Reduction Of Marijuana's Recreational Use example essay topic

... out enhancing my appetite" (Wesner). Attitudes toward the legal reform of cannabis was shown by strong support for the legalization of marijuana. Many felt that under a medical prescription, they would consider using it. One lady expressed her emotions by saying, "I feel in my heart that if this could help people like myself and my husband who have HIV, then it should by all means be legal for treatment only. We really must open our minds to what can be done for this disease" (Wesner). A total of 93.5 percent supported the admittance of marijuana as a medicine.

Glaucoma is an eye disease that with time leads to blindness. Glaucoma is the leading cause of blindness in the United States; it afflicts over 4 million Americans (Randall and O'Leary 3). According to the National Society For Prevention of Blindness, there are 178,000 new cases of glaucoma diagnosed each year. Ten thousand of these cases go fully blind yearly. Surgeries and medications are either impotent or cause terrible side effects: headaches, kidney stones, burning of the eyes, blurred vision, cardiac problems, insomnia, and nervous anxiety.

These side effects may become so intense that the discontinue of the products soon becomes a very tempting option for the blinding patient. Marijuana has brought a great relief to patients who have made use of it. It has been asserted that cannabis reduces the amount of pressure upon the eye, .".. it is clear that... marijuana can make a critically important difference in prolonging sight" (4). In controlled studies at UCLA, it was discovered that patients smoking marijuana experienced an approximate 30 percent drop in eye pressure. The reduction was dose related and lasted four to five hours.

Dr. Robert Heller, principal investigator in the UCLA study, concluded that cannabis is more useful than conventional medication and reduces eye pressure in a way that regular medications do not (Merrit et al. 31). A common problem among glaucoma patients is that they become very tolerant of the medications. The use of marijuana to reduce medication reduction could eliminate the need for surgical intervention.

Glaucoma surgery costs Americans an estimated $8.8 million every year (34). Muscular spasticity is a condition very common within the American society. Over 1 million persons in the United States are affected from the neurologic condition. It is very similar to diseases like multiple sclerosis, strokes, cerebral palsy, and spinal cord injuries that cause compact and harsh muscle spasms and chronic pain. Current medical recuperative treatment and conventional medications are poor treatment for the pain. Often patients develop a high tolerance over the medications and can easily become addicted to the drug.

Cannabis has been successful in certifying non-addictive treatments for muscle spasticity (Randall and O'Leary 4). As it is mentioned by Tod Mikuriya in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, "Medical practitioners of more than a century ago would turn over in their graves to read that a major drug for certain nervous disorders has retrogressed... ". (240). Dunn and Davis reported in a 1974 issue of Paraplegia magazine that ten patients admitted using marijuana for spinal cord injury, "with perceived decrease in pain and spasticity" (175). These anecdotal and historical accounts of marijuana's effectiveness in treating spasticity have led to more controlled studies.

Denis Petro and Carl Ellen berger, muscle spasticity doctors, conducted a study on the effects of THC in multiple sclerosis patients in 1979. Seven out of nine patients responded favorably to the treatment with THC. Dr. Petro reports hearing from more than one hundred individuals with spasticity problems relief from the use of marijuana (83). In another study found in the Journal of Neurology, a case report of a thirty-year-old male with multiple sclerosis was reported. This analysis showed the beneficial uses of marijuana cigarettes. This male was in a wheelchair because of "severe limb and gait ataxia and spastic tetra paresis" (Meinck, Schonle, and Conrad 120).

He continuously complained of lack of strength and sever pain. Another issue that made him upset was the fact that his erections would last less than five minutes and would not ejaculate. After a controlled study of the patients body system, the research began. He abstained from all therapeutic drugs and fell into an inexplicable deterioration.

Soon after that, he began smoking an experimental marijuana cigarette. Within a matter of five minutes, his unhealthful condition improved. After clinical findings, marijuana corroborated in the aid of multiple sclerosis patients. The patient continued smoking a marijuana cigarette daily and noted "instantaneous improvement of his motor and sexual functions lasting for several days... [the daily marijuana cigarette] enabled him to climb stairs, walk on even ground, and to have erections for more than thirty minutes, allowing him a quite satisfactory sexual life" (120). Marijuana is in high demand among people with cancer, AIDS, glaucoma, and neurologic disorders.

The therapeutic effects that marijuana imposes upon these severely affected individuals has forced them to go into the streets to attain the relief they so much yearn for, illegally. Federal law allows physicians to prescribe far more dangerous and chemically unstable drugs to patients, yet boldly refuses to allow marijuana into the medical field. Physicians are "forbidden to provide people who are dying, going blind, or being crippled with li at, therapeutic access to marijuana" (Randall and O'Leary 1). Many feel that they perceive hypocrisy within the law, "I find it crazy that thousands die each year from legalized alcohol-marijuana is a nature drug, which is a blessing for those of us who benefit from it" (Wesner). Federal regulations continue to make accurate, advanced and precise research for marijuana use more difficult. Thirty-four states have enacted laws, which recognize marijuana's medical value.

