Marijuana As A Medicine To Patients example essay topic

About Medical Marijuana Marijuana is medicine. It has been used for thousands of years to treat a wide variety of ailments. Marijuana (Cannabis sativa L.) was legal in the United States for all purposes - industrial and recreational, as well as medicinal until 1937. Today, only eight Americans are legally allowed to use marijuana as medicine. NORML is working to restore marijuana's availability as medicine. Medicinal Value Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known.

No one has ever died from an overdose. It is also extremely versatile. Four of its general therapeutic applications include: relief from nausea and increase of appetite; reduction of intraocular ('within the eye') pressure; reduction of muscle spasms; relief from mild to moderate chronic pain. Marijuana is often useful in the treatment of the following conditions: Cancer: Marijuana alleviates the nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite caused by chemotherapy treatment. AIDS: Marijuana alleviates the nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite caused by the disease itself and by treatment with AZT and other drugs.

Glaucoma: Marijuana, by reducing intraocular pressure, alleviates the pain and slows or halts the progress of the disease. Glaucoma, which damages vision by gradually increasing eye pressure over time, is the leading cause of blindness in the United States. Multiple Sclerosis: Marijuana reduces the muscle pain and spasticity caused by the disease. It may also relieve tremor and unsteadiness of gait, and it helps some patients with bladder control. Multiple sclerosis is the leading cause of neurological disability among young and middle-aged adults in the United States. Epilepsy: Marijuana prevents epileptic seizures in some patients.

Chronic Pain: Marijuana reduces the chronic, often debilitating pain caused by variety of injuries and disorders. Each of these uses has been recognized as legitimate at least once by various courts, legislatures, government, or scientific agencies throughout the United States. Currently, such well respected organizations as the National Academy of Sciences (1982), the California Medical Association (1993), the Federation of American Scientists (1994), the Australian Commonwealth Department of Human Services and Health (1994), the American Public Health Association (1995), the San Francisco Medical Society (1996), the California Academy of Family Physicians (1996), as well as several state nursing associations have supported the use of marijuana as a medicine. In addition, anecdotal evidence exists that marijuana is effective in the treatment of arthritis, migraine headaches, pruritus, menstrual cramps, alcohol and opiate addiction, and depression and other mood disorders. Marijuana could benefit as many as five million patients in the United States. However, except for the eight individuals given special permission by the federal government, marijuana remains illegal-even as medicine!

Individuals currently suffering from any of the aforementioned ailments, for whom the standard legal medical alternatives have not been safe or effective, are left with two choices: Continue to suffer from the effects of the disease; or Obtain marijuana illegally and risk the potential consequences, which may include: an insufficient supply because of the prohibition-inflated price or unavailability; impure, contaminated, or chemically adulterated marijuana; arrests, fines, court costs, property forfeiture, incarceration, probation, and criminal records. Background: The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 established the federal prohibition of marijuana. Dr. William C. Woodward of the American Medical Association testified against the Act, arguing that it would ultimately prevent any medicinal use of marijuana. The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 established five categories, or " schedules,' into which all illicit and prescription drugs were placed. Marijuana was placed in Schedule I, which defines the substance as having a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision. This definition is simply not accurate.

However, at the time of the Controlled Substances Act, marijuana had been illegal for more than 30 years. Its medicinal uses had been forgotten and its 'reefer madness's tig ma was still prevalent. Marijuana's medicinal uses were rediscovered as a result of the tremendous increase in the number of recreational users in the 1970's: Marijuana's popularity compelled many scientists to study its health effects. They subsequently discovered marijuana's remarkable history as a medicine, inspiring many studies of its therapeutic potential; Many recreational users who also happened to be afflicted with conditions for which marijuana has therapeutic potential inadvertently discovered its medicinal benefits. As the news spread, the number of patients illegally using marijuana medicinally began to increase.

