Legalizing Marijuana Essay, Research Paper

To the AIDS or malignant neoplastic disease patient, it is the works that fights sickness and appetite loss. To the dietician, its seed is

2nd merely to the soya bean in nutritionary value, and is a beginning of cooking oil and vitamins. To the paper or fabric

maker, it is the works that provided much of our paper and vesture for 100s of old ages and produces four

times more fiber per acre than trees. To the conservationist, it is the works that could greatly decelerate deforestation,

restore robbed foods by other harvests, and assist forestall eroding. And harmonizing to Lonnelle Aikman, & # 8220 ; Preliminary

findings show the drug may turn out effectual against glaucoma and asthma, and command such side sickness in malignant neoplastic disease

intervention & # 8221 ; ( 158 ) . Unfortunately, to most people in this state, it is a useless works when it comes to economic or

medical value. Marijuana should be legalized in the United States. In proficient footings, hemp, hemp, or for the

mean American, marijuana, it is used merely for recre!

ational intents. I think marijuana is a works that could salvage the universe. In this paper I hope to change by reversal biass,

relieve ignorance, and inform people of the known and possible curative utilizations of this singular works.

As of today the state stands behind three basic thoughts of what to make with marihuana ; legalize marihuanas, make it

legal merely as a prescription drug, or maintain it as it is, illegal. Peoples who are pro-marijuana, argue that marihuana is

well less harmful than baccy and intoxicant, the most often used legal drugs. Furthermore marihuana

has ne’er straight caused anyone & # 8217 ; s decease. Peoples who side with the legalisation of marihuana for medical intents

believe that the terminals justify the agencies. But the people who want to maintain it illegal think that the medical utilizations do non

outweigh the harmful side effects.

Before make up one’s minding whether marihuana should be legal or illegal, one needs to cognize some basic facts. Lester Grinspoon,

M.D. and James B. Bakalar note & # 8220 ; most phytologists agree that there are three species of marihuana ; Cannabis sativa, the

most widespread of the three, is tall, gangly, and slackly branched, turning every bit high as 20 pess ; Cannabis indica

is shorter, about three or four pess in tallness, pyramidal in form and dumbly branched ; Cannabis ruderalis is about

two pess high with few or no subdivisions & # 8221 ; ( 1 ) . They besides say that & # 8220 ; Cannabis has become one of the most widespread

and diversified of workss. It grows as weed and cultivated works all over the universe in a assortment of climes and dirts & # 8221 ;

( 1 ) . Marijuana was foremost cultivated in China around 4000 B.C. It was chiefly used as a ataractic and analgetic, but

today it is normally used for the & # 8220 ; high & # 8221 ; or the euphoric feeling it causes. The most active ingredient in marihuana is

delta-9-tetrahydrocannibinal normally referred to a!

s THC, which wasn & # 8217 ; t discovered until the sixtiess.

Marijuana is illegal today because of the Marijuana Stamp Tax Act passed in 1937. This act prohibited the usage, sale,

and turning of marihuana. It was made illegal because no one understood why smoke marihuana made people experience

the manner they did, and because it was associated with Indians and other so called & # 8220 ; immoral people. & # 8221 ; Today marijuana

is illegal because research has shown some intoxicant effects. Such as hallucination, anxiousness, depression, extreme

variableness of temper, paranoia and schizophrenic disorder enduring up to six hours. Raphael Mechoulam says, & # 8220 ; Although

hemp causes initial restlessness, exhilaration, and sometimes rambunctious, unprompted behaviour, pacing and dance,

the chief image is of decreased physical activity apart from address & # 8221 ; ( 316 ) . Physical effects include blushing of the

eyes, waterlessness of the oral cavity and pharynx, a moderate addition in bosom rate, stringency in the thorax, sleepiness,

ricketiness, and uncoordinated muscular contractions. Marijuana buffers!

the cardinal nervous system, but is non known to bring forth a considerable sum of pitch in the lungs. Although

marihuana has non been proven to be physically habit-forming, its usage can be psychologically habit-forming. These are the

negative effects of marihuana, and the primary grounds why domestic people, physicians, and politicians want to maintain

marijuana illegal.

Supporters of legalising marihuana province that some legal drugs are merely as bad. For illustration, intoxicant has many of the

same side effects of marihuana. Alcohol buffers the cardinal nervous system and is known to kill encephalon cells. A joint

of marihuana is known to bring forth more pitch than a coffin nail, but on the mean marihuana users do non devour

plenty marihuana to excel the pitch construct up of a individual who smokes a battalion of coffin nails a twenty-four hours. June Crown and

W.D.M. Paton province that & # 8220 ; Further, one should recognize that different hemp tobacco users select different degrees of

poisoning & # 8221 ; ( 18 ) . In add-on, both intoxicant and coffin nails have been proven to be chemically habit-forming and yet they

are legal.

