Medicinal Marijuana Essay, Research Paper

Marijuana, pot, Mary Jane, grass, weed, hash, hasheesh, pot, hemp, sinsemilla, leafy vegetables. When you hear these words, do you believe of illegal substances or medical miracle-workers? Marijuana has been approved for medical usage by prescription in at least three provinces. In November 1998, electors in Washington DC won the right for medicative marihuana. However, the consequences have been kept secret by congressional order. This research study will give you the facts about marihuana to assist you do up your head. What Is Marijuana and How Is It Used? The scientific name of marihuana is Cannabis sativa. The drug is made of shredded foliages, stems, and flowers of the hemp works. It is grown in hot, damp climes, such as the Southern United States, where it was grown on plantations decennaries ago. It besides grows in Mexico, the Middle East, Africa and India. Marijuana s primary alcohol is tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. There is normally less than.5 % THC in American-grown marihuana. Cannabis from Jamaica, Columbia and Mexico has.5 to.7 % THC in it. Sinsemilla ( the Spanish word for without seed ) is made from the unpollinated female hemp works and can hold 20 % THC in it. There can be every bit much as 50 % THC in hash, a more concentrated signifier of marihuana. Tai sticks are from Southeast Asia. They are made of buds from the works and are bound into short subdivisions of bamboo. Homegrown marihuana is cheap and reasonably easy to turn. Nonetheless, fungi, because of improper pesticide, weedkiller, antifungal or insect powder usage, can infest homegrown marihuana. A common fungus on marihuana is Aspergillus. It has been found that baking marihuana can free the fungus without impacting the THC factor. There are 400 chemicals in petroleum marihuana. The figure increases to 2,000 when it is smoked. Some of these chemicals are stored in the fatty tissues of the encephalon, lungs and generative variety meats, where they can remain for four to six hebdomads. The chemicals in smoke-cured marihuanas are lipid soluble, and the nervus cell membrane is lipid, hence marijuana enters the nervus cells and corsets at that place longer than intoxicant would. These chemicals, upon come ining the organic structure, go from the lungs to the blood watercourse to scatter through the organic structure. Marijuana causes the bosom rate to accelerate. This may be because it causes an addition of the endocrine adrenaline, which stimulates the bosom. The effects can last for three to five hours. About tierce of THC is eliminated through micturition, and two-thirds through elimination. Using a urine drug screen trial, cannabinoids can be detected hebdomads or even months after usage. This is because THC accumulates in fatty tissues. Physical effects of marihuanas include reddened eyes and felicity or silliness. After smoking, driving accomplishments are impaired for around 10 hours, and winging accomplishments for 24. Long term marihuana usage can, in some instances, lead to dependence. Dependent users crave marihuanas and need more of it to hold the same consequence of being high. If they don t usage it, they go into backdown. In backdown, one may see restlessness, crossness, insomnia, sickness, cramping, and sleep EEG perturbation ( the perturbation of the electric encephalon moving ridges ) . It besides produces impaired acquisition abilities, reduced attending span, lowered problem-solving accomplishments and lowered reading comprehension. In males, testosterone degrees and sperm count are lowered. Menstrual abnormality and diminished birthrate occur in females. Marijuana reduces immune response. It besides produces weight loss, icinesss, insomnia, restlessness and crossness. In HIV and AIDS sick persons, marihuanas and cocaine utilizations are associated with an addition in the hazard of bacterial pneumonia. Pneumonia is one of the taking slayers of immune lacking people. Marijuana has psychological effects, excessively. Smokers lose involvement and aspiration. They can be dull, down, and have low self-pride. Besides, they have impermanent memory loss and no motive. In a 1990 Swedish survey, it was found that marijuana tobacco users who had smoked 100 times or more were 2.3 times more likely to develop schizophrenic disorder than non-users. Besides, higher doses of marihuana showed alterations in encephalon moving ridges, or EEG, that lasted for four to five yearss. A adult female named Ann, who was in a group that weekly did drugs while listening to music, accounted, I remember one immature adult male who was paranoid. Though, for awhile, he would be right in with all the remainder of us, but so he would acquire really paranoid under the influence of marihuana. Marijuana can be used as an alcohol in assorted ways. It can be smoked in hand-rolled coffin nails or in pipes. Hashish is in the form of a saloon of soap. Pieces are broken off and used in a pipe or H2O pipe, or crumbled and smoked with marihuana. Hemp, the works marihuana is derived from, has be used for doing fabric, vesture and rope. Scientists are besides trusting to do insularity and cheap oil from it. Tobacco, marihuana, imbibing and adolescent gestation lead to