Libby Ramsdell
English Language Arts 4
Ms. Semmell
December 19th, 2014
The "Blunt" Truth About Medical Marijuana
"Eight of the 10 states that had legalized medical marijuana by 2006 saw a decrease in teen use of marijuana from 1999 to 2006." ("Did You Know?”) A lot of the debate on medical marijuana has mostly directed toward the safety of medical marijuana versus the safety of
FDAApproved drugs. A study done at UCLA in 2006, found that there is no direct correlation to the use of medical marijuana and lung cancer, and was also found to have some "protective effects". "The first cannabisbased prescription medicine, Sativex, was launched in the United
Kingdom on June 21, 2010. Sativex is a mouth spray approved to treat spasticity in patients with
Multiple Sclerosis. Marinol, a synthetic version of delta9THC, a chemical which appears naturally in the marijuana plant, was approved in the United States in 1985” (Pros & Cons of
Legalizing Marijuana). Also according to the FDA there have been no primary suspected deaths from the use of medical marijuana, whereas there have been 10,008 deaths primarily suspected from 17 different FDAApproved drugs. Medical marijuana has many pros and cons, there are many pros that outweighs the cons that the average person isn't aware of.
The immorality of marijuana use can only be based on ones set of moral beliefs. Nothing about marijuana is immoral unless that is ones own belief about the use of medical marijuana. By taking a “moral” stand against recreational drugs, or fighting the evils caused by the illegal drug trade they increase their popularity amongst groups. Just because one uses medical marijuana, it
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does not change the type of person he or she is. Only one should decide if what they are doing is wrong or not.
US Government Officials' views medical marijuana different because they want one to think medical marijuana is bad but even they are starting to realize that it does good for some people and can really help them. "The evidence in this record [9688 ruling] clearly shows that marijuana has been accepted as capable of relieving the distress of great numbers of very ill people, and doing so with safety under medical supervision. It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance in light of the evidence in this record” (Pros & Cons of Legalizing Marijuana).
“Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism. This new found property makes cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, agerelated, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as
Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and HIV dementia” (US Government’s Medical).
Cannabinoids, for those who were wondering, are a group of chemical compounds found in marijuana that are also referred to as terpenophenolic compounds. There are many helpful things in medical marijuana and the government is even starting to realize this.
"There is very little evidence that smoking marijuana as a means of taking it represents a significant health risk. Although cannabis has been smoked widely in Western countries for more than four decades, there have been no reported cases of lung cancer or emphysema attributed to
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marijuana. I suspect that a day's breathing in any city with poor air quality poses more of a threat than inhaling a day's dose which for many ailments is just a portion of a joint of marijuana”
(Pros & Cons of Legalizing Marijuana). Marijuana is not addictive like cigarettes so marijuana is not as
