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Persuasive Essay On Medical Marijuana

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Medical Marijuana
“For all of life's discontents, according to the pharmaceutical industry, there is a drug and you should take it. Then for the side effects of that drug, then there's another drug, and so on. So we're all taking more drugs, and more expensive drugs” (Angell, n.d.). Becoming a rotation of pills, the side effects caused by medications are often worse than the symptoms they treat. Now imagine a drug that has minimal side effects, yet is effective at treating multiple conditions? Marijuana, or cannabis, is a plant that contains more than 100 different components which were utilized for centuries across the world for medicinal purposes (Russo, 2007). The United States enacted various laws towards criminalizing marijuana during …show more content…

Opioid abuse frequently begins with a prescription for chronic or neuropathic pain, and the patient builds up a tolerance over time. Once the prescribed opioids are no longer sufficient, patients often turn to the use of illegal forms of drugs, and this occasionally results in an overdose. Statistics from the DEA and DOJ (2017), state no known cases of overdoses from the use of marijuana. Therefore, medical marijuana is a viable substitute for opioid prescriptions. In a study conducted by Bachhuber, Saloner, Cunningham, and Barry (2014), “[M]edical cannabis laws were associated with a mean 24.8% lower annual rate of opioid analgesic overdose deaths. . . compared with states without laws” (p.1670). Additionally, a recent study done by Powell, Pacula, and Jacobson (2015) concludes that in states that have legalized medical marijuana, Medicare Part-D patients filled less narcotic prescriptions. Given that medical marijuana can help treat symptoms of chronic pain, glaucoma, seizures, PTSD, increases appetite and reduces nausea, and helps prevent opioid abuse, the United States should legalize medical

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An amazing 76% of American doctors and 66% of British voters approve of medical marijuana use to help cure or treat symptoms of these diseases. Not to mention, medical marijuana has a shockingly low potential for abuse, especially when compared with other, more extreme, yet legal, pain relievers. It has been proven multiple times that this is true. The American College of Physicians stated in 2008 that “ACP urges review of marijuana’s status as a schedule I drug and its reclassification... regarding marijuana’s safety and efficacy in some clinical conditions,” (Source 2). This proves that it is far less harmful and addictive than other schedule one drugs like heroin and LSD.

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Peer Review Outline Thesis: It is time to get rid of the stereotypes of marijuana and starts evaluating it in the medical field, the article shows both sides of medical marijuana the good and the side effects. “So What” Statement: Marijuana has the potential to treat all kinds of medical conditions symptoms and more, but marijuana also has side effects of its own as stated in this article. Which is very important to get to see both sides of the topic. The article “The NEW SCIENCE of Marijuana” by Ginny Graves is about how studies have shown that marijuana can relieve chronic pain from migraines and much more.

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Marijuana is not only seen as a drug, but seen as a vital medication. To some people, it’s used as a cure. They don’t use it to get “high” or to relive their teenage years, but they use it to keep themselves out of pain and suffrage. Some patients spend hundreds of dollars on medication

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Everyday patients are visiting their doctors in a desperate search for help with their problems, some physical and some psychological. Far too often in today’s troubled society a doctor is quick to hand their patient a prescription for a powerful and potentially harmful substance. The prescriptions could include drugs such as benzodiazepines for psychological problems and epilepsy, or opioids for pain. Both of those substances can have substantially dangerous and adverse effects and could lead to addiction and even death. Marijuana is a much safer and more naturally occurring substance that can be used for all of the previously listed purposes.

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It can no longer be ignored that medical marijuana could very well be the best way to treat chronic pain in suffering individuals. Cannabis is lower-risk as opposed to opioid painkillers, as it is much less addictive (or not at all addictive) and would potentially never lead to overdose deaths. Statistics from the CDC show that those who take Rx opioid painkillers are forty times more likely to be addicted to heroin, as opposed to just three times more likely with marijuana use. Many drug abuse prevention and intervention methods are already in place, such as prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs). The problem cannot always be prevented by a parent, a friend, or a family member.