Because marijuana is a Schedule I substance, however, doctors were not allowed to prescribe it, and research approval and funding were severely restricted. The Struggle In Court: In 1972, NORML initiated efforts to reschedule marijuana by submitting a petition to the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs-now the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). After 14 years of legal maneuvering, the DEA finally acceded to NORML's demand for the public hearings required by law. Following the hearings, which lasted two years and included thousands of pages of documentation as well as the testimony of numerous physicians and patients, a decision was reached. On September 6, 1988, the DEA's Chief Administrative Law Judge, Francis L. Young, ruled: Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known. [T] he provisions of the [Controlled Substances] Act permit and require the transfer of marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule II.

It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance. [Docket No. 86-22] Marijuana's placement in Schedule II would allow doctors to prescribe it to their patients. Bureaucrats in charge of the DEA rejected Judge Young's ruling and refused to reschedule! Two appeals later, NORML experienced its first defeat in the 22-year-old lawsuit. On February 18, 1994, the U.S. Court of Appeals (D.C. Circuit) upheld the DEA's decision to keep marijuana in Schedule I. It seems that as long as the DEA-a law enforcement agency-is allowed to set its own criteria used to determine what 'medicine' is, the courts will be unable to require the DEA to reschedule marijuana. Temporary Compa ionIn 1975, Robert Randall, a glaucoma patient, was arrested for cultivating his own medicinal marijuana.

He won his case by using the 'defense of medical necessity,' forcing the government to find a way to provide him with his medicine. The Compassionate Investigative New Drug (IND) program was thus created, through which patients could obtain marijuana from the government. The program, while helpful to some, was thoroughly inadequate at granting legal access to the millions of patients who are in need of medicinal marijuana: Most patients didn't even consider the possibility that an illegal drug might be their best medicine; Most patients lucky enough to discover marijuana's medicinal value didn't find out about the IND program; Most of those who did find out about the program couldn't find doctors willing to take on the grueling, time-consuming task of filing an IND application. In June 1991, the Public Health Service announced that the program would be suspended because it undercut the Bush administration's opposition to the use of illegal drugs.

After that, no new Compassionate INDs were granted, and the program was discontinued in March 1992. On January 4, 1994, the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) announced that it would reconsider the ban. On July 18, 1994, the PHS decided that it would adhere to Bush's heartless policy and announced that the IND program would remain closed. Presently, eight patients continue to receive marijuana under the original program; for everyone else it is officially a forbidden medicine. Hope for reform: There is an enormous amount of public support for ending the prohibition of medicinal marijuana: Between 1978 and 1996, 36 states pass legislation recognizing marijuana's medicinal value.

(They remain stymied by the federal government's blanket prohibition of marijuana, however.) A 1990 scientific survey of oncologists (cancer specialists) found that 54 percent of those with an opinion favor the controlled medical availability of marijuana and 44 percent had already broken the law by suggesting at least once that a patient obtain marijuana illegally. These findings are later published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. At NORML's urging, U.S. Representative Barney Frank (D-Mass.) introduces legislation in Congress in 1995 (H.R. 2618) to amend the federal law to allow physician's to legally prescribe marijuana as a medicine to patients. NORML testifies before Congress in 1996 on behalf of medical marijuana. The legislature of Washington state appropriates over $100,000 in 1996 to conduct clinical studies on patients to determine the effectiveness of medical marijuana in the treatment of serious illnesses. The appropriation also fund research on cultivating medical marijuana in a tamper-free environment and explores potential ways in which the state can legally distribute the drug for medical use.

Due in part to the activism of NORML members, a California initiative to legalize marijuana for medical purposes (Proposition 215) gathers enough signatures to be placed on the November 1996 election ballot. In August, both the San Francisco Medical Society and the California Academy of Family Physicians -- representing a combined total of almost 10,000 physicians statewide -- endorse the proposition. The challenge for compassionate Americans is to translate this public support into effective reform. It may not be easy to break the DEA's stranglehold on medicinal marijuana, but it can be done!