Legal Access To Marijuana For Medical Purposes example essay topic

America spent around $18.1 billion last year fighting the war on drugs. The very controversial issue of should marijuana be legalized has been asked for the longest time. What do you think? Owning marijuana was made a crime in 1937 when Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act.

Despite this law, the drug was still somewhat commonly used. Here we are years later, still without a satisfactory answer to the question. Legalizing the use of marijuana could have psychological effects on people, provide medical benefits to people needing it, along with economical benefits it would provide there could also be a decrease in the incidence of crime. One debate against legalizing marijuana is its use will cause Americans to suffer from psychological and personality problems. According to Elizabeth Scheichert, who is the author of Marijuana, The Drug Library, THC is the active chemical in marijuana that causes the user to feel "high" (Scheleichert 32). This is also the chemical that is most destructive to the user's body and mind.

The THC from smoking one marijuana cigarette can accumulate in the user's body fat and stay there for weeks at a time (Scheleichert 34). Smoking marijuana causes a lack of motivation, ambition, and creativity. Many user's lose interest in life and become very lazy. People who use marijuana often find it very difficult to concentrate on anything more challenging than television. Marijuana causes a decreased attention span and feelings of isolation. High school and college students who are regular users of marijuana find themselves to be struggling with inner turmoil, feeling depressed, scared, and having very low self-esteem.

To a frequent user, time and surroundings become constantly distorted, causing judgment, logical thinking, and memory to become impaired. An equally important fact for legalizing Marijuana usage is the many medical benefits it provides to people with certain medical problems. Marijuana became popular as a medicine in the United States during the mid-nineteenth century. Then, marijuana was used to treat general headaches, migraine headaches, depression, muscular tension, insomnia, and menstrual cramps. Today, marijuana has proven to be beneficial in the treatment of many more medical conditions including glaucoma, cancer, and asthma (Meng).

In 1976, Robert C. Randall became the very first American to ever gain legal access to marijuana for medical purposes. Randall says that marijuana helped him through his battle with glaucoma, "Marijuana has helped control it. Marijuana is helping me to save my eyesight" Marijuana has helped Mr. Randall in his fight with glaucoma, and has the potential to aid in the treatment of many other medical situations. Another person that has gotten relief from marijuana is Myron Lindey.

Lindey was suffering from cancer in the bladder before he started to use marijuana for his condition he was constantly losing weight. With the help of marijuana he was able to gain some weight as stated in the article "Myron Lindey, backed medicinal use of marijuana" he states, "It helped me to gain weight that the cancer had ate away". He also says", I never smoked marijuana before my cancer and I haven't smoked it since. But I firmly believe that when I need it, it saved my life" (Marijuana 20). Marijuana also helps people who have AIDS. Charles Wy nott suffers from AIDS.

He smokes marijuana everyday to ease the wringing nausea imposed by his medicines. These two cases shows that marijuana is a help to people who needs it. Marijuana is legal in one state for medical purposes only. In 1996, voters in California approved a law that relaxes regulations on medical marijuana. The federal government cannot take action against California doctors who recommend marijuana to their patients. Economical benefits is another reason why some promote the legalization of marijuana.

Ethan Nadelman, an assistant professor of politics and public affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University wrote in the book Drug Abuse, Opposing Viewpoints, about several strategies of legalizing the use of marijuana. One strategy would consist of the government exercising strong regulatory powers over all large-scale production and sale of marijuana. The second strategy is to make drug-treatment programs available to all those who need them. The last, but not least, strategy was to make marijuana available only to competent adults. This legalization strategy would allow the United States to reduce government expenditures on enforcing drug laws and would allow the United States to enjoy a new tax revenue from legal drug production and sales.

According to Nadelman, his strategy would increase public treasuries of at least ten billion a year and maybe much more. This strategy proposes that legalizing marijuana would have many economical benefits on the United States. Former Mayor of Baltimore Kurt Schmoke was a strong believer in legalizing drugs. In the article, "The War on Drugs Is Lost" he says, .".. the strategy for fighting it didn't work, and as a result the war lasted too long and cost too many lives. The same is true of the war on drugs. It's time to bring this enervating war to an end.

It's time for peace" (Schmoke). According to Mr. Schmoke, by legalizing marijuana, the crime rate might decrease in the United States. The streets of America might automatically become much better and safer places. The drug dealers would possibly be put out of business, and the shootouts over drug related crimes would likely end. According to Schmoke, "One year after prohibition was repealed, 1,600 innocent people who otherwise would have been dead at the hands of drug criminals would be alive" (Schmoke). Instead of drug addicts shoplifting, mugging, breaking into homes, and stealing from others to pay outrageous prices for marijuana from dealers, they could support their habit by simply holding an honest, decent paying job.

Some people feel legalizing marijuana could have a very positive effect on the public. These people believe that it could have many medical and economical benefits, along with the decrease in the incidence of crime. Opponents to legalizing marijuana feel that legalizing it could lead to psychological and personality problems. Whether you are for the legalization of marijuana or against it you cant deny that it is a decision that needs extensive research and deliberation before a decision is made.

Bibliography

Marijuana and Medicine". Institute of Medicine, 1999 Nat.
Academy of Sciences. Feb. 2, 2002.
nap, edu / reading room / marine d / Schmoke, Kurt. "The War On Drugs Is Lost", Sept. 1999, web Meng, Ian.
Medical Marijuana". /~olsen / medical /men. html. Nov. 20, 1997.
Doing the Science. Feb 1, 2002.
Scheleichert, Elizabeth. Marijuana. Ens low Publishers: Drug Library, Jan. 1, 2002.