Legalizing Marijuana

Legalizing Marijuana

Marijuana has been a topic of discussion and an issue for debate for decades and decades. It has become so popular in the last couple of years that rally groups have formed to protest and support the legalization of marijuana through out the country. As both supporters and the opposition grow over time, the growing concern for legal action increases and the pressure on congress is an obvious public out-cry. Many aspects of legalizing marijuana have to be considered if our nation is going to make the right decision for the present and future of our country.

Pro-marijuana legalization groups such as the Physician's Association for AIDS Care, and National Lymphoma Foundation argue that marijuana should be legalized in order to treat terminally ill patients. Among the groups, AIDS victims find that marijuana stimulates their appetites so they can fight off dangerous emaciation; glaucoma sufferers who have used marijuana said it has prevented them from possibly going blind, and cancer patients for whom it alleviates the severe nausea that is often accompanies chemotherapy and sometimes makes lifesaving treatment impossible.

All these lobbying groups have shown substantial evidence that marijuana can be used as a prescribed drug. Also many advocates who are pro marijuana complain that morphine and cocaine are legal yet are very dangerous drugs. The ideas bring up the question why not legalize marijuana as medical drug which is proven to be less dangerous than medical cocaine and morphine. During a council committee, lobbying groups in a San Diego, California, the council committee unanimously voted to urge President Bill Clinton and Congress to end federal restrictions against the use of marijuana for “legitimate medical use." City councilman, Christine Kehoe said she wanted to get the support of the city of San Diego "to go on the record that we support the medical use marijuana; marijuana can be a drug of necessity in the treatment of AIDS, glaucoma, cancer and multiple sclerosis. ''

Many anti-marijuana agencies, such as the Drug Enforcement Agency and Police Departments, argue why marijuana shouldn't be legalized. These agencies believe that marijuana shouldn't be legalized because if marijuana is ever to become legal then there would a huge increase of thousands of patients applying to use marijuana for medical procedures. In turn, people will raise the question why marijuana is illegal at all if it is considered a medicine.

The main reason why the Drug Enforcement Agency does not want marijuana to be legal is because there is no hard core evidence that proves that marijuana is an effective drug as a medicine. After twenty years of research, scientists have not produced any reliable scientific proof that marijuana has any medical value. The American Cancer Society, American Glaucoma Society, the National Multiple Sclerosis, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and the American Medical Association, say that their is no evidence that marijuana is a medicine or has any positive effects on a human. The agencies also argue that no other drug prescribed is smoked or used in the fashion that marijuana is. Also that new findings show that marijuana is acutely harmful to AIDS and cancer patients because the active ingredient in marijuana severely reduces the bodies white blood cells which fight off infection. The Drug Enforcement Agency along with police departments all over the United States believe, with the legalization of drugs crime will increase. The drastic hike of pot users will eventually become addicts and will steal or kill in order to get their drugs and get their fix. The overall situation would become too overwhelming to control due to the high demand for marijuana. The effects of marijuana that it has on the human body are not good in many aspects. The main ingredient of the drug is a chemical called THC. THC can cause problems with memory and learning, distorted perception, difficulty in thinking and problem solving, loss of coordination and worse of all an increased heart rate. This is questionable because a lot of drugs and substances cause this to people are they are not illegal. The most common substance abused is alcohol and there have been more deaths, suicides, rapes, and crimes committed with just alcohol compared to all the combined instances with every other drug yet no one tries to ban alcohol.

Our nation has come to the point in which drugs and other recreational drugs have come part our daily lives and routines. Substance abuse is so deeply imbedded in our society that the thought of legalizing marijuana is not that far from the future. The numbers of how many people use and have used marijuana is shocking.