Medical Marijuana

A debatable topic in the United States has been the talk of making Marijuana legal for medicinal purposes. Included in the legalization of marijuana contains the right to sell, grow, use or buy marijuana. The origin of marijuana, cannabus satiba, came from Eastern Europe, India and Iran. Marijuana is the dried blossom of cannabis sativa and cannabis indica plants, leafy annual plants with parts that are used for as herbs, animal food, medicine and as hemp for rope-making. The flowers have psychoactive and physiologically active chemical mixtures called cannabinoids that are used for recreational, medicinal, and spiritual purposes. The drug is commonly used because of the main chemical Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) which induces relaxation and heightens the brain of the person smoking it.

“data reported in the national household survey on drug abuse indicate that 37% of US residents ages twelve and older use marijuana at least once in their lifetime. The survey also revealed that a significant percentage of teenagers and younger adults use marijuana-20% of individuals ages twelve to seventeen and 50% of individual’s age eighteen to twenty-five use the drug at least once. Marijuana use among high school students is a particular problem. Nearly half (48%) of high school seniors in the United States use the drug at least once in their lifetime and 22% use the drug in the past month according to the University of Michigan’s monitoring the future survey.” (National Drug Intelligence Center, 2006) There is sufficiently enough proof why marijuana should be legal in the United States. A few examples would be medicinal use where marijuana can be used as a medicine since it helps to stimulate an appetite, and relieve nausea in cancer and aids patients, hemp since it’s a valuable natural resource and legalizing this so called drug marijuana would remove misunderstanding over hemp and will allow us to benefit from the plant’s agricultural and industrial consumptions. Then there is the religious use, there are certain religions that instruct their followers to use marijuana. Certain religious followings would be Hindu’s, Buddhist’s, and Rastafarian’s. They use marijuana in their religious ceremonies and since the first amendment states in the US constitution that the government cannot prohibit the free exercise of religion therefor marijuana should be legal. From a philosophical view, we as individuals deserve the right to make choices for ourselves and the government only has the ability to take away these rights or limit them when their actions prove harmful to others. Marijuana is far less dangerous than some other drugs that are legal such as tobacco and alcohol and other illegal drugs such as cocaine, heroin and other controlled substances. A significant reason marijuana should be legal is because it would save our government a significant amount of money. In the United States all levels of government contribute in the “war on drugs.” Billions of dollars are spent to track down simple, low quantity marijuana users...

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