Medical Marijuana Essay, Research Paper

Medical Marijuana

Marijuana ( hemp ) is a mixture of foliages, stems, and blooming tops of the Indian hemp works Cannabis sativa. [ 4 ] Marijuana is thought by many to be harmful, but it has been proven in fact to be helpful for some people with certain unwellnesss. [ 4 ]

When I foremost started looking into medical marihuana as my research topic, I was funny to see what people my age really thought about marihuana. I asked 20 of my equals, runing in age from 17 to 22, & # 8220 ; What is the first thing that comes to mind when I say & # 8216 ; marijuana & # 8217 ; ? & # 8221 ; The responses shocked me: six of them said & # 8220 ; acquiring high, & # 8221 ; four of them said & # 8220 ; damaging drug, & # 8221 ; and ten of them, 50 per centum, said & # 8220 ; medical uses. & # 8221 ; The response that overwhelmed me the most was & # 8220 ; medical utilizations & # 8221 ; because at my age I have non thought much about marihuana being used for medical intents, but alternatively for pleasance intents.

Harmonizing to Marijuana and Medicine: Measuring the Science Base: & # 8220 ; Marijuana workss have been used since antiquity for both herbal medicine and intoxication. & # 8221 ; [ 5 ] If marihuana has been used since 3000 BC [ 4 ] for medical utilizations, so why is it illegal today for most people to utilize it for these intents? An article in CONSUMER REPORTS writes, & # 8220 ; For the past decennary the Government has refused to supply either money or marihuana to research workers analyzing the drug & # 8217 ; s possible curative effects, so this research has been about at a deadlock, & # 8221 ; quotes one author for CONSUMER REPORTS. [ 6 ] & # 8220 ; Science should cognize more about this substance by now, sing how long it has been in usage, & # 8221 ; agrees Harrison Pope besides from CONSUMER REPORTS. [ 6 ]

Richard Brookhiser wrote in Marijuana Magazine, & # 8220 ; A Government-commissioned panel of experts reported that there had been & # 8216 ; an detonation of new scientific cognition & # 8217 ; on the medical utilizations of marijuana. & # 8221 ; [ 1 ]

Some medical professionals argue that there are already semisynthetic drugs used for most of the unwellnesss that marihuana can be used for. & # 8220 ; In fact, there is non one substance in this full & # 8216 ; Physician & # 8217 ; s Desk Reference & # 8217 ; that is wholly harmless, & # 8221 ; [ 9 ] said Chuck Thomas at the Testimony Before the Institute of Medicinal Marijuana Hearing in New Orleans. & # 8220 ; & # 8230 ; while prescription drugs, defined as safe by the FDA, kill up to 27,000 and aspirin up to 1,000 Americans per twelvemonth, hemp putting to deaths 0 per twelvemonth, & # 8221 ; [ 2 ] harmonizing to the Bureau of Mortality Statistics. & # 8220 ; Nearly all medical specialties have toxic,

potentially deadly effects, but marihuana is non such a substance & # 8230 ; Marijuana in its natural signifier, is one of the safest active substances known to adult male. By any step of rational analysis marihuana can be safely used within a supervised modus operandi of medical nucleus, & # 8221 ; [ 3 ] the Guardian Newspaper printed in 1993 on the issue.

& # 8220 ; Compared with legal drugs & # 8230 ; ..marijuana does non present greater hazards, & # 8221 ; [ 8 ] harmonizing to the Pharmacological Reviews: Health Aspects of Cannabis.

THC, the active ingredient in marihuana, has been produced in a pill signifier. Marinol & # 210 ; is one of the pills:

& # 8220 ; The hapless handiness of Marinol & # 210 ; in aqueous solutions and its high first-pass metamorphosis in the unrecorded history for its hapless bioavailability ; merely 10-20 % of an unwritten dosage reaches the systemic circulation. The on set of action is slow ; peak plasma concentration are non attained until two or four hours after dosing. In contrast, inhaled marihuana is quickly captive & # 8230 ; fluctuation in single responses is highest for unwritten THC and bioavailability is lowest. It is good recognized that Marinol & # 8217 ; s & # 210 ; unwritten path of disposal shackles its effectivity because of slow soaking up and patients & # 8217 ; desire for more control over dosing. & # 8221 ; [ 5 ]

& # 8220 ; The pharmaceutical industry and regulative system are addicted to the cult of synthesis. It & # 8217 ; s as if every drug has to come out of a mill. God forbid that it might be natural. There & # 8217 ; s an attitude that adult male can make a better & # 8216 ; Garden of Eden & # 8217 ; scientifically, & # 8221 ; [ 3 ] was one individual & # 8217 ; s position.

