Persuasive Essay On Medical Marijuana

759 Words4 Pages
It is known that there has been an ongoing debate about legalizing marijuana for medical use, but why? Is it because legislature has not given this problem as much attention as medical professionals? Many who are for it says that it is not addictive, hard to overdose on unlike other illegal drugs, and is very useful medicinal wise. Although, those who are against it say otherwise, calling it a gateway drug. The fight is over how the state and federal laws differ, what the rules for physicians prescribing it would be, and where to get it. For many years research has been done, testing the use of medical marijuana and seeing if it really helps and is really worth it. So far 14 states, including New Mexico have legalized marijuana for medical use. The reason marijuana is still illegal in many states is because even though state laws allow it for medical use, federal law still classifies it as a “schedule I drug” (Hoffman & Weber, 2010). Also there has been no medical use accepted by the FDA. And even though some physicians recommend its use, they could still be arrested and prosecuted for “aiding and abetting” (Hoffman & Weber, 2010) against the federal law. But for those states that have legalized it, patients could qualify, with or without a card, and be able to use marijuana for certain medical conditions. Many physicians do not know what stance to take on this issue because even if it is legal within the state, they do not want to risk getting their license taken away