Haplessly though, Federal law exceeds state law. Federal authorities retain strict control over the reproduction of marijuana for medical supplies. Due to the constant demand from physicians, state laws have tried to create agencies that provide patients in need with legal and adequate amounts of marijuana. Complex federal regulations make it very difficult for these programs to continue. Finally, in November, voters in Arizona and California approved that a change in the direction in our drug policy is needed (Zees e 7).

The fact that these two states voted toward the legalization of marijuana has began to prove that Americans are beginning to realize that there are alternate routes to take within the drug war. This was a great step toward the realization that Americans think realistically and are not afraid to deal with their problems. "An open society that recognizes fallibility is a superior form of social organization to a closed society that claims to have all the answers" (Soros 1). Legalizing cannabis would not only help in medically active agencies, but among the prisons and jails, and among the social recreational use of it. As it is well put by George Soros, .".. a drug-free America is a utopian dream" (2). The number of drug violators behind bars has increased eightfold since 1980.

By criminalizing drug abusers, society is harming them. Rather then to put them in jail and contribute to the overcrowding of our jails, small drug abusers should be placed under more effective drug treatment programs. This would not only reduce the number of inmates, but it would be less costly to loyal taxpayers. Government should save the jail space for violent criminals and "predatory drug dealers" (3). "Demonizing drugs can increase their appeal to adolescents, for whom rebellion is often an important passage into adulthood" (4). If society would continue exaggerating the warnings toward drugs, it would be a harmful and fall able step to be taking.

This could lead to the undermining of the credibility about the warnings on harder drugs and other issues that young people must deal with daily. By accepting marijuana as a medicinal herb, its appeal to adolescents would surely decrease. Consequently, reduction of marijuana's recreational use would be inevitable. Marijuana as a medicine has no political complexion. The fact of whether it should be legalized or not is not a liberal issue being opposed by conservative views. Without any doubt, conservatives believe that the doctors should be in charge of determining the credibility of a drug for medical care, not bureaucrats (Yates).

At no point have marijuana supporters claimed that marijuana cures any of the conditions discussed above. However, under controlled and medical supervision, marijuana has successfully classified itself as "one of the safest therapeutically active substance know to man" (Grinspoon and Bakalar). The American people are well aware of the corrective value of marijuana, but. ".. are being victimized by those on the political margins" (Randall and O'Leary 16). Not only does the best scientific research overwhelmingly confirm that cannabis is both an effective medicine and a safe drug, but that it is beneficial for therapeutic life styles. While the drug reformers and the anti-drug forces rant and rave on the public stage, the real story continues behind the scenes. AIDS and cancer patients continue loosing weight and experiencing bouts of nausea while conventional medicine fails.

Glaucoma patients continue to suffer while at the same time loosing their eyesight. Victims of multiple sclerosis, paralysis, and other conditions experience intense and debilitating muscle spasms. As the days go by people continue arguing. Meanwhile, patients suffer, loose hope, and die waiting for the miracle drug.

Think about it, these patients could be one your loved ones, your mother or your child, or it could even be you. Lost in a swirl of rhetoric, are the suffering patients.

Bibliography

Dunn, M., and D. Ross. "The Perceived Effects of Marijuana on Spinal Cord Injured Males". Paraplegia 12 (1974): 175.
Exert, H., et al. "Amelioration of Cancer Chemotherapy-Induced Nausea and Vomiting by Delta 9-Tetrahydrocannabinol". Medical Journal of Australia Vol. 2. (1979): 657-659.
Grinspoon, Lester, and James B. Bakalar. Marihuana: The Forbidden Medicine. New Haven Yale University Press, 1993.
Meinck, H.M., P.W. Schonle, and B. Conrad. "Effects of Cannabinoids on Spasticity and Ataxia in Multiple Sclerosis". Journal of Neurology 236 (1989): 120-122.
Merrit, J.C., et al. "Topical Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol and Aqueous Dynamics in Glaucoma". Journal of Clinical Pharmacology 21 (1981): 467 S-471 S.
Mikuriya, Tod. "Therapeutic Potential and Medical Uses of Marijuana". Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 14 (1982) 239-241.
Petro, D., and C. Ellen berg, Jr. "Treatment of Human Spasticity with Delta-9- Tetrahydrocannabinol". Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. 21 (1980): 413 S- 416 S.
Randall, Robert C., and Alice M. O'Leary. Marijuana as Medicine: A Recent History (1979-1997) With Recommendations.
America On Line web George. "It's Time to Just Say No To Self-Destructive Prohibition". Washington Post. 2 Feb. 1997: np.
Wesner, Ben. "The Medical Use Among PWA's: Reports of Therapeutic Use and Attitudes Toward Legal Reform". Working Paper Series No. 3. June 1996: np.