OPPapers.com

Medicinal Marijuana: A Legal Smoke?

A Legal Smoke?
Modern research suggests that cannabis is a valuable aid in the treatment of a wide range of ailments. Marijuana's therapeutic uses are well-documented in modern scientific literature.   The studies arrived at the conclusion that marijuana provides symptomatic relief for a number of medical conditions, including nausea and vomiting, stimulating appetite, promoting weight gain, and diminishing intraocular pressure from glaucoma.   There is also evidence that smoked marijuana reduces muscle spasticity from spinal cord injuries and multiple sclerosis, and diminishes tremors in multiple sclerosis patients.   Patients and physicians have also reported that smoked marijuana provides relief from migraine headaches, depression, seizures, insomnia and chronic pain, among other conditions (Medical Marijuana Reports).   In several states, marijuana is legal for use in specific cases, but it is still illegal by federal law. "Why would they want to authorize behavior under state law that is still a violation of federal law?" he says. "It endangers a population, to me. It gives the green light on the one hand and a go-to-jail ticket on the other" (Stein 57).   In the eight states where medical marijuana is legal, people using legally prescribed marijuana should not have to worry about the breaking the federal law and risk being arrested. Patients using prescription marijuana are using it to make their lives better.   If patients have to worry about being arrested for smoking prescribed marijuana, they might as well buy the drug illegally off   the street.
Until 1937, marijuana was legal in the United Stated for all purposes.   Twenty seven medicines containing marijuana were legally available in the United States at that time.   Many of the medicines were made by well-known pharmaceutical businesses that still exist today, including Squibb, now known as Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Eli Lilly. The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 federally prohibited marijuana.   Dr. William C....