Long Term Effects Of Marijuana example essay topic

People have been using Marijuana as a medicine for thousands of years, beginning in China, India, and the Middle East. The plant's therapeutic potential became known in Western countries during the nineteenth century. From 1840 to 1900, more than a hundred articles on cannabis appeared in European and American medical journals, recommending it as an appetite stimulant, muscle relaxant, painkiller, sedative, and anti-convulsions. The use of Marijuana should be legalized in Canada for the benefits of individuals suffering from a variety of medical problems.

Marijuana as a medicine, however, cannot be established with the Government's permission to test the drug and legalize it. Marijuana has undergone analysis for its use as a medicine and the results have shown improvements in the patients who were treated with this drug... The Government proclaims there is no therapeutic value in the medicinal use of marijuana, but they do not have hard evidence to prove it. Ira Glasser, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, expressed: "the government has demonized all drug use without differentiation and has systematically and hysterically resisted science". Doctors have expressed opposite opinions as well, making this issue very controversial. The controversy falls in the hands of the government, that marijuana is not a safe medicine, versus the doctors who research the topic for medicinal purposes.

Established, not all doctors feel cannabis should be a "legal" prescribed medicine, smoking marijuana is risky, but also recommended that critically ill patients should be allowed to use it under closely monitored settings. On the other hand, the more the government and doctors debate and try to solve this medicine issue, clearly then, more experiments and test will be done. Marijuana proven not to cause any harmful, long-term effects to individuals suffering from medical hopelessness, cannot be tolerated. Doctors believe that they should be able to have prescribed the drug, when the patient is in need Marijuana contains more than 400 chemicals, when smoked, it produces over 2,000 chemicals that enter the body through the lungs. These chemicals have a variety of immediate, short-term effects. In addition, the repeated use of marijuana has been linked to a number of long- term effects marijuana including both psychological and physical reactions.

These reactions usually last for three to five hours after a person has smoked marijuana. The psychological reaction, known as a high, consists of changes in the user's feelings and thoughts. Such changes are caused mainly by THC, a chemical in marijuana that impairs brain function. The effects of marijuana high vary from person to person and from one time to another in the same individual. In most cases, the high consists of a dreamy, relaxed state in which users seem more aware of their senses and feel that time is moving slowly.

Sometimes, however, marijuana produces a feeling of panic and dread. The different reactions result partly from the concentration of THC in the marijuana. Other factors, such as the setting in which marijuana is used and the user's expectations, personality, and mood, also affect a person's reaction to the drug. A doctors expert opinion claims that for cancer patients it therapeutic potential should not go unnoticed, when concrete evidence has been shown throughout the patients discomfort at times with there cancer or disease.

Sick patients should have a cure or a less agonizing experience, if there is medicine, it should be used when the patient is in need. The short-term physical effects of marijuana include redness in the eyes and a rapid heartbeat. The drug also interferes with a person's judgment and coordination. Therefore, driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of marijuana is particularly dangerous.

Long-term effects of marijuana are not completely known. But studies have shown that some people who have used marijuana regularly for several months or longer develop serious problems. Use of marijuana harms memory and motivation. Some chronic users suffer bronchitis, coughing, and chest pains.

Marijuana smoke also contains cancer-causing substances. Among males, marijuana use can reduce the production of sperm and of the male sex hormone testosterone. Among females, it can cause menstrual irregularity and reduced fertility. Extended use of marijuana also has a psychological effect on many people. These individuals lose interest in school, their job, and social activities. Doctors feel even though the long-term effects can be to a degree dangerous, shouldn't inflict on the law of illegal substance for the medical practice and benefits for the individuals poverty-stricken.

Therefore the law should be bended for medical purposes, and citizens should not be penalized and ridiculed by the law and justice. Cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy found that marijuana relieved their nausea and enabled them to eat. Research showed that marijuana reduced the interlobular pressure that can lead to blindness in glaucoma patients. Migraine sufferers found relief from their headaches, and victims of spinal injuries, multiple sclerosis, and epilepsy reported that marijuana seemed to control their spasms. Based on extrapolations from animal experiments, the ratio of marijuana's lethal dose to its effective dose is something like 40,000 to 1 (compared to between 10 and 20 to 1 for aspirin and between 4 and 10 to 1 for alcohol). With a safety margin like that, the most significant risk faced by patients who use marijuana is the risk of arrest.

Possibly if the two "sides" would work together an agreement could be established concerning procedures for further development and treatment. Marijuana has eased the pain of chemotherapy, severe muscle spasms caused by multiple sclerosis, weight-loss due to the AIDS virus, and other problems. Experts from the National Institute of Health or NIH have confirmed that marijuana is an effective, safe and inexpensive alternative for treating nausea caused by AIDS medications and cancer treatments other such ailments as glaucoma, muscle spasms, intractable pain, epilepsy, anorexia, asthma, insomnia, depression and other disorders. The government, however, should legalize it and put taxes and an age limit.

For marijuana has never been proven to cause death. Patients should have the right to use any medical means necessary to control our diseases. Patients with cancer find marijuana controls there vomiting, allowing them to continue chemotherapy. Patients find marijuana helps the 'wasting syndrome' that often characterizes AIDS. Patients with spinal injuries and multiple sclerosis find relief from severe muscle spasms (plasticity) that complicate nerve damage. Patients with glaucoma have derived benefit from marijuana when conventional treatments have failed.

Government experts have indicated that marijuana does relieve pain, and other disorders, but it does not cure them, therefore cannot be legalized as a prescription drug. But for Tylenol 3, the Government experts have concealed some information about similar prescription drugs, such as: precocity and codeine, (found in Tylenol 3). Both are very addictive and they only relieve the pain. Medicinal marijuana has similar side effects as the often-prescribed stimulants, but it is not quite as addictive. Marijuana is not so different from other frequently prescribed stimulants, but its stereotypical summary has the government questioning its output. Patients with such infirmities as AIDS, cancer, anorexia, muscle spasms, insomnia, and other ailments have benefited from the use of medicinal marijuana in an experimental setting.

Most people who use marijuana begin to do so between the ages of 12 and 18. They try the drug because of curiosity. Some people believe marijuana improves their talents and capabilities. But scientists have found that marijuana impairs all abilities. Marijuana high gives some people a false sense of having important new ideas and achieving new understanding about life. Many people who try marijuana use it only a few times or infrequently.

However, others become regular users. Some regular users become dependent on the drug and have great difficulty in stopping its use. The government on going how, it is a bad example to a society engaged in a war of drugs, and that marijuana, cause of the main ingredients THC and codeine cannot and hasn't been proven to cause death. Which the government does not allow it to be legalized and tested with out a medical degree, to enhance doctors medical practice of this supposedly harmful drug.