The Legalization of Medical Marijuana

The Legalization of Medical Marijuana

For hundreds of years people have been using a plant called marijuana as a medical product. People have used it for many things from curing a headache to an aid in childbirth. Marijuana is a plant that grows with little effort on our part; it is technically classified as a weed, and grows in abundant areas all over the world. In our world today, it has become a serious controversy. Many people say it should be legalized for medicinal purposes and others say it is a serious drug that has no medicinal purpose. Marijuana is the drug that is the most widely used yet is illegal. It has been proven that marijuana has the right elements to aid all sorts of ailments and it continues to stay a schedule I drug, meaning that it is illegal to possess, buy, prescribe or take. Sure those people who use marijuana (hemp, pot, weed as it is commonly known) would love to see it legalized, but there are many people who would benefit from this drug if a physician could prescribe it. Research has shown that legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes would allow it to be used to ease pain, counteract nausea, and counteract loss of appetite associated with chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

Studies have shown that medicinal marijuana can ease many types of pain symptoms. Years ago people used this plant to cure everything from headaches to easing the pain of childbirth. Today however marijuana is considered a schedule I drug and is completely illegal to possess. Years of continued studies and tests have proven marijuana’s ability to cure headaches, decrease pain associated with arthritis and reduce the level of pain in patients with cancer, HIV, Multiple Sclerosis and many other traumas.

The most common pain reliever is the pharmaceuticals like aspirin that do relieve pain for most people but are also pretty toxic for our systems. Americans are taking over 100,000 tons of these types of pain relievers a year. (Earleywine 2002) They...