The Case For Canibus Essay Research Paper

The Case For Canibus Essay, Research Paper The Case for Cannabis Solomon Hafer 11/28/99 Mrs. Pappas English 10 D Legalization of marijuana offers both benefits, and disadvantages. The medical benefits of marijuana have been researched and proven to aid patients with glaucoma and some forms of cancer. Other benefits include: fewer people in prison and fewer social problems for the users because they get help instead of jail time. The big question remains: all out legalization or legalization for medical use, or decriminalization. Whatever the outcome, marijuana use needs to be based on its own pharmacology and its own faults and not on the problems with other drugs. The history of drug use in the United States is surprising. A survey in Iowa in the 1880s found that 3,000

grocery stores sold opiates without a prescription.(Legalization: A Debate, Elliot Marshall) Around the turn of the century, the Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) simply required patent medicines to list ingredients on the label. In 1914, Congress wished to improve relations with China, and so passed narcotics control measures requiring the monitoring of certain drug sales. Various acts were passed over the next several decades that gave the federal government more and more control over importation and distribution of narcotics. In 1971, in part as a response to the tumult of the 1960s, President Richard Nixon launched a comprehensive ?War on Drugs?. Two years later, Nixon declared that we had won the war on drugs. Apparently he was wrong, for in the United States, drug law

enforcement costs have risen to astronomical proportions. Increasing debate over the failure of the ?Drug War? as well as questions of personal freedom and privacy rights have led to calls among many citizens of the United States for legalization of marijuana as well as other drugs such as cocaine and heroin. The medicinal uses of marijuana have been studied and documented in the treatment of the side effects of chemotherapy for cancer and treatment of the symptoms of glaucoma. Glaucoma is a progressive eye disease that causes pressure buildup inside the eye and eventually leads to blindness. Marijuana decreases the pressure on the eyes, decreases pain, and helps to stabilize the condition. Smoking marijuana relieves the pain for about five hours; it must be smoked at regular

intervals to sustain the effect. Marijuana is also used to treat cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. In chemotherapy, doctors use small doses of potentially lethal medications to selectively kill cancer cells. Understandably, chemotherapy causes the patient to feel nausea, loss of appetite and pain. Marijuana used as a treatment for the side effects of chemotherapy restores appetite, eliminates nausea and decreases the pain. (Legalization: A Debate p.67-71) Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)–an intoxicant–is the main active psychotropic ingredient in marijuana. THC has been produced synthetically for use in place of marijuana for treatment of cancer and glaucoma. THC is made into pills and eyedrops for glaucoma. Both have had little or no effect on the patients?

symptoms. The purpose was to get pain relief without the intoxicating effects of marijuana smoke. Inhaled marijuana smoke has also been shown more effective than dronabinol, the synthetic THC form, in such conditions as: epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, paraplegia and quadriplegia, migraine, premenstrual syndrome, menstrual cramps, labor pains, depression and other mood disorders.(http://www.whitman.edu/offices_departments/biology/stuproj/young/why.html) Marijuana is classed as a Schedule 1 drug. Schedule 1 drugs are said to have a high potential for abuse, high addiction potential, and no medical potential. Cocaine and opiates have Schedule 2 status even though they have much more serious effects than marijuana. (Legalization: A Debate p.69) The number of people physically