned. In the future, marijuana could be classified as a Schedule II drug, which would then allow it to be used for medical purposes, without the patient getting arrested or fined. If things continue to go the way they are, this could be possible. Currently, in Maine, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, patients with certain medical conditions are allowed to use small doses of marijuana under the consent of a doctor. The patient must also have tried other remedies and found them ineffective.
This seems like a very effective way to control the use of marijuana. Marijuana is a drug that is capable of saving the lives of people suffering from AIDS and cancer, and saving the sight of patients suffering from glaucoma, yet in order to use this drug the patient must take the risk of being arrested or fined. Despite the clear medical values that marijuana possesses, it remains illegal because of the predetermined views that the public has. We have been made to believe that marijuana has no beneficial aspects to it, but in fact, it does. This is the way that it should be. If marijuana is legalized for medical purposes only, more research could be done to determine if it possesses even more medical benefits than we are aware of.
Classifying marijuana as a Schedule II drug would allow patients to use marijuana for medical purposes only, while it would remain illegal for recreational use. Many seriously ill patients could use marijuana to relieve their pain and suffering, and therefore marijuana prohibitions must not, in good conscience, continue to deny them the rights that they deserve. Legalizing Marijuana for Medical Use Should we have the right to control what substances we put into our bodies? We have been denied the right to use certain substances, despite their possible medical values. The media has bombarded us with images that portray the use of marijuana as strictly a means for teenagers to get high.
The truth is, behind these preconceived views, there are substantial medical values. Marijuana is a very versatile drug, and is capable of relieving a wide range of symptoms. Marijuana does less damage to the lungs than cigarettes do over time, it is less intoxicating than alcohol, and it is less addictive than both, yet it is the one that is illegal. Some people may believe that legalizing marijuana could lead to excessive use by people that do not need it, but legalizing marijuana for medical purposes only would allow patients to have another alternative when currently legal drugs are not working.
Marijuana is unlike most other illegal drugs as it has the ability to heal. Marijuana cannot cure any diseases, but it can bring relief from symptoms that could not be stopped by other drugs. Marijuana is most commonly used to reduce nausea and vomiting caused by cancer chemotherapy. During chemotherapy highly toxic substances are put in the body to kill the cancer cells. Unfortunately, this also causes many unwanted side effects, one being extreme nausea. Some patients spend hours vomiting and coughing, resulting in weight loss and sometimes broken or fractured bones caused by the constant coughing.
Some doctors believe that as many as one in three patients will discontinue their chemotherapy treatment because of the unbearable nausea. For many patients, when a few puffs of marijuana are smoked before chemotherapy treatment, the extreme nausea can be eliminated, allowing them to continue their chemotherapy use, and possibly beat their cancer. Although marijuana is capable of relieving nausea in many patients, there are legal drugs that are designed to perform the same function. These drugs are considered safer than marijuana because professionals manufacture them in controlled conditions, and they can be given in controlled doses, unlike marijuana. These drugs however, can be very expensive, and they do not work on all patients. Also, these other drugs are given in pills, unlike marijuana, which is usually smoked, so a patient that has uncontrollable vomiting may not be able to keep the pills down, making the drug ineffective.
Marijuana, however, when smoked cannot be vomited back up, and smoking marijuana relieves the nausea much faster than any pill. Although the legal drugs are considered safer by law, there is a better understanding of the safety of marijuana than most other legal drugs. Marijuana clearly has the ability to relieve nausea and vomiting, and when it is used under control with the consent of a doctor, it can be an effective alternative to currently legal nausea-relieving drugs that do not work for a patient. Like Chemotherapy, the standard treatments for HIV infections are very toxic. To treat HIV, an antiviral drug called AZT is given. This drug slows the progression of the disease by attacking the HIV.
Unfortunately, this drug damages the digestive system, and causes severe nausea. The patients also loose their appetites and therefore they loose weight. This leads to a condition called AIDS wasting syndrome, which is one of the major causes of death from AIDS. Wasting syndrome leaves the body weak, and therefore vulnerable to cancers and infections.
To stop the wasting syndrome, patients can smoke marijuana, which stops the nausea and stimulate the patient s appetite, both of which can add weight to the patient. In the most recent report by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), it said: Marijuana s active components are potentially effective in treating pain, nausea and the anorexia of AIDS wasting, and other symptoms 1. Although smoking marijuana can relieve the nausea of HIV patients, and help in weight gain, smoking marijuana regularly can damage the cells of the bronchial passages, which protect the lungs against microorganisms. This could be dangerous for patients infected with HIV who already have weakened immune systems, as respiratory diseases like pneumonia can be caught, which is often fatal in AIDS patients. Although marijuana can damage the lungs, patients who are dying from AIDS wasting syndrome should have the right to use marijuana as an alternative to currently legal drugs, when they are not relieving the nausea. Marijuana smoke contains many of the same toxins as cigarette smoke, including the one that has been identified as the major cause of lung cancer.
This toxin is found in the tar of both marijuana and cigarettes, but the effects of one marijuana joint on the lungs are equivalent to four [tobacco] cigarettes, placing the user at increased risk of bronchitis, emphysema, and bronchial asthma. 2 Although marijuana has four times more tar than a cigarette, marijuana users typically smoke much less than tobacco smokers, and, over time they inhale much less smoke. Therefore, the serious lung damage done by marijuana should be much lower than that of cigarettes. Glaucoma is a disease that occurs when an eyeball s drainage system becomes blocked, therefore stopping the nourishing fluid that is produced in the eye from flowing out. Since this fluid cannot leave the eyeball, it builds up inside and the pressure increases. When the pressure inside the eyeball stays at a high level for a long time, the eye can become permanently damaged, resulting in blindness. In fact, Glaucoma is the leading cause of blindness.
