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The Legalization of Marijuana as a Medicine Imagine if one of your loved ones was suffering from a very painful, lethal disease such as cancer. There is a substance that can relieve their pain, but due to a law instituted several decades ago declaring that substance illegal they will be forced to suffer. If marijuana was legalized, strictly for medical purposes, then much of the pain and suffering experienced by cancer patients and those suffering from various other afflictions could be lessened or possibly even eliminated. Although marijuana has been used for medicinal purposes by various cultures since ancient times it was not until recently that extensive clinical research has been conducted on this drug to see if there was possibly any medical value.
With this research overwhelmingly supporting marijuana as a medicine many states have begun to attempt to legalize marijuana for medical purposes. I feel that action from the government regarding this issue is long over due. More research is a necessity so that the medical value of marijuana can be officially established and the process of legalization initiated. By this time, due to an effective public education campaign designed to convince the public of the dangers of marijuana conducted by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, all the states had individually outlawed the selling of marijuana.
All of these factors contributed to the decline of the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Finally in the 1950 s many laws were passed dictating prison sentences and hefty fines for the possession of marijuana. Current law classifies Marijuana as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act. This means it is considered to have no medical value and may prove addictive. Advocates of marijuana would like the goverment to reclassify it as a Schedule II substance which would allow doctors to prescribe it even though it could prove addictive.
As one can see, at one point or another, marijuana has been used to treat about every disease known to man. At first the focus was on small problems such as headaches, but recently it has been tested against various major medical disorders. Suprisingly, it has had much success in this area. In Marijuana on Trial: Is Marijuana a Dangerous Drug or a Valuable Medicine? an article by Kathleen Fackelmann it states, Thousands of patients with cancer, AIDS, and other diseases report they have obtained striking relief from these According to a study conducted by the National Academy of Sciences in 1982 marijuana shows great promise in treating glaucoma and easing the chronic vomiting caused by chemotherapy used to treat cancer. Marijuana is a complex drug composed of at least 421 different chemicals, 61 of which do not exist anywhere else in nature.
These rare chemicals are known as cannabinoids. Most of marijuana s components including the cannabinoids are not fully understood. Due to this lack of knowledge it is impossible to determine which chemicals produce which effects. Many of marijuana s therapeutic effects are produced and controlled by the drugs interaction with the central nervous system. Possibly marijuana causes a temporary alteration at the binding site of a neurotransmitter which would explain the effects. Also THC, marijuana s main mood-changing agent, may be responsible for a majority of marijuana s therapeutic effects.
It is so affective in relieving the nausea brought about by cancer chemotherapy that in 1985 the US Food and Drug Administration approved a synthetic form of it. Marijuana does not prevent cancer. In fact it has no affect on tumor growth what so ever. It does relieve the nausea caused by chemotherapy.
Out of twenty studies conducted thus far, fourteen showed THC to be as affective if not more than traditional medications. Some say that the results would be even higher if the drug was tested in its natural form. Whether the drug should be smoked or synthesized into pill form is a huge debate. Again due to the lack of knowledge about this drug it is not known if the other cannabinoids modify THC s effects in subtle ways. Although smoking marijuana does not cure cancer it is known to improve appetite and reduce weight loss in cancer patients, and this also helps combat the waist syndrome associated with AIDS.
There are several problems associated with the medical use of marijuana. It is important to remember that these problems are not the same as The problems associated with drug abuse. Marijuana is not completely benign, but the harmful effects of medical use arent necessarily the same as those of drug abuse (King, 1). One of the biggest concerns is marijuana s effects on the immune system.
In healthy users the alteration seems slight and temporary, but for a severely ill patient any loss of their immune system could be fatal. Another foreseen problem with the medical use of marijuana centers around the debate between smoking the drug or taking a synthetic version. Doctors are concerned with the damage to the lungs and respiratory system that smoking the marijuana causes. This is probably due to the fact that marijuana smoke contains almost as many toxins as tobacco smoke. One of the main problems with both smoking marijuana or taking the synthetic THC is the psychoactive effects the drug causes. These effects range from drowsiness to anxiety to slower thinking.
Proponents of medical marijuana claim that these psychoactive effects produced by the synthetic THC are more pronounced than that of the marijuana itself. They claim that the underlying reason drug companies oppose marijuana is that they are most likely not to make any large sums of money from it. In Marijuana on Trial: Is Marijuana a Dangerous Drug or a Valuable Medicine? it states Drug companies can t patent marijuana, so there s no incentive for them to conduct such trials (King, 5).
Several other problems deal with more of the drug s side effects. The main concern is the speeded-up heart rate which, again, causes no harm to a healthy individual, but could create complications in someone who is ill or elderly. What do all these complications mean for the legalization of marijuana as a medicine? Several implications could occur.
Marijuana contains various components, so thus far the focus has been on isolating and developing a synthetic version of the particular cannabinoids that produce the specific desired effects without altering the brain, central nervous system, or any other system. Again this has created quite a controversy with those who are convinced that most of the desired effects are produced by the interaction of the cannabinoids which would be impossible to replicate in the lab. While most doctors in the future are likely to rely on the synthetic compounds there will be as there always has been those who treat themselves with marijuana for a variety of symptoms. What do you do if a loved one or you, yourself, is interested in marijuana as a medicine? California and Arizona are the two latest states to pass laws legalizing marijuana for medical purposes, but this all depends on the federal governments response to these new laws. Actually thirty-five state legislatures have passed laws condoning the medical use of marijuana, but under the federal law it is a Schedule I controlled substance.
Although many researchers have concluded otherwise it unfortunately will probably be a while before we see this change. In my opinion, much more research is needed to obtain a better understanding of the effects and function of the cannabinoids. Unlike in the past this research should not just focus on THC but include all of the cannabinoids and possibly their interaction with each other. It is most likely that medical marijuana will not be smoked, even though the smoked drug acts quickly, due to the hazards that come along with smoking it. A safe delivery system which is just as effective as smoking but without the hazard should be developed and tested clinically. Another intresting factor to explore in this research would be marijuana's ability to reduce stress.
This could be very helpful as stated in Marijuana Update by Martha King, It is important to understand the role of relief from fear in managing symptoms that are influenced by stress (King, 2). 342
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Research essay sample on Central Nervous System Marijuana As A Medicine
