Marijuana: A Horticultural Revolution, A Medical and Legal Battle

Essay by Anonymous UserUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, January 1997

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Pretty Good essay proving the benefits of the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes Good essay

Marijuana: A Horticultural Revolution, A Medical and Legal Battle

For years there has been a wonder drug which has befriended countless sick patients

in a number of countries. A relatively inexpensive drug that is not covered by health care

plans which has aided the ill both mentally and physically--marijuana. Significant

scientific and medical studies have demonstrated that marijuana is safe for use under

medical supervision and that the cannabis plant, in its natural form, has important

therapeutic benefits that are often of critical medical importance to persons afflicted with

a variety of life-threatening illnesses. Courts have recognized marijuana's medical value

in treatment and have ruled that marijuana can be a drug of "necessity" in the treatment

of glaucoma, cancer, AIDS, and multiple sclerosis. From the collection of information

we now have on marijuana's health benefits for the ill, there is no longer any reason to

keep it illegal.

It should therefore be legal for licensed physicians to prescribe marijuana

for terminal patients for whom it offers the only reasonable opportunity for living without

unbearable pain.

Marijuana has been used many times to help ease pain and suffering. It often eases

nausea in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, reduces the pain of AIDS patients

and lowers eye pressure in glaucoma sufferers. Cancer and AIDS patients often lose a lot

of weight, either due directly to their illness or indirectly to the treatment of the illness.

Dramatic weight loss puts their lives in even more danger. Marijuana stimulates the

appetite, thus enabling patients to eat more and gain weight which in turn strengthens the

immune system.

So if there are so many benefits, then why is marijuana not legal? Many states

contend that the ban on medical...