OPPapers.com

Marijuana For Medicinal Purposes

Marijuana for Medicinal Purposes


In 1936 when Marijuana was made illegal it was considered a medicine in
good standing with the American Medical Association. At the time Marijuana could
be found in twenty eight different medical products and countless other consumer
products. On November 5th, 1996 California and Arizona passed propositions
allowing the return of medicinal Marijuana use.
The campaign in 1936 to make Marijuana an illegal substance was
championed by two large companies, Dupont Chemicals and Hearst Newspapers, that
gained financially by having Marijuana banned. For Hearst Newspapers it was to
protect the investment that they had just made buying a large amount of paper
trees. Marijuana can produce about 4 times the amount of paper per acre than
trees, and twice as many fibers per acre than cotton. (Hempnet 1) Hearst was
well aware of this and moved to ban Marijuana. Marijuana costs little to grow
and can be made into cloth, canvas, and other high quality textiles. The use of
Marijuana for textile production would have seriously hurt Dupont who had
invested heavily in both paper production and the use of cotton. In 1936 Dupont
joined Hearst and using scare tactics and effective lobbying were able to ban
the growth, sale, and use of Marijuana.
Besides denying the public of the use of Marijuana as a textile, food
source, and alternative energy source, these large companies selfishly robbed
many sick people of a drug that can help them. Marijuana can be used to combat
glaucoma, epilepsy, Multiple Sclerosis, back pain, asthma, rheumatism, arthritis,
migraines, emphysema, cystic fibrosis, and promotes appetite in some cancer and
AIDS patients. Drugs like morphine, valium, lithium, and codeine are regularly
given to patients and are far more addictive, having many more negative affects
than Marijuana. Marijuana "has little effect on major physiological functions.
There is no known case of a lethal overdose; on the basis of animal models, the...