Meidcal Marijuana

Medical Marijuana

Marijuana: A dry, shredded green/brown mix of flowers, stems, seeds, and leaves of the hemp plant. When someone says ganja, cannabis, bung, dope, grass, rasta, pot, or weed, they

are talking about the same subject: marijuana, which is a growing debate in America. The debate is

whether marijuana is for personal, or to better help the ailing or ill from suffering. Help the

sufferers recover from feeling pain with diseases such as: AIDS, forms of cancer and also glaucoma.

So, why is it illegal in the first place? During the first decades of the century, opium

was made illegal, to kick out Chinese immigrants who flooded the workforce. Cocaine was

made illegal to repress and control the blacks. As for marijuana, it was made illegal in

order to control Mexicans in the Southeast that kept bringing this new unheard-of drug into the U.S.

(Marijuana: Fact for teens) Some states were afraid that marijuana would be used as a

substitute drug for hard drug addicts (heroin, morphine, barbiturates) and alcoholics to use

instead of their regular drug. Also, at this time, the end of Prohibition had left us with a large

group of unemployed police officers, which looked for work by enforcing drug laws. "The only

reason it is illegal is because you can grow it in your backyard and pharmaceutical companies

would lose great deals of money." (General Facts)

The 'war on drugs' is not really about drugs. If it were, tobacco and alcohol

would be primary targets. They are the most commonly used and abused drugs in America,

and they cause more harm to the user and society than marijuana does. Pot smokers in this

country are no different from their nonsmoking peers, except that they chose to smoke a

Marijuana cigarette when they relax, instead of drinking alcohol. Like, the majority of

Americans, their responsible citizens who work hard to raise families, contribute to the

community, and want a safe neighborhood to live in. "They simply prefer marijuana over

alcohol as their recreational drug of choice" (Gerdes, Marijuana 59). Which isn't a bad thing. It's not like their doing any harm to our community by enjoying themselves in the privacy of their own

home. And what they do in the privacy of their own home is no business of ours, or the

governments (Gerdes, Marijuana).

By stubbornly defining all marijuana smokers as criminals, including that

which involves adults smoking in the privacy of their home, we are wasting

police and prosecutorial resources, clogging courts, filling costly and scarce

jail and prison space, and needlessly wrecking the lives and careers of

genuinely good citizens (Marijuana 59).

Responsible marijuana smokers present no threat or danger to society and America,

and there is no reason to treat them as criminals. All they do is choose to relax in a different

way. I believe it is time we ended the marijuana prohibition and stopped arresting and

jailing hundreds of thousands of average Americans. Whose only 'crime' is that they do

choose to smoke marijuana and not cigarettes. "According to those in favor of legalization,

Marijuana is an innocent substance that is nowhere near as damaging as alcohol or other

drugs, and it offers benefits to those suffering cancer"(Gerdes, Marijuana 54).Also, ".... one would

have to consume [...] nearly 1500 pounds of marijuana in about 15 minutes in order to ingest a

fatal amount" (Gerdes, Legalizing 44). Another thing is that most people who smoke marijuana

smoke it only occasionally. A small minority of Americans, less than 1 percent , smoke marijuana

An even smaller minority develop a dependence on marijuana. Some people who smoke marijuana

heavily and frequently stop without difficulty (Marijuana). The good in marijuana is that it will

decrease the crime rate if it is readily available because it'll reduce the need of an underground

subculture to sell weed, it has many medical values, no one has ever died from in, and pot enhances creativity (General Facts).

The therapeutic effects of marijuana are well known and have been used for centuries. It's

an effective pain reliever with none of the side effects and addictive properties of prescription

painkillers. The patient can precisely take the proper dose by smoking enough to provide relief then stop, something that can't be done with prescription drugs. Medical marijuana also allows patients to reduce their dosages of narcotic painkillers, like codeine. Most advanced stages of many illnesses are often accompanied by terrible side effect: unbelievable pain, nausea and vomiting (Gerdes, Legalizing). There are many reports of Marijuana smokers using it to reduce pain, cramps, and so on. "Marijuana is a remarkably safe and non-toxic drug that can effectively treat about 30 different conditions. I predict it will become the aspirin of the 21st century, as more people recognize this," says Lauren Bell. It may also be useful in treatments of glaucoma, a leading cause of blindness in the U.S (Barbour 143):

THC, the active chemical in marijuana, is manufactured into

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