Should Medical Marijuana be Legalized?

Our group is researching medical marijuana. There is a debate about whether some states should legalize medical marijuana. There are ten states that legalize marijuana for recreational use, meaning without medical justification and for enjoyment and fun. Then there are 33 states that allow marijuana strictly for medical purposes. Like for example, some purposes are muscle spasms caused by multiple sclerosis, nausea from cancer chemotherapy, or HIV. Some people argue that it is a good reason that it should be accessible and legal. It can relieve certain types of pain like neuropathic pain, nausea, and any diseases like AIDS and HIV. It’s no more harmful to a person’s health than alcohol or tobacco. It can help certain muscles that are paralyzed. Also, it can be safer to use than other medications, and it has been proven to have medical benefits for patients that need that type of treatment. Some people argue against it. It shouldn’t be legalized or accessible. There are effects of this drug, like short-term memory. It can hold cancer and cause compounds. It can put you to risk of abuse or addiction, and it can impair your cognitive ability; it can lead to breathing problems and experience to panicking or fear.

Looking at this from a scientific lens, it’s a lot of different things that contain cannabis. All marijuana is not the same everybody puts their own spice into theirs. There are like 9-10 different chemical compounds that are in marijuana, but there are five cores specifically that we can focus on. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) enables a person to form new memories and shift her or his attentional focus. Cannabidiol (CBD) breaks down something like a chemical in your brain and affects pain and your mood. Tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV), Cannabinol (CBN) this is what get you “high,” as people today call it, Cannabigerol (CBG) is a type of oil it has many effects on the human body when you enter this oil into your body. Cannabis is the original name, but there are all different slang names for cannabis, like weed, pot, and marijuana. The plant can grow up to 16 feet (5 meters) high. It’s made from dried flowers and leaves from a cannabis plant. Marijuana can be dispersed into different products like food or snacks, for example, brownies, different types of candy, cake, spaghetti, and anything. Also, you can put marijuana in different things to smoke it, like a vape, joule, cigar, and there’s more.

Smoking marijuana can harm many different things on and inside of your body. It can make each user experience hard to see what’s their reaction to the drug. The mind some evidence shows that smoking weed can leave you with damage to your memory, learning, and attention. After smoking, it can react at any moment of the second, like when you’re at school, at your job, or anywhere. There’s no evidence found about cancer in your lungs, but there is a type of cancer you can get from it, like something called prostate, cervical, and bladder cancer. Using marijuana on a regular can lead to a constant cough. It is possible it can go away when you stop smoking.

Cannabis helps the airway at first, but regular marijuana can stop your lungs from working. It also can affect your mental health people that have a mental illness, depression, or a disorder like psychotic or bipolar heavily use marijuana because of those reasons. There is also something called secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke is a person who isn’t physically smoking or inhaling it, but that’s around it for a certain amount of time. For example, taking a pee test to see if it comes out positive or negative, one study states that the THC was measured in a person’s blood that doesn’t smoke and has been around the smoke for three hours, but when tested, it is presented in the non-smoker blood. As far as the pee test, it was well below for a person to fail it. Another study states non-smoking participants are sitting around smoke from marijuana that can get u high, basically called high-THC. For an hour, their pee test can turn out positive because of the different substances in the marijuana, which makes it stronger.

Being accessible or getting marijuana can be easier or hard to get. It depends on the person and unless your state legalizes it. Other than people on the streets selling it, or you have permission. The way to get that permission is a written recommendation is needed from a licensed doctor. Not every doctor is willing to prescribe or write their patient a drug like this. They’re certain disorders or illnesses that you must have to get marijuana, and then they will give you a card like a medical marijuana ID to purchase it at a certain store called a dispensary. But some people feel as if marijuana should be legalized because it can be a safer drug to use than most drugs that are legalized today. Like for example, tobacco your most likely to die with tobacco in your system than marijuana. It’s a higher risk of messing up your lungs, something called lung disease, which leads you to death. Also, it can mess with the oxygen in your body and stress the heart and make it less easy to pump. “The case for tobacco prohibition is actually much stronger than the case for marijuana prohibition” (Head, 2019). Others feel like marijuana shouldn’t be legalized.

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