Long before marijuana was discovered as a recreational drug, it was being used as medicine. Even though marijuana is in its infancy stage of medicine, it has been proven that there are certain medical conditions that the use of marijuana has greatly improved. As a result of this discovery, state legislators and the courts are still debating how or if marijuana should be legalizes.
Diane Cadrain (2010) reports in HRMagazine, that fourteen states and Washington D.C. permit marijuana to be used as medicine (two more were added since this report). Despite the legality of marijuana in these states, most of their employers will not tolerate employees who are tested positive for marijuana. Cadrian tells the story of a Wal-Mart employee, who moved quickly up the ranks, from grocery stocker to inventory control manager within four years. Unfortunately, in his fifth year of employment, he twisted his knee. When he returned to work, he had to do a drug test, even though he showed his employer his registry card, showing that he is under doctor’s supervision and is permitted to use marijuana, to ease his pain, he was fired when he was tested positive for marijuana.
The medicinal use of marijuana as a medicine was discovered many, many years ago. People in the West Indies will testify to its use as a cold medicine. Marijuana was used medicinally even before the arguments started in the United States.. Ask anyone who smokes marijuana recreationally, and most times he or she will tell you that their food intake is more than the average person. Chris, Wilson (2010) says that marijuana “has been shown to be an appetite stimulant which is beneficial for people suffering from conditions that cause them to lose their appetite. It has also been shown to be effective at maintaining body weight.”
Long before the public debate of marijuana’s use for medical purposes, as a matter of fact, thousands of years ago marijuana was being used for medicine. Marijuana has several medicinal properties. Ana Wade Matthews (2010) says that “marijuana can benefit patients in the areas of managing neuropathic pain, which is caused by certain types of nerve injury, and in bolstering appetite and treating nausea, for instance in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.” Rheumatoid arthritis and migraine head-aches are also some of the medical value of marijuana. Judging by the type of illnesses for which marijuana is used it is safe to say that marijuana is the panacea for pain.
Though marijuana is a excellent medicine, smoking it should be discouraged; usually it is smoked by people who cannot get it prescribed to them legally. The results of smoking cigarettes, and second-hand smoke should never be forgotten. Matthews records the story of a fifty-one year old man who lives California, and was diagnosed with advanced cancer. He said that his entire colon was removed and it left him with intense pain; his only relief was smoking marijuana. Smoking marijuana was not necessary since he could get an oral substitute. The line between using marijuana as a recreation drug and using it as medicine should be visible. Curing one illness only to replace it with another is defeating the purpose, using marijuana as medicine.
People are basically selfish, and many of us will capitalize on the use of marijuana for medicine. Sure, marijuana is not going to appear in labs that are using it to produce medicine; however, mass production is not necessary, everyone knows that will just be a disguises for reverting to using marijuana as an illegal drug. In California, “opponents (of the legalizing marijuana law) say such laws can open a door to wider cultivation and use of the drug by people without serious medical conditions” (Matthews, 2010). Greed is not the only effect of legalizing marijuana. Matthews continues to say that most times there is no prescribed dosage, places where the medicine is sold the staff does not always what really works, nor do they know what should be used for which illness, special parts of the plant is sold for different illnesses. Also the medicine like most medicine has side-effects; hallucination and dizziness can result when the medicine is taken.
One of the biggest debate among law-makers since the medicinal properties of marijuana was discovered in America, is whether or not it should be legalized. This discussion to legalize marijuana as a medicinal drug has been going on since the seventies. ProCon.org reports that currently, there are sixteen states that allow the use of marijuana for medicinal purpose. These states are Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Washington D.C., Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. One has to have proof of residency to buy marijuana medicine in these states except in Oregon and Delaware. Delaware and New Jersey are the only two states of these sixteen states that will not allow residents to cultivate marijuana. Despite the fact that medicinal properties of marijuana are authentic, it is still considered a drug, and still the third on the list of recreation drugs. The other states are still undecided and hesitate to legalize marijuana in spite of its medicinal rewards.
The discovery of marijuana as a medicinal plant can no more be denied; however, there are people who only see it an illegal drug. This has caused much controversy, and state legislators, though they have witnessed or have seen proof of its medicinal claim, they are still indecisive. They are not so much concerned with the cause why marijuana needs to be legalized; rather they have apprehensions if they unleash such a drug, what will happen to their states.
Work Cited
Academic Library. 1 April 2012
Cadrian, Diane. “The marijuana exception: people who use marijuana for medical conditions, as
permitted in 14 states and Washington, D.C., may be shielded from prosecution--but
employers can still enforce zero-tolerance policies.” HRMagazine. 1 Nov., 2009. Web.
31 March, 2012.
Matthews-,Wilde, Anna. Is Marijuana a Medicine? 18 Jan. 2010. Wall Street Journal.
WSJ.com. 1Aptil,2012
ProCon.Org. 1 April, 2012.
Wilson, Chris. “What you can do in Lowering Your Cholesterol.” Health Generation
Community. 10 Sept. 2010. Web. 31 March, 2012..
