The Federal Decriminalization Of Medical Marijuana

The Federal Decriminalization of Medical Cannabis

Joshua S. Overall

Western International University

COM 110

Dr. Kenneth Hunt

The Federal Decriminalization of Medical Cannabis

There is no doubt that AIDS and cancer are two of the worst medical conditions to ever afflict humanity. I think that most citizens of the United States would agree that people diagnosed with one of these terminal diseases should be able to use whatever medical treatments necessary to help them live as happily, and function as normally as possible in the limited remaining years of their lives. Sadly, however, many of these people are spending the last years of their lives in jail due to the medical treatment they choose to pursue.

It's common knowledge that the number of terminally ill AIDS and cancer patients in the United States are growing and will continue to do so. With new breakthroughs in modern medicine there are many treatments and medications available to help dampen the suffering that these individuals have to endure. However, with synthetic pharmaceuticals come heavy side effects and hefty prices. With the number of cancer and AIDS patients rising everyday, and many of them having no health insurance, medical cannabis may be their only option and only means to living a somewhat normal life.

Current Orthodox Medical Treatments

AIDS and cancer share some common symptoms such as pain, fatigue, decreased appetite, and nausea. (Doyle) The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine defines pain as, "an unpleasant feeling that is conveyed to the brain by sensory neurons." It continues by explaining how pain functions in the human mind.

The discomfort signals actual or potential injury to the body. Pain is more than a sensation, or the physical awareness of pain; it also includes perception, the subjective interpretation of the discomfort. Perception gives information on the pain's location, intensity, and something about its nature. The various conscious and unconscious responses to both sensation and perception, including the emotional response, add further definition to the overall concept of pain. (Barrett J. & Olde T.G., 2004)

Commonly prescribed analgesic opiates, such as oxycodine, morphine, fentanyl, and methadone, work not by physically killing or preventing pain, but by interacting with receptors in the brain. The human brain contains several opiate receptors. Opiate medication works by interacting with these receptors causing the patients perception of pain to change thus causing the feeling of pain to diminish. (Drug Text Web Lab, 1995)

There are several reasons that a patient would choose not to administer opiate medication, one of them being addictiveness. Webster's dictionary defines addiction as a "compulsive physiological need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal." (Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary) Opiates are physically and, in people with a history of drug abuse, psychologically addictive. As a patient continues to use opiates for pain, the medication will become less effective and the dosage will need to be increased. Once the body builds tolerance and dosage is increased the body becomes dependent on the continued use of the substance. If the patient stops using the medication without tapering, their body will go into withdrawal. A journal titled CNS Objectives reports that withdrawal lasts anywhere from four to nine days and, in extreme cases, can result in death. Some common symptoms of withdrawal are "major dysphoria, rhinorrhea, lacrimation, yawning, chills, vomiting, diarrhea, anorexia, insomnia, anxiety, and hostility." (Enna, 2004)

Another reason a patient may choose not to use opiate medication is the side effects of the medication itself. Some of the more common side effects of the popular chronic pain treatment Oxycontin include "constipation, nausea, somnolence, dizziness, vomiting, pruritus, headache, dry mouth, sweating, and asthenia." Some of the less common side effects and/or side effects from misuse or abuse of opiate medication include hallucinations, anorexia, fatigue, and cold sweats. (Oxycodone HCI, 2004) These are also common symptoms of AIDS and cancer. Unfortunately with pain being one of the main symptoms of AIDS and cancer, most patients have no other (legal) options but to use a prescribed opiate medication.

Another problem with opiate medication is that it is usually prescribed in pill form. With common symptoms of AIDS and cancer being reduced appetite and nausea, and a common side effect of opiate medication being nausea, many patients have increased trouble eating, and retaining their medication. There are medications available for AIDS and cancer patients, such as Marinol, that are synthetic forms of THC used to increase appetite while decreasing nausea, however many patients have trouble using this medication because it comes it pill form. Erowid reports that the main complaint with these drugs is that the patients cannot keep the pill in their stomach long enough for it to cause the proper effects. (Erowid)

Though while in combination these medications may allow the patient to survive physically, they can cause quite a problem financially. Damu Smith tells us, in an interview on the cancer problem in America, that 44 million people in America are uninsured, and 40 million people are only partially insured. Most of these people are African-American. African-Americans are also the most likely to contract AIDS, and cancer. (Smith 2005) Cancer is the number two cause of death in America. (Anderson & Smith, 2005) With so many uninsured people, and such a high chance of being diagnosed with terminal cancer, people need to have an effective alternative, and a cheaper alternative to current medical treatments. There is hope for these people.

Cannabis Sativa: A Solution

According to Erowid, a website database whose goal is to provide unbiased factual information on illicit substances

Marijuana has many possible medical uses. Positive effects are claimed for ailments such as cancer, AIDS, and glaucoma. AIDS can cause a loss of appetite known as the "wasting syndrome" which can lead to drastic weight loss and weakness. Chemotherapy used in the treatment of cancer causes nausea resulting in an