higher rates of troubles related to school, struggles at place, depression, low religionism, lower parental influence and earlier sexual experiences. They besides are associated with orgy imbibing, earlier smoke, and have friends who use marihuanas, intoxicant and tobacco.In 1992, 22 % of high school seniors used marihuana. Besides in 1992, a National Household Survey on Drug Abuse found that the entire figure of marihuana users was 67,525,000 people, comprised of 29,994,000 adult females and 37,531,000 work forces. Of the 86 million exigency room visits in 1994, merely.02 % , or 1 out of every 4300 instances, even mentioned marihuanas usage. Religious Use Marijuana is used in many spiritual patterns. On certain vacations, devout Hindu work forces drink bhang, which is a cannabis-milk mixture, to convey them closer to Shiva. The Ethiopian Zionist Coptic Church besides uses marihuana in spiritual modus operandis. At Stephan s Farm, in Tennessee, the largest spiritual community in America uses the drug for imposts, excessively. The Rastafarians have been granted a tribunal opinion to let for the usage of marihuanas in their spiritual ceremonials. Prenatal Marijuana UseIn the survey used for the undermentioned information about antenatal marihuana and the effects on the size of offspring, 18 per centum of the striplings in the survey used marihuanas during gestation and about 84 per centum of those stopped smoke in the first trimester of gestation. Around seven per centum started smoking after their first trimester. Seven per centum decreased the measure of marihuana and about two per centum increased between the first and 3rd trimesters.Women who smoke marijuana five or more times per hebdomad while pregnant deliver babes preterm by an norm of 1 hebdomad. Newborns of smoking white adult females have lower birth weights than of non-using white adult females. Marijuana besides had a little consequence on birth length. There was a reported addition of minor physical abnormalcies. Exposure of marihuana to unborn babes is show to hold affects on slumber forms. While still in the uterus, the babes acoustic calls were different than those non exposed to marijuana. The exposure increases jumps, shudders and sleep breaks in kiping neonates. Babies have significantly lower sleep efficiency and more frequent rousings at dark. Disturbed slumber in kids is shown to impair attending focal point and emotional and behavioural troubles. Chronic slumber jobs show similar features as attending shortage upset. Prenatal exposure of marihuana is besides shown to impair physical and mental development, including ocular reactivity. At 48 months of age, cognitive map is damaged. In IQ degrees, there are important differences at age three between babes exposed to marihuanas and those non. In kids ages six to nine, visual-perceptual accomplishments, linguistic communication proficiency and general behaviour are harmed. The History of Marijuana Marijuana has been used as a medical specialty and alcohol for 1000s of old ages. It has been accounted that it was used in China 2,000 old ages ago for a figure of upsets and jobs. Marijuana was besides used in India before the 10th century. It was used in the mid-nineteenth century for asthma, insomnia, dysmenorrhea and paroxysms. In 1913, Sir William Osier, one of the clip s most well-thought-of doctors, recommended marihuana, or Indian hemp, as it was called at that clip, for megrims. In 1937, when marihuana was prohibited, there were about 55,000 tobacco users countrywide. Until the sixtiess, about all wind instrumentalists and urban minority groups, peculiarly the Mexican-Americans who lived in the Southwest, on a regular basis used marihuana. In 1979, 68 % of people aged 18 to 25 and 31 % of people aged 13 to 17 had used marihuanas once.Scientific Positions In 1988, Francis L. Young, the Drug Enforcement Agency s head administrative jurisprudence justice, called marihuana, one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to adult male. In May 1991, an informal study was conducted at Harvard University. Nearly half of those surveyed said they would order marihuana as a medical specialty if it were legal. A smaller per centum of them said they had already recommended marihuana to their patients to assist with sickness as an consequence of chemotherapy. Dan Quail, Vice President under President George Bush, testified, & # 8230 ; to set it bluffly, there is no scientific grounds that marijuana & # 8230 ; is safe or effectual. Jerome Kassires, Editor-in-Chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, said, What truly counts for a therapy with this sort of safety border is whether a earnestly sick patient feels alleviation as a consequence of the intercession, non whether a controlled test proves its efficiency. Lester Grinspoon, a Harvard head-shrinker, attested, & # 8230 ; marihuana is a comparatively safe alcohol that is non addicting, does non in and of itself lead to the usage of harder drugs, is non criminogenic, and does non take to sexual surplus, and the grounds that it may take to personality impairment is rather

unconvincing