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This prescription has left Canada in the midst of a national epidemic due to the drug’s harsh side effects and addictive properties. Marijuana, by contrast, has little to no addictive qualities, and it consistently manages pain without needing constant dosage increases. Overdose from medical cannabis prescriptions is highly unlikely when compared to opioids. More studies showcase patients’ preference for medical cannabis, noting both an improvement in mood and quality of life, among other factors. Patients who don’t want to be prescribed addictive painkillers drugs are turning to a solution with just as many benefits and very little

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The opioid epidemic in the United States has been brought about by the over-prescription of opioids to the general population. Subsequently, this has resulted in scientists looking for other pain relievers that are of non-opioid in nature. Marijuana is one of these options, the drug is a known pain reliever, without a high risk of addiction and a relatively zero risk of overdose. At the turn of the decade, more states in the US passed laws that permitted medical and adult-use of marijuana making the drug to be more available to the general population.

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So many people who have issues with pain are starting to use marijuana as a pain medication and lots of people are speaking out about how this is working for them. A anonymous user with Scoliosis says that using marijuana as a painkiller has helped her so much more than using opioids and there are no other side effects and it did not make feel bad like a lot of other medications do (National Geographic: American Weeds). The reason why so many people are saying this is because opioids are very different from marijuana. Opioids have a lot of side effects some of them being bowl pain, constipation, dizziness, etc. But cannabis does not have a lot of side effects.

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Up until very recently, regulations by the federal government has made research on the use of marijuana nearly impossible. Because marijuana is classified as a Schedule 1 drug, it is difficult for scientists to get research approved and to obtain the drug for research purposes (Carroll 2015). There is not a lot of research supporting long-term use of many of the typical drugs approved for chronic pain, like opioids. Typical painkillers are extremely dangerous, and result in more deaths than marijuana does annually (Carroll 2015). Based on the little research that has been done, its seems that the benefits of marijuana as a replacement for conventional painkillers seem to outweigh the potential harms for patients currently prescribed these

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Medical Cannabis is well known for helping people who have diseases and other illnesses. However, there are many negative outcomes to the amount of people who have access to it. For instance, many people take advantage of having a card, people also become addicted to the drug, and it does not just help people 's body it hurts it as well. Getting the medical card is not hard, so when people have easy access they misuse it in ways like selling the drug to people who later use it for recreational reasons. Some patients who later get better find themselves addicted to the drug and that is when their real troubles begin.

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Cannabis is the recreational drug of choice for over 70 million Americans, meaning that nearly a quarter of Americans smoke weed. This also means that in 19 states, all of these Americans are criminals. This criminalization and condemnation of marijuana smokers absolutely needs to stop at a federal level. Marijuana needs to be legalized in the United States and the next step to this process is federally legalizing the use of recreational marijuana use. Currently, in most states marijuana is under some kind of prohibition.

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On the flip side THC has been FDA approved. “It's available by prescription Marinol (dronabinol) and Cesamet (nabilone) (Harding & Casoobhoy, 2005)”. Because the human body makes chemicals similar to those that are in marijuana already it’s easy for the medical marijuana to help these chemicals work faster and better. You can simply smoke it, eat it or drink it to help cure an issue. “Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States (SAMHSA, 2014)”.

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Although additional studies on this subject are still required, it can be seen that medical marijuana can be a healthier alternative to traditional opioid painkillers, which could pull America out of this epidemic of opioid

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Marijuana, formerly known as Cannabis, has been looked at in a medical sense for centuries. Marijuana was seen as a household drug throughout the seventeenth to the early twentieth century as a remedy to reduce nausea or vomiting, headaches, an anti-inflammatory, and the choice of pain reliever. In the 1920s, the Eighteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution outlawed the manufacture and sale of alcohol, also known as Prohibition. As a result, marijuana flourished as a psychoactive drug.

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