The Pros And Cons Of Medical Marijuana

Medical Marijuana Cannabis is the scientific name for marijuana. This drug is considered one of the most popular and used drugs around the world (Davis, 2017). The first state in the United States that approved proposition 215 was California. This proposition was passed in 1996 after many people voted in favor to approve the use of medical marijuana. 215 proposition legalized the use of medical marijuana and allowed people to use this drug without breaking the state law. (Kamin, 2015). In Addition, recreational marijuana became a legal drug in California on January 1, 2018 after proposition 64 was approved (The Desert Sun, 2017). Although, some people acknowledge the benefits that cannabis can have on the body others think it does not have

Stakeholders that are directly affected need to be educated about the negative consequences related to the use of medical marijuana. The marijuana plant is composed of more than 400 chemicals which can pose serious side effects on one’s health. Also, it has a chemical that alters the mind of the ones that consume it. This chemical is known as delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and can produce euphoria, panic attacks, anxiety, and depression. When marijuana is smoked all those chemicals are transported rapidly from the lungs into the circulatory system. Once in this system the chemicals reach the brain and other parts of the body rapidly. As a result, the effects are greater when compared to oral ingestion (Philipsen, McMullen, & Wood, 2017). Meanwhile, there is a change in the policy to classify medical marijuana in schedule II, the best alternative for the present is to provide education to people about the side effects of

Also, I think that the negative side effects on the body need to be taken into account to protect the patient’s overall health. The first step to find out if the positive effects outweighs the negative effects is to remove marijuana from schedule I to class II. The implication of removing marijuana to a different class is that in schedule I, the research involving the positive effects is limited. On the contrary, class II allows deeper research on the effectiveness, the correct dose and most importantly, how safe it is to use (Krader, 2016). Medical marijuana is usually prescribed in inhalation or smoking form. This practice has serious implications since every year in the United Stated more than 400,000 deaths are attributed to the adverse effects of smoking such as cancer. In the case of medical marijuana, it is known that when this drug is inhaled it is in a raw form which delivers to the lungs large amounts of carcinogens (McKenna,