A booklet by the National Institute of Drug Abuse, entitled For Parents Merely: What You Need to Know About Marijuana, printed, Marijuana does non straight cause mental jobs, but like many other drugs, it appears to convey to the surface emotional jobs and can trip more terrible upsets, peculiarly schizophrenic disorder & # 8230 ; There is small grounds that the drug is physically hooking & # 8230 ; There is nil in marihuana itself that causes people to utilize other drugs & # 8230 ; No unequivocal, neurological survey of worlds has turned up grounds so far that marihuanas can do malignant neoplastic disease in worlds. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration ( NHTSA ) , in a 1996 survey, found that marihuana intoxicates drivers in no manner unusual compared to many medicative drugs. As compared with intoxicant, the NHTSA has decided that marihuana users appear to bring forth greater cautiousness when drive. This is because they are more cognizant of their province and are able to counterbalance for it. Besides, the NHTSA stated, There was no indicant that marihuana by itself was a cause of fatal accidents. Joseph Califano, the former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, says that he wouldn t deny hemp to malignant neoplastic disease or AIDS patients but compares pot smoking to a game in which participants face a one in six opportunity of sudden death.Positive Medical Use Cannabinoids can be used as anodynes, anti-emetics, spasmolytics, appetite stimulations, and as intervention for malignant neoplastic disease, glaucoma, shots, epilepsy, HIV/AIDS, paraplegia and quadriplegia. They can besides help with arthritis, chronic hurting, depression, musculus cramps, catamenial spasms, labour strivings, asthma and insomnia. In a Brown University survey utilizing lab rats, the country of the encephalon associated with hurting was stimulated. The encephalon produced a chemical similar to the chemicals in cannabinoids, including marihuana. Therefore, marihuana can hold the same consequence and the organic structure s natural analgesics. Besides in lab rats, compounds in THC and cannabidiol prevent extra glutamate to be secreted after a shot. The toxic glutamate is shown to kill encephalon cells. Some scientists think the compounds may really protect the delicate encephalon cells from farther harm.In HIV and AIDS patients, THC assists in weight addition and reduces purging and sickness. Because there are really few cannabinoid receptors in the encephalon root, marihuana can be used in high doses and still will non stamp down respiration. THC increases the respiratory rate and opens the bronchial air passages, for easier external respiration. Scientists at the University of California Los Angeles have said that smoking marijuana one to three times daily has the same consequence of smoking five times as many coffin nails. However, it has besides been stated that marihuana fume is four times more harmful to the organic structure than coffin nail fume. Smoked marihuana, unwritten THC and some man-made cannabinoids lessening force per unit area within the oculus, supplying alleviation for glaucoma sick persons. Tetrahydrocannabinol is said to cut down the sickness and emesis associated with chemotherapy. Because the patient is enduring from sickness, he might non be able to get down the THC pill. Roger Pertwee, President of the International Cannabinoid Research Society, who works at the University of Aberdeen, is be aftering a test of THC suppositories for multiple induration patients. Research workers are now looking into the fabrication of THC nasal sprays, skin spots and inhalators. Womans who have taken marihuana to assist decrease labour strivings testify that it works better than conventional drugs. One survey of the affair found that babes of female parents who took marihuana during labour have superior psycho-motor accomplishments and are more watchful at birth.In 1990, approximately 100,000 doses of Marinol, a man-made THC, were prescribed. Besides in 1990, 34 people were prescribed marijuana coffin nails that were manus rolled in Mississippi by authorities workers. Negative Medical Effects Many of the negative effects of marihuanas are based on the event in which it is smoked. It is difficult to turn out if marijuana fume causes malignant neoplastic disease because many people who use marihuanas besides smoke coffin nails. It is hypothesized that marihuana fume, like other fume, inflames the lungs and impairs pulmonary ( lung ) map. Hazardous effects include bronchitis, coughing and chest pain.Marinol, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1985, can be up to one thousand dollars a hebdomad. THC in its pure signifier can be excessively much for weak tummies, giving the patient a powerful, yet unpleasant feeling. THC can do harm to the windpipe, or trachea, and the major bronchia. It besides may diminish the bronchial air passages. However, contradictory grounds was stated earlier.THC reduces leucine, uridine and thymidine consumption, which lowers protein and RNA ( ribonucleic acid ) synthesis. The proteins and RNA are needed in cell reproduction. The production of lymph cells, which are of import in the procedure of antibody creative activity, is reduced due to the exposure to THC and cannabinoids. Because the production of lymph cells is lowered, so