Heath 1 Bradley Heath Carla Pastor Composition 093 19 April 2010

The legalization of marijuana is a very heated topic. Not only amongst the youth but also within the field of medicine. Professionals in the medical field are also getting involved in this debate because marijuana also has medical uses that doctors would like to harness. Individuals that have certain ailments have noticed that when they ingest marijuana it alleviates them of their pains. People that go through chemotherapy have found that it helps them acquire an appetite after they have gone through a treatment and it has even been found to help treat people with Parkinsons disease. Although this seems like a wonder drug, there are still skeptics out there that see marijuana as destructive and too dangerous to administer to the public because there still may be some effects that no one is aware of.

There are many people that just assume that marijuana is illegal because of an extensive bay of tests that concluded with the fact that marijuana is bad for you, so the government made it illegal to keep the population safe. However it is illegal because many of the

people that voted on it only knew what the government was telling them and not the facts. However, it used to be legal for many years up until August 2nd 1937 where it became illegal on the federal level. Before then, it was legal and even required to grow in the 1600s and the 1700s. Americas first marijuana law was enacted at Jamestown Colony, Virginia in 1619. It was a law ordering all farmers to grow Indian hempseed.(Guithner) A countless number of people also dont know that marijuana (hemp) also have a variety of other uses that dont involve smoking it or ingesting it. Hemp is used to make clothing, rope, food, and even incense. Hemp clothing is also comfortable and comparable to cotton, but the thing that sets it apart is the fact that it is much easier and cheaper to grow.

Heath 2 Professionals and experts that are for and against the legalization of marijuana disagree on a few key points. A couple of the things they disagree on is whether or not it actually helps people with AIDS, whether it is addictive or not, and whether it is a gateway drug. A gateway drug is defined as a drug (as alcohol or marijuana) whose use is thought to lead to the use of and dependence on a harder drug (as cocaine or heroin)(Merriam-Webster Online) Those that do not want marijuana legalized are under the impression that it is an addictive substance. Alan J. Budney PhD, who is on the anti weed

side says that people that quit smoking marijuana have withdrawal symptoms and they include decreased appetite, weight loss, and sleep difficulty. These may seem like symptoms of a withdrawal but when you think about it all those things are obviously going to happen to you if you used to be an avid smoker. You will lose weight because marijuana gives you the munchies and that makes you going weight so when you stop you wont eat as much. You will have a decreased appetite because of what was said before, you wont want to eat as much since you dont have the munchies. And you will have difficulty sleeping because when you are under the influence, people have been found to be able to relax and go to sleep much faster than when they are sober. One of the concerns that seems to be a valid argument is the debate on if marijuana should be used to treat patients that have AIDS. Donald Abrams MD defends his position by saying that it helps the patients because it was found that patients that received cannabinoids (compounds present in marijuana), have improved immune system function versus those that received a placebo. However those on the other side of the dispute argue the fact that marijuana actually does suppress the immune system and it exposes the patients to an added barrage of pathogens that their bodies may not be strong enough to handle.

Although scientific studies show that there is a possibility that

using marijuana does more harm than good, there are many first hand accounts of people using it and feeling much better about their condition. Dorothy Gibbs is a lady that contracted polio in 1911 and her condition started to deteriorate in her 30s when Heath 3 her pain left her with osteoporosis and almost completely immobilized. One day her caretaker obtained a sample of marijuana and encouraged her to smoke it in order to try and alleviate the pain so she did and claimed that the relief that she experienced from medical marijuana was almost immediate. This is just one of the thousands of people that have found relief from marijuana and this is one of the reason experts are trying to have it legalized. So many people could benefit from it if only it were legalized.

Officer Wilcox also had a couple things to say about marijuanas use for medicinal reasons. He had to have a very invasive surgery that left him in a great deal of pain for weeks after it was over but a friend told him about the supposed medical benefits of weed so he tried it. As soon as he was done smoking it he said it alleviated his pain and it was as if he had never gone through the surgery. He also believes that marijuana should be legalized not only for just medicinal purposes but also for recreational use. He thinks that there are too many people in jail for petty possession crimes and [that] they are just taking up

space.

There is a belief that you can die from smoking marijuana but there has not been one single death reported that was reported to have been caused by marijuana. There was actually a study done that chronicled that chronicled the number of deaths caused from marijuana versus 17 FDA-Approved drugs from January 1st 1997, to June 30th 2005 and the results are astonishing. The list of FDAapproved drugs includes some pretty well know drugs such as Zanaflex, Wellbutrin, Viagra, Ritalin, and Adderall. Over the course of this study there were 11, 687 deaths reported from the FDA approved drugs, 10,008 being the primary suspect while marijuana had 279 deaths reported with all 279 being a secondary suspect (contributing to death). These figures show that there have been 0 deaths that have occurred solely from the abuse of marijuana, however this does not mean that the drug is completely harmless and doesnt cause any sort of damage to the human body. Heath 4 There are many questions that people cannot answer about marijuana and it may be impossible to get a clear answer on all of them because it is such a challenging thing to research, not only because of the stigma that surrounds it but also because of how challenging it is to persuade the government to allow for testing. The

legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes could be a potential gold mine for states and a life saver for those in need so the research needed to persuade lawmakers to pass the law should be expedited in order to help those in need.