“Every nineteen minutes somebody dies of a prescription drug overdose. It doesn’t happen with marijuana” (Sanjay Gupta, MD). Marijuana is the leaves and flowers of the hemp plant Cannabis Sativa. This plant can help with many different health problems including cancer, Alzheimer's, arthritis, and much more. In the United States, 29 states and the district of Columbia have legalized marijuana whether it be recreational or medical. Although marijuana isn’t legal in all 50 states. It should be legalized for medical use only in adults without a mental disorder. It can help with many different diseases, pain, and it doesn’t cause some of the horrible effects prescription drugs do.
The first good effect of medical marijuana is what it does for
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One bad effect of medical marijuana is that it can damage the your brain. This sounds a lot worse than it is because this is only likely if you are still in the developing period and are not of legal age. To use marijuana you have to be 18 years old and this is for a reason. A study showed that “people who started smoking marijuana heavily in their teens and had an ongoing cannabis disorder lost an average of eight IQ points between ages 13 and 38” (NIDA). While this study does show a decline in IQ points for people it was in teens that had an addiction to marijuana and were using it for recreational purposes, and not in a medically controlled dosage. This study also showed that people who had starting using marijuana in their adult years did not show any signs of an IQ decline. This should be recognized because there is an age limit to obtain a medical marijuana card which is 18 years old in most cases, but in severe cases such as a child cancer patient they will in severe cases let them have low dosages of marijuana. Now considering there is an age limit and a dosage on medical marijuana there will be no chance for a person to get any type of brain damage because they will be fully developed and meeting the criteria of a medical marijuana