so is the production of antibodies. Less antibodies means lower unsusceptibility, opening the weakened organic structure to encroachers. In short, cannabinoids are said to hold an immunosuppressive action.In two out of three topics who smoked street marihuanas, T-cell rosette formation and impaired blastogenesis occurred. T-cell rosette formation is the forming of T-cells in the form of a rose, or circle. Blastogenesis is the signifier of nonsexual reproduction that T-cells undergo.In another survey, five out of six topics had impaired rosette formation. However, in four of the five, the formation returned to normal within 24 hours. A group of monkeys were exposed to three different degrees of marihuana over a period of six months. At the terminal of the survey, many had lowered plasma Igs, which are proteins with antibody activity. In a survey with 10 participants that lasted four hebdomads, T-cell rosette formation and lymphocyte map were impaired, but the alterations were reversed rapidly. The primary immune response of lab rats that were given 10 milligram of THC decreased by 35-40 % . The inductive stage of response was lowered 48-78 % , and the productive, 26-59 % .On glass home bases, the spreading of macrophages, big cells which kill harmful cells, can be easy seen. When THC is added, the spreading is inhibited.THC besides impairs the ability for populating cells to uptake solid atoms, or phagocytosis. Doctors frequently warn patients with AIDS to avoid marihuana because of their reduced unsusceptibility and marihuana s ability to foster lower the organic structure s defence system. In older patients with coronary arteria disease, high blood pressure and cerebrovascular disease, marihuana can do the bosom rate to increase. This, in bend, greatens myocardial demand and cardiac end product by every bit much as 30 % . Wholly, this can increase the hazard of angina. Personal Brushs Christy Mata, whose late female parent took Marinol, a man-made marihuana intervention, advocated it, stating that it increased her female parent s appetency and, gave her an overall sense of wellbeing. Low, a Puerto-Rican who lives in the Spanish Harlem of New York City, stated, We used to acquire seven articulations for one dollar. A bundle of 25 cost two dollars. He besides explained the money traders made. & # 8230 ; one cat would purchase a lb and he d do articulations out of it, a thousand articulations. A lb used to be about 15 dollars, and he d make about 150 dollars on a lb. Ann, a Russian Jew, lived in Harlem in the 1930s. She remembers, But it was really inexpensive. It was already rolled, and it was similar five for a dollar. A adult female enduring from glaucoma, Elvy Muskiia, said of man-made cannabinoids, I think for the pharmaceutical companies to believe they produce a better merchandise than God is wholly assumptive. Laws Refering Marijuana In 1937, the federal authorities prohibited marihuanas. Before the prohibition, a coffin nail cost about 30 cents. Sometime before 1989, a plan was established that granted licenses to physicians to order marihuana. The plan was banished in 1992, but the 8 permit-holders can still exert their rights. Before California, Oregon and Arizona established Torahs to let prescriptions of the sort, the 8 license holders were the lone legal prescribers. In a 1995 canvass by American Civil Liberties Union, 85 % of the population surveyed believed that marihuana should be legalized. California s Proposition 215 says, Patients or defined health professionals, who possess or cultivate marihuanas for medicative intervention recommended by a doctor, are exempt from general proviso or jurisprudence which otherwise prohibit ownership or cultivation of marihuana. The California and Arizona propositions were opposed by the American Medical Association, American Cancer Society, National Multiple Sclerosis Association and American Academy of Ophthalmology. Fifty-six per centum of California electors put Proposition 215 into consequence, and 65 % of electors put a similar jurisprudence into consequence in Arizona. Under Proposition 215, approximately 13,000 of California s five million marihuana users qualify to turn their ain marihuana. If marihuana is legalized, 1000000s of dollars in grants for scientific research will be revoked. The monetary value of marihuana will take down, use will increase, new occupations will be created and there will be a new revenue enhancement provider for the authorities. Oklahoma arthritis sick person Will Foster is functioning a 93-year sentence for his first discourtesy of turning marihuana. In Merced, California, Mike Osborn grew marihuanas for seven AIDS and malignant neoplastic disease patients. He will function a 13-year sentence. Seattle s Martin Martinez is besides functioning a 90-day sentence for turning. Marijuana is a really controversial drug. Its medical deductions could alter the universe of scientific discipline as we know it. Its injuriousness to the organic structure and society may ne’er alter. Without legalisation, we are leting people to endure and decease in hurting. With it, we are allowing legal drug maltreatment that could do pandemonium. The pick is yours.

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