There is treatment for glaucoma, but they don t always work, and they can cause side effects like asthma and heart trouble. Marijuana can be an alternative to these drugs, as it is able to reduce the pressure in the eyes by 30 %. Using marijuana to relieve the symptoms of chemotherapy and AIDS, and to reduce glaucoma are the most common uses of marijuana, but they may not be the only ones. If marijuana is legalized for medical purposes, it would be taken much more seriously as a beneficial drug, and therefore more research would be done to discover new purposes for marijuana.
Many patients who could use marijuana to reduce their symptoms are afraid that they will become addicted. Marijuana, like many drugs, is addictive. Although the body does not develop a physical dependence on the drug, people who smoke it heavily for a long time can develop an addiction. However, a large majority of people that have tried marijuana for recreational purposes no longer use it.
In America, 31 % of people over 12 have used marijuana in their life, but only. 8 % of Americans are currently marijuana users. 3 Though marijuana is addictive, the large majority of people that have used marijuana in their life no longer use it or have cravings for it. Marijuana has also been labelled as a gateway drug, meaning that, even though marijuana itself does not cause that much harm to the body, it leads to more dangerous drugs like heroin, LSD, and cocaine. It s true that marijuana may act as a gateway drug for recreational users who are just trying to get high for fun, but if marijuana is legalized for strictly medical purposes only, it is unlikely that the users will move on to harder drugs. Since the users of marijuana are just using it to relieve their discomforting symptoms, and not as a means to get high, they would have no desire to find new ways to get high. It is often assumed that marijuana, like many other drugs, kills brain cells, but that has now been proven to be a myth. Researchers have found no evidence that marijuana damages the brain, even when a person uses large amounts or marijuana over a long period of time.
In the early 1970 s, there was a study that concluded that monkeys, when exposed to large amounts of marijuana, would lose some of their brain cells. Because of this study, people believed that marijuana killed human brain cells. Later, when a similar study was conducted, but this time more carefully, they found that the monkeys exposed to marijuana received no damage to the brain. Though marijuana does not kill any brain cells, it does produce immediate, but temporary changes in the way the user thinks and acts.
In other words, it makes you high. After smoking marijuana, the user has a temporary decline in their ability to remember new information. The short-term memory is only affected for the period of time that the user is intoxicated. Marijuana definitely affects the short-term memory, but there is no convincing evidence proving that marijuana negatively affects a user s long-term memory. After smoking marijuana, the user receives a high, where they are unable to think and act normally and are therefore considered intoxicated.
Marijuana is not the only drug that gives you a high. In fact, there are many legal drugs that create similar or even more intoxicating highs. In the media, marijuana has mainly been portrayed as a drug that does nothing but get teenagers and hippies high. Therefore, the public is very unaware that marijuana has very significant medical benefits. The government also supports and runs anti-drug campaigns which portray marijuana as a dangerous drug.
Yet these same people, some of them who are the most powerful people in the world, for example Bill Clinton and Al Gore, joke about their past uses of marijuana. This display of hypocrisy is very unfair, as they are the ones arresting and fining people that actually need marijuana for medicine. Together, the government and the media have a huge influence on the public and the way that they think. Because the government and media show little support for the use of marijuana under any circumstances, the medical values of marijuana have been left unnoticed.
The public has been made to believe that marijuana is dangerous, and up until now not much attention has been given to the positive effects that marijuana possesses. If marijuana were to be legalized, for anybody to use, people could abuse this right and start smoking marijuana recreation ally in order to get high. This would not be fair to the people around them who could be endangered by the intoxicated smoker. However, this does not mean that people suffering from an illness should be denied their right to do whatever it takes to help them conquer their sickness, even if it means smoking marijuana under the consent of a doctor. Currently marijuana is considered a Schedule I drug, meaning that people caught with it can be fined or imprisoned.
In the future, marijuana could be classified as a Schedule II drug, which would then allow it to be used for medical purposes, without the patient getting arrested or fined. If things continue to go the way they are, this could be possible. Currently, in Maine, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, patients with certain medical conditions are allowed to use small doses of marijuana under the consent of a doctor. The patient must also have tried other remedies and found them ineffective. This seems like a very effective way to control the use of marijuana. Marijuana is a drug that is capable of saving the lives of people suffering from AIDS and cancer, and saving the sight of patients suffering from glaucoma, yet in order to use this drug the patient must take the risk of being arrested or fined.
Despite the clear medical values that marijuana possesses, it remains illegal because of the predetermined views that the public has. We have been made to believe that marijuana has no beneficial aspects to it, but in fact, it does. This is the way that it should be. If marijuana is legalized for medical purposes only, more research could be done to determine if it possesses even more medical benefits than we are aware of.
Classifying marijuana as a Schedule II drug would allow patients to use marijuana for medical purposes only, while it would remain illegal for recreational use. Many seriously ill patients could use marijuana to relieve their pain and suffering, and therefore marijuana prohibitions must not, in good conscience, continue to deny them the rights that they deserve. 33 a
Free research essays on topics related to: tobacco smokers, smoking marijuana, legalizing marijuana, wasting syndrome, brain cells
Research essay sample on Legalizing Marijuana Smoking Marijuana