As of late 1990, there were about 12 people who had permission to smoke mariju

Ana for its medical value. Are

these the lone people who can profit from marihuana? Not harmonizing to Harvard research workers who surveyed 2,430

oncologists ; of the 1,035 who responded about 50 % said that they had suggested smoking marihuana to at least one

of their patients, despite the fact that it is illegal, and that they would order marihuana if it were legalized.

When Kenny and Barbara Jenks, of Panama City, Florida, developed AIDS, the lone thing that made them hungry

and decreased their sickness were several hits of marijuana each twenty-four hours. Neither of them had of all time been marihuana

tobacco users before, but everything their physician prescribed for them failed. In March of 1990, twelve constabulary officers put

a banging random-access memory through the door of their nomadic place, took their two 10-inch marihuana workss, and arrested the

twosome. The Jenks retaliated, and nine months subsequently became two of a smattering of legal marihuana tobacco users in the

United States.

For the last 10 old ages the authorities has meagerly dispensed marihuana to a infinitesimal part of the population to

have it lawfully on an experimental footing for the intervention of glaucoma and sickness related to malignant neoplastic disease chemotherapy.

At the extremum of the Drug Wars in the late 1980s the Department of Health and Human Services began having

tonss of applications from AIDS patients, for whom marijuana & # 8217 ; s hunger bring oning effects was the lone thing that

separated them from life and decease. As they lost weight and strength, they found it more and more hard to prolong

the will to populate. Alternatively of seeing the demand, Health and Human Services rapidly shut down the plan this yesteryear

twelvemonth, merely leting the choice group already profiting from marihuana to go on. Helping people in demand wasn & # 8217 ; T

deserving jeopardizing the repute of the War on Drugs. They thought that the usage of marihuana, even as a medical specialty

would direct the incorrect message to people.

Although there is much talk about the legalisation of drugs among the province authorities there is really small talk about

it on the national degree. Alternatively of legalising it the authorities has tried to come up with options to marijuana

usage. They now offer a drug called Marinol, a spherical brown pill incorporating an unreal version of one of

marihuana & # 8217 ; s working ingredients. Marinol is produced entirely by Unimed Inc. in Buffalo Grove, Illinois. The pill sells

for approximately five dollars a tablet, and was sanctioned in 1985 to conflict the sickness associated with malignant neoplastic disease chemotherapy.

In the book, Marijuana, the Forbidden Medicine, it states that & # 8221 ; vomiting ( dry broken winds ) may last for hours or even yearss

after each intervention, followed by yearss and even hebdomads of sickness. Patients may interrupt castanetss or tear the gorge

while purging. Furthermore, many patients eat about nil because they can non stand the sight or odor of nutrient & # 8221 ;

( 25 ) . In the past twelvemonth the FDA approved it as a H!

unger stimulation for AIDS patients enduring from the tremendous weight loss of this & # 8220 ; blowing off syndrome. & # 8221 ; Some

patients lose up to thirty lbs in a individual month.

Marinol works because it duplicates delta-9-tetrahydrocannibinol ( THC ) , the chemical in marihuana that gives

people a & # 8220 ; high. & # 8221 ; But, due to the fact that a individual is taking the dose of the THC in one concentrated sum, and

non at intervals like smoking marihuana, it hits a individual like a brick. Besides, it may non even contain the medical specialty

that enduring people need and want. Since there was a sudden demand for a marihuana replacement, THC was the most

researched, so man-made THC is what was approved by the FDA. In contrast, patients do non desire to acquire high

needfully, they merely want alleviation.

When people hear the phrase, & # 8220 ; legalisation of marihuana, & # 8221 ; they merely think of the people smoking it for a & # 8220 ; high, & # 8221 ; non

for utilizing it as a medical specialty. Peoples should non smoke marihuanas for recreational intents, instead for the medical

value. It should be used by those people whose last alternate for alleviation is marijuana. These people who are sick

should non be punished by enduring. Prescription drugs are non to be taken unless prescribed by a physician. So in fact,

we are non legalising a drug, merely presenting a new arm for contending unwellnesss.

I hope to hold alleviated some of the belligerencies towards marihuana. Its utilizations go far beyond merely acquiring & # 8220 ; high. & # 8221 ; It can

be used to do paper, hence salvaging many trees, apparels, and most significantly for medical specialty. Although I do non

condone smoking marihuana as a recreational drug, I feel that its positive facets would greatly help us in the

nowadays every bit good as the hereafter.

Aikman, Lonnelle. Nature & # 8217 ; s Mending Humanistic disciplines: From Folk Medicine to Modern Drugs. National Geographic Society,

1977.

Bakalar, James B. and Lester Grinspoon, M.D. Marijuana, the Forbidden Medicine. Yale University Press: New

Haven and London, 1993.

Crown, June and W.D.M. Paton. Cannabis and Its Derived functions. Oxford University Press: London, 1972.

Mechoulam, Raphael. Marijuana. American Press: New York and London, 1973.