& # 8220 ; & # 8216 ; Cannabis is one of humanity & # 8217 ; s oldest medical specialties, with a singular record of both safety and efficiency, & # 8217 ; insists Dr. Lester Grinspoon whose unblinking protagonism of hemp caused a storm in America and even led to decease menaces, & # 8216 ; I & # 8217 ; vitamin Ds like to see the twenty-four hours when full potency of hemp is recognized, & # 8217 ; he says. & # 8216 ; Then it will be seen in the same visible radiation as other alleged wonderdrugs: penicillin, acetylsalicylic acid and insulin. Peoples will look back and as

k how people could hold been so blind. There is no works with so many curative qualities. It’s one of the safest drugs known to adult male kind.’” [ 3 ]

& # 8220 ; Cannabis does seems to be as effectual, if non better, than bing drugs in covering with spasticity and vesica jobs of multiple induration, the side effects seem to be more tolerable for some patients. Clinical tests

hold all backed hemp in being able to, non remedy, but suppress some of the symptoms. Migraines could good be another case. & # 8221 ; [ 3 ]

Marijuana has been & # 8220 ; proven & # 8221 ; to assist in all these unwellnesss: & # 8220 ; Experimentally Induced Acute Pain, Surgical Acute Pain, Chronic Pain, Migraine Headaches, Chemotherapy-Induced Nausea and Vomiting, Malnutrition in HIV-Infected Patients, Malnutrition in Cancer Patients, Anorexia Nervosa, Muscle Spasticity, Multiple Sclerosis, Spinal Chord Injury, Movement Disorders, Dystonia, Hunnington & # 8217 ; s Disease, Parkinson & # 8217 ; s Disease, Tourette & # 8217 ; s Syndrome, Epilepsy, Alzheimer & # 8217 ; s Disease, Glaucoma, Osteoarthritis, Premenstrual Syndrome, Bipolar Disorder, Manic-depressive Disorder, Pseudotumor Cerebri, and Diabetic Gastroparesis. & # 8221 ; [ 5 ]

Julie Buring said, & # 8220 ; We know that for some people it makes a difference. & # 8221 ; [ 9 ] & # 8220 ; Cannabis does hold curative belongingss, & # 8221 ; [ 3 ] admits Dr. Heather Ashton.

One inquiry raised about legalising marihuana for medical utilizations is the theory that marijuana leads to other & # 8220 ; harder & # 8221 ; drugs. The Lancet Report in 1989: & # 8220 ; The Dutch have shown that there is nil inevitable about the drugs & # 8216 ; ladder & # 8217 ; in which soft drugs lead to difficult drugs. The ladder does non be in Holland because the traders have been separated. & # 8221 ; [ 3 ]

Another inquiry raised was about the remotion of the ingredients in marihuana that give the & # 8220 ; high & # 8221 ; experiencing. Paul Consroe from CONSUMER REPORTS had this to state about this inquiry, & # 8220 ; It seems that the same neurological receptor controls all the effects, the good and the bad. & # 8221 ;

& # 8220 ; The marihuanas sold by drug traders on the streets is sometimes laced with drugs or other contaminations, & # 8221 ; [ 7 ] is another point of why marihuana should be made legal for the medical utilizations. This would extinguish a batch of the drug traders, and the marihuana would so be wholly safe and uncontaminated.

& # 8220 ; Jailing sick and deceasing patients, in the name of public safety, is used by politicians seeking to look tough on drugs. Under current jurisprudence, the earnestly ailment who turn to marijuana for it & # 8217 ; s possible curative effects are capable to collar, condemnable prosecution, and incarceration. & # 8221 ; [ 7 ]

& # 8220 ; Legalizing hemp wouldn & # 8217 ; t do any injury to anybody. We should be concentrating on the serious concern of diacetylmorphine and pep pills, & # 8221 ; [ 3 ] is what one individual for the & # 8220 ; Guardian Newspaper & # 8221 ; had to state.

& # 8220 ; CONSUMER REPORTS believes that for patients with advanced AIDS and terminal malignant neoplastic disease, that apparent benefits some derive from smoking marijuana outweigh any substantiated or even suspected risks. & # 8221 ; [ 6 ]

I believe that with all the medical support medical marihuana has, it should be considered steadfastly within the Government. Who should we swear to do our medical determinations, the authorities, or trained doctors? For now we have no pick but to go forth it up to the authorities because if we take it into our ain custodies, we could be confronting condemnable charges if caught.

[ 1 ] Brookhiser, Richard. & # 8220 ; A Drug War Against the Sick. & # 8221 ; Marijuana

Magazine. 22 Mar. 1999.

[ 2 ] & # 8220 ; Bureau of Mortality Statistics. & # 8221 ; 1988. U.S. Public Health Service

Statisticss. National Institute of Drug Abuse Statistics. U.S.

Surgeon General & # 8217 ; s Report.

[ 3 ] & # 8220 ; Guardian Newspaper. & # 8221 ; 18 Sept. 1993.

[ 4 ] & # 8220 ; Marijuana. & # 8221 ; Encarta Online. 1997-1999. Encarta Encyclopedia.

[ 5 ] Marijuana and Medicine: Measuring the Science Base. Janet E. Joy,

Stanley J. Watson, Jr. , John A. Benson, Jr. , Editors. Institute of Medicine. 1999.

[ 6 ] & # 8220 ; Marijuana as Medicine: How Strong is the Science? & # 8221 ; CONSUMER

Reports. May. 1997.

[ 7 ] Michael, Steve and Turner, Wayne. & # 8220 ; Legalizing Medicinal Marijuana. & # 8221 ;

The Washington Times. 7 Aug. 1997.

[ 8 ] & # 8220 ; Pharmacological Reappraisals: Health Aspects of Cannabis. & # 8221 ; 1986, 38:1,

1-20. pg. 17.

[ 9 ] & # 8220 ; Testimony Before the Institute of Medicine & # 8217 ; s Medicinal Marijuana

Hearing in New Orleans. & # 8221 ; Thomas, Chuck and Buring, Julie. 22 Jan.

1998.