Essay, Research Paper: Marijuana

Marijuana

Did you know that there are over 460 chemicals in marijuana, which may have

medicinal uses? Marijuana at this moment is illegal in forty-nine of the fifty United States. Last year, in California, Proposition 215 was passed to legalize marijuana for medical
uses. As a result of Proposition 215 and the legalization of marijuana, many glaucoma
patients have found another remedy, vomiting, nausea, and loss of appetites from
chemotherapy have been safely controlled, and patients and hospitals have found
marijuana a cheap alternative to many costly conventional drugs.
One reason marijuana should be legalized, is its ability to help glaucoma patients.
Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness; it is a disease of the eyes in which loss
of vision is caused by a pressure inside the eyeball. This pressure progressively forms and
leads to blindness. When marijuana is smoked, blood pressure within the eye is reduced
greatly. Marijuana, also has very little risks compared to the conventional treatments.
One conventional treatment is beta-blocker eye drops, which cause drowsiness and may
trigger asthma attacks. Miotic eye drops allow the eye pressure to reduce faster than
marijuana, but it constricts the pupil, which reduces vision, and, intern, can lead to more
problems. The last conventional treatment glaucoma patients can choose is a carbonic
anhydrase inhibitor. This drug also lessons the pressure in the eye but regularly causes
body numbness and weight loss. As you can see, there are many harmful side effects to
today's prescribed glaucoma treatments. However, you will find nearly no side effects if
marijuana is used instead of the regularly prebscribed drugs.
Another reason marijuana should be legalized is that not only does marijuana
subdue the symptoms of glaucoma, but it also boosts the appetite and controls nausea and
vomiting in patients recovering from chemotheropy. One of the most important things
when treating cancer with chemotherapy is being able to eat well, which makes the
difference between life or death. Many patients of chemotherapy have used marijuana for
years, only illegally. The active ingredient in marijuana is a chemical called THC
(tetrahydrocannabinol). This is also found in the conventional treatment drug Marinol.
Opponents of medical marijuana say Marinol is an adequate substitute, but many patients
and doctors disagree. For people suffering from severe nausea, a capsule that must be
swallowed has many drawbacks. Patients have a hard time keeping the capsule in their
stomach long enough for it to digest because of constant vomiting. It is also hard for
them to swallow the pill in the first place. Even if a patient can manage the capsule,
smoked marijuana takes effect more quickly, the dosage is easier to control, and even at
black-market prices it is less expensive than Marinol.
The third reason that marijuana should be used for medicinal reasons is that it's
cheap, safe, and easy to produce. Many of today's prescribed medicines are hard to
produce which makes them very costly. Some prescription drugs, which marijuana can
replace, have very bad, even downright dangerous, side-effects. Many people think that
the drug dronabinol should be used instead of marijuana. Though Dronabinol is an exact
imitation of one of the chemicals found in marijuana and may work on many of the same
diseases, there are some big problems with it. It is harder to get than marijuana because
many doctors don't like to prescribe it; and many drug stores do not want to supply it
because a lot of paperwork has to be filled out with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Great amounts of paperwork must be filled out because it is an illegal substance, unless
prescribed by a doctor.
Even though there are many good reasons to legalize marijuana, there are also
some bad reasons. One reason is that twenty years of research have produced no reliable
scientific proof that marijuana has any medical value. Another reason is that Americans
take their medicines in pills, solutions, shots, or drops, but never, ever by smoking. There
is also no doubt that smoking causes lung cancer.
Even though there is some disapproval of marijuana used for medicinal purposes, it
should be legalized. Marijuana effectively controls eye pressure caused by glaucoma;
marijuana also subdues chemotherapy side-effects like nausea and vomiting; and marijuana
is very low in cost compared to prescription drugs. Marijuana is very effective in certain
situations when used correctly, cautiously, and under a doctors supervision.